Imagine that your evil stepfather that beat you (the Ottoman Empire) was killed by a knight in shinning armor (UK), and then that guy decided that you were too young to take care of your household, so he took over until you grew up. But in the mean time, he decided that some cousin that didn’t live there was entitled to half the house. The knight in shinning armor then partitioned the house in two, giving you about half of it, and gave your cousin a shotgun.
Then, the moment the knight left, your cousin started shooting at you, killing some of your brothers and sisters, while the rest fled and hid in some rooms, or at the neighbors’. After that, your cousin decided that all the rooms you left while fleeing from his violence were his, and started bringing over more and more of his family to occupy them.
Then one day the neighbors, that had it up to here with the violence and with the refugees that couldn’t go back home, tried to do something about it.
The neighborhood gathered up, they got some weapons and went to deal with this cousin of yours.
But, unknowingly to them, your cousin had another, different, knight in shinning armor (USA) send him machine guns, and planes, and tanks, so the moment the neighbors arrived they got their asses handed to them. On the onslaught your cousin’s family got control of all the rooms you and some of your brothers still inhabited, and from that day on they policed those rooms, beating you and your sisters.
Then, many years later, out of international pressure, the second knight in shinning armor organized some talks, and decided that yes, you and your brothers and sisters were entitled to some sort of autonomy in the rooms you still occupied, and if you agreed that the parts of the house your cousin controls are now his, they would make the beating and policing stop.
Against your better judgement you agreed, because the situation was THAT bad.
So, after you agreed, you and your sisters and brothers ended up with unconnected parts of the house. Some rooms here, some rooms there. And, as the days went by, your cousin’s family made it harder and harder on you. They blocked doors and windows, constantly broke stuff and still kept on hurting you and your family.
Many times in the past you tried to stop your cousin, through violent and peaceful means. You tried talking him out of his bad behavior, you tried kidnapping people to make him stop. You tried the first and second intifadas, and all you got were bullets and more bricks blocking your rooms.
So, one day, some of your younger brothers decided that they wouldn’t take it any more, that they would do anything to stop your cousin no matter what. And they meant it.
And the problem here is that those guys have only known violence under your cousin hands. They haven’t known anything else, they suffer from heavy trauma and they are desperate. And your cousin lures them on, and allows weapons and money to reach them, and murders all of your brothers and sisters that had more moderate or sensical ideas.
Then your younger brothers go and do something terrible, something hideous, to some of your cousins family. You could make the case that they didn’t do anything different from what your cousin did to them, but it was hideous none the less.
So the whole world was shocked.
And then, your cousin and his family, started murdering your brothers and sisters, butchering you, maiming you, dropping parts of the house on you so you’ll die trapped in the rubble. The atrocities went on and on, not even hospitals or places of pray were respected, anywhere and everywhere your cousin carried out unspeakable horrors.
Seeing this, the second knight in shinning armor decided that it was enough. That he stood with your cousin no matter what, that he wouldn’t stay idle! And then sent a carrier strike group to threaten your neighbors, that watched horrified as the massacre carried on, and on, and on, and on, and today is October the 22, 2023.
