For 300 years the Ottoman Turks were stealing kids from their mothers. This was the most brutal thing humanity ever witnessed. They were waiting for women to birth, raise their kids, and then at the age of 8 were collecting the them. The devşirme known as "collection of children" or "blood tax" or in Greek as "paidomazoma" (παιδομάζωμα, was a systematic practice by the Ottoman Empire from the late 14th century until the mid-17th century, that forced the recruitment of young Christian boys, typically aged 8–18, from Balkan provinces as a form of tribute ("blood tax"). These boys were taken from their families, converted to Islam, and rigorously trained to serve in the empire's military, administrative, and bureaucratic roles. This created a loyal class of elite soldiers and officials who were dependent on the sultan rather than on hereditary Turkish aristocracy. Ottoman officials periodically conducted levies in Christian villages, selecting physically fit and intelligent boys. Exemptions were sometimes granted to certain communities (for example those in key trade cities like Galata or Chios) or families providing essential services to the empire. They were separated according to ability and could rise in rank based on merit. The most promising boys (known as iç oğlanı or "inner boys") received elite education in Constantinople's Enderun School, covering warfare, administration, sciences, and Islamic theology. Many became Janissaries - the empire's elite infantry corps - or rose to high positions like grand viziers, provincial governors, admirals, or financial bureaucrats. Estimates suggest tens of thousands of boys were recruited annually at its peak in the 15th–16th centuries. Historians estimate the total number of Christian boys taken across the entire Ottoman Empire around 300.000 kids. From those kids 150.000 were Greek kids (over 300 years). It means the half of the total kids that were stolen were only Greek. It's insane. For example in 1540, a levy in Thessaly & Macedonia took 1.000 Greek boys in one season and in Chios (Greek island) 200 boys taken in 1567 alone. The peak was 5.000 kids/annual from Greece. A generational trauma, with thousands of Greek families losing sons every few years for centuries. The system began under Sultan Murad I (1362–1389) and largely ended by 1648, as Muslims were increasingly allowed to fill these roles and Janissary corruption grew. It ensured a supply of skilled, loyal personnel for expansion and governance, bypassing traditional Turkish elites who might challenge the sultan's authority. While it offered social mobility to recruits, it was coercive and severed family ties. Greeks, as a major Christian population in the Ottoman Balkans (including regions like Thrace, Macedonia, Epirus, and the Aegean islands), were heavily affected by the devşirme. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Ottoman control extended over most Greek lands, making Greek Orthodox families prime targets for recruitment. The practice targeted rural communities disproportionately, as urban or strategically important groups were often exempt. On 28 February 1395, Archbishop Isidore Glabas of Thessaloniki denounced it in a speech as "paidomazoma" (child-gathering), describing the anguish of parents: mothers scratching their cheeks in grief and fathers beating their breasts and the violent Islamization of children and their hard training in the use of dogs and falcons. A 1550 Greek poem by Ioannes Axayiolis, appealed to Charles V of Germany to liberate the Christians from the Turks (for liberation from this "sorrow"). The text is found in the Codex Vaticanus Graecus of 1624. In another account, the Roman Catholic bishop of Chios in 1646 writes to the director of the Catholic Greek Gymnasion of Rome asking the latter to accept Paulos Omeros (lol my name Pavlos Homeros), a 12-year-old boy from Chios, to save him from the devshirme. Once taken, boys were circumcised, renamed with Muslim names, and forbidden from contact with their families. They were raised as Muslims, effectively erasing their Greek cultural and religious identity to foster loyalty to the sultan. Historical records show Greek-origin devşirme boys rising to prominence, such as Mimar Sinan (chief architect of the Ottomans, possibly Greek) and several grand viziers like Ibrahim Edhem Pasha (from Chios). The system accelerated Islamization in Greek regions, reducing Christian populations and creating a class of "Greek Muslims" (for example in Pontus or Crete). It fueled revolts and the Greek War of Independence (1821), where devşirme grievances were invoked. That was the "devşirme". The Ottoman Empire was the worst thing that ever happened to us Greeks. And many more things that you don't know if you are not Greek, like flaying (skinning alive) that many of our ancestors suffered to death. Next, I will teach you what the "haraç" was.

nitter.net/MEMRIReports/sta… A Palestinian Islamic leader went on Hamas TV to promote jihad—by sexually arousing Muslim viewers with graphic descriptions of the virgin sex slaves promised in Allah’s paradise. He described them as so dry that any rough rape would cause unbearable pain and massive bleeding. He added so many details about their bodies like a pornographic salesman for Allah. This is how jihad is sold: not with faith or justice, but with fantasies of eternal rape as a divine reward for mass murder.

🚨 Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren has voted over a DOZEN TIMES to keep the government closed, even as TENS OF THOUSANDS of Americans are being stranded by flight cancelations Why, you ask? Because she can just use the PRIVATE JET! Democrats are HYPOCRITES, and they hate you.

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.@Raiders @Broncos @nikkkkbonitto are you really sliding away from one of the best pass rushers in the league? No RB is blocking him in space!!! #BaldysBreakdowns