Turkish Hackers Target Vatican Website After Pope's Genocide Comment

An anonymous reader writes Turkish hackers have brought down the official Vatican City website, following Pope Francis' statement in which he referred to mass killings of Armenians by Turks as 'genocide'. According to reports, the website www.vatican.va was first taken offline on Monday evening with a Turkish hacker, named @THTHerakles, announcing that he would continue to target the website should an official apology not be issued from the Vatican City. The hacker said that the Pope's comments were "unacceptable" for a respected religious figurehead. "Taking sides and calling what happened with the Armenians genocide is not true ... We want Pope [Francis] to apologize for his words or we will make sure the website remains offline," he added.

Comments

Mass Murder

[Anonymous Coward]

Because killing over a million people of a certain way of life is not genocide...

Re:Mass Murder

[Anonymous Coward]

People who don't actually look at facts, but at feelings they have do to patriotism, ethnocentrism, or other sorts of values don't really care about accuracy in labeling. They also don't like unacknowledged but horrible national acts brought up because it stains their sense of nationalism and machismo.

It was a genocide. There may have been awful things happened to precipitate it, but it was a genocide and the record is fairly clear on this.

It would take courage for Turkey to accept this part of their past, apologize for it, and show that they are big enough to accept the bad and the good in their past. But they aren't, nationally, and these hackers are an example of that.

Until you can be brutally honest with yourself about the warts on your nation's past, you can't ever really be a great nation. You have to be able to look your mistakes and misdeeds in the eye and say 'yeah, I own that... not proud of it.... and there were reasons.... but I own that'.

When and if Turkey can ever do that, they'll show they (as a country and Turks as a national population) have grown and are not so fragile as to need to hide, deny, and otherwise act like an ostrich in the face of their darker moments in the past.

Most nations have them. The number that have the guts to face up to them and try to accept the dark parts and maybe even do something to commemorate or make restitution are not that large. Turkey is hardly alone in living in denial.

Re:Mass Murder

[khallow]

I think a big part of the reason it's so taboo is that the founders of modern Turkey were probably involved in the genocide, including Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the president of Turkey from 1923-1938. To admit that the leaders of Turkey of the past, were involved might call into question the legitimacy of Turkey today (particularly among minority groups like the Kurds and the hardcore religious) and undermine its secular myth building.

Re:Mass Murder

[Anonymous Coward]

Where do you go to school? I had that hammered into me in grade school.

Re:Mass Murder

[bill_mcgonigle]

To admit that the leaders of Turkey of the past, were involved might call into question the legitimacy of Turkey today

The past leaders of many countries have been involved in genocides. Heck, current US Law is that racial interment is legal and the wars against the previous nations here are thoroughly documented.

But say that and most Americans will say, "what assholes" (or conversely "Happy Columbus Day!") but the scimitars will remain sheathed. I seems like an awful case of fragile identity. Weird jingoistic nonsense.

Then again, most Americans don't even care that the legitimacy of the governments are called into question every time they violate their operating agreements.

Re:Mass Murder

[lyovushka]

Mass murder of over a million people of certain way of life after which only 50000 remain is genocide.

Re:Mass Murder

[NoKaOi]

First of all, genocide had a well accepted meaning before a bunch of self-appointed lexicographers in the UN or whatever got in a room to come up with their own definition.

If you're going to argue based on the etymology of a word, maybe you should look up the etymology of the word before making crap up. The term "genocide" was coined based on the killing of Armenians by the Ottoman government. Therefore this is not only an example of genocide, it is the example of genocide.

Because beating up the clergy always works so well

[ClayDowling]

Not sure how he thinks he's going to come out on top in the public eye for attacking the clergy. Sure, he'll be the hero of his hacker friends, but most of the world has a pretty low opinion of people who attack the clergy.

Genocide.

[Anonymous Coward]

It was a genocide. Genocide, genocide, genocide. The mass killings of the Armenians by the Turks 1925 was a genocide.

Now, vailant Turkish hax0rs, go ahead and take down the Internet.

Re:Genocide.

[Anonymous Coward]

In fact, Raphael Lemkin, coined the term "genocide" in 1943 describe the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire. Those acts were the inspiration for the term.

Armenian Genocide

Raphael Lemkin was explicitly moved by the Armenian annihilation to coin the word genocide in 1943 and define systematic and premeditated exterminations within legal parameters. The Armenian Genocide is acknowledged to have been one of the first modern genocides, because scholars point to the organized manner in which the killings were carried out in order to eliminate the Armenians, and it is the second most-studied case of genocide after the Holocaust.

Re:Genocide.

[Anonymous Coward]

Strictly speaking, Lemkin invented the word "genocide" to describe the Nazi's mass killings of Jews.
The killing of Armenians was "merely" used as an example of another genocide.
http://www.etymonline.com/inde...
http://www.preventgenocide.org...

Re:Because beating up the clergy always works so w

[pjt33]

I would have thought that most of his Turkish friends would have a low opinion of him already for choosing a Greek handle.

Perfect opportunity for the Pope

[tao]

This would be the perfect opportunity for the Pope to fire a second salvo by commenting on the Turkish oppression of its Kurdish minority...

Re:Just curious

[Pope Hagbard]

Unexpected.

Re:butt-hurt Turks

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree with most of your words, but the Spanish weren't certainly the worst. In former Spanish colonies more than 70% of the population has indigenous ancestors. In English colonies the indigenous were almost exterminated, the population is mostly white or black and racism persist in one or other way until today.

Re:Just curious

[GLMDesigns]

The Inquisition. You mean the 2,000 - 10,000 (at the most) that were killed over a period of 300 years; with the overwhelming majority done over a few decades in Spain?

Compare that with Hitler 11,000,000 and Stalin 20,000,000+, and Mao 40,000,000+ and the Inquisition begins to pale in comparison.

Re:Turkey

[Shakrai]

No, it would not be "A-OK" (thanks for putting words in my mouth) but it would not be genocide. The word loses its meaning when it's overused. It's like using the word "rape" to describe a subway groping. Groping someone in a crowded subway car is not acceptable in a civilized society, but it's not rape, and you do the lexicon a disservice when you equate the two.

The obligatory GRRM quote

[Stormwatch]

"When you cut out a man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you’re only telling the world that you fear what he might say." -- George R. R. Martin

Re:Just curious

[MightyMartian]

Some of the Crusades may have been, though the intent, from Rome's side was to save Eastern Christianity, and also probably to gain the upper hand over the Byzantine Emperors, who viewed themselves (with some justification) as supreme over the Bishop of Rome. To the European Princes, this was about grabbing one of the most valuable pieces of territory on Earth, and that's the first thing they did once they had driven back the Muslims; seize land that rightfully belonged to the Byzantine Empire and set up their crusader kingdoms.

Then there's the Fourth Crusade, which never reached the Holy Land, but rather stopped in Constantinople, looted the city, killed many of the residents (all of which, one should be reminded, were Christians), and set up a puppet state. Look up the Sack of Constantinople, one of the vilest acts of treachery in the history of Christendom, and an act that almost certainly undermined the Byzantine Empire, leading to the collapse of Christendom as a political force in Anatolia and the Levant.