Raffi Bedrosyan
In a matter of years beginning in 1915, an entire people was wiped
out from its homeland of several thousand years. But how can you wipe
out the remnants—its creations, assets, traces, its very existence—from
the collective memory of those who remained in that country, or, for
that matter, from the collective memory of the rest of the world? This
has been an immense challenge for successive Turkish governments, a
mission that was mostly successful for almost four generations. And yet,
here and there the lies or the hidden truths kept coming out with
increasing frequency, especially in recent years.
Hiding the truth and historic facts about 1915 from its own people
has been the policy since the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923,
through indoctrination of the education system, control of the media and
academia, destruction of Armenian buildings and monuments, and so on.
But the facts, perhaps still secret within Turkey but widely known in
the outside world, are now being revealed to the masses in Turkey,
because of increased liberalization, the internet and pioneering
academicians and media opinion-makers who dare to speak the truth in
Turkey. As a result, the citizens of Turkey, who for four generations
were hidden from the facts, are now amazed to learn that a people called
Armenians lived in Anatolia for several millennia, but somehow all
suddenly disappeared in 1915. In this article, I will try to give a few
paradoxical examples of the attempts in hiding the truth, versus the
ones uncovering it.
The second largest and most modern airport in Turkey is called the
Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport, named after the adopted
daughter of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the first female pilot in Turkey, a
hero who helped put down the Alevi/Kurdish rebellion in Dersim in
1936-38 by bombing the rebels from her plane. Her photos and
accomplishments are prominently displayed on billboards at the airport,
and are seen by millions of passengers. And yet, there is another side
to her story: Her real name is Hatun Sebilciyan, an Armenian girl from
Bursa, who was orphaned in 1915, adopted by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and
given the Gokcen (azure, color of the sky in Turkish) surname by him
after completing pilot training. Former Agos Editor Hrant Dink became a
marked man by the “deep state” in Turkey when he first uncovered this
truth after interviewing Sebilciyan’s surviving relatives in Lebanon in
2001 (*). This fact was deemed an “insult to Turkishness” by the military,
the media, and the government. Another recently uncovered fact: The
people being bombed in Dersim were not rebels, but mostly women and
children; the leaders were already hanged the previous year, a fact
acknowledged and apologized for by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
mostly to score political points against the governing party at the time
(the current opposition party). To add more to the sad irony, these
women and children were mostly remnants of the 25,000 Armenians who had
sought refuge and found shelter with the Dersim Alevi Kurds in 1915. It
is not certain whether Sebilciyan/Gokcen knew that she was Armenian, or
if she knew that the women and children she bombed were Armenian.
The ancient city of Ani near Kars, situated on the Armenian border
separated by the Akhurian River, is known as the “city with 1,001
churches.” It is a former capital of the Armenian Bagratid Kingdom, and
had a continuous Armenian presence from the 5th-17th century.
It reached its glory days in the 10th and 11th centuries, when it
became a central gateway on the Silk Route; its growing population of
100,000 even exceeded Constantinople at the time. Most of the buildings
and churches are now destroyed, but the main Ani cathedral, Dikran
Honents Church, the Sourp Prgitch Church, and the city walls are still
standing, with clearly visible Armenian writings carved in the
stonewalls. After years of neglect (or target practice) by the Turkish
military on the remaining buildings, the current Turkish government has
opened up Ani to tourists and has started some preliminary restoration
efforts. However, there is not a single word about Armenians in the
Turkish guidebooks or historic descriptions on Ani. The standing
churches and buildings are referred to as belonging to the Georgians or
the Seljuks. Even the name Ani is now spelled with an i without the dot,
or “Anı”—which means “memory” in Turkish—so that the Armenian Ani
connection to this city will disappear. The denial policy and the
paranoia linked to 1915 has stretched so far that even the Armenian
presence in Ani is being denied.
The museum in Kars exhibits historical artifacts collected from the
region—wood-carved church doors, stone tombstones, carpets, and dowry
chests. Descriptions explain that the ancient ones are from the
Urartians, the more recent ones from the Russians or Georgians. And yet,
all these artifacts have clearly visible Armenian writings carved in
the wood or stone or woven into the fabric. Again, here, the denialist
paranoia has gone to extreme limits, but it can only fool a few Turks
who cannot recognize the Armenian alphabet.
The Holy Cross Church on Akhtamar Island near Van dates back to 921
AD. It was built by the Armenian King Gagik, together with a palace and
other buildings on the island. Armenian priests lived there continuously
until 1915. All the buildings on the island were willfully destroyed by
the Turkish army from the 1920’s to 1950’s, and only through the
intervention of renowned Kurdish author Yashar Kemal was the Holy Cross
Church building spared. The current Turkish government decided to
restore the church as a state museum in 2007. While there are beautiful
Armenian writings carved on the church walls, both inside and outside
the building, there is not a single word in the descriptive plaques or
guidebooks indicating that this is an Armenian church. Even the name of
the island was changed to “Akdamar,” meaning “white vein” in Turkish, so
that the Armenian Akhtamar connection would disappear. Why this fear,
this paranoia? How can these moves convince anybody in Turkey or the
outside world that this is not an Armenian church?
In Istanbul, almost all of the prominent historic buildings built from the 17th-20th
century—such as the Ottoman imperial palaces, mosques, military
barracks, universities, schools, or fountains—were built by Armenians.
Led by the renowned Balyan family, royal architects for several
generations, teams of Armenian tradesmen and craftsmen were involved in
all aspects of the royal construction projects, including stone masonry,
tile and mosaic manufacturing and setting, plumbing, foundations,
glassworks, and metal works. And yet, until 10 years ago, official
guides would tell tourists that Italian contractors named Balianis were
involved in the construction of these buildings. Similarly, at least a
quarter of the buildings in the historic Pera district, along the main
thoroughfare called Istiklal Caddesi, were either built by Armenian
architects or owned by Armenians. Millions of Istanbul citizens and
tourists live, work, and play in these buildings, without realizing
their historic Armenian connection. Two years ago, when the Hrant Dink
Foundation published a book on Armenian architects of Istanbul, and
hosted an exhibition displaying photos of the buildings, it was like a
revelation, causing uproar and amazement among the media and general
public.
The government policy of forced amnesia over an Armenian presence
prior to 1915 extends beyond architects and builders. Armenians served
as ministers in the Ottoman government from the early 1800’s until 1915,
and were in charge of key ministries such as the treasury, armaments,
mint, public works, customs, and post office departments. Tens of
thousands of Armenians worked in the bureaucracy, army, and state
hospitals. And the Turkish government has not only hidden their
contributions but their very existence, as well. As a result, the
general Turkish population has only recently started to realize the
important role played by the Armenians in the Ottoman public sector. The
contributions of Armenians in the private sector, of course, are
completely and forcefully hidden, because all Armenian assets and
properties—such as farms, factories, mines, warehouses, businesses,
orchards, and buildings—were plundered and taken over by the
Turkish/Kurdish leaders and the general public in 1915. In fact, the
very foundation of the Turkish private and public sector economy and
industry, the start-up of wealthy individuals and corporations, is based
entirely on the seized Armenian assets; therefore, this is an
understandable component of the denial policy.
The positive contributions by Armenians during the Turkish Republican
era are also kept hidden. The introduction of the Latin alphabet and
conversion from Ottoman Turkish to modern Turkish was implemented by an
Armenian linguistics expert, Prof. Agop Martayan. In gratitude, Kemal
Ataturk gave him the surname of Dilacar, meaning “the one who unlocks
the language.” In Turkish textbooks, he is referred to as A. Dilacar,
with his first name Agop never spelled out. When he passed away in 1978,
the Turkish media printed his obituary as Adil Acar, further Turkifying
his given name. Another example of a hidden truth is the case of
Armenian musician Edgar Manas, the composer of the Turkish national
anthem, a fact only known by a few Armenians and completely covered up
by the Turks.
Why this fear, this paranoia, resulting in total denial? It goes
beyond the denial of the historical facts of 1915. It is the denial of
the existence of an entire people on these lands. Is it fear over the
Armenian assets and properties left behind? Is it the simplistic
argument: If Armenians never lived here, there could not have been a
genocide? But then, if Armenians never lived here, how could they have
massacred the Turks, as is claimed by the Turkish version of official
history? Rather than speculate about the answers, I’ll refer instead to
the remarks made by prominent Kurdish professor Ismail Besikci, the
recent recipient of the Hrant Dink Foundation Peace Award:
“The Ittihadists [Committee of Union and Progress] had devised a plan
to reorganize the Ottoman Empire on the basis of Turkish ethnic
identity. The nationalization of the Ottoman economy was a further
significant target. But Greeks, Armenians, and other Christian people,
as well as Islamic but non-Turkish people such as Kurds, non-Muslim
Turkish and Kurdish people such as Alevis, presented significant
obstacles to the execution of this Turkification project. They would get
rid of the Greeks by forcing them into exile to Greece. The Armenian
population would be eliminated under the guise of forced deportation
into the desert. Then, the Kurds would be assimilated into Turkishness,
and the Alevis into Islam. The wealth and immovable properties of the
Greeks, forced into exile, and the Armenians, perished through genocide,
would be confiscated by Muslim Turkish notables. A huge, widespread
looting operation took place of the assets left behind by the Armenians
and Greeks, helping the Ottoman economy, and then the Turkish economy,
to be nationalized. Today, the source of the wealth of the haute
bourgeoisie is the Armenian and Greek assets. In Kurdish areas of
Turkey, the source of wealth of the Kurdish tribe leaders is again the
Armenian and Syriac assets.”
As Besikci has said, it has become apparent that the experiment of
trying to convert a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-cultural
Anatolian society into a monolithic, mono-ethnic, single-religion
Turkish nation, and then denying this fact, has failed. The hidden
truths about the fate of the Armenian and Greek people, and their
assets, can no longer be denied within and outside Turkey, despite state
efforts. The assimilation of the Kurds did not succeed, despite state
efforts.
As another Kurdish intellectual has very appropriately remarked, for
many years the Turks denied that Armenians were ever killed on these
lands, and also denied that Kurds ever lived on these lands. An
increasingly larger number of opinion-makers in the Turkish media and
academia have started to reveal the hidden truths, and sooner or later,
the people of Turkey will realize that the historic facts are different
than what they have been told by the state. As it becomes apparent that
the hidden truths cannot be hidden any longer, the challenge for the
Turkish government will be how to revise its stance from denial to
acceptance of the truth, and how to deal with the truth vis a vis its
own citizens as well as the outside world. It is hoped that this process
will be carried out within the norms of dialogue, the establishment of
common body of knowledge.
"The Armenian Weekly," November 23, 2012
(*) The fact had already been disclosed in Armenian publications outside Turkey in the early 1970s ("Armeniaca").
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