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'THERE WAS AND THERE WAS NOT,' BY MELINE TOUMANI
The New York Times
Jan 23 2015
By CHRISTOPHER DE BELLAIGUEJAN. 23, 2015
In 2005, Meline Toumani, an Armenian-American, went to live in Turkey
-- the country that, in its former incarnation as the Ottoman Empire,
killed more than one million Armenians beginning in 1915, in mass
deportations most historians regard as genocide. Fellow Armenians
considered her decision perverse, not least because she, like them,
had imbibed stories of Turkish plunder and murder along with her
mother's milk. But Toumani is an idealistic, somewhat contrary soul.
Although in no doubt of Turkish culpability, she was convinced of
the need for reconciliation on a basic, human level.
Also setting her apart from most of her fellow Armenians was her
skepticism over their pursuit of genocide "recognition," a cause
that unites the tiny, landlocked Republic of Armenia, on Turkey's
eastern border, and a formidable diaspora scattered from Beirut to
Buenos Aires. Armenian pressure has led to resolutions recognizing the
genocide from the European Union and more than 40 American states (but
not the United States government), each one causing anger in Turkey.
What worried Toumani was that an obsession with the genocide had,
she believed, occluded all other aspects of the Armenian identity. In
the United States, she writes, "I could no longer stand to attend
any Armenian gathering, because it seemed that whether it was a
poetry reading, a concert or even a sporting match, it was always,
ultimately, about the genocide."
Hence Toumani's move to the heart of enemy territory, Istanbul, where
she began learning Turkish and even acquired a taste for Turkish food.
So successful was her acculturation that eventually she felt close
enough to the country to regard certain national idiosyncrasies as
"endearingly Turkish" -- a phrase that would occur to few Armenians.
But the liaison soured. Four years later, her Turkish improved but
her identity in pieces, a "chain-smoking neurotic" whose pathetic
desire to ingratiate herself with the Turks had shades (as she saw it)
of Stockholm syndrome, Toumani limped back to the United States. She
left (after sobbing through a venomously antagonistic soccer match
between Turkey and Armenia) with few genuine Turkish friends and,
to cap it all, was regarded with suspicion by Turkey's tiny surviving
Armenian community.
"There Was and There Was Not" (the title is the stock story opener in
several Middle Eastern cultures) is the sensitive, inquiring, somewhat
naïve account of this defeat. Toumani casts an unsparingly honest gaze
on her own motivations, endlessly trying to find the merit in the
other person's point of view (even, as she discovers to her horror,
that of the top Turkish genocide-denier), though she can also be very
funny. A theme of the book is the alarm that Turks evince when they
find out she is Armenian -- "The weather's been beautiful lately,"
is a common response -- and the unaccountable sense of deference she
feels in return. Having a pedicure in Istanbul one day, she does not
dare "subvert the natural order and inform the beautician that she
was sitting at an Armenian woman's feet."
All this comes against a backdrop of failing Armenian-Turkish
relations, for while Armenians in Turkey have become more assertive
and a growing number of Turks seem willing to atone for the past,
detente has yet to materialize. (Turkey and Armenia still do not
have diplomatic relations.) Toumani risks the ire of both sides by
"tampering," as she puts it, "with the story we had all agreed
to tell." Although it cost her some peace of mind, she has shown
considerable courage in doing so.
THERE WAS AND THERE WAS NOT
A Journey Through Hate and Possibility in Turkey, Armenia, and Beyond
By Meline Toumani
286 pp. Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt & Company. $28.
Christopher de Bellaigue is a London-based writer and broadcaster. His
most recent book is "Patriot of Persia: Muhammad Mossadegh and a
Tragic Anglo-American Coup."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/25/books/review/there-was-and-there-was-not-by-meline-toumani.html?_r=0
The New York Times
Jan 23 2015
By CHRISTOPHER DE BELLAIGUEJAN. 23, 2015
In 2005, Meline Toumani, an Armenian-American, went to live in Turkey
-- the country that, in its former incarnation as the Ottoman Empire,
killed more than one million Armenians beginning in 1915, in mass
deportations most historians regard as genocide. Fellow Armenians
considered her decision perverse, not least because she, like them,
had imbibed stories of Turkish plunder and murder along with her
mother's milk. But Toumani is an idealistic, somewhat contrary soul.
Although in no doubt of Turkish culpability, she was convinced of
the need for reconciliation on a basic, human level.
Also setting her apart from most of her fellow Armenians was her
skepticism over their pursuit of genocide "recognition," a cause
that unites the tiny, landlocked Republic of Armenia, on Turkey's
eastern border, and a formidable diaspora scattered from Beirut to
Buenos Aires. Armenian pressure has led to resolutions recognizing the
genocide from the European Union and more than 40 American states (but
not the United States government), each one causing anger in Turkey.
What worried Toumani was that an obsession with the genocide had,
she believed, occluded all other aspects of the Armenian identity. In
the United States, she writes, "I could no longer stand to attend
any Armenian gathering, because it seemed that whether it was a
poetry reading, a concert or even a sporting match, it was always,
ultimately, about the genocide."
Hence Toumani's move to the heart of enemy territory, Istanbul, where
she began learning Turkish and even acquired a taste for Turkish food.
So successful was her acculturation that eventually she felt close
enough to the country to regard certain national idiosyncrasies as
"endearingly Turkish" -- a phrase that would occur to few Armenians.
But the liaison soured. Four years later, her Turkish improved but
her identity in pieces, a "chain-smoking neurotic" whose pathetic
desire to ingratiate herself with the Turks had shades (as she saw it)
of Stockholm syndrome, Toumani limped back to the United States. She
left (after sobbing through a venomously antagonistic soccer match
between Turkey and Armenia) with few genuine Turkish friends and,
to cap it all, was regarded with suspicion by Turkey's tiny surviving
Armenian community.
"There Was and There Was Not" (the title is the stock story opener in
several Middle Eastern cultures) is the sensitive, inquiring, somewhat
naïve account of this defeat. Toumani casts an unsparingly honest gaze
on her own motivations, endlessly trying to find the merit in the
other person's point of view (even, as she discovers to her horror,
that of the top Turkish genocide-denier), though she can also be very
funny. A theme of the book is the alarm that Turks evince when they
find out she is Armenian -- "The weather's been beautiful lately,"
is a common response -- and the unaccountable sense of deference she
feels in return. Having a pedicure in Istanbul one day, she does not
dare "subvert the natural order and inform the beautician that she
was sitting at an Armenian woman's feet."
All this comes against a backdrop of failing Armenian-Turkish
relations, for while Armenians in Turkey have become more assertive
and a growing number of Turks seem willing to atone for the past,
detente has yet to materialize. (Turkey and Armenia still do not
have diplomatic relations.) Toumani risks the ire of both sides by
"tampering," as she puts it, "with the story we had all agreed
to tell." Although it cost her some peace of mind, she has shown
considerable courage in doing so.
THERE WAS AND THERE WAS NOT
A Journey Through Hate and Possibility in Turkey, Armenia, and Beyond
By Meline Toumani
286 pp. Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt & Company. $28.
Christopher de Bellaigue is a London-based writer and broadcaster. His
most recent book is "Patriot of Persia: Muhammad Mossadegh and a
Tragic Anglo-American Coup."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/25/books/review/there-was-and-there-was-not-by-meline-toumani.html?_r=0