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Armenian Varto Clan In Europe

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  • Armenian Varto Clan In Europe

    ARMENIAN VARTO CLAN IN EUROPE

    Noyan Tapan
    www.nt.am
    28.02.2011

    During the Armenian Genocide a large Armenian clan, which was called
    Varto, after its leader Vardan and which inhabited Sirnak province,
    managed to escape the massacres and to shelter in mountains. After
    that this group of survived Armenians, isolating themselves from the
    rest of the world, began their struggle for survival which had lasted
    for several decades. Over that period the self-preservation instinct
    impelled them to break Christian prohibition and to breed in and in.

    At the same time the members of the kin were fervent Christians. As
    it is known, the widow of Hrant Dink, Rakel Dink is also a member
    of Varto clan. During the personal meeting with her in May 2009 in
    Istanbul we asked her about contradictions between intermarriages and
    Christian prohibition, and she answered that the Apostle Paul had an
    idea according to which that the sin made under constraint was not a
    sin. Then saying that in case of intermarriages there was a major risk
    of different diseases she added: "There are no diseased or mentally
    retarded people in our kin and we consider it as a grace and sign of
    God who have not considered our constraint sin as sin". The Armenian
    community in Istanbul learnt about Varto clan only in late 1960s and
    by the combined efforts of the then Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul
    Shnorhk Galustian and the priest of the Armenian Evangelical Church
    Rev. Hrant Guzelian, at first the children of the school age and then
    the whole Varto clan moved to Istanbul. Of course, this initiative
    of the Armenian priests faced tough reaction of the Turkish special
    services which wanted to impede the revival of the splinters of the
    survived Armeniancy. However, after living for about a decade in
    Istanbul, Varto kin decided to migrate to Europe and today there is
    only one representative of that kin living in Turkey - Rakel Dink.

    It should be accepted that there are many unrevealed details of
    the history of Varto clan, and there is almost no information about
    their life in Europe. In this regard the article by Vecihan Ciflioglu,
    Turkish Hurriyet Daily News newspaper's correspondent of the Armenian
    descent, published in January 2011 is remarkable. The article tells
    about the current situation of Varto clan in Europe. As Vercihan
    mentioned he had recently spent about a week in Marseille where he met
    with different representatives of Varto clan, talked to the old and
    young members of the clan, and as a result he wrote rather interesting
    article which is translated and brought below with some abridgement.

    R.M. The representatives of Varto clan (Vardan in Armenian and Varto in
    Kurdish), which used to be one of the biggest clans in South-Western
    Anatolia, now live in Marseille and Brussels. The total number of the
    members of the kin in Europe is 1200; the languages they speak are
    Turkish and Kurdish. The only representative of Varto kin in Turkey
    is Rakel Dink. Her father, Siament Aga, possessed thousands of acres
    in Silop and Cizre districts of Sirnak province. The kin had moved
    to Istanbul in groups by the efforts of the 82nd Armenian Patriarch
    of Istanbul Shnork Galustian. Among those who moved were Rakel Dink
    and her father Siamet Aga. The later, like other members of the kin,
    could not sell his lands and thus, leaving them, moved to Istanbul. In
    several years numerous clan tried to leave for the Soviet Armenia, but
    later, in mid 1980s they started leaving for Marseille and Brussels. In
    Marseille, like in Sirnak, 500 members of the clan live all together
    in three settlements founded by them. The members of the clan who
    has grown up in France are involved in various fields of activity -
    from trade to politics. There are no more cases of intermarriage but
    traditions are still preserved and daughters-in-law and sons-in-law
    who become related with the clan must accept its rules.

    One of the representatives older generation of the clan is Fidel
    Pargev Yalic, who is the son of the uncle of Rakel Dink. Pargev Yalic
    told that their clan had lived in Sirnak for centuries and added:
    "there were times when we were the richest clan in the south-west; we
    possessed thousands of acres". Yalic mentioned that in 1915 they had
    broken off all the ties with the rest of the world: "We thought that
    there was no more Armenian in this world left except us. There were
    several hundreds of us and that's why, though the intermarriages are
    prohibited in Christianity, we bred in and in, in order to preserve.

    Kurdish clans in Sirnak took away all our property; we were flattened
    out, besides, we were obliged to pay taxes. We suffered many privations
    on behalf of Kurds". Yalic told that from 1915 to 1968 they lived in
    a kind of ghetto and only in 1968 they learnt that there were also
    other Armenians in Turkey besides them, and this caused unspeakable
    excitement. "There was a young man whose name was Orhan Bakir. One
    of his parents was Armenian and the other one - Assyrian.

    He passed his military service in Istanbul and there he found Armenians
    and learnt about the Armenian Patriarchate with which we established
    the relations. But for those ties, we might have been living there
    isolated till today". Yalcin said they had not had even identity
    papers and they had not even known their exact age: "Later identity
    papers were given only to the men of our clan, just for military
    checkup". The other relative of Rakel Dink - Samvel Yagir added:
    "After the establishment of the ties with the Patriarchate they wanted
    to take children to Istanbul for educating them. I was in the first
    group and Rakel was in the second group. But one judicial problem
    has aroused: security services interfered when found out that the
    children of the clan are taken to Istanbul in large numbers.

    However, the issue, though with difficulties, was settled". Yagir
    mentioned that the elders of the kin gathered and took a decision to
    live their lands in Sirnak and to move: till 1977 the clan had fully
    established in Istanbul. The members of the clan established in Sisli
    district in Istanbul where many other Armenians lived. The privations
    were left in the past; the Armenian Patriarchate took them under its
    wing, but the elders of Varto again decided to change their place
    of residence and in 1978 they sent a group to the Soviet Armenia
    to study the situation. But the group, after returning to Turkey,
    stated that because of the communism it would not be convenient
    to live in the Soviet Armenia. Yagir presented the reasons of their
    migration to Marseille and Brussels in mid 1980s in the following way:
    "One young man from our kin took part in the military coup in 1980 and
    then fled to France. When one of us is in danger we all rally round
    him. You may call it identity preservation instinct, but, however,
    the elders of the clan drafted a secret plan and set out. In two
    groups and in different ways we reached Marseille and Brussels. Today,
    though we live in different countries, but we are all united and we
    are well-informed about each other". The representative of the younger
    generation of the clan Karo Yalic (37 years-old) is the only one
    from Varto who is involved in politics: several years ago he entered
    the party of the incumbent president Nicola Sarkozi and undertook
    political activity. No matter how far is the kin from Turkey, the
    strong ties with Rakel Dink are preserved. Due to the efforts of Karo
    Yalcin a number of events in memory of Hrant Dink were organized in
    France and one of the streets in Marseille was called after Dink. The
    question whether it was possible that Varto kin would rise a new wave
    of migration, Pargev Yalic answered the following way: "We have no
    problems in France and Belgium, but our heart is with Armenia, and
    maybe one day we will take a decision and all together will move to
    Armenia". Translated from Turkish into Armenian by Ruben Melkonyan




    From: A. Papazian
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