Tweet
TURKEY'S ISLAMIZED ARMENIANS GRAPPLE WITH TRAGIC ROOTS
http://hetq.am/eng/news/24908/turkey%E2%80%99s-islamized-armenians-grapple-with-tragic-roots.html
14:39, March 28, 2013
By: Sibel Utku Bila
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey - Abdurrahim Zorarslan's world turned upside down
at age 25 when his Kurdish clan revealed to him he was Armenian.
His father, a survivor of the Ottoman massacres, saved and Islamized by
a Kurdish couple, had already died - without uttering a word about his
real self. After much soul-searching, Zorarslan "listened to something
inside" and "secretly" embraced his Armenian identity. Aged 53 today,
he boldly speaks out and introduces himself as a Christian with the
typical Armenian name, Armen.
The self-rediscovery, however, has come with a cost. The retired
driver is now at odds with his children and Kurdish wife, a devout
Muslim wearing the black chador, but still believes that "one can
reach nowhere with fear of his roots."
Zorarslan is among a small but growing number of brave souls in
Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast who have come to openly embrace their
Armenian origins, emboldened by the breaking of the Armenian taboo
in Turkey over the past several years and the message of pluralism
spread by the Kurdish political movement in the region.
The re-connection is a painful process - not only because of
deep-rooted fears over the 1915-17 massacres, but also the distinct
fabric of the impoverished, rural southeast, where strict patriarchal
norms rule closely-knit clans and Islam remains a powerful social glue.
At the turn of the 20th century, Kurds and Armenians dominated the
population of eastern Anatolia. Bonded to Turks in Islamic fraternity,
Kurds joined the massacres orchestrated by their Ottoman rulers and
seized the properties of slain or deported Armenian neighbours. Many
Armenian children escaped death in the refuge of Muslim homes: Some
were saved out of compassion; others were abducted to be raised as
labourers or wives. The adoptees were Islamized and assimilated into
Kurdish or Turkish culture. It is unknown how many survivors lived on
as Muslims, with estimates ranging from tens of thousands to several
hundred thousand.
According to the accounts of descendants in Diyarbakir, Turkey's
largest Kurdish city, some survivors kept memory of their Armenian
identity, sought out other Islamized Armenians to marry and let
their children know their roots. Others sank into silence and tried
to obliterate their past, haunted by the horror of the massacres and
eager to shield their progeny against persecution.
Neighbours, however, never forgot. A common childhood memory
of descendants is how their peers would taunt them as "gavur" or
"infidels" in street games. Relatives would often give away the secret
in the heat of household quarrels, calling a father or a grandmother a
"dirty Armenian."
Some complain that because of their Muslim faith they are often
ostracized also by Turkey's Christian Armenians, who are concentrated
in cosmopolitan Istanbul and number about 60,000.
"The [descendants of] Islamized Armenians are 100% assimilated. But
there is always someone to remind them who they are. They are not
fully accepted by either side. It's dramatic," Gafur Turkay, the
grandson of an Armenian survivor, told Al-Monitor in the yard of the
ancient Surp Giragos Church in Diyarbakir, a monumental reminder of
the city's once-thriving Armenian community.
After decades of silent awareness, Turkay now introduces himself
directly as "an Armenian." His father remains a devout Muslim who
has made the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Out of 18 siblings, only he
and a brother have converted to Christianity.
The 47-year-old insurer sits also on the board of the foundation that
runs the Surp Giragos Church, rebuilt from ruins and re-opened for
worship in October.
He estimates that at least 1 million people in Turkey's southeast
bear Armenian blood today, even though mixed marriages and natural
population growth have diluted Armenian ancestries. The acknowledgement
of Armenian roots, he explains, is a difficult matter since descendants
remain strongly bound to Islam and equate Armenianness to Christianity.
"More often than not those people are rigid Muslims - a trait they
probably developed in order to gain acceptance and dispel suspicion.
Let them be Muslims, but I wish they could at least accept their
Armenian origins," Turkay said. "But I can't persuade even my own
sister. 'God forbid! You can't make me call myself an Armenian'
is all she says."
For Zorarslan, the resentment of his own family is no match to his
resolve to discover his roots. On his mobile phone, buzzing with
the ringtone of an Armenian tune, he proudly displays pictures of
cousins he has tracked down in France, the Netherlands, the United
States and Istanbul. His eyes sparkle with excitement and then well up
with tears as he recounts how some relatives were happy to reconnect,
but others refused to answer letters and return calls. "Is it about
religion? Do they worry we may not be really relatives or do they
think I am after money? I'm still trying to figure out," he said.
Behcet Sayan, 47, remembers how his grandfather would keep company with
six other survivors in their native village near Diyarbakir and how
the elderly men would chat in Armenian. A former construction worker
who now greets visitors at Surp Giragos, Sayan says he has endorsed
Christianity "at heart." He wishes other family members follow suit
but is pessimistic. "My elder brother is a haji. You cannot change his
mind even if you shred him to pieces. I wish my children follow me,
but I know life will be difficult for them if they do. Let everybody
make their own decision," he said.
Surp Giragos, one of the largest Armenian churches in the Middle East,
is still without a priest and a congregation. Nestled behind stone
walls on a narrow cobbled street in the ancient heart of Diyarbakir,
the edifice serves mostly as a tourist attraction.
Al-Monitor's interview with Turkay in the churchyard was occasionally
interrupted by young people, who, after touring the church, wanted to
say hi and confide they also had an Armenian ancestor. Some inquired
about the Armenian language courses launched in the city last year.
Kevork Calis, the Armenian teacher who flies every week from Istanbul
to teach the course, politely turned down a request by this reporter
to attend one of the classes. "I have about 20 students. They are
all descendants of Islamized Armenians. Many are attending secretly,"
he explained.
Compared to Turks, Kurds have been more forthcoming in efforts
to reconcile with Armenians, driven by their own suffering in
post-Ottoman Turkey and eager to advance their cause for pluralist
democracy. Diyarbakir's Kurdish-held local administration, for
instance, provided financial assistance to renovate the Surp Giragos
Church and sponsored the Armenian language courses in the city.
In February, prominent Kurdish politician Ahmet Turk admitted that
"our grandfathers have blood on their hands" and apologized to
Armenians. The apology, however, backfired as the veteran lawmaker
appeared to reject direct Kurdish responsibility in the massacres,
saying that Kurds were "manipulated" by Turks.
Armenian opinion leaders cast further doubt over Kurdish sincerity,
irked by remarks that jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan
made in his fledgling peace process with Ankara. In a transcript
leaked to the media in late February, Ocalan emphasized Islamic bonds
between Kurds and Turks, and spoke in hostile terms about Armenians
and other non-Muslims.
Amid the soured climate, the Diyarbakir municipality is preparing
for a fresh gesture. A monument dedicated to communities that have
suffered persecution in Anatolia is expected to be unveiled in the
city in the eve of April 24, the Armenians' genocide remembrance day.
AL MONITOR - The Pulse of the Middle East; March 27, 2013
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/turkey-islamicized-armenians-speak-out-embrace-roots.html
(Sibel Utku Bila is a freelance journalist based in Ankara, who
has covered Turkey for 15 years. She was a correspondent for Agence
France-Presse (AFP) from 1999 to 2011, and articles she wrote during
that period have been published in many newspapers around the world.
She has worked also as an editor at the Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey's
oldest English-language newspaper.)
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
http://hetq.am/eng/news/24908/turkey%E2%80%99s-islamized-armenians-grapple-with-tragic-roots.html
14:39, March 28, 2013
By: Sibel Utku Bila
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey - Abdurrahim Zorarslan's world turned upside down
at age 25 when his Kurdish clan revealed to him he was Armenian.
His father, a survivor of the Ottoman massacres, saved and Islamized by
a Kurdish couple, had already died - without uttering a word about his
real self. After much soul-searching, Zorarslan "listened to something
inside" and "secretly" embraced his Armenian identity. Aged 53 today,
he boldly speaks out and introduces himself as a Christian with the
typical Armenian name, Armen.
The self-rediscovery, however, has come with a cost. The retired
driver is now at odds with his children and Kurdish wife, a devout
Muslim wearing the black chador, but still believes that "one can
reach nowhere with fear of his roots."
Zorarslan is among a small but growing number of brave souls in
Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast who have come to openly embrace their
Armenian origins, emboldened by the breaking of the Armenian taboo
in Turkey over the past several years and the message of pluralism
spread by the Kurdish political movement in the region.
The re-connection is a painful process - not only because of
deep-rooted fears over the 1915-17 massacres, but also the distinct
fabric of the impoverished, rural southeast, where strict patriarchal
norms rule closely-knit clans and Islam remains a powerful social glue.
At the turn of the 20th century, Kurds and Armenians dominated the
population of eastern Anatolia. Bonded to Turks in Islamic fraternity,
Kurds joined the massacres orchestrated by their Ottoman rulers and
seized the properties of slain or deported Armenian neighbours. Many
Armenian children escaped death in the refuge of Muslim homes: Some
were saved out of compassion; others were abducted to be raised as
labourers or wives. The adoptees were Islamized and assimilated into
Kurdish or Turkish culture. It is unknown how many survivors lived on
as Muslims, with estimates ranging from tens of thousands to several
hundred thousand.
According to the accounts of descendants in Diyarbakir, Turkey's
largest Kurdish city, some survivors kept memory of their Armenian
identity, sought out other Islamized Armenians to marry and let
their children know their roots. Others sank into silence and tried
to obliterate their past, haunted by the horror of the massacres and
eager to shield their progeny against persecution.
Neighbours, however, never forgot. A common childhood memory
of descendants is how their peers would taunt them as "gavur" or
"infidels" in street games. Relatives would often give away the secret
in the heat of household quarrels, calling a father or a grandmother a
"dirty Armenian."
Some complain that because of their Muslim faith they are often
ostracized also by Turkey's Christian Armenians, who are concentrated
in cosmopolitan Istanbul and number about 60,000.
"The [descendants of] Islamized Armenians are 100% assimilated. But
there is always someone to remind them who they are. They are not
fully accepted by either side. It's dramatic," Gafur Turkay, the
grandson of an Armenian survivor, told Al-Monitor in the yard of the
ancient Surp Giragos Church in Diyarbakir, a monumental reminder of
the city's once-thriving Armenian community.
After decades of silent awareness, Turkay now introduces himself
directly as "an Armenian." His father remains a devout Muslim who
has made the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Out of 18 siblings, only he
and a brother have converted to Christianity.
The 47-year-old insurer sits also on the board of the foundation that
runs the Surp Giragos Church, rebuilt from ruins and re-opened for
worship in October.
He estimates that at least 1 million people in Turkey's southeast
bear Armenian blood today, even though mixed marriages and natural
population growth have diluted Armenian ancestries. The acknowledgement
of Armenian roots, he explains, is a difficult matter since descendants
remain strongly bound to Islam and equate Armenianness to Christianity.
"More often than not those people are rigid Muslims - a trait they
probably developed in order to gain acceptance and dispel suspicion.
Let them be Muslims, but I wish they could at least accept their
Armenian origins," Turkay said. "But I can't persuade even my own
sister. 'God forbid! You can't make me call myself an Armenian'
is all she says."
For Zorarslan, the resentment of his own family is no match to his
resolve to discover his roots. On his mobile phone, buzzing with
the ringtone of an Armenian tune, he proudly displays pictures of
cousins he has tracked down in France, the Netherlands, the United
States and Istanbul. His eyes sparkle with excitement and then well up
with tears as he recounts how some relatives were happy to reconnect,
but others refused to answer letters and return calls. "Is it about
religion? Do they worry we may not be really relatives or do they
think I am after money? I'm still trying to figure out," he said.
Behcet Sayan, 47, remembers how his grandfather would keep company with
six other survivors in their native village near Diyarbakir and how
the elderly men would chat in Armenian. A former construction worker
who now greets visitors at Surp Giragos, Sayan says he has endorsed
Christianity "at heart." He wishes other family members follow suit
but is pessimistic. "My elder brother is a haji. You cannot change his
mind even if you shred him to pieces. I wish my children follow me,
but I know life will be difficult for them if they do. Let everybody
make their own decision," he said.
Surp Giragos, one of the largest Armenian churches in the Middle East,
is still without a priest and a congregation. Nestled behind stone
walls on a narrow cobbled street in the ancient heart of Diyarbakir,
the edifice serves mostly as a tourist attraction.
Al-Monitor's interview with Turkay in the churchyard was occasionally
interrupted by young people, who, after touring the church, wanted to
say hi and confide they also had an Armenian ancestor. Some inquired
about the Armenian language courses launched in the city last year.
Kevork Calis, the Armenian teacher who flies every week from Istanbul
to teach the course, politely turned down a request by this reporter
to attend one of the classes. "I have about 20 students. They are
all descendants of Islamized Armenians. Many are attending secretly,"
he explained.
Compared to Turks, Kurds have been more forthcoming in efforts
to reconcile with Armenians, driven by their own suffering in
post-Ottoman Turkey and eager to advance their cause for pluralist
democracy. Diyarbakir's Kurdish-held local administration, for
instance, provided financial assistance to renovate the Surp Giragos
Church and sponsored the Armenian language courses in the city.
In February, prominent Kurdish politician Ahmet Turk admitted that
"our grandfathers have blood on their hands" and apologized to
Armenians. The apology, however, backfired as the veteran lawmaker
appeared to reject direct Kurdish responsibility in the massacres,
saying that Kurds were "manipulated" by Turks.
Armenian opinion leaders cast further doubt over Kurdish sincerity,
irked by remarks that jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan
made in his fledgling peace process with Ankara. In a transcript
leaked to the media in late February, Ocalan emphasized Islamic bonds
between Kurds and Turks, and spoke in hostile terms about Armenians
and other non-Muslims.
Amid the soured climate, the Diyarbakir municipality is preparing
for a fresh gesture. A monument dedicated to communities that have
suffered persecution in Anatolia is expected to be unveiled in the
city in the eve of April 24, the Armenians' genocide remembrance day.
AL MONITOR - The Pulse of the Middle East; March 27, 2013
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/turkey-islamicized-armenians-speak-out-embrace-roots.html
(Sibel Utku Bila is a freelance journalist based in Ankara, who
has covered Turkey for 15 years. She was a correspondent for Agence
France-Presse (AFP) from 1999 to 2011, and articles she wrote during
that period have been published in many newspapers around the world.
She has worked also as an editor at the Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey's
oldest English-language newspaper.)
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress