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HIDDEN ARMENIANS OF TURKEY
By Ara Iskanderian
JULY 25, ARMENIANS TODAY - NOYAN TAPAN
Fethiye Cetin is a Turkish lawyer. Born in Maden and educated in Ankara
she entered the public eye partly for defending the late Hrant Dink in
an Istanbul court. Ms Cetin is an 'Armenian' or an Armenian, she is the
granddaughter of Heranush Gadaryan, herself the daughter of Hovannes
and Isguhi Gadaryan from the Armenian village of Habab (Armenian:
Havav) today Ekinozou in Anatolia. Fethiye Cetin is at once both
Turkish and Armenian, or neither, or either. Perhaps a little
explanatory note might be necessitated. The Turkish concept of identity
- what makes one Turkish is somewhat different to other nations'
understandings of what makes them, say, Armenian. It might be said an
Armenian is someone born to Armenian parents, who are Armenian because
of citizenship or heritage, both for an Armenian of Armenia, more
heritage for an Armenian of the Diaspora. Essentially, however, someone
is Armenian by a heritage or political birthright.
In Turkey, amongst Turks this is also the case. Constitutionally anyone
born to a Turkish mother or Turkish father is a Turk, and in Turkey
'Turk' is a synonym for citizen. A Kurd for example is considered
Turkish and a Turk for he is a citizen of Turkey. In Europe 'Turk' for
many years was another term for Muslim, and to 'turn Turk' was to
convert to Islam, during the Ottoman Empire conversion to Islam was how
many of the empire's subjects became Turks. Many Turks are also the
descendants of Muhajirin (Arabic: refugee), who fled Russian expansion
in the Caucasus and the emergence and expansion of nation states in the
Balkans. Many people today called Turks are the descendants of these
refugees, Circassians from the Caucasus or Greek Muslims from Crete who
have forsaken or lost their original identity, subsumed by their
Turkishness. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, himself born in Salonica (now
Thessaloniki in Greece) stated that anyone born within the borders of
Turkey was a Turk and therefore susceptible to a process of
Turkification or TürkçülÃ&# xB C;k. In the early years of the republic the
disparate communities still resident were encouraged to speak only
Turkish and the expression 'Ne mutlu Türk'üm diyene' - 'happy is he who
calls himself a Turk' was adopted and propagated. Much like the Soviet
policy of korenizatsiya (nativisation), during the early days of the
Turkish republic understanding and developing the concept of what made
one Turkish or a Turk was undertaken.
Of course there were exceptions. The Treaty of Lausanne stipulated the
recognition and extension of certain privileges to three minorities
still in the republic; Armenians, Greeks and Jews, on the grounds that
they were religious minorities. They are of course not the only
religious minorities in Turkey where one also finds Assyrians (Suriani)=2
0
and Yezidi Kurds, and also there are Muslim minorities, Georgian
speaking Laz and maybe twenty million Kurds. The Lausanne Treaty
promised the three religious minorities, Armenians, Greeks and Jews,
the protection of their religious and linguistic rights. The Jews very
early on in the republic's history forfeited their 'rights', and most
Greeks subsequently left Turkey following the violent pogrom of 1955.
Armenians remain the most visible recognised minority in Turkey,
numerically greater than Greeks and Jews, but also remembered because
they are a perennial other. Officially they are 'Turks' for the Turkish
government or Bolisahay for Armenians, but this doesn't necessarily
work as a means of identity. Hrant Dink considered himself an Armenian
of Turkey, and such a consideration contributed to his troubles and
criticism by more right wing figures in Turkey.
Dink's concept of an 'Armenian of Turkey' was akin to the work of
Turkish scholar Baskin Oran who was commissioned to write a report on
the minorities within Turkey. Oran concluded that the overarching
concept of Turk, and it as a synonym for citizen was unworkable in a
Turkey where many minorities dwelt and even immigrants were emigrating
to. Take the Armenian speaking Muslims of the Black Sea coast, the
Hemshin who pose something of an enigma and are often ignored as a
minority. The Hemshin aren't Turks or Turkish in origin but Armenians
who converted to Islam during Arab rule over Armenia, their language is
a dialect of old Armenian and similar to one spoken by some
Abkhazian-Armenians. They are an unofficial minority, but officially
Turkish citizens and therefore Turks.
Given the existence of such communities Oran argued the necessity of a
new term alongside 'Turk' - 'Turkiyeli' - 'of Turkey' to differentiate
between people definitely Turkish and Turkish citizens, and those not
Turks or Turkish, but definitely Turkish citizens and born in Turkey.
Turkiyeli would then denote Hemshin, Armenians, Kurds and others. Dink
was therefore 'Ermeni Turkiyeli' - an Armenian of Turkey. Already
Armenians living in Kars and its environs are identified in a similar
way as "Yerli" meaning "of the place" rather than Armenian or Turkish.
For his troubles Oran was prosecuted, although it has led to a debate
about what is meant by Turk and Turkishness. Dink of course faced his
own trial, and was ultimately assassinated but he found a lawyer in the
guise of Fethiye Cetin, whom some might call an Armenian, or an
'Armenian' or a Turk, but perhaps Turkiyeli - 'of Turkey' is most apt.
Cetin's grandmother was for many years known to her as Seher. One day
her grandmother confessed that her real name was Heranush, that she was
not a Turk, but actually an Armenian and a survivor of the Armenian
Genocide. Young Heranush had been rounded up and deported with the rest
of her family to Syria, but was abducted by a Turkish soldier who
raised her as his daughter - Seher - who was later married to a Turkish
man with whom she had a family. Seher was however aware that her
brother, who had also lived as a Turk after being abducted, had been
rescued by her real parents, her Armenian parents, themselves reunited
in America where the family had grown with new children and
grandchildren. Seher-Heranush, old and ailing, confessed to her
granddaughter of the family's Armenian roots and spoke of her wish to
see her Armenian family, now in America. Sadly she died before a
reunion could be arranged.
The burden of restoring links fell to Cetin, a Turk, who was now aware
of having an Armenian connection and in her book My Grandmother: A
Memoir she recounts her grandmother's survival story, biography and
then her own attempts to trace the Armenian family she never knew she
had in America. An emotional reunion takes place in America, and the
links between a family - one half Armenian, one half Turkish are
forged. It is estimated that nearly two million people in Turkey are of
partial Armenian descent, descendants of survivors of the Genocide,
abducted children, women forcibly converted and married. These Genocide
survivors' own experience of the Armenian century is an epilogue to all
those Diaspora survivor testimonies that talk of children being
abducted, lost or forgotten. Well those children's descendents have
grown up and written their own testimonies, their own accounts of
hidden identity and family secrets of origins and heritage. These
hidden Armenians or 'hidden Armenians' are only now beginning to emerge
because of the bravery of pioneering individuals such as Cetin and
Hrant Dink (Dink published an article suggesting that Sabiha Gokcen,
Turkey's first female pilot and feminist icon, was actually of Armenian
descent, a suggestion that caused outrage for some).
Perhaps there will be more still to come, Selim Deringil the Turkish
historian in his work The Well Protected Domains talks of whole
villages and communities forced to convert to Islam during the Ottoman
era, these might have survived secretly. Not unlikely, there remain an
unknown number of Donmeh in Turkey, Jews forcibly converted to Islam
during the 17th century who maintained their Jewish identity and
practices secretly up to the present day. Dr. Tessa Hoffman talks of
forcible conversions of Armenian villagers in the province of Siirt as
late as the 1960s and 1980s. Even a recent France 24 segment reported
on Turkey's hidden Armenians, mostly Kurds were originally Armenians,
who in a more liberal climate were returning or researching their
roots. The more liberal and open Turkish society becomes the more these
sort of testimonies and people will come forth, and the more 'Armenian'
as a subculture might begin to flourish or reconstitute itself.
Fethiye Cetin and her family are one such example of Turks descended
from an Armenian. This doesn't mean that these people are tomorrow
going to come out and say they're Armenian, or become Armenians - but
they might be the beginnings of a community that in being conscious of
Armenian descent provide a renewed vigour to Armenians as a community
and Armenia, as a legacy, in Anatolia. Even that other famous victim of
the infamous Article 30l, Elif Shafak, in her novel The Bastard of
Istanbul explored the common familial ties between a certain Armenian
Diaspora family, forced to leave behind relatives and family in Turkey
during the Genocide, these relatives subsequently 'turned Turk'. The
existence of such people certainly provides a greater emphasis on
Oran's concept of 'of Turkey' rather than the simple monolithic
'Turkishness' that subsumes all else in Anatolia.
These 'hidden Armenians' will present a challenge to Turkish national
consciousness as they slowly emerge and develop and begin to address
their origins and their own truths. It might amount to something
comparable to the concept of the American, who is in fact Irish or
Slovak in origin, but wholly American, who in trying to reconnect with
his family's roots goes back to what William Saroyan labels "the old
country" to try and understand a bit more about himself. In his journey
he never ceases to be an American, but he becomes a bit prouder and
expressive of his Irish or Slovak heritage - this might occur. For
some, however, it might be better to not embrace this legacy but let
secrets remain secrets and hope that no one finds out they possess
"impure blood" or are "convert's spawn" two slanders Cetin notes as
labels for Turkey's hidden Armenians.
One thing is certain, such books and memoirs and such brave
explorations of one's legacy in their own way are a challenge and
exploration of what is meant by Armenian beyond Turkey and what is an
Armenian within Turkey and also raises issues of identity in a
globalised world where understanding heritage, legacy and the hyphen
contribute to self-identification. So long as people like Dink, Shafak,
Cetin and others emerge to challenge what it means to be Turkish or
Armenian one can be certain that identity won't remain stagnant, but
instead encouraging of a new Turk and a new Armenian.
By Ara Iskanderian
JULY 25, ARMENIANS TODAY - NOYAN TAPAN
Fethiye Cetin is a Turkish lawyer. Born in Maden and educated in Ankara
she entered the public eye partly for defending the late Hrant Dink in
an Istanbul court. Ms Cetin is an 'Armenian' or an Armenian, she is the
granddaughter of Heranush Gadaryan, herself the daughter of Hovannes
and Isguhi Gadaryan from the Armenian village of Habab (Armenian:
Havav) today Ekinozou in Anatolia. Fethiye Cetin is at once both
Turkish and Armenian, or neither, or either. Perhaps a little
explanatory note might be necessitated. The Turkish concept of identity
- what makes one Turkish is somewhat different to other nations'
understandings of what makes them, say, Armenian. It might be said an
Armenian is someone born to Armenian parents, who are Armenian because
of citizenship or heritage, both for an Armenian of Armenia, more
heritage for an Armenian of the Diaspora. Essentially, however, someone
is Armenian by a heritage or political birthright.
In Turkey, amongst Turks this is also the case. Constitutionally anyone
born to a Turkish mother or Turkish father is a Turk, and in Turkey
'Turk' is a synonym for citizen. A Kurd for example is considered
Turkish and a Turk for he is a citizen of Turkey. In Europe 'Turk' for
many years was another term for Muslim, and to 'turn Turk' was to
convert to Islam, during the Ottoman Empire conversion to Islam was how
many of the empire's subjects became Turks. Many Turks are also the
descendants of Muhajirin (Arabic: refugee), who fled Russian expansion
in the Caucasus and the emergence and expansion of nation states in the
Balkans. Many people today called Turks are the descendants of these
refugees, Circassians from the Caucasus or Greek Muslims from Crete who
have forsaken or lost their original identity, subsumed by their
Turkishness. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, himself born in Salonica (now
Thessaloniki in Greece) stated that anyone born within the borders of
Turkey was a Turk and therefore susceptible to a process of
Turkification or TürkçülÃ&# xB C;k. In the early years of the republic the
disparate communities still resident were encouraged to speak only
Turkish and the expression 'Ne mutlu Türk'üm diyene' - 'happy is he who
calls himself a Turk' was adopted and propagated. Much like the Soviet
policy of korenizatsiya (nativisation), during the early days of the
Turkish republic understanding and developing the concept of what made
one Turkish or a Turk was undertaken.
Of course there were exceptions. The Treaty of Lausanne stipulated the
recognition and extension of certain privileges to three minorities
still in the republic; Armenians, Greeks and Jews, on the grounds that
they were religious minorities. They are of course not the only
religious minorities in Turkey where one also finds Assyrians (Suriani)=2
0
and Yezidi Kurds, and also there are Muslim minorities, Georgian
speaking Laz and maybe twenty million Kurds. The Lausanne Treaty
promised the three religious minorities, Armenians, Greeks and Jews,
the protection of their religious and linguistic rights. The Jews very
early on in the republic's history forfeited their 'rights', and most
Greeks subsequently left Turkey following the violent pogrom of 1955.
Armenians remain the most visible recognised minority in Turkey,
numerically greater than Greeks and Jews, but also remembered because
they are a perennial other. Officially they are 'Turks' for the Turkish
government or Bolisahay for Armenians, but this doesn't necessarily
work as a means of identity. Hrant Dink considered himself an Armenian
of Turkey, and such a consideration contributed to his troubles and
criticism by more right wing figures in Turkey.
Dink's concept of an 'Armenian of Turkey' was akin to the work of
Turkish scholar Baskin Oran who was commissioned to write a report on
the minorities within Turkey. Oran concluded that the overarching
concept of Turk, and it as a synonym for citizen was unworkable in a
Turkey where many minorities dwelt and even immigrants were emigrating
to. Take the Armenian speaking Muslims of the Black Sea coast, the
Hemshin who pose something of an enigma and are often ignored as a
minority. The Hemshin aren't Turks or Turkish in origin but Armenians
who converted to Islam during Arab rule over Armenia, their language is
a dialect of old Armenian and similar to one spoken by some
Abkhazian-Armenians. They are an unofficial minority, but officially
Turkish citizens and therefore Turks.
Given the existence of such communities Oran argued the necessity of a
new term alongside 'Turk' - 'Turkiyeli' - 'of Turkey' to differentiate
between people definitely Turkish and Turkish citizens, and those not
Turks or Turkish, but definitely Turkish citizens and born in Turkey.
Turkiyeli would then denote Hemshin, Armenians, Kurds and others. Dink
was therefore 'Ermeni Turkiyeli' - an Armenian of Turkey. Already
Armenians living in Kars and its environs are identified in a similar
way as "Yerli" meaning "of the place" rather than Armenian or Turkish.
For his troubles Oran was prosecuted, although it has led to a debate
about what is meant by Turk and Turkishness. Dink of course faced his
own trial, and was ultimately assassinated but he found a lawyer in the
guise of Fethiye Cetin, whom some might call an Armenian, or an
'Armenian' or a Turk, but perhaps Turkiyeli - 'of Turkey' is most apt.
Cetin's grandmother was for many years known to her as Seher. One day
her grandmother confessed that her real name was Heranush, that she was
not a Turk, but actually an Armenian and a survivor of the Armenian
Genocide. Young Heranush had been rounded up and deported with the rest
of her family to Syria, but was abducted by a Turkish soldier who
raised her as his daughter - Seher - who was later married to a Turkish
man with whom she had a family. Seher was however aware that her
brother, who had also lived as a Turk after being abducted, had been
rescued by her real parents, her Armenian parents, themselves reunited
in America where the family had grown with new children and
grandchildren. Seher-Heranush, old and ailing, confessed to her
granddaughter of the family's Armenian roots and spoke of her wish to
see her Armenian family, now in America. Sadly she died before a
reunion could be arranged.
The burden of restoring links fell to Cetin, a Turk, who was now aware
of having an Armenian connection and in her book My Grandmother: A
Memoir she recounts her grandmother's survival story, biography and
then her own attempts to trace the Armenian family she never knew she
had in America. An emotional reunion takes place in America, and the
links between a family - one half Armenian, one half Turkish are
forged. It is estimated that nearly two million people in Turkey are of
partial Armenian descent, descendants of survivors of the Genocide,
abducted children, women forcibly converted and married. These Genocide
survivors' own experience of the Armenian century is an epilogue to all
those Diaspora survivor testimonies that talk of children being
abducted, lost or forgotten. Well those children's descendents have
grown up and written their own testimonies, their own accounts of
hidden identity and family secrets of origins and heritage. These
hidden Armenians or 'hidden Armenians' are only now beginning to emerge
because of the bravery of pioneering individuals such as Cetin and
Hrant Dink (Dink published an article suggesting that Sabiha Gokcen,
Turkey's first female pilot and feminist icon, was actually of Armenian
descent, a suggestion that caused outrage for some).
Perhaps there will be more still to come, Selim Deringil the Turkish
historian in his work The Well Protected Domains talks of whole
villages and communities forced to convert to Islam during the Ottoman
era, these might have survived secretly. Not unlikely, there remain an
unknown number of Donmeh in Turkey, Jews forcibly converted to Islam
during the 17th century who maintained their Jewish identity and
practices secretly up to the present day. Dr. Tessa Hoffman talks of
forcible conversions of Armenian villagers in the province of Siirt as
late as the 1960s and 1980s. Even a recent France 24 segment reported
on Turkey's hidden Armenians, mostly Kurds were originally Armenians,
who in a more liberal climate were returning or researching their
roots. The more liberal and open Turkish society becomes the more these
sort of testimonies and people will come forth, and the more 'Armenian'
as a subculture might begin to flourish or reconstitute itself.
Fethiye Cetin and her family are one such example of Turks descended
from an Armenian. This doesn't mean that these people are tomorrow
going to come out and say they're Armenian, or become Armenians - but
they might be the beginnings of a community that in being conscious of
Armenian descent provide a renewed vigour to Armenians as a community
and Armenia, as a legacy, in Anatolia. Even that other famous victim of
the infamous Article 30l, Elif Shafak, in her novel The Bastard of
Istanbul explored the common familial ties between a certain Armenian
Diaspora family, forced to leave behind relatives and family in Turkey
during the Genocide, these relatives subsequently 'turned Turk'. The
existence of such people certainly provides a greater emphasis on
Oran's concept of 'of Turkey' rather than the simple monolithic
'Turkishness' that subsumes all else in Anatolia.
These 'hidden Armenians' will present a challenge to Turkish national
consciousness as they slowly emerge and develop and begin to address
their origins and their own truths. It might amount to something
comparable to the concept of the American, who is in fact Irish or
Slovak in origin, but wholly American, who in trying to reconnect with
his family's roots goes back to what William Saroyan labels "the old
country" to try and understand a bit more about himself. In his journey
he never ceases to be an American, but he becomes a bit prouder and
expressive of his Irish or Slovak heritage - this might occur. For
some, however, it might be better to not embrace this legacy but let
secrets remain secrets and hope that no one finds out they possess
"impure blood" or are "convert's spawn" two slanders Cetin notes as
labels for Turkey's hidden Armenians.
One thing is certain, such books and memoirs and such brave
explorations of one's legacy in their own way are a challenge and
exploration of what is meant by Armenian beyond Turkey and what is an
Armenian within Turkey and also raises issues of identity in a
globalised world where understanding heritage, legacy and the hyphen
contribute to self-identification. So long as people like Dink, Shafak,
Cetin and others emerge to challenge what it means to be Turkish or
Armenian one can be certain that identity won't remain stagnant, but
instead encouraging of a new Turk and a new Armenian.