Crete, occupied by the Ottomans.. wanted to become independent and join Greece, so that it would not be exposed to the same thing we were exposed to in Egypt at the time. Even though the people of Crete are like the Sa'idis among us, they never come under the control of an occupier and always have a kind of semi-independence.. but it wanted complete independence, it contacted the Greek government for it, and indeed Greek forces entered it, so the spark of the Greco-Ottoman War was ignited.

What happened in Egypt then, is that after "Abbas Hilmi I" came "Said Pasha".. and France offered him the project of digging the Suez Canal and he accepted it.. a canal linking the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, this project was made by our ancient ancestors and was dug and neglected and filled in several times. The canal of "Senusret III" or "Sesostris", the canal of "Ptolemy II", the canal of the Romans.. the canal of the Commander of the Faithful in the days of "Amr ibn al-Aas", and then "Abu Jaafar al-Mansur" filled it in so that no reinforcements would come from Egypt to the people of the Hejaz rebelling against Abbasid rule, and then "Harun al-Rashid" opened it and then it was filled in.. and so on.

"Said" agreed to dig the canal, on condition that the concession would be for the French company for 99 years, with a 15% share of the profit for Egypt.. and "Said" agreed.. and with his death came "Ismail".. and he had an independence streak like "Muhammad Ali".. so he began to make reforms.. and to obtain firmans from the Sublime Porte to approve them.. and the Ottoman Sultan "Abdul Aziz" used to approve them for him in exchange for money.. meaning he took a bribe to issue firmans approving the reforms "Ismail" wanted.. and in the end he granted him the title of "Khedive" with a restricted administrative independence, on condition that he not conclude treaties nor manufacture weapons and armoured vehicles, in exchange for doubling the tribute from 400 thousand pounds a year to 800 thousand.. and after he took, in the form of gifts and presents, what was worth 30 million pounds.

"Ismail", with these sums he paid to the Sublime Porte, needed money to complete his projects, so he borrowed from Europe.. with the debts, England began to try to interfere in political life, especially with its fear that France would monopolize Egypt, particularly with this canal story.. but "Ismail" rejected the English interference.. so England played a curious game, which was that it discussed Egypt's financial situation in the English Parliament, and announced that "Ismail" was hiding a situation far worse than what was declared.. so with this discussion, the states rushed to Egypt demanding their debts in panic, and Egyptian bonds crashed to their lowest, and Egypt nearly declared bankruptcy, had England not intervened, and bought Egypt's share in the canal, for 100 million francs.

So now we have England and France on the ground at the Suez Canal, which we lost completely six years after it opened.. and we have the Ottoman Sultan "Abdul Aziz" cutting the arteries of his own hand with scissors.. and these two great powers trying to interfere in the Egyptian affair, attempt after attempt, year after year.

So when England found that "Ismail" was seeking to establish an empire in Africa, to the point that he was almost about to move from Sudan and occupy Ethiopia.. and it would become Egyptian land.. it instructed the Ottoman Sultan "Abdul Hamid" to depose him, on 26 June 1879, and to appoint "Tewfik" in his place.

In the era of "Tewfik", Egypt was divided between French influence and English influence, and legislation and its opposite were issued, and conditions worsened and the economy weakened and the burdens on people's shoulders increased, and with the deterioration of conditions, the army began to grumble, and it was limited and weak at the time, its strength restricted to 10 thousand soldiers, so decisions were issued by "Tewfik" at the instruction of the English, banning the promotion of non-commissioned officers, and replacing Egyptian commanders with others from the Turks, and this limited military force was struck with weakness and disintegration.. and Egypt became without protection from English and French interference, so "Ahmed Orabi" led a movement of rebellion within the small army, and presented his demands to "Othman Rifqi Pasha", the director of the Jihadia - the post of minister of defence at the time - and in them he demanded increasing the army's strength to 18 thousand soldiers, and forming a national chamber of deputies, to legislate for the people, without the interference of foreign powers, and excluding the Turkish commanders and handing the leadership of the army to the Egyptians. And over time the rest of the army and the people gathered around "Orabi".. and they demanded that the Khedive implement these demands.

And the truth is that "Tewfik" responded to these demands, and appointed Mahmoud Sami al-Baroudi as director of the Jihadia.. the first Egyptian to hold the post in long decades.. and then the prime minister was dismissed and "Mahmoud Sami al-Baroudi" was appointed prime minister and "Orabi" was appointed director of the Jihadia.. and a new ministry was formed, and a chamber of deputies convened and work began on preparing a constitution for the country, had these developments not displeased England, so it ordered "Abdul Hamid" and he in turn ordered "Tewfik", to dismiss "Mahmoud Sami al-Baroudi", and he was indeed dismissed on 26 May 1881.

And Sultan "Abdul Hamid" was ready to do anything for England to be pleased with him and to remain standing as a wall of resistance between him and Russia, so he contacted England, and it announced to him that its fleet and its soldiers would head to Egypt, in the shadow of these disturbances, to protect the minorities, and he agreed without hesitation.

And in Egypt "Orabi" learned that the English were coming, through the head of the Ottoman delegation "Mustafa Darwish Pasha".. who advised him to leave Alexandria and flee.. because the English would land their forces on its shores.. and he presented him with a decision from the Ottoman Sultan, "Abdul Hamid".. that if he travelled to Istanbul, he would receive a palace and a large monthly salary and the "Majidi Decoration" of the first class.. but "Orabi" refused, and considered it a bribe, and informed the Sultan through a telegram, which he signed along with a league of Al-Azhar scholars, that they would defend Egyptian territory against the English with blood.. and that his cooperation with the English against the Egyptians meant that he was unfit for the Sultanate, and that they could issue a fatwa deposing him.

And here England went to Sultan "Abdul Hamid", and offered him the sum of 450 thousand pounds sterling.. with a promise of a loan of seven million francs, from the banks of England, and asked him to issue a special firman, so on 5 September 1882 he issued a firman declaring "Orabi" a rebel, on the grounds that he was threatening the fleets of a state allied to the Ottoman State.. and a fatwa was issued from Istanbul, declaring "Orabi" an unbeliever, and everyone who fought on his side, and declaring the fighting of the English forbidden because they were very strong.. and fighting them was considered throwing the Muslim himself into destruction with his own hand.

And on 10 July 1882, the English fleet arrived at Ras al-Tin, and issued an ultimatum to the Ras al-Tin fort to lower its artillery and surrender, but "Orabi" rejected the ultimatum, so the English artillery set out from the sea pounding Alexandria, and the British forces landed on the shore, while "Orabi" withdrew before the rain of shells to Kafr al-Dawwar.. and part of the English fleet moved to the canal, and occupied Ismailia and Port Said, and on 28 August 1882 of the same year, "Orabi" was defeated in the battle of al-Qassasin.. and he returned and fortified himself at "Tel al-Kebir".. and there the battle of Tel al-Kebir took place, and this was not a battle or anything.. and it did not take more than half an hour.. the English besieged in it "Orabi's" camp at night while the soldiers were asleep and exhausted.. and they took control of it quickly, before he had even put on his military boots.. and after that, on 14 September 1882, Cairo fell, and Khedive "Tewfik" received the English forces in Abdeen Palace, and held a trial for "Orabi" and his men, and sentenced them to exile to Ceylon.

As we said, Sultan "Abdul Hamid" was.. "our Hamid" of that silly series.. the easiest thing he had was to give up land, and the easiest thing he had was to sell the land itself for money.. so he sold Egypt and handed it to the English for 450 thousand pounds sterling.. and a promise of a loan. There is no state in the East in general that was occupied by foreign powers except in the era of the Ottomans.

After that, the problem of the oppressed Armenians appeared to him, those who were all the time in torment and living in racial discrimination and hatred and injustice.. "Abdul Hamid" believed in astrology, and used to listen to a private charlatan, named "Abu al-Huda al-Sayyadi".. and this charlatan convinced him that what he was doing had been mentioned in special prophecies, compiled in the book "al-Jafr".. and that he was supported from heaven.

Bear in mind, when someone tells you "the Armenians attacked the Ottomans first".. that in truth did not happen.. the Armenians were and still are a quiet, peaceful people.. to the point that the Ottoman State itself called them "millet-i sadika", meaning "the good, loyal people".. until the year 1893.. when the persecution increased and the Armenians began to complain of the suffering.

And the Armenians had begun to clamour against the assault on their women and their honour and their money and their demonstrations and sit-ins increased, so brother "Abdul Hamid" went and founded a private militia called the "Hamidiye regiments".. whose role was to kill the Armenians and torture them and harm them and subjugate them by force.

And at that time a few Armenian men gathered, and agreed as one man.. and went to speak with the Ottoman State about the persecution and discrimination that was happening, so "Abdul Hamid", as soon as they reached the palace and were received.. and before they even met him.. went and dressed them up in a case he called the "Ottoman Bank bombing", and said that these people were going to blow up the Ottoman Bank, but we uncovered their plot before it was carried out, and he began torturing them with violence and brutality, and threatened them with their women, and his men actually went and brought the women's private clothes from the houses.. so the men collapsed and signed confessions under the weight of torture, on 26 August, in the year 1896.

And here the Armenians in their occupied lands began, with all this pressure and torture, to dream of independence in turn.. so they began to call the Armenian people to revolution, so "Abdul Hamid" unleashed on them his dogs the "Hamidiye cavalry regiments" along with the Ottoman army.. to inflict on them every kind of killing you can imagine.. crucifixion.. burning alive.. slaughter.. impalement.. and the matter was not limited to the Armenian revolutionaries who wanted to liberate their lands only.. it extended to their children.. so the Ottoman army forces and "Abdul Hamid's" regiments went and gathered small children of the age of 5 and 6 years, and burned them alive, or buried them alive, or threw them into special camps with no water and no food until death.

With all these horrifying Ottoman massacres, the Armenians residing in Istanbul found no escape but to gather in a large demonstration, of two thousand demonstrators, and head to the Sublime Porte, carrying banners, to shout for their rights.. so the Ottoman police opened fire on them, and annihilated them.

And here.. the Armenian national liberation movement appeared on the scene, and began to decide to liberate the Armenian lands from the Ottomans, and to call for revolution and resistance.. and the spark broke out for the first time, in the city of "Sasun", against the Ottoman army and the butchers of the Hamidiye regiments.. that is why it is called the "Sasun resistance movement".. and at almost the same moment.. the Bulgarians founded the Macedonian revolutionaries' society.. in the year 1893.

There is no such thing as "the Armenian massacre" in truth.. it was not a "massacre".. it was a horrifying "series of massacres".. a diabolical attempt at extermination.. in which millions of innocent people perished.. the Armenian massacres were horrifying, and talking about them cannot be done in one post.. so we will, God willing, write a separate series of posts about them.

Beware of the fool who tries to point to the Armenian massacres as a war between "the good Muslims" against "the evil Christians".. that is nonsense.. the Ottoman State, as the late "Gamal Hamdan" said of it.. has no creed and no religion.. it is merely a cloak that justifies its actions.. and the Armenian massacres were not the first.. the Ottoman State led horrifying massacres against the Muslim Albanian people when they occupied Albania in the year 1468, and when they refused to let "Abdul Hamid" sell parts of their land to Russia to give to Montenegro after his disappointment and his defeat.. we will come to the massacres of the Ottomans against the Albanians in the course of events with this series.

The important thing is that at the very same time that the Armenian massacres were going on, "Crete" realized that its existence under Ottoman control was a danger, and not guaranteed.. and it would either be handed from one occupation to another like Egypt.. or be exposed to horrifying, terrible massacres like the Armenian massacres that were underway.. and it was right, and it learned from the Egyptian lesson and the Armenian lesson, so it demanded independence.. and the Greco-Ottoman War flared up.

The battles began and the Ottomans won and forced the Greek forces to retreat.. and indeed the Greek soldiers halted on 17 May of the year 1897 at the pass of "Thermopylae".. the pass where the people of Greece held off the Persians with about 300 soldiers from Sparta.. in the year 480 BC.

This pass is narrow and has no solution, and in order to win you must cross it,, and when the Greeks line up in it, they can confront the waves of enemies wave after wave in small numbers.. and the Ottoman State kept fighting night and day for 3 continuous nights to cross the pass, and it failed and lost thousands of soldiers.. so it asked for a ceasefire, and concluded with Greece the "Treaty of Istanbul".. and in it "Crete" obtained self-rule, but under Ottoman sovereignty, meaning that it would pay it an annual tribute.

All this time "Abdul Hamid's" negotiations with "Herzl" were continuing normally and they visited one another.. and "Abdul Hamid" was determined to grant him Iraq, as a national homeland for the Jews, while he was determined on Sinai and Palestine.. and in the year 1902, the Macedonian revolution flared up, so "Abdul Hamid" went and made them another militia from the subjects of the state, from the Greeks and the Serbs.. and the battles continued for a whole year.. until France pressured him, so he sent them "Hussein Hilmi Pasha" to carry out a few reforms to calm them down.

And the strange thing is that the Turks themselves in Istanbul, groups of them revolted against "Abdul Hamid's" massacres against the Armenians.. bear in mind they were also neighbours and lived together and sometimes were married to one another.. so "Abdul Hamid" decided to stage a special play, in which he claimed an attempt on his life.. as a way to make any supporter in Turkey of the Armenians back down from his support, and an opportunity that allowed him to continue his brutalization of them.

And history has preserved for us this naive, fake incident under the name "the Bomb Incident".. and we will talk about it and about the rest of the era of "Abdul Hamid" - who was called "the Bloody Sultan" and "the Red Sultan" - later.

And the talk.. has a remainder.

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- Previous posts in the first comment.

- The first image is of Abdul Hamid with Herzl, the godfather of the Jewish state.

- The second image is of Armenian children whom the Turks starved to death in their camps.

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