A Sheeps Wardrobe

The sound of water being lapped into Arpik's dry mouth echoed in the other room disturbing the silence that had prevailed. Pavlik sighed and then rose to look out the open window over the town. The big she-dog changed her course and stood at her master's side. Just turned sixteen year old Giannis sat in silence watching his friend as he let out a sigh. Much was to occur in the next forty-eight hours in Macedonia. Additionally, on June 12, 1908  no one knew that the march to the Palace would begin, and on July 24, 1908 the constitution would be restored. Boundaries were being drawn in a region where there had been vague ones. Lives had been lost over territories. Nationalities would be decided. Fates would be cast. John's thirty-four year old Uncle Giorgios had exiled their ailing parents and remaining siblings to the rugged island of Thasos. With Giorgios and his father's help, Giannis and Pavlik would go to Paris for employment to help support their families who had little means of support otherwise. It was unknown how long the conflict between the empires would continue. Staying behind would mean certain annihlation of their families. Eighteen people depended on Giannis and Pavlik, three of them injured, four were elderly and unstable, six were small children. One was a young woman entrusted in caring for everyone. She had dashed hopes of marriage for now. The remaining four were young men ready to head out on their own and anxiously awaited word from them. Two of these young men planned a route to eventually take them to Australia, one had a job waiting for him in Athens and the other was hoping to immigrate to America.

[edit] Constitutional Era

See also: Second Constitutional Era (Ottoman Empire)

Declaration of the Constitution Muslim, Armenian, Greek leaders together

With the Committee of Union and Progress coming out of the election box the unity among the Young Turks that was originated from the Young Turk Revolution replaced itself with the realities of the Ottoman Empire.

The details of the political events can be found under Second Constitutional Era, while the details of the military events can be found under Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

The RMS Olympic was launched on 20 October 1910 and made its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on 14 June 1911.

Later that year, on 20 September, the Olympic was rammed by the cruiser HMS Hawke in the Solent which had attempted to pass astern and hit the Olympic abreast the mainmast, starboard side.

The ship went to Belfast for repairs but was out of action for six weeks.

As the result of an enquiry into the collision the Olympic was found to blame as its speed and size had sucked the Hawke off course.

It was able to resume normal service on 30 November 1911.

In February 1912 it was overhauled at Belfast and a new propeller was fitted.

After the loss of the Titanic and the ensuing court enquiry had been published several changes were made to the ship.

During 1912-13 the Olympic returned to Harland & Wolff for six months safety rebuilding.

The double bottom was extended up the sides to the waterline, full height bulkheads were fitted, as were additional lifeboats.

As a result of this the ships tonnage was increased to 46,359 tons.

The Southampton to New York service was resumed on 2 April 1913. Twenty-two year old John was onboard.

Islamic occupation of the Ottoman Empire meant the death penalty to homosexuals, so they fled the country.

Between 1900 and 1902, 20 cases of sodomy were brought before the criminal courts in California, resulting in 16 convictions; 10 of these cases had taken place in the City and County of San Francisco, while 6 more had taken place in neighboring counties.

In London, the Savoy Turkish Baths at 92 Jermyn Street became a favorite spot (opening in 1910 and remaining open until September 1975).^[12] The journalist A.J. Langguth wrote: ...[The baths at Jermyn Street] represented a twilight arena for elderly men who came to sweat poisons from their systems and youths who came to strike beguiling poses in Turkish towels... although they were closely overseen by attendants, they provided a discreet place to inspect a young man before offering a cup of tea at Lyons. On March 18, John dined with several wealthy men from London who were discussing financial opportunities since the decision to construct a railroad connecting the east and west coasts of the United States.

Nineteen year old Margaret Emma Addieco of Petaluma became pregnant in April of 1914 with James John Kafantaris. June 1914, John Demitri and Margaret took up house together in the Western Addition part of San Francisco. In 1917, Mary Kafantaris was born. In 1920, Margaret left to return home in Petaluma leaving behind a five year old and a three year old . She died in 1987 at 92 years of age.
In fall of 1914, some 500 Gay men were arrested as "social vagrants", leading to the legislative passage of a unique law which prohibited "acts technically known as fellatio and cunnilingus[.]" The law, which set a maximum of 15 years in prison for either act, was the only statute law in the United States which ever mentioned the words "fellatio" and "cunnilingus".

[edit] 1914–1917 period: Armenian Genocide and WWI

See also: Middle Eastern theatre of World War I

On November 2, 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered World War I on the side of the Central Powers. The Middle Eastern theatre of World War I became the scene of action. The combatants were the Ottoman Empire, with some assistance from the other Central Powers, and primarily the British and the Russians among the Allies of World War I. The conflicts at the Caucasus Campaign, the Persian Campaign and the Gallipoli Campaign affected where the Armenian people lived in significant amounts. Before the declaration of war at the Armenian congress at Erzurum the Ottoman government requested from Ottoman Armenians to facilitate the conquest of Transcaucasia by inciting a rebellion with the Russian Armenians against the tsarist army in the event of an Caucasian Front.[50][51]
Jakob Künzler, head of a missionary hospital in Urfa, has documented the large scale ethnic cleansing of both Armenians and Kurds by the Young Turks during World War I.^[3] He has given a detailed account of deportation of Kurds from Erzurum and Bitlis in winter of 1916. The Kurds were perceived to be subversive elements that would take the Russian side in the war. In order to eliminate this threat, Young Turks embarked on a large scale deportation of Kurds from the regions of Djabachdjur, Palu, Musch, Erzurum and Bitlis. Around 300,000 Kurds were forced to move southwards to Urfa and then westwards to Aintab and Marasch. In the summer of 1917, Kurds were moved to the Konya region in central Anatolia. Through this measures, the Young Turk leaders aimed at eliminating the Kurds by deporting them from their ancestral lands and by dispersing them in small pockets of exiled communities. By the end of World War I, up to 700,000 Kurds were forcibly deported and almost half of the displaced perished.^[4]
Around this period, the Young Turks relationship to the Armenian Genocide shifted. Early on, the Armenians had perceived the Young Turks as allies; and the beginnings of the Genocide, in the 1909 Adana Massacre, had been rooted in Ottoman backlash against the Young Turks. But during World War I, the Young Turks increasing nationalism began to lead them to participate in the Genocide. In 2005, the International Association of Genocide Scholars affirmed^[5] that scholarly evidence revealed the "Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire began a systematic genocide of its Armenian citizens – an unarmed Christian minority population. More than a million Armenians were exterminated through direct killing, starvation, torture, and forced death marches." The IAGS also condemned Turkish attempts to deny the factual and moral reality of the Armenian Genocide

Georgios Kafantaris (alternative spellings: Kaphantaris or Kafandaris, 13 October 1873 – 28 August 1946) was a Greek politician, born in Anatoliki Fragkista, Evrytania.

On 9 January 1919, Kafantaris joined the Cabinet of Greece under Prime Minister of Greece Eleftherios Venizelos as Minister of Agriculture.

 He went on to disagree with him as far as holding the Greek legislative election, 1920 while the Hellenic Army was still involved in the Greco-Turkish War.

Venizelos accepted his resignation on 4 February 1920.

In the elections that ensued, Venizelos' Liberal Party was ousted.

Kafantaris left the country for French Third Republic and the Kingdom of Italy.

He only returned following the defeat of Greece in the Greco-Turkish War and was named Minister of Justice.

On 19 February 1924, Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos resigned due to health reasons and nominated Kafantaris as his successor.

Giorgios Kafantaris served as Prime Minister for almost a month and then resigned himself on 12 March 1924 after an assasination attempt.

He was succeeded by Alexandros Papanastasiou.

Kafantaris opposed the dictatorship of Theodoros Pangalos and, after its overthrow, took part in several more governments as Minister of Finance.

John Kafantaris lived at 1300 Mc Allister Street in San Francisco at the time of his naturalization in 1943. He applied for citizenship in 1941.

Giorgios Kafantaris died in Athens in 1946.

John Kafantaris died in San Francisco in 1954 at age 62. Married to Margaret Addieco of Petaluma, CA in 1914. Margaret left to move back to Petaluma in 1919. She died in Santa Rosa in 1987 at age 92.

Son James married Elizabeth Elsie O'Connor in 1935 and had three children, son John Dimitri and daughters Jane Marie and Diane Elizabeth. Daughter Mary had one daughter Janet.

(to be continued...)