Dear Ms. Sezgin and List:

Please contact me off list and I will give you the details of the Ottoman
administration of the Serbian, Bosnian area.  The Ottoman creation of the
elite Janissary (sp) guard in the military was designed specifically to
remove gifted 12 year old Christian boys from their families and force them
to change to the Moslem religion.  These boys were trained to be the finest
combat force in the world for several centuries until the Ottomans began
introducing Moslem boys into service in the 19th century.  This concept was
to prevent the rise of any potential military leader among the Christians.
Further, a British observer of the Turkish Army watched as they marched
through Bulgaria in the early part of the 19th Century to put down
rebellion.  The Turkish troops had been told that killing a Christian
guaranteed a place in heaven.  After killing whole Christian villages and
piling the corpses in the church courtyards to discourage the use of those
buildings, many of the Turkish soldiers were observed with Christian babies
impaled on their bayonets as they marched.

War is a nasty business, but military history has shaped much of our world.
I'm sure you have not been exposed to much of this (or perhaps mis-placed
it).  This is what a military history museum does.  If we do not educate we
simply collect "stuff".

Wayne Hart, Executive Director
Museum of Valor
"What is Past is Prologue"


-----Original Message-----
From: Pamela Sezgin <[log in to unmask]>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.museum-l
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, March 11, 1999 9:52 PM
Subject: Re: the fez thing


>To Wayne Hart:
>
>The Ottoman Turks were not "brutal and barbaric" in their relations with
the
>Orthodox Church nor did they "supress" it.
>Yiassou!
>
>pamela sezgin
>