Execution by impalement, while a ghastly punishment, was reserved for the most serious crimes and applied to the whole empire, not just to the Greek minority.
Greek children were not regularly kidnapped. You are probably thinking of the "Devsirme" system of recruiting boys of 15 to 20 years of age into military and state duties. And the "special tax" you are thinking of is probably "cizye" which was the annual tax for non-Muslim adult males who were exempt for military duties and the general drafts. You might remember that there were a lot of wars during those times.
Some Greek youths being recruited by the state (and many advancing to very high stations) and the rest paying a tax in exchange for not being drafted are not really convincing tales of atrocity as you seem to think. Compared to what European colonist powers or Russia were doing at those times, one might say Greeks had it pretty good. Certainly nothing that would justify the Turkish genocide in Mora starting in 1821.
For your first argument, i quote from wikipedia and I can even cite my source if you want : "Jean de Thévenot, traveling in the Ottoman Empire and its territories like Egypt in the late 1650s, emphasizes the
regional variations in impalement frequency. Of Constantinople and Turkey, de Thévenot writes that impalement was "not much practised" and "very rarely put in practice." An exception he highlighted was the situation of Christians in Constantinople. If a Christian spoke or acted out against the "Law of Mahomet", or consorted with a Turkish woman, or broke into a mosque, then he might face impalement unless he converted to Islam.". Also impalement was one of several torture methods used.For example i've never heard of a Turk dying from being sawed but there are plenty of examples of foreigners like : "The
Knights Hospitallers, then stationed at
Rhodes, sent several knights to aid in the defence of
Mytilene from the Turks. They eventually surrendered, under promise of having their lives spared. Instead, according to some reports, they were sawn asunder.According to
Kenneth Meyer Setton, the
sultan had actually promised to spare the heads of some 400 knights, and sawed them in half to keep his oath of not harming the heads."
For the kidnappings I was also talking about janissaries, and from what I read it was a frequent event, could you please cite your source for your claim ? Hell even Rigas Feraios who some sources claim was killed being sawn in two and from my knowledge never actually commited any violent crimes stated some of his main problems with the Ottomans being " His grievances against the Ottoman occupation of Greece regarded its cruelty, the drafting of children between the ages of five and fifteen into military service (
Devshirmeh or
Paedomazoma), the administrative chaos and systematic oppression (including prohibitions on teaching Greek history or language, or even riding on horseback), the confiscation of churches and their conversion to
mosques...".
Also from my knowledge a forced military draft was only a christian thing up until 1839, Turks weren't forced into military draft ("No universal military conscription existed during this period. Recruitment in the
Ottoman imperial army was achieved by the
forced enlistment of Christian children every five years.The
devşirme came up out of the
kul system of slavery that developed in the early centuries of the Ottoman Empire, and which reached this final development during the reign of
Bayezid I. The
kul were mostly prisoners from war, hostages, or slaves that were purchased by the state. The Ottoman Empire, beginning with
Murad I, felt a need to "counteract the power of Turkic nobles by developing Christian vassal soldiers and converted
kapıkulu as his personal troops, independent of the regular army.").
" Compared to what European colonist powers or Russia were doing at those times, one might say Greeks had it pretty good. Certainly nothing that would justify the Turkish genocide in Mora starting in 1821."
Again that isn't a valid excuse. That is like me "conquering" your land in the 1940s, raping the women in your country and saying "Aren't you glad I didn't use Gas Chambers like Hitler? I guess you guys have it pretty good compared to what the Nazis are doing.". I can't find the genocide you are talking about, but yeah I admit that in some circuimstances the Greeks took it too far during the War of Independence and what they did was wrong. But from what I know, they commited nothing worse than what Turks commited during previous Greek revolts, or even to innocent women ("During the
Souliote War in December 1803, the Souliotes began evacuating Souli after their defeat by the forces of the local Ottoman-Albanian ruler,
Ali Pasha. During the evacuation, a group of Souliot women and their children were trapped by Ali's troops in the mountains of
Zalongo in
Epirus.In order to avoid enslavement and rape, the women threw their children first and then themselves off a steep cliff, committing suicide").
One has to wonder, if the Greeks weren't treated as bad and punished during their 400 years of enslavement , would the Greeks have punished the Turks a differerent way from the way they were punished by them ?
www.protagon.gr
you wasting energy my guys;
