Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Turkey’s ongoing persecution of Assyrian Christians
Monday, July 17, 2017
“The perpetrators of the genocide aimed to create a homogenous – Turkish
and Muslim – country. A slogan that echoes a similar objective – ‘One
flag, one homeland, one state, one language, one religion, one nation’ –
has been commonly used by Turkish officials ever since. And in this
mindset, there is no place for religious liberty, ethnic diversity or
equal rights for all….’The Islamofascistic mentality ruling Turkey is
still disturbed by the existence of a handful Assyrians left in the
region. Turkish authorities used to say “Alhamdulillah [Praise be to
Allah], 99 percent of our country is Muslim.” It seems that they want to
change this to “Alhamdulliah, 100 percent of our country is Muslim.”'”
“Turkey Uncensored: The Fate of Assyrian Christian Churches and Monasteries,” by Uzay Bulut, Philos Project, July 13, 2017:
The Turkish government has recently seized numerous
properties belonging to Assyrian (Syriac) Christians − such as churches,
monasteries and cemeteries − and transferred them to public
institutions. On June 23, the Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agosreported,
Inquiries by the Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation
revealed that dozens of churches and monasteries have been transferred
to the Treasury first and then allocated to the Presidency for Religious
Affairs, known as the Diyanet, in Turkish. And the cemeteries have been transferred to the Metropolitan Municipality of Mardin.
Kuryakos Ergün, the president of the Mor Gabriel Monastery
Foundation, told The Philos Project that the decision of allocating the
churches and monasteries to the Diyanet has been overturned, but
Assyrians still have not recovered ownership:
Around 100 of our immovable properties have been seized
by state institutions. We do use our churches, monasteries and
cemeteries because they have been ours for centuries, but we do not
officially own them. The Undersecretariat of Treasury does. So the
change in the decision regarding the Diyanet does not alter anything
about the state of our sacred places and other properties. If
authorities tell us tomorrow to get out of these places, we will have to
do that.
It should be noted that the seizure of Assyrian properties is not a
new phenomenon and did not start with the Islamic government of the
Justice and Development Party (AKP). The first genocide of the 20th
century was committed
against Christian Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks in Ottoman Turkey
from 1914–1923. More than 3 million Christians were murdered and
hundreds of thousands were forcibly displaced. The properties of the
murdered and the exiled were seized by government authorities and Muslim
private citizens.
“If there had not been a Christian genocide in 1915, hundreds of
thousands or even more than a million Assyrians would be living in Tur
Abdin region today. But we are a tiny minority now.”
— SEYFO Center Founder Sabri Atman
