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ERASING THE NAMES OF PLACES AND ENVER PAGA'S DECREE
By ORHAN KEMAL CENGÄ°Z
Today's Zaman
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnistDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=250255
July 12 2011
Turkey
"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against
forgetting," the renowned novelist Milan Kundera once said.
I do not know if victims who have already lost the battle would
appreciate Kundera's wisdom, but there is no doubt that all
authoritarian and totalitarian regimes in the world knew precisely
what Kundera meant by these words. They have all tried to erase
people's memories before carefully planting their "big narratives"
in the minds of the people they directed and manipulated.
When the Ottoman Empire was collapsing, the Committee of Union and
Progress not only orchestrated massacres against non-Muslims in Turkey,
it also tried to erase the old memories of society altogether.
One of the ways of doing this was to change toponyms.
Starting in 1916, the 20th century saw more than 15,000 names of
places changed in Turkey, according to a newly published report,
"Hayali CogÌ~Frafyalar: Cumhuriyet Döneminde Turkiye de DegiÅ~_tirilen
Yeradları," authored by Armenian Turkish writer Sevan NiÅ~_anyan. In
this and following pieces I will share with you notes that I took
while I read this report. Everything started with a decree issued by
Enver PaÅ~_a, one of the three leaders of the Committee of Union and
Progress. NiÅ~_anyan publishes the decree in his report and I will
share it with you below. I think the degree tells us a lot about
the founding of the new Turkey, which was essentially based on the
exclusion of non-Muslims and on the policy of erasing their memories
from this territory completely.
Let's read Enver's decree, which established brand new policy about
toponyms in Turkey:
"1. It is important to change into Turkish all names of provinces,
regions, villages, mountains and rivers belonging to Armenian, Greek,
Bulgarian and other non-Muslim peoples. Making use swiftly of this
favorable moment, we beseech your help in carrying out this order.
"2. Cooperating with military commanders and administrative personnel
within the boundaries of your jurisdiction, respective lists of name
changes should be formed of provinces, regions, villages, etc. and
be forwarded to military headquarters as soon as possible. After
being studied and approved, these lists of proposed changes should
be sent to the Interior Ministry and the Communications Ministry for
generalization and implementation.
"3. It is imperative that the new names reflect the history of our
hardworking, exemplary and praiseworthy military. The glorified
events of our present and past war experiences should, by all means,
be mentioned. If this is not possible, the names of those who had
high moral principles and who fell rendering invaluable services to
their country should be remembered; or names should be found that
are appropriate to the given area's specific crop, product, trade or
geographical situation.
"Last but not least, teachers at schools in different parts of our
Fatherland should find appropriate topics to teach about the given
territory's glorious history, climate, crop, trade and culture. It
should be borne in mind that any sudden change of a conventional name
into an inconvenient or improper one may bring about the continuation
of using the old name by the population. Therefore, new names should be
chosen taking all this into consideration. If such principles cannot
be observed, then Ereghli, for example, should be turned into Erikli
or Erakli, Gallipoli into Veliboli in order to maintain the roots of
old names. Enver, deputy commander-in-chief, 23 Kanun-i Evvel, 1331
[Jan. 5, 1916]."
As you can see from the decree, the names that would be changed were
those "belonging to Armenian, Greek, Bulgarian and other non-Muslim
peoples." NiÅ~_anyan noted that in the Republican era Kurdish and
Arabic names were also added to this list. As NiÅ~_anyan pointed out,
Enver PaÅ~_a refers to World War I as a "favorable moment," which also
showed us that the massacres of non-Muslims were also very carefully
planned and calculated.
With this decree he laid the foundations of a long tradition that
stands today. I will continue on this in my next column.
By ORHAN KEMAL CENGÄ°Z
Today's Zaman
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnistDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=250255
July 12 2011
Turkey
"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against
forgetting," the renowned novelist Milan Kundera once said.
I do not know if victims who have already lost the battle would
appreciate Kundera's wisdom, but there is no doubt that all
authoritarian and totalitarian regimes in the world knew precisely
what Kundera meant by these words. They have all tried to erase
people's memories before carefully planting their "big narratives"
in the minds of the people they directed and manipulated.
When the Ottoman Empire was collapsing, the Committee of Union and
Progress not only orchestrated massacres against non-Muslims in Turkey,
it also tried to erase the old memories of society altogether.
One of the ways of doing this was to change toponyms.
Starting in 1916, the 20th century saw more than 15,000 names of
places changed in Turkey, according to a newly published report,
"Hayali CogÌ~Frafyalar: Cumhuriyet Döneminde Turkiye de DegiÅ~_tirilen
Yeradları," authored by Armenian Turkish writer Sevan NiÅ~_anyan. In
this and following pieces I will share with you notes that I took
while I read this report. Everything started with a decree issued by
Enver PaÅ~_a, one of the three leaders of the Committee of Union and
Progress. NiÅ~_anyan publishes the decree in his report and I will
share it with you below. I think the degree tells us a lot about
the founding of the new Turkey, which was essentially based on the
exclusion of non-Muslims and on the policy of erasing their memories
from this territory completely.
Let's read Enver's decree, which established brand new policy about
toponyms in Turkey:
"1. It is important to change into Turkish all names of provinces,
regions, villages, mountains and rivers belonging to Armenian, Greek,
Bulgarian and other non-Muslim peoples. Making use swiftly of this
favorable moment, we beseech your help in carrying out this order.
"2. Cooperating with military commanders and administrative personnel
within the boundaries of your jurisdiction, respective lists of name
changes should be formed of provinces, regions, villages, etc. and
be forwarded to military headquarters as soon as possible. After
being studied and approved, these lists of proposed changes should
be sent to the Interior Ministry and the Communications Ministry for
generalization and implementation.
"3. It is imperative that the new names reflect the history of our
hardworking, exemplary and praiseworthy military. The glorified
events of our present and past war experiences should, by all means,
be mentioned. If this is not possible, the names of those who had
high moral principles and who fell rendering invaluable services to
their country should be remembered; or names should be found that
are appropriate to the given area's specific crop, product, trade or
geographical situation.
"Last but not least, teachers at schools in different parts of our
Fatherland should find appropriate topics to teach about the given
territory's glorious history, climate, crop, trade and culture. It
should be borne in mind that any sudden change of a conventional name
into an inconvenient or improper one may bring about the continuation
of using the old name by the population. Therefore, new names should be
chosen taking all this into consideration. If such principles cannot
be observed, then Ereghli, for example, should be turned into Erikli
or Erakli, Gallipoli into Veliboli in order to maintain the roots of
old names. Enver, deputy commander-in-chief, 23 Kanun-i Evvel, 1331
[Jan. 5, 1916]."
As you can see from the decree, the names that would be changed were
those "belonging to Armenian, Greek, Bulgarian and other non-Muslim
peoples." NiÅ~_anyan noted that in the Republican era Kurdish and
Arabic names were also added to this list. As NiÅ~_anyan pointed out,
Enver PaÅ~_a refers to World War I as a "favorable moment," which also
showed us that the massacres of non-Muslims were also very carefully
planned and calculated.
With this decree he laid the foundations of a long tradition that
stands today. I will continue on this in my next column.