Tweet
ianyan magazine
Oct 2 2010
Impressions of the Armenians of Anatolia
Opinion ' By Adam Blumenfeld on October 2, 2010 9:30 am
To many Diaspora Armenians, the idea of Armenians living within the
borders of the Turkish Republic varies from being an irrelevant
factoid to a shocking revelation. The contemporary Armenian national
identity is disproportionately shaped by the genocide of 1915,
epitomized at one extreme by the fiery rhetoric of the contemporary
Dashnak movement, intent on reclaiming land it views as rightfully
Armenian. And yet, paradoxically, little thought is given to the
Armenians already living on that very land.
One day I happened upon a discussion of reparations for the Armenian
genocide online. A group of nationalistic young Armenians were trying
to work out just how much the Armenian state would receive when the
Turks inevitably capitulated to the overwhelming international
consensus that they must repay the Armenians for their crimes with
great swathes of land. The discussion was concluded (for no one saw
fit to respond) by a lone Turkish Armenian:
`I don't know if Armenians outside Turkey just ever considered how
their hostile actions may result here for us. I believe past is past
and want to live in a stable country which I was born to and grew
up!!!What is the land to do with genocide, that's why Turkey will
never accept it, because they know that you want the genocide accepted
only for the land. Who's gone is gone, so who will live in the lands
after Turks move again millions out of their home. Also, how can you
ask for a land, which was never officially ours. There are still many
of us living in different countries, so why not break up from U.S and
make a free Armenian State there??'
Whether this perspective was seen as invalid, unrepresentative, or
alien to the nationalistic Armenian readers is as irrelevant to me as
how nationalistic Turks view Turkey's various `traitors'. What is
relevant to me is that the Armenians in Turkey be given a voice
divorced from the bravado of the two competing nationalisms that each
seek (in their own ways) to appropriate them for their own devices.
I cannot profess any special insight into the psyche, or any such
exhaustive knowledge, of the Armenians living in Turkey. Indeed, my
primary goal here is to dispel the myth of such a monolithic entity as
`the Armenians' (an entity no more meaningful than `the Turks'). One
might view this as a starting place, both for my own desire to write
about Anatolian people and for the Armenian reader's journey to
understanding the Anatolia that continued to grow after their
ancestors were forced to leave it. Even my own modest experience with
and research on contemporary Anatolians (both `Turk' and `Armenian')
have aroused the curiosity of several Diaspora Armenian acquaintances.
I can only hope to arouse such curiosity further. I can only hope that
one day Istanbul is viewed as being as representative of the Armenian
Diaspora as Beirut, Paris or Glendale.
The last time I was privileged enough to appear on Comrade Liana's
site, I was in Turkey, where I will no doubt have returned by next
April 24. In the interim I have visited the ruins of Ani and looked
across the border at Armenia. I have seen no new Armenian films and
spoken to only one non-American Armenian (he is Lebanese, and a
Dashnak).
It is with such dizzying credentials that I seek to outline for you
what I know about Armenians in Turkey.
The Armenians of Istanbul, like the Jews of New York, are
disproportionately successful and famous, due to their community
cohesion and concentration within Turkey's cultural and economic
centre. They are able to boast such impressive figures as Hrant Dink,
Onno Tunç, Nubar Terziyan, Hayko Cepkin, and Matild Manukyan (I also
wish to express my deepest gratitude toward Sevan NiÅ?anyan, whose
excellent etymological dictionary I find myself using weekly). There
are also political parallels with American Jewry: They are
disproportionately left-wing in their voting patterns, but are by no
means exclusively committed to the left. Indeed, right-wing Kemalism
seems to be a comfortable choice for more affluent Armenian voters.
The community is proud of its Caucasian roots even as it holds an
important place in modern Republican Turkish society. There are those
who desire nothing more than to be viewed as respectable Christian
citizens of a Turkish state, and those who crave more public
recognition of their distinctive identity, even calling for a secular
representative of Turkish Armenians alongside the various religious
leaders. There are even those who have forged a connection to the
Kurdish people, having assimilated linguistically with them in the
years after the genocide, all the while retaining their Christian
faith. Hrant Dink's widow, Rakel Dink, belongs to such a clan. There
are those for whom, like a growing number of their Muslim compatriots,
the European Union is a meaningless entity, and those who see it as
presenting a path forward for the sort of Turkey they believe in.
But while the scattered remains of Anatolian Armenian-ness have
flocked to Istanbul, there is still one other (admittedly tiny)
concentration of Armenians in Turkey: Vakıflı.
During the Armenian Genocide, many Armenians took refuge in the
predominantly-Arab southern regions of what would later become Syria.
The populace of these regions was less than sympathetic to the Young
Turk government, and has generally viewed the Armenians and their
plight with sympathy. The French later occupied Syria, including the
disputed Hatay province, which was eventually ceded to the young
Turkish Republic by the French (a move whose legality is still
disputed by the Syrian government). Rather than live under Turkish
rule, most of the Armenians of Hatay moved across the border to
French-occupied Syria, where they live to this day.
But one village chose to remain, making it the only Christian Armenian
village in Turkey. This village is known as Vakıflı in Turkish, or
Õ?Õ¡Ö?Õ¨Ö? in Armenian. Like most Turkish citizens living far from an
important hub like Istanbul or Izmir, the Armenians of Vakıflı are
often drawn toward these urban areas for work, but this village still
remains for its younger generations to return to during the summers, a
tiny testament to the post-nation-statist possibilities for the
region.
http://www.ianyanmag.com/2010/10/02/impressions-of-the-armenians-of-anatolia/
From: A. Papazian
Oct 2 2010
Impressions of the Armenians of Anatolia
Opinion ' By Adam Blumenfeld on October 2, 2010 9:30 am
To many Diaspora Armenians, the idea of Armenians living within the
borders of the Turkish Republic varies from being an irrelevant
factoid to a shocking revelation. The contemporary Armenian national
identity is disproportionately shaped by the genocide of 1915,
epitomized at one extreme by the fiery rhetoric of the contemporary
Dashnak movement, intent on reclaiming land it views as rightfully
Armenian. And yet, paradoxically, little thought is given to the
Armenians already living on that very land.
One day I happened upon a discussion of reparations for the Armenian
genocide online. A group of nationalistic young Armenians were trying
to work out just how much the Armenian state would receive when the
Turks inevitably capitulated to the overwhelming international
consensus that they must repay the Armenians for their crimes with
great swathes of land. The discussion was concluded (for no one saw
fit to respond) by a lone Turkish Armenian:
`I don't know if Armenians outside Turkey just ever considered how
their hostile actions may result here for us. I believe past is past
and want to live in a stable country which I was born to and grew
up!!!What is the land to do with genocide, that's why Turkey will
never accept it, because they know that you want the genocide accepted
only for the land. Who's gone is gone, so who will live in the lands
after Turks move again millions out of their home. Also, how can you
ask for a land, which was never officially ours. There are still many
of us living in different countries, so why not break up from U.S and
make a free Armenian State there??'
Whether this perspective was seen as invalid, unrepresentative, or
alien to the nationalistic Armenian readers is as irrelevant to me as
how nationalistic Turks view Turkey's various `traitors'. What is
relevant to me is that the Armenians in Turkey be given a voice
divorced from the bravado of the two competing nationalisms that each
seek (in their own ways) to appropriate them for their own devices.
I cannot profess any special insight into the psyche, or any such
exhaustive knowledge, of the Armenians living in Turkey. Indeed, my
primary goal here is to dispel the myth of such a monolithic entity as
`the Armenians' (an entity no more meaningful than `the Turks'). One
might view this as a starting place, both for my own desire to write
about Anatolian people and for the Armenian reader's journey to
understanding the Anatolia that continued to grow after their
ancestors were forced to leave it. Even my own modest experience with
and research on contemporary Anatolians (both `Turk' and `Armenian')
have aroused the curiosity of several Diaspora Armenian acquaintances.
I can only hope to arouse such curiosity further. I can only hope that
one day Istanbul is viewed as being as representative of the Armenian
Diaspora as Beirut, Paris or Glendale.
The last time I was privileged enough to appear on Comrade Liana's
site, I was in Turkey, where I will no doubt have returned by next
April 24. In the interim I have visited the ruins of Ani and looked
across the border at Armenia. I have seen no new Armenian films and
spoken to only one non-American Armenian (he is Lebanese, and a
Dashnak).
It is with such dizzying credentials that I seek to outline for you
what I know about Armenians in Turkey.
The Armenians of Istanbul, like the Jews of New York, are
disproportionately successful and famous, due to their community
cohesion and concentration within Turkey's cultural and economic
centre. They are able to boast such impressive figures as Hrant Dink,
Onno Tunç, Nubar Terziyan, Hayko Cepkin, and Matild Manukyan (I also
wish to express my deepest gratitude toward Sevan NiÅ?anyan, whose
excellent etymological dictionary I find myself using weekly). There
are also political parallels with American Jewry: They are
disproportionately left-wing in their voting patterns, but are by no
means exclusively committed to the left. Indeed, right-wing Kemalism
seems to be a comfortable choice for more affluent Armenian voters.
The community is proud of its Caucasian roots even as it holds an
important place in modern Republican Turkish society. There are those
who desire nothing more than to be viewed as respectable Christian
citizens of a Turkish state, and those who crave more public
recognition of their distinctive identity, even calling for a secular
representative of Turkish Armenians alongside the various religious
leaders. There are even those who have forged a connection to the
Kurdish people, having assimilated linguistically with them in the
years after the genocide, all the while retaining their Christian
faith. Hrant Dink's widow, Rakel Dink, belongs to such a clan. There
are those for whom, like a growing number of their Muslim compatriots,
the European Union is a meaningless entity, and those who see it as
presenting a path forward for the sort of Turkey they believe in.
But while the scattered remains of Anatolian Armenian-ness have
flocked to Istanbul, there is still one other (admittedly tiny)
concentration of Armenians in Turkey: Vakıflı.
During the Armenian Genocide, many Armenians took refuge in the
predominantly-Arab southern regions of what would later become Syria.
The populace of these regions was less than sympathetic to the Young
Turk government, and has generally viewed the Armenians and their
plight with sympathy. The French later occupied Syria, including the
disputed Hatay province, which was eventually ceded to the young
Turkish Republic by the French (a move whose legality is still
disputed by the Syrian government). Rather than live under Turkish
rule, most of the Armenians of Hatay moved across the border to
French-occupied Syria, where they live to this day.
But one village chose to remain, making it the only Christian Armenian
village in Turkey. This village is known as Vakıflı in Turkish, or
Õ?Õ¡Ö?Õ¨Ö? in Armenian. Like most Turkish citizens living far from an
important hub like Istanbul or Izmir, the Armenians of Vakıflı are
often drawn toward these urban areas for work, but this village still
remains for its younger generations to return to during the summers, a
tiny testament to the post-nation-statist possibilities for the
region.
http://www.ianyanmag.com/2010/10/02/impressions-of-the-armenians-of-anatolia/
From: A. Papazian