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The Saga of Serbs' Struggle against the Ottoman Jihad
A cataclysmic event in the fourteenth century was seared into their memory during which all of them paid the price of preserving their national and cultural identity with blood and death. While some survived to retain their original Eastern Orthodox Christian character, some nations were not so fortunate. Centuries of oppression by the Ottoman Turkish Jihadis made them sterile to their ancient history and has changed their character today. While today the Kosovars, Albanians and Bosnian Muslims remain European in their appearance and in some aspects of their culture, they have become Islamized to practice and propagate the faith of their erstwhile tormentors.
A Serbian maiden gives water to thirsting knights on the battlefield of Kosovo Polje.
In Serbian "Kosovo Polje" means a "Blackbirds' Field'. But this Blackbirds' Field is also a field of death. And a shrine for Serbian patriots who sacrificed their lives in defense of their country, their culture and their freedom.
June 28, 1389, a mighty battle was fought at Kosovo Polje. It pitted the Serbian defenders against the invading Ottoman Empire (Turkey) adherents of the Muslim crescent moon.
Medieval Europe was fretting and hoping that the Serbs' would prevail over the Islamic crescent moon. At one point, the bells of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris rang out in premature and erroneous salute to the Serbs' victory.
But it was not to be. The Serbs were defeated. One of them, however, Milos Obilic, managed to cut the gut of the invading Turkish Ottoman Emperor, Murat, with his sword, killing him, before being cut to pieces himself by the Sultan's guards.
________________The four centuries of Ottoman tyranny has left a split in the cultural character of the Balkan nations, a split along which there are bloody lines of civil and military strife among the people, all of whom bore the brunt of Muslim tyranny. But some of whom have forgotten that tyranny, by shifting their loyalty to their tormentors, and today carry forward the banner of those tormentors, while fighting against those of their compatriots, who have preserved an unbroken link with their original culture, religion and nationality.
The same situation prevails in the Indian subcontinent where there is perpetual conflict between Hindus and Muslims within India and the conflict between India and Pakistan whose population is made up of Muslims who were formerly Hindus and embraced Islam as a result of the tyranny of Muslim rulers who had occupied the country for eight hundred years.
In India as in the Balkans, the period of Muslim occupation and tyranny was marked by long drawn wars, and national struggles and the people finally threw off the Muslim yoke, but in this process spread over many centuries, many of the countrymen were forced by cruel circumstances of Muslim oppression as Dhimmis (Zimmis) to give up their ancestral faith, culture and nationality and go over to the invaders by embracing Islam and saving their life, limb and the honor of their womenfolk from the evil intentions of those schizophrenic savages - the Muslims.
The irony is that these converts in Albania, Kosovo Bosnia or Kashmir and Pakistan have totally forgotten who they originally were and under what circumstances their ancestors were forced to embrace that vile creed of Islam through a war imposed on them by the Jihadis.
Origins of the Ottoman threat to Europe
In the early 1360s the Ottoman armies for the first time invaded Europe by through Thrace and after a battle at a place named Gallipoli they captured Adrianople (Edirne) and Philippopolis (Plovdiv), forcing the Byzantines to pay tribute.
For 600 years the battle of Kosovo Polje, the Blackbirds' Field, has been seared into the hearts and minds of all Serbs who are conscious of their history. Kosovo Polje to a Serb is like Jerusalem, Alamo, Bastogne, and Siege of Leningrad (St. Petersbrurg) - combined.
On June 28, 1989, the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, over a million Serbs, 10% of the nation, made a pilgrimage to this sacred ground to pay their respects to the Kosovo heroes.
________________ In 1383 Murad declared himself sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Shortly thereafter he again began a new campaign in Europe. Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, fell in 1385 and the city of Nicopolis the year after. The Ottoman Conquest was halted briefly in 1387 when the Serbs won the battle of Plocnik by delivering a crushing defeat on the Ottomans. But two years later Murad marched anew into the west.
The Battle of Kosovo Polje - Turkish deception takes the victory away
During the early 1370s Murad launched his forces deeper into Europe. At the river Maritsa they encountered a 70,000 man strong Serbian-Bulgarian army under the Serbian king Vukasin and Prince Lazar at the battlefield of Kosovo Polje. The ottoman army was smaller, but due to tactics of subterfuge like attacking before dawn, and poisoning the horses of the Serb-Bulgars they defeated the Serb-Bulgar army and king Vukasin was killed.
Now that the Serbian coalition was weakened by such a blow Murad was quick to advance further into Bulgaria and capture the cities of Druma, Kavula and Seres (Serrai). This is how the Ottomans snatched a victory from the Serbs in the Battle of Kosovo Polje but the Sultan Murad himself was killed by the valiant Serb warrior Milo' Obilic.
To understand this battle in the context of Serbia, one must look back to the 14th century when Kosovo was the center of the Serbian empire and site of its most sacred churches and monasteries. In 1389, the Serbs lost the land of Kosovo and later Serbia to the Ottoman Turks in a decisive battle fought in Kosovo Polje, the Field of Blackbirds. The Battle of Kosovo is an event entrenched in the Serbian, Montenegrin, Croatian (and all southern Slav) consciousness, uniting all Serbs who treasure Kosovo as their Jerusalem, their holy land.
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After this battle, what is Kosovo and Albania today was occupied by the Ottomans who unleashed a merciless tyranny on the people of these lands. Over the next 500 years, the Ottomans forcibly converted many Albanians to Islam and once the entire population was converted, they forced these novice Muslim Albanians to leave their homeland to settle in Kosovo to alter the demographic balance in favor of Muslims and make the ethnic Christian Serbs a minority.
The Battle of Kosovo Polje - Turkish deception takes the victory away
During the early 1370s Murad launched his forces deeper into Europe. At the river Maritsa they encountered a 70,000 man strong Serbian-Bulgarian army under the Serbian king Vukasin and Prince Lazar at the battlefield of Kosovo Polje. The ottoman army was smaller, but due to tactics of subterfuge like attacking before dawn, and poisoning the horses of the Serb-Bulgars they defeated the Serb-Bulgar army and king Vukasin was killed.
Now that the Serbian coalition was weakened by such a blow Murad was quick to advance further into Bulgaria and capture the cities of Druma, Kavula and Seres (Serrai). This is how the Ottomans snatched a victory from the Serbs in the Battle of Kosovo Polje but the Sultan Murad himself was killed by the valiant Serb warrior Milo' Obilic.
To understand this battle in the context of Serbia, one must look back to the 14th century when Kosovo was the center of the Serbian empire and site of its most sacred churches and monasteries. In 1389, the Serbs lost the land of Kosovo and later Serbia to the Ottoman Turks in a decisive battle fought in Kosovo Polje, the Field of Blackbirds. The Battle of Kosovo is an event entrenched in the Serbian, Montenegrin, Croatian (and all southern Slav) consciousness, uniting all Serbs who treasure Kosovo as their Jerusalem, their holy land.
Great Serb Migration to flee from the Ottomans in 1690. This painting by P. Jovanovic 1895 "The Moving of the Serbs," portrays the Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Arsenije III Carnojevic, surrounded by soldiers, flocks of sheep and women with babies, leading some 36,000 families from his seat in Pec, Kosovo and Southern Serbia to what is now Vojvodina and further into Hungary in 1690, after Serbian revolts failed.
Under Milosevic, the Serbs tried to undo these historical injustices by reclaiming the territory of Kosovo that they had lost to the Ottomans who resettled Kosovo with Ottomans and Kosovar Muslim converts from Albania
________________ The Turks found the Illyrian Albanians easier to convert to Islam, than the steadfast Serbs, and used these neo-converts to undermine the Serbs.
By the time the Serbs reclaimed Kosovo in the Balkans Wars of 1912 to 1913, ethnic Muslim Albanian converts made up a significant portion of the population. And by 1950 the Muslims became a majority as their birth rate boomed due to the Islamic marital rules of having four wives and endless children. This was compounded by the continued Serb migrations north towards the Christian majority lands. Today, 1.8 million Muslim Albanians outnumber Christian Serbs nine to one in Kosovo - a fact that combined with events of recent history give an opportunity for Albanians to proclaim Kosovo as their land.
Beyazid the Lightning Bolt's revenge against the Serbs for his father's death in the Battle of Kosovo
Beyazid I succeeded to the sultanship upon the death of his father Murad in the battle of Kosovo. In a rage over the attack, he ordered all Serbian captives killed; Beyazid became known as Yildirim, the lightning bolt, for his temperament. He conquered most of Bulgaria and northern Greece in 1389-1395 and laid siege to Constantinople in 1391-1398. On September 25, 1396 at the Battle of Nicopolis, his forces met the Venetian-Hungarian army along with the Frankish knights led by king Sigismund of Hungary.
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The Ottomans used their tactics of subterfuge by feigning to negotiate with the Bulgarians and the Frankish knights and tricked them into a trap to win Battle of Nicopolis. After which Beyazid signed a peace treaty with Hungary. He then turned his attention to the east, conquering the Turkish emirate of Karaman in 1397. This emirate was a remnant of the Seljuks whom the Ottoman had displaced. This emirate was an ally of the Byzantine empire and an enemy of the Ottoman power.
Lessons from the Battle of Nicopolis
At Nicopolis, the Turks used techniques of hoodwinking the Bulgarians and the French Knights into feigned negotiations and luring them into a tap and then slaughtering them mercilessly.
These are techniques that are still used by the Jihadis in waving white flags and then gunning down the American marines in Iraq, or of using women and children as human shields to act as cover for the suicide bombers in Israel.
The Jihadis still use foul means which they used against the French Knights at Nicopolis. The knights, drawn from all over Europe, had gone into battle assuming that they faced a fierce, but honorable enemy. But with the massacre of the prisoners of war the Europeans were reminded in 1396 at Nicopolis that they could henceforth expect no mercy if captured by the invading Muslims, and thousands were to meet their end in this brutal way. At Nicopolis thousands of Christian soldiers who had laid down their weapons were slaughtered in a bloodthirsty orgy lasting several hours after the battle had ended. The opening of negotiations was normally used to end hostilities or to stop hostilities from taking place. But the subterfuge used at Nicopolis, with devastating effect, reminded the Europeans yet again, that the Muslims were never to be trusted. That the Muslims by instinct are a dishonorable people.
By the time the Serbs reclaimed Kosovo in the Balkans Wars of 1912 to 1913, ethnic Muslim Albanian converts made up a significant portion of the population. And by 1950 the Muslims became a majority as their birth rate boomed due to the Islamic marital rules of having four wives and endless children. This was compounded by the continued Serb migrations north towards the Christian majority lands. Today, 1.8 million Muslim Albanians outnumber Christian Serbs nine to one in Kosovo - a fact that combined with events of recent history give an opportunity for Albanians to proclaim Kosovo as their land.
Beyazid the Lightning Bolt's revenge against the Serbs for his father's death in the Battle of Kosovo
Beyazid I succeeded to the sultanship upon the death of his father Murad in the battle of Kosovo. In a rage over the attack, he ordered all Serbian captives killed; Beyazid became known as Yildirim, the lightning bolt, for his temperament. He conquered most of Bulgaria and northern Greece in 1389-1395 and laid siege to Constantinople in 1391-1398. On September 25, 1396 at the Battle of Nicopolis, his forces met the Venetian-Hungarian army along with the Frankish knights led by king Sigismund of Hungary.
A Serbian Orthodox Church, cheek-by-jowl alongside a Moslem Mosque in Urosevac, Kosovo. The Ottomans with their Moslem Albanian allies who were Illyrian converts to Islam, demolished churches and built mosques on their sites. In recognition for their loyalty to their new Ottoman masters the Illyrian Muslim converts from both from Albania proper and Kosovo, were given the position of pashas and viziers by the Ottoman Turks.
The Turks found the Illyrian Albanians easier to convert to Islam, than the steadfast Serbs, and used these neo-converts to undermine the Serbs.
________________Lessons from the Battle of Nicopolis
At Nicopolis, the Turks used techniques of hoodwinking the Bulgarians and the French Knights into feigned negotiations and luring them into a tap and then slaughtering them mercilessly.
These are techniques that are still used by the Jihadis in waving white flags and then gunning down the American marines in Iraq, or of using women and children as human shields to act as cover for the suicide bombers in Israel.
Celekula - The Tower of Skulls in Nis A tower in which Turkish pasha used skulls of Christian Serbs as a building material. The History of Ottoman Moslem rule in Serbia written by Turkish historians gives a quite deceptive and dishonest picture of Turkish tyranny it as an age of tolerance and peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims in the Balkans.
This tradition of dishonesty and perfidy is today carried forward by the Communists, liberals and other bedmates of the islamofascists who march in droves yelling slogans against Bush and the war on Terrorism. Such elements need to rounded up and sent into internment camps as was done with the far more milder and less dangerous Japanese Americans after the Pearl harbor attack.
________________ The Mongol Timurid Attack on Ottomans
Around 1400 the Mongol leader Timur Lenk entered the Middle East. Timur Lenk pillaged a few villages in eastern Anatolia. This conflict with the Ottoman Empire exposed the soft underbelly of the Ottomans. In August, 1400 Timur and his horde burned the town of Sivas to the ground and advanced into the interior. The war culminated at the Battle of Ankara in July, 1402. Timur won, captured Beyazid, and was free to raid and pillage Anatolia. Beyazid died in captivity in 1403.
Although nominally Muslims, the Mongols sacked many Ottoman cities and burned down Mosques to the ground in addition to their mass slaughter of the Turkish civilian population. The neo-Muslim Mongols under Timur carried forward the tradition of Hulagu Khan's sack of Baghdad two centuries earlier in 1258.
After the defeat at Ankara followed a time of total chaos in the Ottoman Empire. Mongols roamed free in Anatolia and the political power of the sultan was broken. After Beyazid was captured his remaining sons, Suleiman elebi, İsa elebi, Mehmed elebi, and Musa fought each other in what became known as the Ottoman Interregnum.
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Of these sons of Beyazid, Mehmed elebi stood as victor in 1413 he crowned himself in Edirne (Adrianople) as Mehmed I. He set about restoring the Ottoman Empire to its former glory. The Empire had suffered hard from the Interregnum; the Mongols were still at large in the east, even though Timur Lenk had died in 1405; and many of the Christian kingdoms of the Balkans had broken free of Ottoman control. The land, especially Anatolia, had suffered hard from the war. During his reign, Mehmed moved his capital from Bursa to Adrianople (Edirne), reinforced control over Bulgaria and Serbia, drove the Mongols from Anatolia. Next, Mehmet invaded Albania, Cilicia, the Seljuk Turkish emirate of Candar and Byzantine controlled areas in southern Greece.
Ottomans Jihad against Venice
When Mehmed died in 1421, one of his sons, Murad, became sultan. Murad spent his early years on the throne disposing off rivals and rebellions, most notably the revolts of the Serbs. In 1423 he paid a short visit to Constantinople, laid siege on it for a couple of months and forced the Byzantines to pay additional tribute.
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The monument to the fallen at the battle of Kosovo Polje.
Kosovo is to the Serbs what Jerusalem is to the Jewish people.
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Around 1400 the Mongol leader Timur Lenk entered the Middle East. Timur Lenk pillaged a few villages in eastern Anatolia. This conflict with the Ottoman Empire exposed the soft underbelly of the Ottomans. In August, 1400 Timur and his horde burned the town of Sivas to the ground and advanced into the interior. The war culminated at the Battle of Ankara in July, 1402. Timur won, captured Beyazid, and was free to raid and pillage Anatolia. Beyazid died in captivity in 1403.
Although nominally Muslims, the Mongols sacked many Ottoman cities and burned down Mosques to the ground in addition to their mass slaughter of the Turkish civilian population. The neo-Muslim Mongols under Timur carried forward the tradition of Hulagu Khan's sack of Baghdad two centuries earlier in 1258.
After the defeat at Ankara followed a time of total chaos in the Ottoman Empire. Mongols roamed free in Anatolia and the political power of the sultan was broken. After Beyazid was captured his remaining sons, Suleiman elebi, İsa elebi, Mehmed elebi, and Musa fought each other in what became known as the Ottoman Interregnum.
St. Sava was the first Archbishop of Serbia who lived in the 12th century (1172 - 1235). His relics (mortal remains were preserved in the Basilica at Belgrade. To humiliate the Serbs Sinan Pasha, the Ottoman Governor burnt the relics of St. Sava at Vracar near Belgrade in 1594. Such humiliation and tyranny sparked the Serb revolt against Turkish Tyranny. Many such revolts were put down with mindless bloodshed. It was only when the Russians defeated the Turks in the 17th century, that the condition of the Serbs could be ameliorated from the merciless Turkish tyranny. tyranny.
________________Ottomans Jihad against Venice
When Mehmed died in 1421, one of his sons, Murad, became sultan. Murad spent his early years on the throne disposing off rivals and rebellions, most notably the revolts of the Serbs. In 1423 he paid a short visit to Constantinople, laid siege on it for a couple of months and forced the Byzantines to pay additional tribute.
The monument to the fallen at the battle of Kosovo Polje.
Kosovo is to the Serbs what Jerusalem is to the Jewish people.
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