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ARMENIAN CULTURE IN TURKEY: FROM THE ASHES
http://hetq.am/eng/news/28864/armenian-culture-in-turkey-from-the-ashes.html
18:22, August 23, 2013
Turkish Armenians are beginning to celebrate-and commemorate-their past
(The following appeared in today's The Economist)
http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21583981-turkish-armenians-are-beginning-celebrateand-commemoratetheir-past-ashes
A DAINTY silver slipper, a hand-engraved copper bowl. Silva Ozyerli,
an ethnic Armenian, runs a loving finger over these and other family
treasures strewn across her dinner table in Istanbul. They are due
to go on display at a new museum of Armenian culture in Ms Ozyerli's
native city of Diyarbakir at the end of 2013.
The Armenian museum, the first of its kind in Anatolia, will be part of
the newly restored Surp Giragos church complex (pictured). Its aim is
to chronicle Armenian life in Diyarbakir, in Turkey's mainly Kurdish
south-east, before 1915. That was the year when Ottoman troops and
their Kurdish accomplices began slaughtering over 1m Armenians and
other Christians across the country during what many historians say
was the first genocide of the 20th century.
Turkey denies that mass killings took place, insisting that the
Armenians had perished from hunger and disease during their forced
march to the deserts of Syria. (The Ottoman government deported the
Armenians, notionally for their safety, as the empire collapsed. Yet
thousands were massacred as they marched, and countless others
were killed before they set off.) Local school textbooks perpetuate
this myth.
Granting permission to restore Surp Giragos is seen as part of a
larger government campaign to placate diaspora Armenians, who have
been lobbying governments around the world to recognise the genocide.
When Surp Giragos reopened in 2011, after lying in ruins for more
than 20 years, it became Turkey's first church to be revived as a
permanent place of worship.
"The museum is a way of showing that thousands of Armenians contributed
to the city's wealth and culture," explains Ergun Ayik of the Surp
Giragos Foundation, which runs the church. "People will look at the
photographs, the objects, and wonder where did all these people go?"
Around 2m Armenians are believed to have lived in Turkey before the
genocide. Now there are about 70,000. Survivors are scattered across
the Middle East, Europe, America and Australia. Many more converted
to Islam to carry on, but their numbers remain unknown. Osman Koker,
a Turkish historian, reckons that more than half of Diyarbakir's
population used to be non-Muslim, mainly Armenian Orthodox, but
also Catholic, Syrian Orthodox and Jewish. "Now", says Mr Koker,
"there is practically none."
Yet a growing number of Turkish Armenians are reclaiming their
heritage. In 2010 hundreds flocked to the island of Akdamar in the
eastern province of Van to attend an inaugural mass at the newly
restored Church of the Holy Cross. (The church is now a museum,
but holds mass on religious holidays.) Turkey's culture ministry
has obliged with a list of other ancient churches that it plans to
restore, says Osman Kavala, a Turkish philanthropist who is helping to
promote Turkish-Armenian reconciliation. And Armenian-language lessons,
available since last year in Diyarbakir's historic Sur district, are
increasingly popular among Turkey's so-called "invisible Armenians"
who had abandoned their culture in order to survive.
Abdullah Demirbas, the district's mayor, argues that the Kurds must
also make amends for their complicity in the genocide.
Armenians applaud these efforts, even as they note a persistent
strain of Turkish nationalism that perceives non-Muslim minorities as
suspect. The government's conversion of several Greek Orthodox churches
into mosques, together with its recent espousal of unabashedly Islamist
rhetoric, heightens some concerns that efforts to appease Armenians
are cynical and short-sighted.
But such worries were pleasantly absent during a recent afternoon
in Surp Giragos, as tourists gazed at the church's repaired altars
and onion-domed belfry (which had been destroyed by the Ottomans in
1916 because it dwarfed surrounding minarets). The church is drawing
hundreds of people every day. "Many of them are Islamised Armenians
like me," laughs Gafur Turkay of the Surp Giragos Foundation. "The
truth about 1915 cannot be concealed," says Mr Ayik's daughter Pelin.
"But as a young Armenian I don't want to be pitied as a victim. I
am the proud torchbearer of a rich civilisation that not only has
survived but continues to thrive."
From: Baghdasarian
http://hetq.am/eng/news/28864/armenian-culture-in-turkey-from-the-ashes.html
18:22, August 23, 2013
Turkish Armenians are beginning to celebrate-and commemorate-their past
(The following appeared in today's The Economist)
http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21583981-turkish-armenians-are-beginning-celebrateand-commemoratetheir-past-ashes
A DAINTY silver slipper, a hand-engraved copper bowl. Silva Ozyerli,
an ethnic Armenian, runs a loving finger over these and other family
treasures strewn across her dinner table in Istanbul. They are due
to go on display at a new museum of Armenian culture in Ms Ozyerli's
native city of Diyarbakir at the end of 2013.
The Armenian museum, the first of its kind in Anatolia, will be part of
the newly restored Surp Giragos church complex (pictured). Its aim is
to chronicle Armenian life in Diyarbakir, in Turkey's mainly Kurdish
south-east, before 1915. That was the year when Ottoman troops and
their Kurdish accomplices began slaughtering over 1m Armenians and
other Christians across the country during what many historians say
was the first genocide of the 20th century.
Turkey denies that mass killings took place, insisting that the
Armenians had perished from hunger and disease during their forced
march to the deserts of Syria. (The Ottoman government deported the
Armenians, notionally for their safety, as the empire collapsed. Yet
thousands were massacred as they marched, and countless others
were killed before they set off.) Local school textbooks perpetuate
this myth.
Granting permission to restore Surp Giragos is seen as part of a
larger government campaign to placate diaspora Armenians, who have
been lobbying governments around the world to recognise the genocide.
When Surp Giragos reopened in 2011, after lying in ruins for more
than 20 years, it became Turkey's first church to be revived as a
permanent place of worship.
"The museum is a way of showing that thousands of Armenians contributed
to the city's wealth and culture," explains Ergun Ayik of the Surp
Giragos Foundation, which runs the church. "People will look at the
photographs, the objects, and wonder where did all these people go?"
Around 2m Armenians are believed to have lived in Turkey before the
genocide. Now there are about 70,000. Survivors are scattered across
the Middle East, Europe, America and Australia. Many more converted
to Islam to carry on, but their numbers remain unknown. Osman Koker,
a Turkish historian, reckons that more than half of Diyarbakir's
population used to be non-Muslim, mainly Armenian Orthodox, but
also Catholic, Syrian Orthodox and Jewish. "Now", says Mr Koker,
"there is practically none."
Yet a growing number of Turkish Armenians are reclaiming their
heritage. In 2010 hundreds flocked to the island of Akdamar in the
eastern province of Van to attend an inaugural mass at the newly
restored Church of the Holy Cross. (The church is now a museum,
but holds mass on religious holidays.) Turkey's culture ministry
has obliged with a list of other ancient churches that it plans to
restore, says Osman Kavala, a Turkish philanthropist who is helping to
promote Turkish-Armenian reconciliation. And Armenian-language lessons,
available since last year in Diyarbakir's historic Sur district, are
increasingly popular among Turkey's so-called "invisible Armenians"
who had abandoned their culture in order to survive.
Abdullah Demirbas, the district's mayor, argues that the Kurds must
also make amends for their complicity in the genocide.
Armenians applaud these efforts, even as they note a persistent
strain of Turkish nationalism that perceives non-Muslim minorities as
suspect. The government's conversion of several Greek Orthodox churches
into mosques, together with its recent espousal of unabashedly Islamist
rhetoric, heightens some concerns that efforts to appease Armenians
are cynical and short-sighted.
But such worries were pleasantly absent during a recent afternoon
in Surp Giragos, as tourists gazed at the church's repaired altars
and onion-domed belfry (which had been destroyed by the Ottomans in
1916 because it dwarfed surrounding minarets). The church is drawing
hundreds of people every day. "Many of them are Islamised Armenians
like me," laughs Gafur Turkay of the Surp Giragos Foundation. "The
truth about 1915 cannot be concealed," says Mr Ayik's daughter Pelin.
"But as a young Armenian I don't want to be pitied as a victim. I
am the proud torchbearer of a rich civilisation that not only has
survived but continues to thrive."
From: Baghdasarian