Caliphate—A Century, Compact and Simple

We often forget that the Islamic Caliphate last resided in Constantinople in the person of the ruling sultan of the Ottoman Empire. With Ataturk’s abolition of the Ottoman monarch and state, the caliphate, too, disappeared, only to “reappear” a few weeks ago in the proclamation of the (Sunni) “Islamic State” as the latter’s murderous minions swept out of the territories they had occupied in Syria and “conquered” a significant segment of Iraq.

How did all this happen? What are the precedents? What connects these two caliphates? Who shares responsibility for these developments? How is all this connected, or relevant, to Armenian concerns (beyond the obvious immediate threat to the lives of those Armenians who fall under the rule of the “Islamic State”)?

A century ago, as its dying act, the last caliphate liquidated the Armenian population under its control. Far more than any other massacre of Christians by Muslims (or even vice-versa), this was a precedent-setting policy. It screamed, “From now on, states may eradicate human beings as suits their needs.” Thus was modern genocide born. No longer sufficed the slow-moving, decades- or centuries-long process of decimating the native populations of the Congo or Americas, nor the ancient “tradition” of wiping out the population and physical existence of city-states (think of what Rome did to Carthage), nor even the Mongol/Turkish tradition of conquest-by-carnage.

Unfortunately, the winners of World War I were still in a colonialist mindset and created artificial states over the ruins of the Ottoman Empire to suit their divide-and-conquer needs. Not only did the Armenians get shafted, but so did the Kurds, Arabs, and everyone else. I suspect part of the reason that Armenians were treated relatively well in the Arab countries was the budding Arab nationalism and its attendant decency. It was a non-religious movement, but a threat to European colonialists who set up monarchies and pseudo-democracies in countries constructed to maintain mutual tension. One need only look at Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq to see this reality. Then came Israel, established (at least partially) as atonement for the genocide Jews had just suffered.

After some three-quarters of a century of triple indignity, Arab populations have had enough. First, their legitimate national aspirations were perverted, strangled, and/or subverted through the bogus state boundaries created to divide them. Second, they were subjected to misrule in those states by tyrants (often successive, where a revolution promising liberation was co-opted by darker forces) who were often puppets of one or more of the great powers. Third, they perceived the creation of Israel (rightly or wrongly is not relevant at this point) as a dagger in their heart.

In tandem, Iran’s people experienced similar disappointments. The pre-World War I constitutional revolution (in which Yeprem Khan, an ARF member, played a key role) ultimately was subverted with any progress/modernization made by the Pahlavi dynasty being rendered meaningless by the 1953 American-British engineered coup that toppled Prime Minister Mosaddegh. This ultimately led to religious forums becoming the venue and source of hope for liberation, as people saw nowhere else to turn, leading to the creation of an Islamic republic.

Similar religion-oriented ferment was present in the Arab world, probably inspired to some degree by the “progress” made in Iran through religion. In the Arab case, the most extreme ideologies had the most financial support because of the oil wealth of the countries hosting them (e.g., Saudi Arabia and its Wahhabis). Plus, the less extreme Muslim Brotherhood was brutally and repeatedly “contained” in Egypt and Syria. Add to this the context of the Cold War in which the West saw an advantage to using radical Islamists as proxies against the Soviet Union (primarily in Afghanistan), and you get a perfect storm developing.

People’s frustration (failure of Arab nationalism, despotic rulers, aborted “Arab Spring”), battlefront experience (Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria), ideological context (decades of religion-based inspiration), financial support (Arab Gulf states), and rivalries among Arab states plus between Shias and Sunnis (and, in parallel, with Iran) led to the mess in Syria. Of course, Turkey, with its reborn Ottomanism (starting in the days of Prime Minister Turgut Ozal) being implemented as policy over the past decade by the AKP’s Erdogan and Davutoglu, had its fingers in the Syrian pie. It supported the Islamist radicals (think Kessab) and probably has a good relationship with them, much as it may be diplomatically convenient to pretend otherwise.

Now, we have Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi anointing himself as caliph. His forces are doing rather well, using the same murderous terror tactics (might we be witnessing the beginning of a genocide of Christians?) as the last caliphate (Ottoman) did to spread and maintain its control. Erdogan is president of Turkey, and likely will be for the next decade. How far can a rapprochement between Turkey and the “Islamic State” go? Consider that the latter is also fighting the Kurds who are also the Turkish regime’s perceived enemy (regardless of recent improvements and ongoing negotiations with jailed PKK leader Apo Ocalan).

If the West and current Arab leadership don’t wake up to this danger, there’s a good chance the latter will be wiped out and a new monster empowered by oil wealth, Turkey, and sheer enthusiasm born of ongoing victories will be pounding at the gates of Kurdistan, Israel, probably Iran, and possibly even further. The new caliphate’s overt and covert supporters will live to regret their support of the Ottoman Empire’s new heirs, and Armenians will continue to be “collateral damage” in the Middle East, and may even confront some problems on our twin republics’ borders as a result of this resurgent religious extremism.

Let’s start getting the word out before it’s too late for all concerned.

Garen Yegparian

Garen Yegparian

Asbarez Columnist
Garen Yegparian is a fat, bald guy who has too much to say and do for his own good. So, you know he loves mouthing off weekly about anything he damn well pleases to write about that he can remotely tie in to things Armenian. He's got a checkered past: principal of an Armenian school, project manager on a housing development, ANC-WR Executive Director, AYF Field worker (again on the left coast), Operations Director for a telecom startup, and a City of LA employee most recently (in three different departments so far). Plus, he's got delusions of breaking into electoral politics, meanwhile participating in other aspects of it and making sure to stay in trouble. His is a weekly column that appears originally in Asbarez, but has been republished to the Armenian Weekly for many years.
Garen Yegparian

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6 Comments

  1. Dear Garen, we appreciate your logical and historical explantion of why ISIS came about; however, what caused ISIS to appear so ‘suddenly’ is a result of very careful planning, training and application by the Israel’s Mossad and paid by Wahabist Soudi Arabia with the blessing of US neocons. ISIS’ leader, Al-Baghdady, himself has Jewish origin (Edward Snowden’s leaked documents revealing that). So this is the well known tactic/scheme/policy of Israel, US and NATO to Divide and Conquer: let the muslims kill each other; then, we will be controling the entire Meddle East (ME) and the oil in it. It’s an issue of Zionist and US hegemony in the world. Wiping out Syria, Gaza, and Russia (see Ukraine) is part of the big plan. As far as we, Armenians, are concerned, the only way out of this chaos is to arm ourselves and defend our lands (Armenia and Artzah) — no one else will do it for us. We need to count on our strength, wisdom, and UNITY.

    • Very well said Virginia.
      Quite insightful.

      good to have other Armenians with the clarity of mind to see through the Neocon created fog.
      We need many more like you.

  2. Two comments on this article; please remember the Turks perpetuated a ” Christian Holocaust ” – Armenians,Greeks and Assyrians were all annihilated simply because they were Christian. It is a bit lazy to continually blame the European colonialists for establishing flawed boundaries. States can change their frontiers. I wish Christians of all descriptions would stand together, Islam is intolerant, this is a simple demonstrable fact and it’s not getting any better. I fear for the Armenians in the Middle East, as I fear for the Assyrians and Christians, believe me, no one in the “sophisticated” west cares about Christian suffering, only muslim victimhood enters the mind of our media.There is a great need for unity.

  3. I normally find Avery to be very thoughtful, articulate and factual.
    I was surprised that he found Virginia’s conspiracy comment insightful. This makes absolutely no sense as the allegations are not founded on any facts. They are not insightful; they are irresponsible.
    Admittedly US policy in the region has been a mitigated disaster. They have no idea what happened, what will happen or what to do. They are totally confused and merely reacting to developments, which are desperate and not well planned. It is a mess.
    However to say that this was planned by Mossad, US and the neocons, is a very unwise stretch of imagination and conspiracy theories.
    Vart Adjemian

  4. In “conspiracy theories” the allegations may not immediately be founded on any verifiable facts, but neither are the ridiculous fairy tales shoved down the throats of the unsuspecting public by the so-called “main stream media”. We know this to be true because we are Armenians, and the MSM has lied consistently about us, in many cases worked against us and denied us our rights. Their trick is to combine real news events with carefully planned indoctrination. Where we are concerned, the MSM is not valid either. So next time you watch CNN or Fox, you should be well aware that those who own and control those outlets are most definitely NOT on the side of truth and justice, and instead are mouthpieces for certain ethnic groups and corporations, because in those two tasks, they have never failed.

  5. Dear Vart, your comment may open a whole new conversation about what is happening in the world lately. I sympathized with you until I read, ‘They (assuming the US Government, CIA, etc.) have no idea what happened, what will happen and what to do …. totally confused’. Are you saying that the United States who is the greates Empire and Superpower in modern times, and who after spending billions of dollars of our tax money for surveilance, manpower, etc., had no idea what happened?

    A year ago, I would have probably reacted just as you did. But, as I started reading, researching and digging in outside of what our mass media is offering, I started seeing and understanding what really is happening in the world today. The most important lesson I’ve learned is that Actions Have Consequenses. And, therefore, the best course is to: Stay Out and Keep Out.
    As for ISIS, it didn’t just arise out of the earth: it needed money, weapons, logistics, propaganda facilities, and international connections to reach the relatively high level of organization and lethality they seem to have achieved in such a short period of time. Where did they get these assets? None of this is any secret: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the rest of the oil-rich Gulf states have been backing and generously supporting them financially all the way. The US was in alliance with the groups that merged form ISIS ever since President Obama declared Syria’s Bashar al-Assad “must go” – and Washington started funding Syrian rebel groups whose composition and leadership kept changing. By funding the Free Syrian Army (FSA) or Syrian Islamists, this administration has actively worked to defeat the only forces capable of rooting out ISIS from its Syrian nest – Assad’s government. Millions of dollars in overt aid – and who knows how much covertly (from Lybia through Turkey) – were pumped into the FSA. Countless ISIS cadres who started out in the FSA were trained and equipped by American “advisors” in Jordan.

    Secondly, when it became clear Washington wasn’t going to provide air support for rebel actions on the ground in Syria, these guys left the FSA in droves – and swelled the ranks of groups that eventually joined ISIS.

    Thirdly, the one silent partner in all this has been the state of Israel. It has long been known that the Israelis have been standing very close to the sidelines of the Syrian civil war, hoping for ‘no outcome” as NY Times wrote in its Middle East section in “Israel Backs Limited Strike in Syria”. Israel’s goal in the region has been to provoke as much conflict and chaos as possible, keeping its Islamic enemies divided, making it impossible for any credible challenge to arise among its Arab neighbors – and aiming the main blow at Tehran. While paying lip service to the awfulness of ISIS and al-Qaeda – their quarrel isn’t really with the Arabs, anyway – it’s with the Persians, whom they fear, and whose destruction has been their number one objective since the days of Ariel Sharon.

    ISIS could never have been consolidated in the form it has now taken without the strategic disaster of Washington’s “Sunni turn.” While the US may have reason to regret this wrong strategy, it’s far too late for that – and it looks like our “allies” in the region, including Israel, aren’t about to turn on a dime at Obama’s command.

    Last year around this time Vladimir Putin very publicly warned against the scenario we are seeing unfold in the Middle East:

    “If Assad goes today, a political vacuum emerges – who will fill it? Maybe those terrorist organizations. Nobody wants this – but how can it be avoided? After all, they are armed and aggressive.”

    Now that Putin’s prediction has come to pass, we’re too busy confronting him in Ukraine – so we can start again to divide and rule ….. The end of our Empire is around the corner, unfortunately, just as every empire before us had ended …

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