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TURKIFICATION OF THE TOPONYMS IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY
http://blog.ararat-center.org/?p=370
Lusine Sahakyan, PH.D., Yerevan State University
ABSTRACT
Toponyms represent persistent linguistic facts, which have major
historical and political significance. The rulers of the Ottoman
Empire and the Republic of Turkey realized the strategic importance
of the toponyms and carried out consistent policies towards their
distortion and appropriation. Aiming to assimilate the toponyms of the
newly conquered territories, the Ottoman authorities translated them
into Turkish from their original languages or transformed the local
dialectal place-names by the principle of contamination to make them
sound like Turkish word-forms. Other methods of appropriation included
the etymological misinterpretation and renaming and displacing the
former toponyms altogether. The focus of the present article is
the place-name transformation policies of the Ottoman Empire and
its successor, the Republic of Turkey. The decree by the Minister
of War Enver Pasha issued on January 5, 1916 with the orders to
totally change the "non-Muslim" place-names is for the first time
presented in English, Armenian and Russian translations. The article
also deals with the artificially created term of "Eastern Anatolia"
as a substitute for Western Armenia, the political objectives of
the pro-Turkish circles as well as the consecquences of putting the
mentioned ersatz term into circulation.
In August 2009, during his visit to Bitlis, a formerly Armenian city
in eastern part of what is now Turkey, Turkish President Abdullah Gul
said publicly that the original name of the present-day Gyouroymak
province was "Norshin", which, he claimed, was in Kurdish. This
statement should not be considered as a slip of the tongue;
it represents traditional Turkish policies of Turkification and
Kurdification of original Armenian toponyms. Norshin is purely an
Armenian toponym both by its components "Nor"+"shen", which mean "a
new settlement", and as a pattern to form place-names. All toponyms
(villages, settlements, residential areas, etc.) with the component
"shen" are indisputably Armenian as Martunashen, Vasakashen, Getashen,
Vankshen, Hamshen, Verishen and the like.
It should be noted that, besides being linguistically stable phenomena,
toponyms are valuable also as bearers of historical information. As
such, they can have an effect on current ethnopolitical conflicts,
if applied with the aim of distorting and manipulating the historical
evidence. This truly strategic significance of the toponyms has
not gone unnoticed: the ruling circles of the Ottoman Empire and
those of its successor state, the Republic of Turkey, as once again
confirmed by the recent reports in the BBC and the Turkish media, have
devised and implemented consistent policies to falsify the origins and
appropriate, through various ways and methods, the Armenian toponyms
in the territory under their control.
The Turkish tribes who settled in various parts of Armenia in the
11-15th centuries and later the Ottoman authorities were changing
original Armenian place-names in several ways. First, they were
translating their meanings into Turkish such as Tantsout (place
with a lot of pear-trees) into Armoudlou, Aghbyurashen (a village of
springs) into Kyankendi, Karmrik (based on the word karmir, meaning
"red" in Armenian) into Kezelja, Tsaghkadsor (a ravine of flowers)
into Darachichek, etc.
Second, some Armenian toponyms, which had already been transformed
somewhat from their original shape under the influence of local
dialects, were converted to sound like a word with Turkic roots and
pronunciation, thus utilizing the principle of contamination. Thus
Armtick (meaning roots in Armenian) was turned to Armoudi, Odzounkhach
(a cross+snake) to Ouzounhach, Kyouropaghat (a title which goes back
to Latin "curator palatii," which was given to especially Armenian
governors by the Byzantine Emperors) to Gyurbaghdi, Karhatavan
(settlement where stone in cut) to Karadivan, Jeghopourkents (place
with o lot of walnut-trees) to Chopurgens, etc.
Third widely-spread method of distortion was to give new names to
old settlements in an attempt to bury their ethnic affiliation in
oblivion. Even Christian Armenian sanctuaries were given new names.
Thus, the famous Armenian monastery Varagavank was renamed Yedikiliseh
(meaning seven churches in Turkish), while the Holy Echmiadzin,
the center of Armenian Church, where the Supreme Armenian Catholicos
resided, was turned into Ouchkiliseh (three churches). According to
our estimates, several dozens of settlements have been named by the
word "kiliseh" or "Gharakiliseh" in both Western and Eastern Armenia.
Fourth, the attempts to give Turkish etymological explanations to the
Armenian toponyms represented yet another method of their appropriation
campaign. Such faulty experiments were carried out, in particular,
by Evliya Celebi, the Ottoman court historian of the 17th century,
whose interpretations have often served as basis for modern Turkish
scholars. Here is one example. In his Book of Travels (Seyahatname),
the old Armenian place-name Bayberd or Baberd (which through dialectal
and foreign lexical influences has undergone sound interchange and
consequently was pronounced as Baybourd) is etymologically explained
as "bay" (meaning rich in Turkish) + "yourd" (settlement in Turkish)
. In fact, this name includes two ancient Armenian components Bay +
berd, which respectively mean a den or an impregnable shelter and a
stronghold or a fortress. As an ancient fortress, Baberd was mentioned
by Movses Khorenatsi as early as in the 5th century. Place-names
with the ending "berd" have been scattered throughout all Armenia,
as Tsamakaberd, Amberd, Vzhnaberd, Kharberd, Baghaberd, etc.
Evliya Celebi went further to "reveal" that the original Armenian
river name of Jorokh is a distorted form of the Turkish Joui-rouh,
which according to him means "the river of the soul" . In fact, the
name "Jorokh" originates from the Armenian verb "tsorel"- "tsorogh"
(flowing) in which the initial "ts" has been transformed to "j"
through sound interchange, a phenomenon peculiar to the Armenian
language, as in "tsanatsel > janachel", and "tskhni > jkhni" . Evliya
Chelebi links to the Persians the name of the town Zarishat, which was
actually built by the Armenian royal dynasty of Orontids (570 BC-200
BC). He derives the town name of "Akn" from the name of a Byzantine
princess "Egin" ; however, "Akn" is a purely Armenian word meaning
"eye", "spring" and "pit". In the place name of "Pertek", which is
a dialectal deformation of the original "Berdak" (a small fortress),
Celebi tries to find the Mongolian equivalent for the word "eagle".
It is irrefutable that all the above-mentioned toponyms and others
in Armenia have been recorded in historical sources far too earlier
than any Turkic or Kurdish elements appeared on the Armenian Highland,
which they gradually did only from the 11th century onwards.
The "corrections" introduced by Celebi were by no means innocent
etymological verbosities, but pursued far-reaching purposes of
Ottomanizing the newly occupied territories. Evliya Chelebi was a
state official, who in addition participated in Ottoman expansionist
invasions. Thus, his etimological explanations had clear geopolitical
motives.
Around the middle of the 19th century Turkish authorities decided
not only to distort or change the names of Armenian provinces,
regions and villages, but to eliminate altogether the name Armenia as
well. This policy was pursued especially after the Russo-Turkish war
of 1877-1878, when the Armenian Question was included into the agenda
of international diplomacy and European powers started exploiting it
to derive various concessions from Turkey.
The government of Sultan Abdul Hamid II substituted the name Armenia
with such terms as Kurdistan or Anatolia, fallaciously. Starting from
1880 the name Armenia was forbidden to be used in official documents.
The Sublime Porte thus wanted to make everyone believe that the
Armenian Question did not exist: if there was no Armenia, then there
was no Armenian Question.
The historians are familiar with the plan of solving the Armenian
Question with the assistance of England put forward by Kiamil Pasha,
the pro-British Ottoman Grand Vizier and Commander-in-chief during
the reign of the Sultan Abdul Hamid II:
"If in Europe we have warmed a serpent (i.e. the Balkan peoples -
L.S.) in our bosom, we should not do the same in Asian Turkey. Common
sense tells us to do away with all these elements that can pose the
same threats to us in the future and become the cause and a tool of
foreign interference. Now, today, at least Britain's interests demand
that our territories in Asia Minor be safe from foreign meddling and
all sources that may give others a pretext to meddle in our affairs.
We, as well as the British not only do not recognize the word
"Armenia", but we must smash to smithereens all jaws which dare
to pronounce that word. To reach our sacred goal it is therefore
imperative and the state law demands [from us] to make any suspicious
elements unfit, sweep forever from the face of the earth this Armenian
nation, to annihilate them recklessly and for good" (the emphasis is
mine - L.S.).
By deliberately distorting them, the Ottoman authorities were ascribing
Armenian and Greek place-names to Turkish or Kurdish origin.
At that stage, the Kurdish ethnic factor was used by the Ottoman
rulers, for the Kurds were not yet viewed as a threat to the Ottoman
Empire. Taking advantage of their religious fanaticism, in the 1890s
Sultan Abdul Hamid, who was also known as "the father of the Kurds"
(Bavê Kurda), organized the Armenian massacres through the Hamidiye
regiments formed out of Kurdish brigands and the regular Turkish
army soldiers.
During Abdul Hamid's reign all Turkish and Kurdish resettlements were
given new names, which were the names of nomadic tribes or various
Ottoman sultans such as Hamidiye, Reshidiye, Aziziye, Mahmoudiye, etc.
This policy became especially manifest during the reign of the Young
Turks in 1908-1918.
The government of Young Turks also attached great importance to the
changing of "non-Muslim" place-names. They replaced many toponyms, some
named after the Ottoman Sultans, with their own names such as Enveriye,
Shevketiye, Mahmoutshevket-Pasha and the like. The "Resolution About
the Resettlement of Refugees" ("Iskân-I Muhacirin Nizamnamesi"),
a document adopted on May 13, 1913, served the specific Young Turk
policy of total Turkification. The next step was made by Enver Pasha,
the Young Turks' Minister of War, on January 5, 1916.
Enver Pasha's decree sent to the Turkish military-political authorities
demanded that all place-names of Armenian, Greek, Bulgarian and other
non-Muslim origins in the Ottoman Empire be transformed into Turkish
ones. Below is the translation of his Decree (Emirname): DECREE
1. It is important to change into Turkish all names of provinces,
regions, villages, mountains and rivers belonging to Armenian, Greek,
Bulgarian and other non-Muslim peoples. Making use swiftly of this
favorable moment, we beseech your help in carrying out this order.
2. Cooperating with military commanders and administrative personnel
within the boundaries of your jurisdiction, respective lists of name
changes should be formed of provinces, regions, villages, etc. and be
forwarded to military headquarters as soon as possible. After being
studied and approved, these lists of proposed changes should be sent
to the Ministry of the Interior and the Communications Ministry for
generalization and implementation.
3. It is imperative that the new names reflect the history of our
hard-working, exemplary and praise-worthy military. The glorified
events of our present and past war experiences should, by all means,
be mentioned. In case this is not possible, names of those who had
highly moral principles and who have fallen rendering invaluable
services to their country should be remembered; or names should be
found that are appropriate to the given area's specific crop, product,
trade or geographical situation.
Last but not least, teachers at schools in different parts of our
Fatherland should find appropriate topics to teach about the given
territory's glorious history, climate, crop, trade and culture. It
should be borne in mind that any sudden change of a conventional name
into an inconvenient or improper one may bring about the continuation
of using the old name by the population. Therefore, new names should
be chosen taking all this into consideration. In case such principles
cannot be observed, then Ereghli, for example, should be turned into
Erikli or Erakli, Gallipoli into Veliboli in order to maintain the
roots of old names.
Enver, Deputy Commander-in-Chief, 23 Kanun-i Evvel, 1331 /1916/
Inspired by Enver's decree, the prominent military officer Huseyin Avni
(Alparslan) Bey, the author of several articles about the Turkish
language and culture, wrote: "If we want to be the owner of our
country, then we should turn even the name of the smallest village
into Turkish and not leave its Armenian, Greek or Arabic variants.
Only in this way can we paint our country with its colors" .
As we see, he even goes a step further than his minister by suggesting
that Arabic place-names also undergo changes. Enver Pasha's decree
mentioned only "Armenian, Greek, Bulgarian and other non-Muslim
peoples". This testifies to the fact that during the Ottoman period,
when the Sultan was considered the spiritual head (Caliph) of all
Muslims, the Arabic and Kurdish toponyms were not yet regarded as
threatening to the authorities. However, it should be remembered
that the overwhelming majority of the names of places where the Kurds
moved in Western Armenia were Armenian in origin with, at times, some
aspects of local dialectal or foreign linguistic influences. After
the Armenian Genocide, these toponyms have been attributed to Kurds.
During the war, the Armenian, Greek and Bulgarian toponyms were the
first to be turned into Turkish. The Antranos caza in Bursa, for
example, was turned into Orhanelli, Mikhalich was renamed Karajabey,
the village Dimitri into Touran, the Rum village in Chorum into Yeni
(new) Chamlejay. But a few months later, on June 15, 1916 the Ottoman
Military Headquarters disapproved of these changes arguing that
on the new maps these new names were causing confusion in military
correspondence.
Having been deprived of its original population, Western Armenia
continues to lose, along with many other historical and cultural
values, its centuries-old Armenian place-names. They are being declared
as Kurdish or Turkish. Haroun Tuncel, a Turkish historian, has admitted
that "One cannot find in Turkey a scientific work that would deal with
the origins of ancient toponyms for the simple reason that the person
undertaking such an arduous task should be knowledgeable of the local
dialects of several languages, including Persian, Arabic, Armenian,
Zaza, Kourmanji, Assyrian-Aramaic, Sumerian and Akkadian... for
any name considered Kurdish may well be either Sumerian, Akkadian
or Turkish and any name considered Turkish may be either Arabic,
Armenian or Akkadian in its origin".
In an article, titled "28,000 toponyms were changed. Nobody knows which
one comes from which language", Å~^. Turker has included among Kurdish
names such indisputably Armenian toponyms as Van, Antep (Aintap),
Kharpet (Kharberd), Erzingan (Erzinjan
http://blog.ararat-center.org/?p=370
Lusine Sahakyan, PH.D., Yerevan State University
ABSTRACT
Toponyms represent persistent linguistic facts, which have major
historical and political significance. The rulers of the Ottoman
Empire and the Republic of Turkey realized the strategic importance
of the toponyms and carried out consistent policies towards their
distortion and appropriation. Aiming to assimilate the toponyms of the
newly conquered territories, the Ottoman authorities translated them
into Turkish from their original languages or transformed the local
dialectal place-names by the principle of contamination to make them
sound like Turkish word-forms. Other methods of appropriation included
the etymological misinterpretation and renaming and displacing the
former toponyms altogether. The focus of the present article is
the place-name transformation policies of the Ottoman Empire and
its successor, the Republic of Turkey. The decree by the Minister
of War Enver Pasha issued on January 5, 1916 with the orders to
totally change the "non-Muslim" place-names is for the first time
presented in English, Armenian and Russian translations. The article
also deals with the artificially created term of "Eastern Anatolia"
as a substitute for Western Armenia, the political objectives of
the pro-Turkish circles as well as the consecquences of putting the
mentioned ersatz term into circulation.
In August 2009, during his visit to Bitlis, a formerly Armenian city
in eastern part of what is now Turkey, Turkish President Abdullah Gul
said publicly that the original name of the present-day Gyouroymak
province was "Norshin", which, he claimed, was in Kurdish. This
statement should not be considered as a slip of the tongue;
it represents traditional Turkish policies of Turkification and
Kurdification of original Armenian toponyms. Norshin is purely an
Armenian toponym both by its components "Nor"+"shen", which mean "a
new settlement", and as a pattern to form place-names. All toponyms
(villages, settlements, residential areas, etc.) with the component
"shen" are indisputably Armenian as Martunashen, Vasakashen, Getashen,
Vankshen, Hamshen, Verishen and the like.
It should be noted that, besides being linguistically stable phenomena,
toponyms are valuable also as bearers of historical information. As
such, they can have an effect on current ethnopolitical conflicts,
if applied with the aim of distorting and manipulating the historical
evidence. This truly strategic significance of the toponyms has
not gone unnoticed: the ruling circles of the Ottoman Empire and
those of its successor state, the Republic of Turkey, as once again
confirmed by the recent reports in the BBC and the Turkish media, have
devised and implemented consistent policies to falsify the origins and
appropriate, through various ways and methods, the Armenian toponyms
in the territory under their control.
The Turkish tribes who settled in various parts of Armenia in the
11-15th centuries and later the Ottoman authorities were changing
original Armenian place-names in several ways. First, they were
translating their meanings into Turkish such as Tantsout (place
with a lot of pear-trees) into Armoudlou, Aghbyurashen (a village of
springs) into Kyankendi, Karmrik (based on the word karmir, meaning
"red" in Armenian) into Kezelja, Tsaghkadsor (a ravine of flowers)
into Darachichek, etc.
Second, some Armenian toponyms, which had already been transformed
somewhat from their original shape under the influence of local
dialects, were converted to sound like a word with Turkic roots and
pronunciation, thus utilizing the principle of contamination. Thus
Armtick (meaning roots in Armenian) was turned to Armoudi, Odzounkhach
(a cross+snake) to Ouzounhach, Kyouropaghat (a title which goes back
to Latin "curator palatii," which was given to especially Armenian
governors by the Byzantine Emperors) to Gyurbaghdi, Karhatavan
(settlement where stone in cut) to Karadivan, Jeghopourkents (place
with o lot of walnut-trees) to Chopurgens, etc.
Third widely-spread method of distortion was to give new names to
old settlements in an attempt to bury their ethnic affiliation in
oblivion. Even Christian Armenian sanctuaries were given new names.
Thus, the famous Armenian monastery Varagavank was renamed Yedikiliseh
(meaning seven churches in Turkish), while the Holy Echmiadzin,
the center of Armenian Church, where the Supreme Armenian Catholicos
resided, was turned into Ouchkiliseh (three churches). According to
our estimates, several dozens of settlements have been named by the
word "kiliseh" or "Gharakiliseh" in both Western and Eastern Armenia.
Fourth, the attempts to give Turkish etymological explanations to the
Armenian toponyms represented yet another method of their appropriation
campaign. Such faulty experiments were carried out, in particular,
by Evliya Celebi, the Ottoman court historian of the 17th century,
whose interpretations have often served as basis for modern Turkish
scholars. Here is one example. In his Book of Travels (Seyahatname),
the old Armenian place-name Bayberd or Baberd (which through dialectal
and foreign lexical influences has undergone sound interchange and
consequently was pronounced as Baybourd) is etymologically explained
as "bay" (meaning rich in Turkish) + "yourd" (settlement in Turkish)
. In fact, this name includes two ancient Armenian components Bay +
berd, which respectively mean a den or an impregnable shelter and a
stronghold or a fortress. As an ancient fortress, Baberd was mentioned
by Movses Khorenatsi as early as in the 5th century. Place-names
with the ending "berd" have been scattered throughout all Armenia,
as Tsamakaberd, Amberd, Vzhnaberd, Kharberd, Baghaberd, etc.
Evliya Celebi went further to "reveal" that the original Armenian
river name of Jorokh is a distorted form of the Turkish Joui-rouh,
which according to him means "the river of the soul" . In fact, the
name "Jorokh" originates from the Armenian verb "tsorel"- "tsorogh"
(flowing) in which the initial "ts" has been transformed to "j"
through sound interchange, a phenomenon peculiar to the Armenian
language, as in "tsanatsel > janachel", and "tskhni > jkhni" . Evliya
Chelebi links to the Persians the name of the town Zarishat, which was
actually built by the Armenian royal dynasty of Orontids (570 BC-200
BC). He derives the town name of "Akn" from the name of a Byzantine
princess "Egin" ; however, "Akn" is a purely Armenian word meaning
"eye", "spring" and "pit". In the place name of "Pertek", which is
a dialectal deformation of the original "Berdak" (a small fortress),
Celebi tries to find the Mongolian equivalent for the word "eagle".
It is irrefutable that all the above-mentioned toponyms and others
in Armenia have been recorded in historical sources far too earlier
than any Turkic or Kurdish elements appeared on the Armenian Highland,
which they gradually did only from the 11th century onwards.
The "corrections" introduced by Celebi were by no means innocent
etymological verbosities, but pursued far-reaching purposes of
Ottomanizing the newly occupied territories. Evliya Chelebi was a
state official, who in addition participated in Ottoman expansionist
invasions. Thus, his etimological explanations had clear geopolitical
motives.
Around the middle of the 19th century Turkish authorities decided
not only to distort or change the names of Armenian provinces,
regions and villages, but to eliminate altogether the name Armenia as
well. This policy was pursued especially after the Russo-Turkish war
of 1877-1878, when the Armenian Question was included into the agenda
of international diplomacy and European powers started exploiting it
to derive various concessions from Turkey.
The government of Sultan Abdul Hamid II substituted the name Armenia
with such terms as Kurdistan or Anatolia, fallaciously. Starting from
1880 the name Armenia was forbidden to be used in official documents.
The Sublime Porte thus wanted to make everyone believe that the
Armenian Question did not exist: if there was no Armenia, then there
was no Armenian Question.
The historians are familiar with the plan of solving the Armenian
Question with the assistance of England put forward by Kiamil Pasha,
the pro-British Ottoman Grand Vizier and Commander-in-chief during
the reign of the Sultan Abdul Hamid II:
"If in Europe we have warmed a serpent (i.e. the Balkan peoples -
L.S.) in our bosom, we should not do the same in Asian Turkey. Common
sense tells us to do away with all these elements that can pose the
same threats to us in the future and become the cause and a tool of
foreign interference. Now, today, at least Britain's interests demand
that our territories in Asia Minor be safe from foreign meddling and
all sources that may give others a pretext to meddle in our affairs.
We, as well as the British not only do not recognize the word
"Armenia", but we must smash to smithereens all jaws which dare
to pronounce that word. To reach our sacred goal it is therefore
imperative and the state law demands [from us] to make any suspicious
elements unfit, sweep forever from the face of the earth this Armenian
nation, to annihilate them recklessly and for good" (the emphasis is
mine - L.S.).
By deliberately distorting them, the Ottoman authorities were ascribing
Armenian and Greek place-names to Turkish or Kurdish origin.
At that stage, the Kurdish ethnic factor was used by the Ottoman
rulers, for the Kurds were not yet viewed as a threat to the Ottoman
Empire. Taking advantage of their religious fanaticism, in the 1890s
Sultan Abdul Hamid, who was also known as "the father of the Kurds"
(Bavê Kurda), organized the Armenian massacres through the Hamidiye
regiments formed out of Kurdish brigands and the regular Turkish
army soldiers.
During Abdul Hamid's reign all Turkish and Kurdish resettlements were
given new names, which were the names of nomadic tribes or various
Ottoman sultans such as Hamidiye, Reshidiye, Aziziye, Mahmoudiye, etc.
This policy became especially manifest during the reign of the Young
Turks in 1908-1918.
The government of Young Turks also attached great importance to the
changing of "non-Muslim" place-names. They replaced many toponyms, some
named after the Ottoman Sultans, with their own names such as Enveriye,
Shevketiye, Mahmoutshevket-Pasha and the like. The "Resolution About
the Resettlement of Refugees" ("Iskân-I Muhacirin Nizamnamesi"),
a document adopted on May 13, 1913, served the specific Young Turk
policy of total Turkification. The next step was made by Enver Pasha,
the Young Turks' Minister of War, on January 5, 1916.
Enver Pasha's decree sent to the Turkish military-political authorities
demanded that all place-names of Armenian, Greek, Bulgarian and other
non-Muslim origins in the Ottoman Empire be transformed into Turkish
ones. Below is the translation of his Decree (Emirname): DECREE
1. It is important to change into Turkish all names of provinces,
regions, villages, mountains and rivers belonging to Armenian, Greek,
Bulgarian and other non-Muslim peoples. Making use swiftly of this
favorable moment, we beseech your help in carrying out this order.
2. Cooperating with military commanders and administrative personnel
within the boundaries of your jurisdiction, respective lists of name
changes should be formed of provinces, regions, villages, etc. and be
forwarded to military headquarters as soon as possible. After being
studied and approved, these lists of proposed changes should be sent
to the Ministry of the Interior and the Communications Ministry for
generalization and implementation.
3. It is imperative that the new names reflect the history of our
hard-working, exemplary and praise-worthy military. The glorified
events of our present and past war experiences should, by all means,
be mentioned. In case this is not possible, names of those who had
highly moral principles and who have fallen rendering invaluable
services to their country should be remembered; or names should be
found that are appropriate to the given area's specific crop, product,
trade or geographical situation.
Last but not least, teachers at schools in different parts of our
Fatherland should find appropriate topics to teach about the given
territory's glorious history, climate, crop, trade and culture. It
should be borne in mind that any sudden change of a conventional name
into an inconvenient or improper one may bring about the continuation
of using the old name by the population. Therefore, new names should
be chosen taking all this into consideration. In case such principles
cannot be observed, then Ereghli, for example, should be turned into
Erikli or Erakli, Gallipoli into Veliboli in order to maintain the
roots of old names.
Enver, Deputy Commander-in-Chief, 23 Kanun-i Evvel, 1331 /1916/
Inspired by Enver's decree, the prominent military officer Huseyin Avni
(Alparslan) Bey, the author of several articles about the Turkish
language and culture, wrote: "If we want to be the owner of our
country, then we should turn even the name of the smallest village
into Turkish and not leave its Armenian, Greek or Arabic variants.
Only in this way can we paint our country with its colors" .
As we see, he even goes a step further than his minister by suggesting
that Arabic place-names also undergo changes. Enver Pasha's decree
mentioned only "Armenian, Greek, Bulgarian and other non-Muslim
peoples". This testifies to the fact that during the Ottoman period,
when the Sultan was considered the spiritual head (Caliph) of all
Muslims, the Arabic and Kurdish toponyms were not yet regarded as
threatening to the authorities. However, it should be remembered
that the overwhelming majority of the names of places where the Kurds
moved in Western Armenia were Armenian in origin with, at times, some
aspects of local dialectal or foreign linguistic influences. After
the Armenian Genocide, these toponyms have been attributed to Kurds.
During the war, the Armenian, Greek and Bulgarian toponyms were the
first to be turned into Turkish. The Antranos caza in Bursa, for
example, was turned into Orhanelli, Mikhalich was renamed Karajabey,
the village Dimitri into Touran, the Rum village in Chorum into Yeni
(new) Chamlejay. But a few months later, on June 15, 1916 the Ottoman
Military Headquarters disapproved of these changes arguing that
on the new maps these new names were causing confusion in military
correspondence.
Having been deprived of its original population, Western Armenia
continues to lose, along with many other historical and cultural
values, its centuries-old Armenian place-names. They are being declared
as Kurdish or Turkish. Haroun Tuncel, a Turkish historian, has admitted
that "One cannot find in Turkey a scientific work that would deal with
the origins of ancient toponyms for the simple reason that the person
undertaking such an arduous task should be knowledgeable of the local
dialects of several languages, including Persian, Arabic, Armenian,
Zaza, Kourmanji, Assyrian-Aramaic, Sumerian and Akkadian... for
any name considered Kurdish may well be either Sumerian, Akkadian
or Turkish and any name considered Turkish may be either Arabic,
Armenian or Akkadian in its origin".
In an article, titled "28,000 toponyms were changed. Nobody knows which
one comes from which language", Å~^. Turker has included among Kurdish
names such indisputably Armenian toponyms as Van, Antep (Aintap),
Kharpet (Kharberd), Erzingan (Erzinjan