REMEMBER GALLIPOLI

Our economy is based on addiction. Addiction to consumption. The products we use or eat consist of addictive materials. They are in our foods, in our drinks and in the air. And we never get satisfied. That's why we keep moving on, desperately searching to fulfil our greed, lust and all the other “Highways to Hell”. Karl Marx has predicted this. For him the end of slavery would come. It was a law. It was determined. And from that moment on communists and socialist are awaiting this “revolution”. They even tried to emanate this moment in history by taking up the arms against the government. This happened in Tsarist Russia. The army was numerous, but they lacked training, arms and motivation. They were slaughtered at the Eastern Front and the Tsar made a peace treaty with the Austrian-German and Ottoman allies. The disillusioned soldiers started rioting. The Germans saw a great opportunity here. A communist in exile, named Lenin, was transported by train from Switzerland to Russia. He immediately started to organize a revolution, which cost the Tsarist family their life; but also thousands of noblemen, military and clerks were killed and their possessions looted. The immense wealth of Russia was stripped and hidden. The Orthodox Church became marginalized and it lasted till the end of the 20^th century, that religious freedoms were regained and the Russian-Orthodox Church is regaining some of its splendor and influence.

There circulate some strange stories around the start of the “Great War”. In the years before 1914 all major countries were participating in an arms race. So was the Ottoman Empire. In England they ordered two battleships to be build. A sign, because Istanbul could have ordered the ships in Germany. But at a given moment the British realized, that they needed the ships themselves. And though they were being payed for, the two ships were confiscated. The Ottomans were furious and Germany made good use of it. They immediately offered to warships (crews included) and the ships steamed towards Istanbul (and the Black Sea). When they arrived in that Turkish harbor, they were welcomed enthusiastically by the Ottomans. The ships were renamed, baptized and from that moment they presented the Ottoman banner. Still the crew was mostly German and during an expedition on the Black Sea the German commander opened fire on the Russian mainland.

In a reaction Russia declared war on the Ottomans, who, after this proclamation of war allied with Germany against Russia. This bizarre incident, well planned by the Germans, lead to the famous battle at Gallipoli, where the Turcs killed thousands of Australian troops on the beach. The Aussies didn't know who, why they had to fight or for what purpose. Gallipoli was a major defeat for England and in fact for Winston Churchill. He was the commander-in-chief for that operation.

Yes, they are other stories. So it seams, that the German emperor wanted to stop the preparations to start a war at the Western Front. He phoned his commander-in-chief von Moltke and ordered him to stop the whole operation. Von Moltke”s answer was short, but clear. “Your Majesty, that is impossible. The trains are moving already.”