2726) Terrorism as Bloody Real Fantasy-War

Terrorism is the manner of fighting used in fantasy-war. Terrorism and fantasy-war are phenomena that induce some people to behave as if there really were a "war", with all the license to kill that comes with it. The "enemy" on the other hand (usually a country), almost always tends to deny what is happening, to suppress it, to act as if the fantasy declaration of war did not exist. . .

If the authorities should ever happen to catch anyone from the terrorist enemy, they usually try to get rid of the demon, to set him free as quickly as possible in order to avoid burdensome extortion. France can be cited as one shocking example of this type of behavior, especially towards the Armenian terrorists.

This kind of fantasy-war requires at least two opposing, organized groups. (It is apparently for this reason that some countries try to give the impression that they do not want to act in an organized manner). The state involved in a fantasy-war usually finds itself exposed to the attacks of a more or less extensive organization which arrogates certain attributes of an official government (full authority to enforce its "verdicts" - which means control over life, freedom, and death - extortionary collection of taxes, influence or even control over the media).

Terrorist groups perpetrate the most heinous crimes in the name of their "sovereignty"and their own standards of lawfulness, which they raise to the common norm and would like to see recognized as such.

The fantasy-wars of the terrorists may lead to open, "real" war, ending in the defeat of one side - all too often the downfall of a state - or they may drag on, with the atrocities continuing for decades, or in the case of Armenian terrorism, for more than a century. Organizations such as the Armenian terrorist squads can be characterized by their special (albeit perverted) "love-relationship" to a certain "love-object". The Armenian terrorists want a grand Armenian state, even though such a thing only existed for a very short time two thousand years ago and was located on land where there has never in all of history been an Armenian majority. Aside from that, they want revenge for a specific historical event which never took place, at least not in the form which they espouse. We are thus dealing here with a doubly irrational motive, and that obviously doubles the danger compared to other terrorist groups with at least a trace of realism and historical equipment.

Terrorists - especially Armenian terrorists - live among us and build their own subculture with its own system of values. They are always looking for new converts, seeking people who prefer their terrorist anti-church to an Orthodox Armenian church or some other, peaceful Armenian organization.

The Armenians are a people of above-average intelligence, and through their hard work and ability they have also achieved above-average incomes and above-average levels of education. For these reasons, the cadres who are won over by the Armenian terrorist leaders distinguish themselves through their outstanding efficiency. They do their job so well that journalists, historians, filmmakers, and television executives timidly avoid doing anything to try to stop the criminals, even though they would have the influence and knowledge to expose Armenian terrorism and the false premises upon which it is based. That is one of the main reasons, if not the main reason, why there is a standard line tacked onto the end of every report of a new bomb or machine-gun attack carried out by Armenian terrorists. It is like a solidly ingrained ritual: "The terrorist organization claiming responsibility for the attack cited the 1915 genocide as justification for the assault." This is a case where an ordinary public relations spot is purchased with blood instead of money!

Simply dropping this inane, inexcusable sentence would already destroy the essential motive of the terrorist assassins: to have an event cited repeatedly in the media, although it never took place at all in this form.

As long as it is so easy to "get the message across" however, we can be sure that terrorist attacks from these quarters will continue.

In the "normal case" of human existence, the biologically based survival instinct plays an all-important role. It does a masterful job of suppressing the thought of death and a permanent "end". It uses a thousand mechanisms to fool us, with the final result being that humans live their lives from year to year as if there were no permanent "end", even though it could in fact come at any second. In some cases the idea of immortality helps, the hope (or certainty) that death is just a stepping-stone from this worldly, temporal life into the eternal one. In almost every human existence, death is seen as something awesome, some-thing to be put off as long as possible. Doctors occasionally do inhuman things in the name of this "putting-off", while priests pray and administer the sacraments for longer life and eternal life. Terrorists on the other hand have, in many cases, a nonchalant attitude toward life whether it be their own or someone else's. The people they kill are merely the rubble they must leave by the wayside as they pursue their goal, and their own death is a tribute which they would be honored to pay to their ideal, whether that be an "Armenian Utopia" or simple vengeance, even if there is nothing real to avenge.

There is, at any rate, an exceptional situation in human society where death occurs on such a large scale that men appear to lose all fear of it, as well as all sense of proportion. In this exceptional situation, death is sometimes actually sought with great enthusiasm. Friends and relatives greet the death of a loved-one with rejoicing, pride, and approval - especially if the deceased managed to kill as many as possible of the "enemy" before his own death -if, for instance, he caused an airplane to crash or a passenger ship to sink or a city to be swallowed in flames.

Such people are honored and highly decorated. Their superiors even lay diplomas and distinctions on their graves. It is war that publicly sanctions this primacy of death over life. It is war that makes it appear desirable for one society to wipe out another, for one highly advanced civilization to grind another into oblivion.

Every single soldier in a war has the right to kill as many fellow human beings as he likes, the more the better as long as they are on the "other" side. The state of war makes it possible for highly decorated prisoners of war, who wear the proof of their killing capacity, so to speak, proudly on their chests, to be honored and respected even by the victorious enemy.

A captured terrorist, a killer from the terrorist front who gets nabbed, also typically demands to be treated as a "prisoner of war" by those who nabbed him. This is not only because of the better prison conditions, but also because of the difficulty of obtaining a conviction and the high probability of an early release.

Every terrorist is indeed (subjectively) at war, although it is his own personal fantasy-war. To carry on a real war, there must be at least two clearly distinguishable sides that have at least a limited degree of sovereignty. In addition, at least one of the parties must recognize an "enemy". (In the case of the Turks and the Armenians, this last point is problematic, since the Turks still respect the Armenians very much and have a high opinion of them. Anyone who travels to Turkey can easily see this for himself.) There must also be a casus belli, a reason for war. This almost always forces even the most peaceable opponent to adopt a hostile stance similar to that of the enemy, if he wants to survive. The inferences to be drawn for the terrorist scene are clear: regardless of the pretexts under which they operate, the terrorists have in fact declared war on human society.

In studying the development of Armenian terrorism, one is struck by the attitude adopted by some Armenian communities toward the terrorist scene. This is especially true in the United States and France, where the Armenians constitute an important, financially powerful, highly intellectual element of public life. Armenian clubs and associations in these countries are in some cases remarkably conciliatory, if not openly supportive, towards terrorism. It has even been known to happen on more than one occasion that a moment of silence has been observed in a public worship service for terrorists who had been killed or arrested.

Similar expressions of sympathy and remembrance can be observed in the secular world. The frame of mind at work here cannot be entirely attributed to the fact that many Armenians are the victims of terrorist blackmail at the hands of their own terror organizations. Much more important is the exaggerated, largely false understanding of history, which is mainly propagated by certain newspapers and periodicals of the Armenian diaspora. The fact that one can often find gems like "ONE million dead in 1915" and then perhaps in the same publication "two or two and a half million victims" does not seem to bother the editors very much.

Some Armenian intellectuals also show a remarkable intolerance towards scholars whose view of history differs from their own. Professor Justin McCarthy is the author of the tremendously important, scientifically irrefutable work Muslims and Minorities, in which the true population figures for Anatolia appear for the first time. He can only hold his lectures with massive police protection. The version of historical events presented in Stanford J. Shaw's History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey did not match the picture presented by certain Armenians. His house was bombed in an attempt to intimidate him and keep him from publishing further.

This intimidation has reached the point where it is doubtful whether an Armenian publisher could be found today for a book like Louise Nalbandian's "The Armenian Revolutionary Movement". The book is thoroughly pro-Armenian, but it is also somewhat objective and contains a few critical words.

The Armenian Terrorist Organizations
The Armenian terrorists use the names of several different front organizations in carrying out their attacks. In spite of the seemingly bewildering multitude of acronyms and pretentious titles, however, everything can in fact be traced back to just two organizations.

The oldest Armenian terrorist organization grew out of the Dashnak Party, which had been under the spell of the Russian anarchists and ultras from the beginning and reached maturity in Russian Armenia. The party was a response of the extremists to their own unsuccessful efforts to give the Armenian minority within the Ottoman Empire a state of its own. These efforts were actually doomed to failure from the beginning, given the small percentage of Armenians in the eastern Anatolian population.

These first Armenian terrorists bear an uncanny resemblance to the Shiite suicide squads. (Extensive accounts can be found elsewhere in this book of Armenian terrorism in the Ottoman Empire of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.) Their main heirs from an historical viewpoint, however, are the JCAG (Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide).

The terrorist actions of the JCAG are regarded - as funny as this may sound - as being carried out by "conservatives". Their specialty appears to be the assassination of Turkish diplomats and their families. ASALA (Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia) is, by contrast, generally considered to be a Marxist terrorist organization, closely controlled by the Soviet Union. They see the existence of an "Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic" as the ideal and work for the "unification" of eastern Anatolia with the ASSR.

It is only with some reservations that the Soviets can condone this objective, since they worry that a larger Armenia could easily become rebellious. They support the activities of the ASALA anyway, however, since they are directed against Turkey (which is also an important partner in the NATO alliance).

For many years, the ASALA also enjoyed the hospitality and support of the Shiite terrorist groups in Lebanon. There appears to be a special affinity between the Armenian terrorists and the Shiites. This can be seen in the willingness (or longing) to die and in the radical nature of the attacks, where there is never any indication whatsoever that the fate of innocent bystanders has been given any consideration.

In spite of this manifest spiritual closeness to the Shiite conception of the value of life (or lack thereof), the ASALA has proclaimed in their mouthpiece ARMENIA: "Our forces never strike against S. S. R. of Armenia, which is already liberated."

This corresponds entirely to the interests of the Soviet Russians. Just like their Czarist predecessors, they want access to the "warm waters", and that means using all available means to gain control over eastern Anatolia (as a bridge to the Gulf) and the Bosporus (as a gateway to the Mediterranean).

In spite of the mass deportations of Armenians to Inner Asia under Stalin, the Armenian intellectuals have for the most part managed quite well under the Soviet system. The careers of such men as Anastas Mikoyan and Yuri Andropov, who rose to become Soviet head of state, are striking proof of this.

The countless other terrorist groups which appear in the lists of crimes committed are nothing more than alternate acronyms for the "big two", which take on new names at will. They do this partly to fool the public about their true size and partly to satisfy the vanity of members who want to lead a "new" terrorist group.

The public should not let itself be fooled by occasional quarrels and jealousies (when, for example, JCAG and ASALA have to fight it out to determine who killed whom when and where). In this bizarre world of shadows and mirrors, unfair competition is just part of the whole unfair bloody trade. In the end there is only one goal: terror for terror's sake.

The Political Background of the Armenian Terrorist Organization ASALA

An unprecedented terrorist "summit" was held in Teheran in February, 1986, on the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the Ayatollah Khomeini's revolution. "Ismailian revolutionaries" - of the Iranian persuasion - met with leaders of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, Hussein Moussavi's men of the Jihad organization, the Saudi Arabian Mujahedeen, the Shiite Amal grouping from Bahrain, delegates from the Moro gangs in the Phillipines and Libyan intelligence officers. What especially concerned Western observers about this Teheran terrorists' conference was that the Armenians were also represented.

Roughly 200,000 Armenians live in Iran. They have so far remained remarkably undisturbed by the fanatical Shiites of the Ayatollah. These Armenians are used extensively against Turkey. Iran officially maintains good relations with Turkey and depends heavily on goods transported through Anatolia. Since the improvement of Turkish relations with Iraq however, Iran has taken an anti-Turkish turn. The Armenians are once again serving as useful pawns for the rulers of a country which is only looking after its own interests.

The ASALA was in the past kept under some restraint in Iran, but now they have official Iranian support to strengthen their cooperation with terrorist groups such as that of Abu Nidal. Observers point out again and again the astonishing parallels between Armenian and Shiite terrorist attacks. (The airport attacks in Vienna, Rome, and Paris are good examples.) The Armenian newspaper "GAMK", which is published in Paris, recently printed a major article promoting "armed struggle". GAMK asked the rhetorical question, "Is the effort to weaken the West related to the Armenian question?" The response said in part:

"There are American and NATO bases in Turkish Armenia. Therefore, the United States will oppose and fight any force that tries to upset the stability of that region and to change the status quo. In other words, to liberate the Armenian lands we will have to deal not only with the Turkish government but also the Atlantic Alliance and the United States . . . When the Armenian liberation struggle intensifies, the U. S. government will impose tighter restrictions on the 'freedom' of Armenians inside and outside the United States and will employ every possible means to crush the Armenian liberation struggle. Either we give up the dream of liberating the Armenian lands and appease Turkey and the United States, or we fight to liberate the Armenian lands and upset Turkey, NATO and the United States . . . A weakened NATO and a weakened United States would make it easier to liberate the Armenian lands . . . (and) would help free the Third World from the yoke of American imperialism."

The strongest Armenian terrorist group, the ASALA, has always relied entirely on the Soviet Union. Lately however, they have also found very strong support from Iran.

Two strongly Marxist-oriented splinter groups have recently broken off from the ASALA: the DF-PMLA (Democratic Front of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of. Armenia) and the ARA (Armenian Revolutionary Army), until recently called the "Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide" (JCAG). The ASALA enjoys widespread support in France, where the Armenians make up a very wealthy, influential group numbering more than 400.000. Some 5000 Armenians took part in a protest march organized by the ASALA in France, many of them sporting badges and flags of the terrorist organization. Many ASALA supporters are also associated with the Armenian National Movement led by Ara Toranian. A number of captured Armenian terrorists have acknowledged the support that the ASALA receives from George Habash's PFLP. The PFLP also supports Kurdish separatist movements in the Near East.

Both the ASALA and the ARA have repeatedly demonstrated that they can operate worldwide, in cooperation with Palestinian as well as Kurdish extremist groups.

Their stated goal of weakening the United States and its NATO allies, above all Turkey, strengthens the suspicion that it is ultimately the Soviets who are behind all the Armenian terrorist activities.

(Source: "Confidential Early Warning", Vol. IV, No. 1, February, 1986. The validity of the arguments presented here was proven by the ghastly series of attacks of September, 1986. The ASALA was behind these attacks.

"Early Warning" is convinced that there is plenty of evidence available pointing to the Soviet Union as the "ultimate sponsor" of the Armenian terrorists.)

An unparalleled glorification of terrorists can be found in the book, The First Genocide of the 20th Century by James Frazer (New York: T&T Publishing, Inc.) The assassins Arshavir Shiragian, Soghomon Tehlirian, Aram Yerganian, and Missak Torlakian are celebrated as "Armenian national heroes" - as if political murder, "execution" without trial or proof of guilt, ever did a nation any good.

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Source: Erich Feigl A Myth Of Terror A Myth Of Terror Armenian Extremism: Its Causes And Its Historical

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Professor Erich Feigl (b. Vienna, 1931) began writing while still a student but soon switched over to documentary filmmaking. This brought him into the world of the religions and cultures of the Middle and Far East, as well as Central America. He created television series such as "Journey to the Early Christian World", "The Heritage of the Early Christian World", "The Great Religions of the World", "Telegallery", and "Men and Myths". A number of films from these series have won national awards. Individual television specials such as "Musil of Arabia", "On the Streams of Paradise" (about the religious communities of Mesopotamia), "Where the Turks Came From" and "Where the Turks Went" (about the origins and the fall of the Ottoman Empire), as well as the famous TV documentaries about Empress Zita (" Die Kronzeugin" and "Kaiserin Zita", first broadcast in 1986) repeatedly brought Professor Feigl into the precincts of the tragic events of 1915 and the history and context of the Armenian tragedy. The same happened in the course of Erich Feigl’s work as an author.

His great biographies, Kaiser Karl and Kaiserin Zita, as well as his books about Musil of Arabia and Athos (Athos -Vorh..lle zum Paradies) were all tied to the study of Ottoman history - especially its final phase. A plan gradually took shape for a monograph on the origins and the history of the Armenian tragedy in Anatolia from the eyes of a man with profound knowledge of Anatolia and its Middle Eastern environment. Professor Feigl was already familiar with all the settings and had known many, many witnesses (from both camps) for decades.

The preparatory work was already well under way when a shocking event (the murder in Vienna on June 20, 1984 of the Turkish labor attaché, Erdogan ..zen, who was a personal friend of the author) led Erich Feigl to produce an extensive film expose of this "myth of terror", which has already claimed so many innocent lives. After more than a year’s work on the films, Professor Feigl wrote this book, which is illustrated exclusively with the author’s own photographs. The book exposes the roots of Armenian terrorism, which mainly harms the overwhelming majority of Armenians who are unable to come to terms with the reign of terror of a tiny minority.

This may well be due in part to uncertainty about the true situation which has led and which continues to lead to Armenian terrorism. This is certainly the case with the public at large, who know nothing more than the unending Armenian terrorist attacks, a few code words like "genocide" and "massacre of the Armenians" and perhaps a few (misinterpreted) facts.

This book presents the historical and contemporary contexts plainly and openly. The surprising truth that is revealed here will hopefully help to expose the true face of terror and avert further tragedy.