On September 23rd, 1821, the rebellious Greeks won a significant victory against the Turks, which led the way to the final liberation of Greece from the Ottomans.
The siege and the fall of Tripolitsa was an idea earlier conceived by the great Greek general Theodoros Kolokotronis, because he calculated that this would be a heavy blow for the Turks and would certainly give a major advantage to the Greeks, since Tripolitsa was the administrative hub of the Ottoman Empire in Morias (the Peloponnese) and home to probably half of the Turkish population of the district. The siege of Tripolitsa was decided on April 1821 and began the following month.
Before the uprising, Tripoli was the administrative, economic and military centre of the Peloponnese. The city was enclosed by walls, with high towers and large iron-clad gateways. At the start of the uprising, the council of chieftains was bent on the seizure of Tripoli because it was an important military city and because it would be an irreparable blow to the staggering Ottoman Empire.
During the end of the 17th century, the city was populated with over 20,000 residents and was under the Ottoman occupancy. Around 1770, the Ottomans punished the Christians of the city by killing around 3,000 people and destroying their properties. Gradually Tripoli became the most powerful military base of the Ottomans in Southern Greece.
In April of 1821 Greeks attacked the Ottomans and the siege of the city started. According to Kolokotronis memoir, thousands of Ottomans died during the battles while only 100 Greeks died from the Greek revolutionaries. The siege ended on 23rd of September of the same year after 3 days of bloodshed. These events are known as the “Fall of Tripolitsa”.
Some of the top revolutionaries that took part in the siege, were: Kolokotronis, Nikitaras, Bouboulina, Kefalas, Mavromihalis, Giatrakos, Anagnostaras and Lontos.
On the 23rd of September 1821, the Greek Revolutionaries entered through the Door of Nafplio into the metropolis of the Peloponnese.
Given the brutal massacre by the Turks in Aegean and elsewhere Kolokotronis gave orders that there should be no survivors.
The anniversary of the heroic liberation of Tripolitsa is gloriously honoured every year with events that go on for many days in the presence of high officials and a massive crowd.
September 23rd is now a day of celebration for Tripoli, commemorated by a service of thanksgiving and parades. These celebrations include a Divine Liturgy and an Archieratical Doxology held at Agios Vasileios Church of Tripolis, followed by a celebratory speech, a memorial service and a wreath-laying ceremony in the tomb of the Bishops and dignitaries, a parade in the centre of Tripolitsa and finally, traditional dancing in the main square.
A teenager from Combs-la-Ville (Seine-et-Marne) was arrested on Wednesday evening after a disturbing discussion on Discord, an instant messaging service popular with gamers. He claimed he wanted to extort ransom money by threatening to hack into schools’ digital workspaces (ENT). He professed allegiance to Al-Qaeda to appear more convincing. He has since been released.
The boy was taken into police custody while his computer equipment and phone were confiscated to be analysed by investigators. Afterwards, the minor freely admitted to being the author of the message in which he announced that he would demand ransom from schools and threatened to hack into the digital education places (ENT). In doing so, he mentioned Al-Qaeda, which had recently made threats to France, in order to appear “convincing”. Already on Thursday, the student was released. However, the police are continuing their investigation to make sure once and for all that it was indeed a false alarm. […] Le Parisien
Among the reasons to stop wasting precious time watching wokefied sports is a self-important exhibitionist named Justine Lindsay:
The NFL’s first transgender cheerleader has entered his second season in the league and described being heartbroken over children not being able to play sports against kids of the opposite gender.
Not so heartbreaking for the girls who avoid senseless injury and getting cheated out of the trophies they earn.
He also said that he is sad to see states ban hormonal and medical procedures for youth.
Not so sad for the children who manage to pass through this sick fad with their capacity to live normal lives intact.
Lindsay, who dances for the Carolina Panthers TopCats cheerleading squad, said that he hopes to influence the next generation with his outspoken ways.
Let’s hope he does influence it — to reject liberalism root and branch on the grounds that the fruit this tree bears is nasty.
“Everything that I’m going through now, it’s bigger than me,” he told Elle. “I’m setting things up for the younger generation.”
That he is. We will either have a generation of dysfunctional perverts who don’t know which bathroom to use, or a generation with a renewed respect for taboos and norms that have been in place for millennia.
Behold the future of humanity if we don’t turn back:
Transgender Carolina Panthers cheerleader Justine Lindsay is out and proud in the NFL and on the sidelines of Monday Night Football #MNF#NOvsCARhttps://t.co/ynmqbG6aYG
France cannot systematically expel foreign nationals who irregularly enter its territory from a neighbouring country, the European Court of Justice ruled on September 22.
With thousands of migrants entering Italy via the island of Lampedusa on an almost daily basis, France has continued to push back irregular migrants from its southern neighbour. Other European countries have also closed their borders with Italy.
That did not sit well with several pro-migrant organisations in France, who took their concerns to the Council of State. That Council in turn went to the European Court, asking if a country that reinstated internal border controls can systematically expel migrants irregularly crossing its border, without taking into account the European “returns” Directive.
The CJEU gave a clear answer regarding its decision: “The Directive applies to any third-country national who has entered the territory of a Member State without fulfilling the conditions of entry, stay or residence.
“Under that directive, any illegally staying third-country national must, as a general rule, be the subject of a return decision. However, the person concerned must, in principle, be given a certain amount of time to leave the country voluntarily. Forced removal is used only as a last resort.”
The Luxembourg court stated that, in respect of a third-country national who is intercepted without a valid residence permit at an authorised border crossing point on its territory, a decision to refuse entry may be adopted on the basis of the Schengen Borders Code. It added that, in order to remove the person concerned, the common standards and procedures laid down in the Directive must still be complied with.
In August, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders – MSF) reported that individuals were consistently being forcibly returned at the Italian-French border by French law enforcement agents. MSF claimed that was frequently accompanied by instances of brutality, inhumane conditions and unjustified detainment.
Laure Palun, director of the National Association for Border Assistance for Foreigners (Anafé), one of the organisations that asked for the preliminary ruling against the French Government, called the outcome a “victory”.
The French Ministry of the Interior had not replied to questions from Brussels Signal at the time of publication.
The Guardian reports that Iran and its agents appear to be orchestrating a Europe-wide campaign of harassment, surveillance, kidnap plots and death threats targeting political activists who are protesting against the regime.
15 Iranian activists in various European countries have been warned that Iran has made realistic threats to their lives, even while on European soil.
The threats come in the form of waves of cyber-warfare, including online harassment and account hacking, and physical threats – several activists reported having been followed home by suspicious individuals, and two reported their tires slashed.
Activist Maryam Banihashemi, the face of the Iranian women’s movement in Switzerland, was told unambiguously by an individual she claims works for the IRGC ‘They plan to assassinate you there.’ police advised her to change her name and hire security, which she says she cannot afford. “When I first moved here, I was happy. After years of repression for being a female CEO in Iran, I finally felt free in Switzerland. After this year, even Europe is not safe for me.”
Farzane, an Iranian based in Spain who asked not to use her last name, received a threat via a Telegram account purporting to speak for the Iranian regime. “We are going to look for you in Madrid and we are going to kill you. Just like the rest of your friends were arrested and executed in Iran, you too will be punished.” Spanish police have thus far been unable to identify the sender. She also reported being followed home from political meetings in Madrid after dark by someone she believes to be an Iranian agent. Spanish police inspected her house and opened an investigation but she says they closed it two months later.
Farzane remains active but complains of constant anxiety. “I am paying taxes to the Spanish government, I expect to be protected. They know the situation, they don’t care.”
Matt Jukes, the head of counter-terrorism policing at London’s Metropolitan police, said earlier this year that the force’s workload investigating threats from foreign states, many of them emanating from Iran, had quadrupled over the last two years. He also claimed fifteen separate assassination plots against enemies of the Iranian regime had been foiled in that time.
Shadi Amin, an Iranian LGBTQ+ activist in Germany, had police inspect her home and digital devices after she was targeted. She was later advised not to use those devices due to the Iranian threat. German authorities have also recently been warning about verified espionage attempts by an Iran-linked hacker group, Charming Kitten.
Shadi says the efforts to protect her are of only limited comfort. “I cannot trust anybody – the situation for me is the same as the 1980s in Iran. I cannot have friends over or give anybody my address. The German government is not in a position to give us the safety that we expected.”
Mina Khani, another activist, was provided with bodyguards by the state and warned by German security services that her personal details were being circulated on Iranian hacker forums. Iranian hackers have been reported to be specifically targeting activists and journalists with phishing attacks to steal passwords and take over Google accounts.
When Alireza Akhondi, a Swedish MP of Iranian descent who has been a vocal critic of the Revolutionary Guards, was given a personal alarm by police, and advised to wear an armored vest. He admits he did not take the death threats seriously at first. “Now I constantly watch my back, I take a different route home every day, I check under my car before getting in. I am constantly on the watch,” Akhondi said.
French police have issued travel warnings to women organising protests against Iran’s regime, specifically saying not to travel to Turkey or the UAE, in light of Iran’s long history of hostage-taking.
Where Iran has been unable to silence reformers overseas, the regime has targeted their family members in Iran. Fariba Borhanzehi, a Baluchi activist living in London, testified against Iran’s government in the European Parliament in April. Her son was arrested by Iranian authorities two months later on charges of espionage. He was released on bail, but his travel documents have been confiscated to prevent him leaving the country.
An Iranian government spokesperson denied all accusations of wrongdoing.
Our founder & director Peter Whittle appeared on GB News to discuss Sir Keir Starmer’s recent comments about Britain’s relationship with the European Union.
After all it is not illegal to pray in the UK, at least not yet. Yet the police had decided, separate from any legal guidance they had received, that praying was illegal. It seems that the police in the UK have now gone rogue and can arrest anyone for any offence they so deem fit in their head. This is a very dangerous situation in the UK.
The Slave Market (c. 1866), by Jean-Léon Gérôme. Oil on canvas, 84.6 × 63.3 cm (33.3 × 24.9 in). Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, PD-Art (PD-old-100)
A Turkish citizen did a DNA test and discovered the truth – “we don’t come from these real Turks with slanted eyes; we come from Christians who were kidnapped and used as slaves by these Ottomans.”
“I did a DNA test, and I am almost entirely from Christian Europeans, from the Balkans, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, and also some Turkish (Anatolian), Caucasian, and Jewish from Iran,” he added.
A Turkish citizen did a DNA test and discovered the truth – "we don't come from these real Turks with slanted eyes; we come from Christians who were kidnapped and used as slaves by these Ottomans."
With the advent of genetic testing, more and more Turkish citizens and diaspora communities are discovering that they are Turkified peoples, mostly pointing towards Greek.
A famous case of a Turkish citizen discovering they are Greek is Yannis Vasilis Yaylalı, born Ibrahim Yaylalı.
Yannis was a former Turkish ultra-nationalist that was proud of his enmity towards Kurds and other indigenous peoples of Asia Minor.
However, he soon discovered he was actually Greek, became Christian and then became an activist for minorities in Turkey despite originally joining the Turkish Army to kill them, as reported by The Armenian Weekly.
Full transcript of the above video:
“If you look at this map, it’s obvious which is the good and bad sides. Right next to Europe, the Ottomans enslaved European Christians for 600 years to their harems and Janissary army. How can nobody be talking about this?
“How can there be no Hollywood movies about this? Wouldn’t Hollywood be dying to make movies about this?
“They would, but Ataturk destroyed all these real Ottomans with these slanted eyes so that history would not exist anymore. That’s why nobody makes movies about it. Nobody talks about it. Us Turks are not considered innocent because we don’t come from these real Turks with slanted eyes.
“We come from Christians who were kidnapped and used as slaves by these Ottomans. By making us all Turks, by calling us all the same, by saying ‘How happy is he who says calls himself Turk’, Ataturk turned to the dark side.
“Instead of telling us that we were turned into Turks, instead of telling us we were kidnapped Christians who were then turned into Muslim Turks, he kept this most important part of our history a secret.
“Instead of telling us we come from Christians, he committed genocide against Christian Armenians and Christian Greeks so he can establish a country without any Christians in them.
“I did a DNA test and I am almost entirely from Christian Europeans, from the Balkans, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, and also some Turkish (Anatolian), Caucasian, and Jewish from Iran. Other Turks’ DNA will also look like this. There’s only going to be a little bit of Turkish DNA.”
Archbishop Justin Welby with Mohammad Ali Shomali in 2015 (Photo: Posted on Twitter by Shomali)
The Archbishop of Canterbury welcomed two controversial Muslim leaders to Lambeth Palace for tea and cake last week, including a cleric with close ties to the brutal Iranian regime, the JC can reveal.
Mohammad Ali Shomali, who met Justin Welby, spent five years as the UK representative of the Iranian supreme leader in his role as the head of the Islamic Centre of England (ICE), the London mosque that is currently the subject of a Charity Commission inquiry because of its role in promoting extremism.
Also on the guest list was Mohammed Kozbar, a leader of the Muslim Council of Britain who praised the founder of the Hamas terror group as a “holy warrior”.
Welby posted a gushing message after the event, saying it was a “pleasure to welcome friends”, adding that he had enjoyed “the honest sharing of different perspectives”.
Lord Carlile KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said the Church had to be more careful in choosing its partners for interfaith events, citing the report published earlier this year by Sir William Shawcross on the government’s Prevent programme that is supposed to curb extremism.
He added it was a “serious error of judgment” to engage in discussions with those who have been seen as “apologists” for “extremism”.
Stephen Crabb MP, the Commons Parliamentary Chairman of Conservative Friends of Israel, said: “These reports represent another painful reminder of the Iranian regime’s increasingly emboldened interference in the UK. It is particularly troubling that invaluable interfaith work is being undermined by extremists.”
The day-long gathering at Lambeth Palace library was organised by the Christian Muslim Forum (CMF), a taxpayer-funded group of which Welby has been patron since it was founded in 2006. Welby has welcomed Shomali to Lambeth Palace on at least two previous occasions, in 2016 and 2017.
For years, Shomali has served as co-director of an institute in the Iranian city of Qom that was led until 2021 by a hardliner who advocated suicide bombings against Israel and believed “Zionists” were the “fundamental source of evil”.
Kozbar, who is also the general secretary of Finsbury Park Mosque, met Hamas leaders on a visit to Gaza in 2015 and paid tribute to the terror group’s founder, Ahmed Yassin, following a visit to his grave.
There is no suggestion that Welby endorses extremist views, and a spokesman for Lambeth Palace told the JC that not “everyone is in full agreement on important issues” at such gatherings.
He added that the meetings were “a chance to explore and work through differences and build trusted relationships”. Two weeks ago, Welby rejected the claim that Israel was an apartheid state.
But the meeting raises serious questions about the selection of partners for interfaith events and the influence it may give them. CMF’s latest annual report, covering the calendar year 2021, says it has “built links” with both the ICE and the MCB, which has been blacklisted by successive Labour and Conservative governments since 2009 because of its alleged support for violence against Israel.
In 2019, the CMF held a “twinning event” between the ICE and a church near the mosque, St Augustine’s in Kilburn Park.
For ten years until the end of 2021, the CMF was partly funded by taxpayers, receiving grants totalling £341,000 from the forerunner of what is now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, led by Michael Gove.
Both as head of the ICE and after stepping down, Shomali has travelled widely and repeatedly taken part in interfaith events with both Protestant and Catholic clergy. He was pictured sitting next to Welby at Lambeth Palace in December 2015, when he posted on Facebook that the Archbishop had welcomed “Shia theologians to Lambeth Palace at the end of three days of dialogue with Christian theologians at the University of Oxford”.
However, in the same period he has maintained his proximity to the Iranian regime. In 2014, Shomali held a “celebration” at the ICE to mark the 35th anniversary of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. Among its guest speakers was the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Shomali also held events venerating Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s revolutionary leader, whose accession to power was followed by the persecution of Iran’s 1.4 million Christians.
And in an essay published in 2017, Shomali likened gay marriage to bestiality, writing: “A hundred years ago, it would have been unthinkable for gay marriages to be sanctioned… Perhaps a day will come where some will desire marriage with animals.”
A poster for an event celebrating Ayatollah Khomeini with Shomali as a speaker (Photo: Twitter)
In 2016, Shomali published a personal “letter of appreciation” from Khomeini’s successor, Khamenei, extending “thanks to your excellency for your unreserved efforts”.
Khamenei has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel, describing it in speeches as a “cancerous tumour” that must be excised. In addition to his other posts, for many years Shomali has been a director of the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute in Qom, the holy city that is the ideological epicentre of the Iranian regime.
It was founded in 1991 by Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, who Iran experts say was one of the most extreme of all Iran’s revolutionary leaders and campaigned against the liberalisation of Iranian society, even encouraging acid attacks against Iranian women for “improper hijab”.
Mesbah-Yazdi remained head of the institute until his death in 2021. Kasra Aarabi, the director of the US-based campaign and research organisation United Against Nuclear Iran, said: “Mesbah-Yazdi was the principle architect of the doctrine propagated by Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which says Israel and global Jewy must be annihilated in order to permit the return of Imam Mahdi, the 9th-century figure messianic figure whom Shia Muslims believe will reappear one day to wage an apocalyptic war against non-Muslims. He was one of the regime’s most violent, Islamist extremist clerics.”
An interview with Mesbah-Yazdi published in the online magazine Salon in 2009 stated: “His fixed mocking smile cannot conceal his cold nature.
He openly advocates suicide bombings, calls for the carrying out of the fatwa imposed against author Salman Rushdie and demands ‘the blood of any person who insults Islam’. And he considers ‘the Zionists’ to be the fundamental source of evil on Earth.”
Like Shomali, Mohammed Kozbar, the general secretary of Finsbury Park Mosque and the MCB’s deputy secretary general, is a regular at interfaith events, and has even preached in a church near the mosque, St Mary’s in Stoke Newington.
He met leaders of the Hamas terror group on a visit to Gaza in 2015 and described its founder Ahmed Yassin as “the master of the martyrs of resistance”.
In response to previous JC reports, Kozbar has insisted he is committed to working with Jews against both Islamophobia and antisemitism, but he was filmed in 2011 saying he looked forward to “the end of Israel, Insh’Allah”.
Last year, he also hosted antisemitic Egyptian imam Omar Abdelkafi at his mosque, describing him as a “beloved” preacher.
Abdelkafi is on record quoting from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the notorious antisemitic forgery, and his Facebook posts include a prayer to “liberate the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem of the filth of the Jews”.
Less controversial — but also at the event — was Omar Salha, the founder of interfaith group the Ramadan Tent Project, which Welby has supported.
The JC revealed two years ago that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer had pulled out of a meeting with Salha’s organisation after learning he had shared a tweet calling for the boycott of Israeli goods and expressed support for Cage, whose research director described the Isis executioner Jihadi John as a “beautiful young man”.
Salha tweeted in 2017: “Time for those who stand for the values of justice and liberty to support UK Cage and not be intimidated by the powers that be.”
At the start of Ramadan in March, Welby posted a message saying: “Special thanks to Muslim communities who’ve pioneered community iftars such as the Ramadan Tent Project”.
A Lambeth Palace spokeswoman said: “Every year the Christian-Muslim Forum has a gathering to bring together its members and to mark the positive work carried out by CMF. This is what happened last Thursday.
The CMF was set up to bring together Muslims and Christians from a wide variety of denominations and traditions. The purpose is to work together for the common good.
“The Christian Muslim Forum organised the event last week, and Lambeth Palace Library hosted it. When groups like this meet at events like Thursday’s it does not suggest that everyone is in full agreement on important issues, but it is a chance to explore and work through differences and build trusted relationships.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has a clear stance against antisemitism, and any form of discrimination and prejudice. He is committed to non-violence and peacebuilding, and events like last Thursday’s are a chance to respond — in solidarity — to challenges affecting all our communities.”
The CMF, Shomali, Salha and Kozbar have been asked for comment.
Canada PM blamed alleged Indian links to death of terrorist Najjar
Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, is losing his popularity amid the ongoing tensions between India and Canada. According to a recent Ipsos poll, 40% of Canadians want Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre to be Canada’s Prime Minister, while 30% prefer Justin Trudeau.
According to the reports, if an election were held today, Poilievre’s Conservatives would win 39% of the vote. This puts them clearly ahead of current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party, which would receive barely 30% of the vote.
It demonstrates that the Conservative Party of Canada, led by Pierre Poilievre, now leads the Liberal Party of Canada, led by Justin Trudeau. Based on the poll survey, Poilievre is more popular than Trudeau. If polls are conducted now, the Conservatives will win a majority government, eliminating the Trudeau-led Liberal minority administration. Elections in Canada are set to take place in the autumn of 2025.
Meanwhile, another survey in July found that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is viewed as the worst Prime Minister in over a half-century by a segment of Canadian voters. This revelation stands in stark contrast to his father, Pierre Trudeau’s, legacy.
As per the reports, Pierre Trudeau, who served as Prime Minister from 1968 to 1979 and again from 1980 to 1984, was beloved by the Canadian people during his term. He won over both his constituents and his adversaries with dynamic leadership and a vision for a united Canada.
The recent polls are alarming for Trudeau, who is accused of being soft and hesitant to act against Khalistani groups, frequently dismissing it as “freedom of expression.” This is a delicate issue for both Canada and India. Canada has been criticized by India for harbouring Sikh separatists, while the country has maintained its right to free expression.
At the recent G20 Summit in Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi questioned Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about escalating “anti-India activities” in Canada linked to extremist groups. This encounter marked the end of a low-key chapter in Trudeau’s India tour, which had already been kept low-key due to Covid-19 regulations.
It’s hardly surprising that a so-called Khalistan referendum was held on the same day Trudeau met PM Modi in Surrey, British Columbia.
Trudeau’s Liberals currently hold power with the New Democratic Party (NDP), led by Indian-origin politician Jagmeet Singh, a known Khalistani sympathizer. The NDP has vowed to support the government until the next general election in autumn 2025.
While Trudeau’s comments about India’s involvement in Najjar’s death upset India, they appear to have struck a chord among Canadian Sikhs living in Surrey, British Columbia, which is recognized as a center of Khalistani activity. The Sikh community, Canada’s largest non-Indian community, has lauded Trudeau as a “hero” and said he is “vocalizing” their concerns.
In an unexpected assertion this week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country’s intelligence agencies were looking into a “potential link” between “agents of the Indian government” and Najjar’s death. Najjar was referred to as a “Canadian citizen” by Trudeau.
In retaliation for Ottawa’s removal of an Indian official over the case, New Delhi clearly rejected the charges as “absurd” and “motivated,” and expelled a senior Canadian ambassador.
Najjar, one of India’s most wanted terrorists with a Rs 10 lakh cash reward on his head, was shot dead on June 18 by two unidentified shooters outside a gurdwara in Surrey. He was the Khalistan Tiger Force’s (KTF) commander.
In a strongly worded statement on Thursday, India said that Canada’s claims appeared to be “politically motivated” and urged the Trudeau government to crack down hard on terrorists and anti-India elements operating on its soil.
As a result of the diplomatic blockade over Najjar’s murder, India has now suspended visa services for Canadians.
