The Armenian Genocide and my grandmother's secret 'A distant signal was given – it sounded something like a trumpet ... '

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." – Ephesians 6:12

Decades ago when I was very young, my grandmother, Mary Kupelian, told me a haunting story I've wondered about ever since.

As I sat in the kitchen of her cozy little home in Bethesda, Maryland, eating her delicious homemade bread and talking about a frequent topic – the Armenian Genocide, which she and my dad (as a little boy) had barely survived – she shared with me the following enigma.

"The Turkish people are very hospitable people," she said with surprising warmth, seeing as they had murdered her husband and dozens of other members of her extended family, just a few of the 1.5 million Christian Armenians killed by the Turks during the first genocide of the 20th century. Grandmom knew the Turkish people well, not just from having grown up in southern Turkey, but from having returned several times to the "old country" later in life, during more quiescent times.

However, continuing her story, she intimated to me that the Muslim Turks lived under the spell of strange forces.

"They were very hospitable and would invite you in," she said. "But, if a distant signal was given – it sounded something like a trumpet – then they would instantly change, and would attempt to harm you. Yet if the signal sounded again, they would immediately switch

A long, but very interesting article addressing a number of very relevant topics for today's world. Kupelian does an excellent job of addressing people's capacity to commit horrendous acts of savagery to others, even long time neighbors; the savagery of murdering sisters and children in "honor killings;" and the evils of Nazis and Communists.

Finally, he closes the article by addressing the spiritual issues that the world is ultimately dealing with while fighting earthly battles against those who are serving the forces of spiritual darkness.

May we never forget the suffering and deaths of those murdered by evil governments and religions.

Those that remember the evils of the holocaust have a great slogan when trying to educate and warn the world about evil: They proclaim, "Never again!"

When talking about genocide that slogan works just fine for me.

(Just my 2 cents worth.)

From Hitler's Mountain, by Arthur Mitchell:

When agreement with the Russians to jointly devour Poland was secured the next day, his entourage gathered with him late in the evening. Albert Speer describes the scene: standing on the terrace of the Berghof around 3 AM they "marveled at a rare natural spectacle. Northern lights of unusual intensity threw red light on the legend-haunted Untersberg across the valley, while the sky above shimmered in all the colors of the rainbow. The last act of Gotterdammerung could not have been more effectively staged. The same red light bathed our faces and our hands." A pensive mood descended on the group, with Hitler commented to one of them, "Looks like a great deal of blood. This time we won't bring it off without violence."
Herbert Dohring has a much more dramatic recollection of the occasion: "Suddenly the sky above Berchtesgaden was in turmoil. It was blood red, green sulphur grey, black as night, a jagged yellow. It was frightening." A Hungarian woman, one of Hitler's guests, approached him to say, "This augurs no good. This means blood, blood and more blood, destruction and terrible suffering." With that, recalled Dohring, Hitler became "completely crazed, his hair was wild, his gaze locked in the distance." At length Hitler responded, "Well, if it has to be, then let it be now," and shortly thereafter went to his room. The invasion of Poland began a week later."

This testimony was also given in William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

This year the remembrance of the Armenian Martyrs coincides with the Friday of Renewal (Easter) Week and thus with the Feast of the Theotokos of the Life-Giving Spring.

The Feast reminds us that for thirteen centuries Orthodox Christians have faced a relentless foe.

Outside of Constantinople, towards the district of the Seven Towers, there was in ancient times a very large and most beautiful church named in honour of the Theotokos; it had been built about the middle of the fifth century by the Emperor Leo the Great (also called "Leo of Thrace," he is commemorated on Jan. 20). Before he became Emperor, he had encountered there a blind man, who being tormented with thirst asked him to help him find water. Leo felt compassion for him and went in search of a source of water but found none. As he became downcast, he heard a voice telling him there was water nearby. He looked again, and found none. Then he heard the voice again, this time calling him "Emperor" and telling him that he would find muddy water in the densely wooded place nearby; he was to take some water and anoint the blind man's eyes with it. When he had done this, the blind man received his sight. After Leo became Emperor as the most holy Theotokos had prophesied, he raised up a church over the spring, whose waters worked many healings and cured maladies by the grace of the Theotokos; from this, it came to be called the "Life-giving Spring." The Church of Christ celebrates the consecration of this church on this day.

After the fall of the imperial city, this church was razed to the ground and the materials from it were used for building the mosque of Sultan Bayezid. Nothing remained of that church's ancient beauty, except for a small and paltry chapel, almost completely buried in the ruins. This chapel had twenty-five steps going down into it, and a transom window on the roof, wherefrom it received a little light. Toward the western side of the chapel was the aforementioned holy Spring, fenced about with a railing, and with fish swimming in it. Such was the condition of the Spring until 1821. Then even that little remnant was destroyed, occasioned by the uprising of the Greek nation against the Ottoman Empire; the sacred Spring was buried with it and disappeared altogether.

But in the days of Sultan Mahmud, when those subject to him were rejoicing in their freedom to practice their religion, permission was sought by the Orthodox Christian community to rebuild at least part of the chapel. Thus the work was begun on July 26, 1833. When the excavation had been made, and the foundations of the ancient church were found, there was rebuilt -- by a later writ of permission from the Sultan -- not merely a chapel of the holy Spring, but another new church, constructed upon the foundations of the ancient one. The building of this spacious, beautiful, and most majestic temple began on September 14, 1833, and the work was completed on December 30, 1834. On February 2, 1835, the Ecumenical Patriarch Constantine II, serving the Liturgy together with twelve hierarchs and a great company of clergy, as well as a boundless multitude of Christians, performed the consecration of this sacred church and dedicated it to the glory of the Mother of God. On September 6, 1955, however, it was desecrated and destroyed again by the Moslem Turks; it has been restored again, but not to the former magnificence.

Apolytikion of Renewal Fri.
First Tone

O Theotokos, your church is like the Garden of Paradise, since it pours out healings and cures like ever-living rivers. We come to it with faith, and we draw strength and eternal life from its water, through you who are the Spring that received Life himself. For you intercede with Christ our Savior, who was born from you, and you entreat Him to save our souls.

Snip:

Unfortunately, there’s a grave danger in failing to come clean – and that is, the great crime is likely to be repeated.

Consider what Adolf Hitler wrote in this Aug. 22, 1939, document, which was entered into evidence in the Nuremberg Trials. After you read his absolutely horrendous plans, pay special attention to the last sentence, in which Hitler reveals why he’s so sure he can get away with committing genocide while pulling off what he calls the “redistribution of the world”:

My decision to attack Poland was arrived at last spring. Originally, I feared that the political constellation would compel me to strike simultaneously at England, Russia, France, and Poland. Even this risk would have had to be taken.

Ever since the autumn of 1938, and because I realized that Japan would not join us unconditionally and that Mussolini is threatened by that nit-wit of a king and the treasonable scoundrel of a crown prince, I decided to go with Stalin.

In the last analysis, there are only three great statesmen in the world, Stalin, I, and Mussolini. Mussolini is the weakest, for he has been unable to break the power of either the crown or the church. Stalin and I are the only ones who envisage the future and nothing but the future. Accordingly, I shall in a few weeks stretch out my hand to Stalin at the common German-Russian frontier and undertake the redistribution of the world with him.

Our strength consists in our speed and in our brutality. Genghis Khan led millions of women and children to slaughter – with premeditation and a happy heart. History sees in him solely the founder of a state. It’s a matter of indifference to me what a weak western European civilization will say about me.

I have issued the command – and I’ll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad – that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness – for the present only in the East – with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

EDITOR'S NOTE: April 24, 2020 is Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, marked annually to commemorate the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians a century ago, a mega-crime the nation of Turkey has never acknowledged.