Let’s see. A million and a half Armenians killed. Not genocide, insists Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. A million Greeks killed. Not genocide, insists Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. The jihad conquests of the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Europe, and more. Not colonialism, insists Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. And indeed, the Ottoman Empire didn’t create colonies out of the conquered territories; the Ottomans just created colonial subjects within the empire: the dhimmis, the Jews and Christians who were subjugated under Islamic law, and who had to pay a special tax and suffer institutionalized discrimination and harassment. The Ottoman’s Empire’s bloody record is abundantly documented from primary sources in The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS, but Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu is counting on his hearers not knowing this history, and he is largely correct.

“No genocide, colonialism in Turkey’s history: FM Çavuşoğlu,” Hürriyet Daily News, April 15, 2019:

Turks are proud of their history because they have not committed any genocide or partaken in colonialism, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said, vowing the Turkish government will not stay silent against “some countries trying to lecture Turkey on history,” in reference to France and Italy’s recognition of the 1915 killings of Armenians as genocide.

“We are proud of our history because our history has never had any genocides. And no colonialism exists in our history,” Minister Çavuşoğlu addressed an event at Selçuk University in the Central Anatolian province of Konya on April 15.

Turkey will never take history lessons from those who have forgotten the history of their own countries and will not hesitate to give a lesson to those who dare question Turkey’s history, Çavuşoğlu said, indirectly recalling a quarrel he had with a French parliamentarian last week in the southern province of Antalya on the sidelines of a NATO parliamentary meeting.

“France is the last country which can lecture Turkey on genocide and history,” Çavuşoğlu had said, in response to a statement by French deputy Sonia Krimi. “France should mind its own dark history in Rwanda and Algeria,” he added….