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Elle Shoots Fashion Spread In Ruined Armenian City

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  • Elle Shoots Fashion Spread In Ruined Armenian City

    Jezebel
    January 21, 2011 Friday 5:07 PM EST


    Elle Shoots Fashion Spread In Ruined Armenian City [In/fashion]


    Jan. 21, 2011 (Gawker Media delivered by Newstex) --

    In 1064, Turkish armies laid siege to Ani, a bustling, largely
    Armenian city of 200,000. They were ordered to destroy Ani, and kill
    everyone they found. In 2011, Elle Turkey used the ruins left behind
    for a fashion story.



    Sensitive! Especially considering the modern-day Turkish state's
    highly contentious relationship with its neighbor, Armenia. The
    Ottoman genocide against Armenians is still a fraught subject in
    Turkey, which doesn't accept that the deportations, forced marches,
    and massacres that together killed around 1-1.5 million Armenians
    during World War I were in fact a genocide. (Hitler later said that he
    expected his attempt to exterminate the Jews would go unremarked,
    arguing, "Who now remembers the Armenians?") Today, Ani lies within
    Turkish territory, very near the Armenian border.

    Ani was famous for its ecclesiastical architecture, including its
    cathedral, which was completed in 1001. The Turkish dynasty
    responsible for the city's destruction, the Seljuks, spent the 11th
    Century expanding across what are now Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq,
    Georgia, Syria, and Armenia; taking Ani, which had been under
    Byzantine control, was part of those plans. For more on Ani's
    fascinating and complex history, Kuriositas has a detailed photo
    essay:

    In its heyday it was a metropolis which rivaled Constantinople, Cairo
    or Baghdad as a center of culture and enterprise...The city is the
    victim of a colossal and centuries old struggle for power between
    various factions in the region. Founded in the fourth or fifth century
    AD the following millennium saw Armenians, Kurds, Georgians, Mongols
    and Turks struggle for and ascend to power in the city-state.



    To summarize: As it turns out, after the Seljuk Turks overran Ani,
    they didn't quite kill all of the civilians ' many had escaped to the
    countryside before the siege began. The Seljuks eventually sold Ani to
    the (predominantly Muslim) Kurds, who tolerated the (predominantly
    Christian) Armenians. Eventually, neighboring (predominantly
    Christian) Georgia forced the Kurds out and the city was returned to
    Armenian control. Then, in the 13th Century, the Mongols invaded.
    Later, it was another Turkish dynasty. Finally, Ani came under Ottoman
    control.

    All the war and unrest, together with institutional neglect on the
    part of the Ottomans, meant that Ani never recovered its position of
    power within the region. By the mid-18th Century, the last inhabitants
    abandoned the city.

    The siege and the destruction of the city in 1064, however, stands out
    in the minds of many Armenians as a particularly poignant example from
    the long history of Turkish attempts to suppress their culture. Just
    the place for photographer Senol Altun and stylist Melis Agazat to
    show off this season's bag, then.

    The setting, ruined as it is, is very beautiful. Ani is on the Global
    Heritage Fund's list of world monuments most in danger of irreparable
    loss and destruction. Armenia accuses Turkey of hastening Ani's demise
    as a historical and archaeological site through neglect. Turkey says
    Ani has been destabilized by earth-moving activity at a nearby
    Armenian quarry.

    Armenian newspapers and blogs have picked up the story ' and so have
    some Turkish ones. Mostly, this is just sad: A threatened heritage
    site is no place for a fashion spread like this. Given Ani's history,
    and given the fact that the city stands on ground that is still in
    dispute, what did Elle Turkey think was going to happen?




    From: A. Papazian
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