Herkan: Remembering the Power of Indigeneity

 Talin Suciyan

Herkan. She had one of those special names I had never heard before… It must be one of those old Armenian names, like the ones which I had only come across in the mid-19th century archival documents. She was the mother of four children and my admiration of her started when I got to know her one and only daughter. I had first met her daughter more than 25 years ago, when I was 16 and she was 48. We lost track of each other until reconnecting recently all these years later. I had not remembered her name, I had not remembered where I first met her, but I remembered how much I loved her. A heart full of love, which she inherited from her mother Fatma-Herkan. Now on the occasion of the 8th of March, I write to bring Herkan’s legacy into the present, as it whispers a long-lost song into our ears, one that we all recognize. 

Armenians and Other Armenians in Turkey

Hrag Papazian

The Christian Armenian community

The number of Christian Armenian citizens of Turkey today is estimated to be between 60,000 and 70,000. More than 90% of them reside in Istanbul, where they have numerous acting churches, primary and secondary schools, and a few newspapers and periodicals. One of the most important elements in the Armenian Identity of the members of this group seems to be their allegiance to Christianity, mainly through the channel of the Armenian Apostolic Church. In fact, one might even argue that Armenianness is an ethno-religious identity for the members of this group, rather than a purely ethnic one. For many people I met and conversed with, being Armenian automatically implies being Christian. Many use the two terms interchangeably. To the question “Is he a Muslim?”, I’ve heard people answering: “No, he’s Armenian.” Others when being asked about their religion, have answered “I’m Armenian.” Some, but few, didn’t even hesitate to classify Armenianness as a religion, while many others who found that it should be counted as a national or ethnic category, have nevertheless stated that “in our case it’s difficult and even incorrect to separate the two notions from each other”.

Patriarch election saga drags on for Turkey's Armenians

Orhan Kemal Cengiz

Translated by Sibel Utku Bila

 

When Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II Mutafyan, the spiritual leader of Turkey’s Armenians, fell ill in 2008, few would have thought that the debate on how to elect a new patriarch would drag on for years. Yet, ever since then, heated debates and divisions have haunted the Armenian community.

Summary Turkey’s Armenian community has remained without an active patriarch for years as Ankara uses a legal vacuum to interfere in its religious affairs.

Life in the aftermath: MIT historian's book explores life for Armenians in modern Turkey

  Peter Dizikes

 

In 1919, an Istanbul resident named Hayganush Mark did something remarkable: She started a magazine. Today, that might not sound extraordinary. But Mark was Armenian. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians had just been massacred as members of a religious and ethnic minority in the Ottoman Empire, and Armenians were still fleeing in the years after 1915.

Mark’s publication, Hay Gin, gave voice to an endangered group — and it kept appearing until 1933, when the Turkish government shut it down.

Moreover, Hay Gin featured feminist perspectives on work, marriage, and politics, which were not exactly common at the time. In publishing the journal, Mark was engaged in an act of political courage, while providing a guide about “how to be an Armenian in post-genocide Turkey,” as MIT historian Lerna Ekmekcioglu writes in a unique new book on the subject.

More than One April 24, 2015, in Istanbul

Nareg Seferian

 

It was the evening of April 24, 2015, and I was sitting on the street in Istanbul, right near where Istiklal Avenue starts off from Taksim Square. The area had been closed off especially for us—a part of town usually bustling (bursting, really) with people. Those around me were holding placards, mostly of the Armenians who had been placed under arrest that day 100 years earlier. I got a placard with one Hagop Terzian on it. “I must look him up,” I thought, somewhat ashamed of the fact that I had not heard of him before, one of the many whose memory was being honored that evening.

Perception of Turkey: Good, Bad and Poor Armenians

Aline Ozinian

It was talked about for a long time. The “dirty” population you call the Armenian diaspora were forced from their homes, their land, and were once called the Anatolian Armenians.(*)

It was said that there was nostalgia, that the Turkish words left behind by their grandparents were still in their lives, that they had not forgotten their homeland. It was said that this diaspora was not from Armenia, but rather that these people were the subjects of the Ottomans. Do not divide Armenians into groups like poor Armenians, bad diaspora members or miserable Turkish Armenians. It was said do not develop politics in accordance with this, for they are not a monolith. But apparently no strides at all were taken in the end.

How to Silence an Armenian Maverick in Turkey

Nanore Barsoumian

They finally locked him up. It was only a matter of time, really. And frankly, I’m surprised it took them this long. The Turkish-Armenian journalist and entrepreneur Sevan Nisanyan could not accept his place in Turkish society. And a “good” Armenian ought to know better than that. Somehow, Nisanyan always made headlines—from television talk shows to controversial blog posts. He’s been practically swimming in some two-dozen court cases—but Nisanyan is built differently than many of us. In fact, he actually enjoys making waves. You might say he was born in the wrong country, but if you were to ask him, he’d tell you—as he once told me—“I feel perfectly at home in a country where most people would rather see me go. A paradox? I don’t think so. I like the precariousness of my situation. I think I contribute a lot to the society I live in.”

We Are All Oxymorons!

Ayda Erbal

(Author’s note: There are a number of issues -particularly the segment re: Stockholm Syndrome that I changed my mind later. I think the entire situation of Istanbul Armenians can be better explained by political expediency -itself a result of a survival strategy, rather than a generally inflicted syndrome. It does not mean the psychological does not have any effect, it only means that the effect of the political is much more overarching and meaningful. This claim obviously requires a much more substantiated longitudinal comparative analysis that goes well beyond this short introductory attempt.)