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  • The Armenians, Zazas and Qizilbash : Communities Hybridized by the G

    GENOCIDE ARMENIEN
    The Armenians, Zazas and Qizilbash : Communities Hybridized by the
    Genocide of 1915


    La rédaction d'Armenews vous propose un article prononcé lors d'un
    colloque sur les zazas préparé par l'Université d'Etat de Yerevan.
    L'article est traduit en anglais et s'intitule : `The Armenians, Zazas
    and Qizilbash : Communities Hybridized by the Genocide of 1915` écrit
    par Erdem Ã-zgül et traduit du turc par Hakan KaradaÄ?lı.

    The subject of this conference, namely the Zazas and the Alawites,
    make up the constituent parts of my family. Furthermore, Armenians and
    Armenia compose the distaff side and motherland of both me and my
    father. This at the same time is a family created compulsorily. A
    family which was forcibly created and forced into a single identity by
    genocide. And as it is well known, there are hundreds of thousands of
    such families.

    I wish to present my paper in two parts. Part one consists of the
    relations of the Zazas and the Alawites to the Armenians and Assyrian.
    Part two is based on my personal eye witness accounts concerning
    Armenians. I will cite three short paragraphs from stories that I have
    written before concerning the liveliness of post-genocide Western
    Armenian culture.

    Part 1.

    I would like to start with the Zazas. The name Zaza is a designation
    not known in Dersim. In Dersim live people who speak the three most
    prevalent tongues. The Kurmanji call themselves Kurd-Qizilbash, The
    Kirmanji call themselves Qizilbash, while others call them Zaza. It is
    mostly the Moslems that use the name Zaza, as in Nurettin Zaza and
    Ahmet Zaza. We often come across surnames that boast with being Zaza
    in the vicinity of Dikranagert and Bingöl. Among the two groups, there
    are also Ethnic Armenians. These people were forcibly Alawitized.
    Having lost their languages, they speak Zazaki or Kurdish. Are the
    Zazas a nation ? Or are they a part of the Kurdish or Armenian nation
    ? I must say that we will not be able to provide a satisfactory answer
    to this question for quite a long time. A significant portion of the
    Zazas support the Kurdish struggle and tend to prefer the blooming and
    developing Kurdish to Zazaki. Left in the shadow of Kurdish, today
    Zazaki is a secondary language in gradual regression. On the other
    hand the Qizilbash of Dersim and the Zazas from surrounding provinces
    declare that they are not Kurdish due to Kurd-phobia. They don't make
    much of an effort, nor do they display any inclination towards
    scientific study concerning Zaza language and history. None the less
    the world of Zaza is extremely rich indeed. On one side there are the
    Qizilbash and the Shafi Moslems on the other ; and the Christian Zazas
    associated with the Assyrian Church on still another. The example of
    the Assyrian Church is an important case with similar ones to be found
    in the east. For example there is an Arab Armenian tribe that has
    converted to Islam. Again in Syria there are Armenian families that
    speak Kurdish. The Zaza Assyrians have legitimized themselves in
    Adıyaman. That is to say that there are remnants of archaic people on
    territories swallowed by Turkey. These form small clusters. There are
    the Greek (Melkite) Orthodox in Hatay. There is the Armenian village
    of Vakıflı. There are Assyrians in Mardin. In Rize and Artvin there
    are the Hemshinites, a community of roughly 200,000 people. Although
    they have mostly forgotten their language, they still have been able
    to create their own Armenian dialect. In cities and villages from
    Sinop to Trabzon there are people who don't speak Greek but in one way
    or another still live the Pontian Culture. In more than 300 villages
    at Trabzon alone there live a substantial amount of people who speak
    very little Turkish and who's native tongue is Romeika (Pontos Greek).
    Similarly there are Assyrians in Adıyaman. These are populous
    families. Because there is no Armenian church in the city, there are
    also Armenian families amongst them. Their language of worship is
    Assyrian. Their everyday language is Zazaki, the younger generation
    speak Turkish and the assimilation imposed on them is extremely
    influential.

    Without restraint we can say that many of the Zaza Assyrians I
    mentioned have two religions. They are both Christian and Qizilbash at
    the same time. When I say Qizilbash I am not talking about a typical
    Moslem. They don't stand for salaat or go on hajj. They sing folk
    songs, play instruments, perform semah. This folkloric structure,
    contrary to the imposition in Islam, seems quite pleasant to most Zaza
    Assyrians. Religion-wise it is a rapprochement at the same time. And
    things like lighting a candle for the deceased is assimilation. Infact
    the following claim can be brought into descussion before and after
    the genocide of 1915 : Qizilbash is a distinct religion which is
    polylingual and polyreligious in nature. This religion is an amalgam
    of the Armenian Church, the Assyrian Church and strong sentiments from
    religious system of the Ezidis who today are no longer a neighbour.
    But how did this happen ? I believe it is important to raise this
    question.

    It seems to me that the best description of the genocide of 1915 is
    that of the Assyrians. Seyfo is a concrete term and has especially
    depleted Seyf Tur Abdin and Western Armenia. Asking the question of
    who held the Seyf is again very important.

    A large Christian mass desolved in Islam. In Cilicia, Dersim and Sivas
    large numbers of people were converted to Qizilbash. These people were
    forced to change, their property changed hands as did their lives. But
    it has been said that man is the subject of history, so they bring
    things as they come. They pass some of their rituals and traditions on
    to the communities which they join. The Assyrian Church in Adıyaman is
    an example of this. The fact that there are not too many Qizilbash in
    Adıyaman and that the Assyrian Church manages to survive in the city
    despite all repression, helps the Assyrians sustain themselves not as
    a nation, but as `Mesihi' in Kurdish terms. In comparison to the
    Qizilbash of MaraÅ? and Malatya, their neighbours the Qizilbash of
    Adıyaman possess a more distinctive, Christianity-like belief due to
    the impact of this church.

    Here we have to open a parenthesis to emphasize the difference. MaraÅ?
    is a Cilician city with a very dense immigrant population fron the
    Balkans and Caucasus and the Armenians displayed intense resistance in
    MaraÅ? when leaving the city. It is still possible to hear of the
    Armenian resistances from the Caucasian immigrants (which the
    Qizilbash call the Okkesh, the Osmans meaning state, the ones with
    state). To this day, they still do not forgiven this deadly resistance
    and they take revenge from the Qizilbash.

    One may ask if this commentary is too essentialist, but I don't think
    so. We're not talking about individual lives or only people's emotions
    and thoughts here. We're talking about paranoid societies and their
    revenge. Like an upstart coming in to oust the old-timers, the
    Qizilbash of MaraÅ? did everything in their power to settle. The fact
    that only the elderly live in almost all their settlements today and
    that their youth choose exile in European to living in Turkish
    metropolitan areas is another point of irony.

    Compared to MaraÅ?, the Alawites in Malatya are a lot less in number
    and are Islamized to a much greater extent. First the genocide of
    1915, and most recently the desertion of Malatya's Armenian
    neighbourhoods following the junta of September 12 1980, has pushed
    the Alawites to see themselves more within Islam. For here too the
    Moslem groups are extreme right wing and they advocate the killing of
    the Alawites to be canonically lawful. Faced with the threat of
    massacre, the Alawites are forced to respond by saying that they too
    are members of the same religion, namely Islam.

    Prior to 1915, it was the Armenians who opened the closed doors of the
    Qizilbash to the outside world. A similar role was played by the
    Assyrians for the Ezidis in the Tur Abdin region. Today such a door, a
    helping hand no longer exists, therefore the Qizilbash have to fend
    for themselves. In the instance of Adıyaman, the Qizilbash display
    solidarity with the Assyrians. In MaraÅ? they emigrate and in Malatya
    they draw closer to Islam. As these cities lose the Armenian and
    Assyrian populations, so do the Qizilbash loose their differences.
    Sunnism may be heavier than death, but they are fast becoming
    something like Shia. In any case, they give in to a certain
    understanding and say that they are not without holy script, that they
    follow the Quran, read it at their funerals and perform religious
    marriage at weddings. They reason I said something like Shia is
    because Shia does not except the Alawite and the Alawite don't stand
    for prayer and don't go on Hajj. There is no disdain behind this
    expression. As it is well known, it was the Union and Progress Party's
    officials that tagged the Qizilbash as Alawite. There were many
    reasons behind this act : Prior to 1915, they were travelling to
    regions such as Dersim, Cilicia and Sebestia and talking with the
    opinion leaders there. Here, it is my opinion that they were testing
    the waters for two things : 1) What would happen if the state were to
    stage an attack on those it calls the `infidel', namely the Armenians,
    Greeks and the Hay-Horom of the region ? 2) Would the Alawite be
    against such an operation or would they support it ? They were
    evaluating community psychology.

    Called Qizilbash by Shah Ismail and the Persians and Alawite by the
    Young Turks, they were much more dependent on the Christians when
    compared to the Kurds. In comparison to theirs, the Kurdish habitats
    were more outward-oriented. Even though they didn't farm the land they
    had livestock breeding which was productive on its own. Most important
    of all, they had no problem with expanding out, for the Kurds were at
    the same time the Empire's brute force.

    By massacring the Christians, the Kurds could possess more land. As a
    matter of fact although the demography has changed, the Assyrians
    still can't reclaim the land which they hold the title deeds,
    specially from their Kurdish neighbours. When it comes to using force
    and violence in such an occasion the Kurds' gains far exceed the
    losses. This they could forsee even back then. Who had hold of Seyf we
    had asked. Let us answer the question now. Besides the Asuri-Assyrian,
    the Armenian, the Ezidi and the Jewish communities everyone had a hold
    on Seyf. The Qizilbash also had a hold. We may also describe the
    Qizilbash road leading to extermination during the genocide this way :
    when you draw a circle around a Ezidi, that circle will be his/her
    destiny if s/he is a devout person. The Ezidi cannot escape the trap
    until you erase what you have drawn. This is not the drama facing the
    Alawites, but theirs is just as serious. Here we come to a subject
    that I enjoy working on very much. Western Armenians, the civilization
    they built and the seizure of this civilization's surplus value. The
    Western Armenians are a truely unique people. They are extremely
    prolific. Ofcourse by telling you this I don't mean to preach to the
    converted. They have expanded to all corners of the empire ; spread
    out to Russia, Iran, India, the whole world. Consequently, the values
    of the times could be conveyed to Sivas and even to the smallest
    villages of Dersim. These people were well aware of the dawn of a new
    world and they wanted to catch up with the times. The urbanites, the
    bourgeois, even the country folk wanted this as much as their
    knowledge and skill would allow. It was the Kurds and the Alawites
    that were the ones to benefit the most from this progress, this
    advance in society. They were attentive about taking tribute from the
    Armenian's income, and saw no harm in seizing the land of the poor
    Armenians that were pouring to the big cities. Although the Kurds were
    recognized by the state, they were still not productive enough as a
    community. Alienated from the states, the Alawites were a dispersed
    community, awaiting a massacre at any given time. The identities of
    the Assyrians, Armenians, Arabs, Turkmens and Kurds were disregarded
    for centuries. Despite the fact that the Alawites exist in all these
    groups, they possess no common ground. This in my opinion is the
    circle the Alawites were trapped in.

    I believe it is here that we have to unearth the role of the Alawites
    in the genocide of 1915. The greater part of the Alawites possessed
    weapons and power and called for the massacre of the Christians and
    the seizure of their wealth. Another group thought that annihilation
    would be disadvantageous. There argument was `These people are at our
    disposal and there's no way for them to hide their wealth from us. We
    always take our share and tribute. Why cut off our revenues, why shoot
    our own foot ?' Among these two groups, we also have the Alawite lower
    classes. What we gather from the stories of the Armenian, the Pertek
    and the Assyrians of ElazıÄ? and Adıyaman is that the peasant Qizilbash
    women, children and elderly, would not pick through the belongings of
    the people sent to their deaths ; nor would they torture them. They
    would only plunder their leftovers.

    At this point I'd like to state that the example of the Qizilbash is
    quite naive, specially when compared to the Kurds-Turks and
    Circassian, and this gives rise to misleading conclusions. When it
    comes to the looting and annihilation of the rich remnants of the
    Armenian civilization I have mentioned, the Alawite regions are more
    destructive but this fact is generally overlooked. Although Dersim,
    Sivas, Malatya, MaraÅ? and other provinces were rich in Armenian
    structures such as churches and schools, none were fortunate enough to
    survive like those in Diyarbakır, Bitlis, Van and Kars. This we must
    keep in mind. The first reading concerning the Alawites goes as
    follows : These people protected the Armenians at the risk of their
    own lives. True. For example, it was an old Qizilbash woman who
    brought the esteemed Armenian historian Soghomon Tehlirian back to
    life. This alone is an occasion to be proud. Tehlirian is not merely
    an anti-character who destroyed the destroyer. At the same time he is
    the possessor of a historical rightfulness that says, I killed a man
    yet I am not a murderer. This first reading is true only for the case
    of the woman, women and families that saved Tehlirian. Because it did
    not inhibit the right of the Tehlirians to determine their own future.
    On the other hand we have the deliverance stories of the tribes. It is
    here that this judgement becomes complicated. It was the economic
    imperatives of the Qizilbash that propelled them to save the
    Armenians. The ones that were saved, were so in two ways. First of
    all, those who took refuge in Dersim were transfered to Erzurum or
    Kars, in return for a certain payment, by armed Qizilbash and from
    there they were handed over to Russian soldiers or Armenian
    volunteers. Contrary to exaggeration, this was human trafficing pure
    and simple. Especially the events that took place in Sivas and Amasya,
    constitute the second case of deliverance. Huge Armenian convoys are
    set off. The local Qizilbash authorities have problems with the state
    ; nevertheless they turn a blind eye to the murders. Fearing for there
    own lives, the general population would not even dream of saying a
    word against the state. All that remained were dispersed families.
    Women and young girls. Children roughly the same age as Soghomon
    Tehlirian and Misak Manushian at the time. These people were rescued.
    We're talking about children, women and families with no identity.
    They do not know how to go or where to go. In other words they were
    not as fortunate as Manushian. Yes they were rescued. Because they
    were talented, jacks of all trades. Coming from hell on earth, they
    were deprived of the chance to object or reject slavery. Here at the
    essence of it all, very heavy exploitation prevails. And in these
    stories of deliverence, we hear nothing concerning the return of
    property or goods. Extensive seizures of farms, inns, public baths,
    vineyards and orchards took place and all those involved took a cut. I
    believe it is important that this should be publicly known and not
    fall on deaf ears. Despite all the suffering, the Armenians `rescued'
    by the Qizilbash lived in a way that affirms Dostoyevsky's hero in
    Siberian exile who asserts `Brother... Life everywhere is life'. This
    explicitly demonstrates their will to live even when faced with aÄ?ed
    (catastrophe). Herein it would be an incorrect interpretation to say
    socially the Qizilbash had cleansed their hands and purified their
    hearts. They found an opportunity for looting and took part in it.
    This is a fact.

    A counter interpretation would be that the Mirakian Tribe in Dersim
    were not forced to Alawism, their churches were not shut down, they
    did not forget their Armenian. Ä°n such a scenario we could speak of a
    rescue. But this was not the case. On the contrary an act of
    assimilation took place. For example the third and fourth generation
    youth of the Mirakian Armenian Tribe have only recently been baptized
    and regained their Christian chatacter. Many of these young people
    found the courage to do so in the neutrality of European countries.
    Very few, like Miran Pırgiç Gültekin, could not take the assaults and
    defamation any more and resorted to defend their identities in Western
    Armenia. As it can be clearly seen, this really is the story of the
    Armenians saving themselves from Alawism.

    Part 2.

    Armenian Monument, Christian Influences

    There's a monument by Sargis Baghdasaryan which is one of the symbols
    of the Nagorno-Karabagh (Artsakh) Republic. It is named `Menq Enq Mer
    Sarere' (We are Our Mountains). The old man and woman carved out of
    pumice stone represent the mountain people of Upper Karabagh. Before
    seeing Sargis Baghdasaryan's sculpture I had seen Tatik yev Papik. I
    don't know how much of an inspiration this monument was for
    Baghdasaryan. What I know is Tatik and Papik becomes Alik and Fatik in
    the Alawite language. Some Alawites prefer to call this monument the
    Bride and Groom Rock. The Dersim version of the monument is at the
    chimney on the road to Khavachur Creek. The bodies being portrayed are
    younger and the woman rests her head on the man's chest. The posture
    of the lovers, translates into the Alawite tongue as `the lovers have
    turned to stone after being reunited'. I've listened to many stories
    concerning the monumet, each one more beautiful than the other. But
    after careful examination I could see it was crafted by an Armenian
    artisan. A few sentences in Hayeren (Armenian) were written at the
    base of the monument. It was the first time I had seen the sculpture,
    but more importantly it was the first time I witnessed a monument
    being sanctified. What I learn today is of no importance in this
    sense. That day there was a crowd, of which I was a part of, trying to
    understand what was happening at the monument which if you like we may
    call `We are Our Mountains'. Then a woman dipped her hand in the
    sanctified oil and the ritual began. She drew nine crucifixes on the
    girl's body and nine on the boy's. The woman drew a crucifix on the
    girl's forehead and one on the boy's. She drew crucifixes on their
    eyes, then on their ears and noses, hearts and hands, their backs and
    feet. She drew nine crucifixes on each and then called to us saying :
    `This is the boy's heart'', her hand on his heart. `This is the girl's
    heart' this time her hand on the girl's heart. Then she put her hand
    on her own heart and said `This is my heart'. `This is our heart' we
    said all together and repeated what she said : `May this holy seal
    render your heart clean and may the spirit of righteousness always be
    with you'. Then she applied the oil on the feet of the girl and boy
    and we prayed all together : `May this holy seal serve as your guide
    and prevent your feet from stumbling, on your holy walk to eternal
    life.'

    Following the ceremony we lit candles, ate halva and prayed to Anahit.
    Alawites, Armenians, Circassians and Pomaks from neighbouring
    villages, all kirve (a sort of godfather to a boy at his circumcision)
    and kin, families that have become relatives, families that have given
    and taken from their own culture, all together we prayed, performed
    the ceremony and went our way.

    Armenian Women Leftovers of the Sword and a Childhood Memory About
    Levon Ekmekjian

    The villages and towns were left to the women. Because most of these
    women, these mothers were Armenian, these settlements looked more like
    they were in Armenia than in Turkey. The land we call Armenia is known
    for its struggles with endless massacres. These women had a son. Their
    hearts in their boots, they awaited news of him. The grapevine
    telegraph brough us no news. You needed guts even to talk of rumours
    about him. But the radio and television were giving reports about him
    every day. It was during those days that I realized I was friends with
    Levon. I took him, pulled him out from among his tears, made him my
    friend. He was still alive so I could not mourn as if he was dead,
    even though deep down I sensed the coming death. They were showing
    coverage of Levon's trial on television. Levron was saying he deserved
    to die and was expressing remorse. At home, with lumps in their
    throats, mothers and duaghters were crying their hearts out. From time
    to time, even I would submit to the dominant mood there in that room.
    But I would be lying if I said I was in constant grief as they were.
    When I was tete-a-tete with my friend, rather than feeling sorrow, I
    would play games with him, aspire to him, put on his dark sun glasses
    and walk beside him. It wasn't long after we became friends that they
    killed Levon. They put a noose around his neck, strangled him and
    buried him in a pitch-dark potter's field. For weeks and months I
    waited for his mortal remains. Since the immigrant Kurdish and Turkmen
    men have withdrawn from these lands and the villages and towns are
    left to the Armenian women, then this is his motherland. Levron was
    not a waif. Here there are women who grieve for him. Here there are
    the churches his people prayed, the fields they cultivated and the
    graveyards where they lie. He could have been brought here, this was
    his home. The women were Levron's mothers, the young girls and I were
    his siblings. If they had brought him here, maybe the mother's grief
    would ease a little. At least they would have a grave where they could
    go and cry over. But it didn't happen. The mothers now feel grief not
    only for their own sons' desolation, but also for Levron's.

    The Armenian Cemetery at the Village I was Born and a Testimony to the
    Way of Life Imposed on Armenians. Then someone dug out a dagger from
    the grave of an Armenian fedayee. This was during the stricter times
    of the state of emergency. The soldiers pretended they didn't know and
    the man took the dagger all the way to ElazıÄ?. The shopkeepers there
    told him that they didn't have that much money to buy the dagger so he
    decided to take care of it later and return to his hometown, since he
    was already rich. You unfortunate soul ; you may be blind but the
    world sees straight. The crafty soldiers caught the villager and
    seized the dagger, accusing him on the spot of taking the dagger as a
    gift to those hiding in the mountains. After cauterizing him for some
    time with the dagger, these torturer soldiers took the dagger and
    defected from the army. Oh Shakespeare, gold worth so much forces both
    the Kurd and the Turk to lose his humanity.

    Before there was so much robbery and looting, naturally when I was
    very little, I used to think that the Armenians only lived at night.
    They would come at night and the graves were infact houses. They would
    enter the graves through door that we did not know of and never come
    out in the daytime because they could not stand our filth. I would
    also have many dreams of this kind, where I enter a house and after
    passing naked bodies arrive at a tranquil place. Then I would hit the
    sack and when it was nighttime I would seed all the field again.

    I thought a lot these dreams later on. My father had an uncle from
    Erzincan's Armidan village. He came and settled in our village,
    marrying one of my father's aunts. They say he was an extremely
    talented yet very angry man. They say that the aunt used to beg
    grandpa to save her from this man, saying that he was killing her. Far
    from loving his wife Baron Dikran would beat the living daylights out
    of her, but my family would not dispraise him. They would take
    advantage of his talent. Behind the houses there were stables and
    barns. They had a house like that. In the dark, in a pit. No man with
    a heart would make a rat live there even, let alone a human being. But
    there they lived, having no other choice.

    dimanche 2 novembre 2014,
    Stéphane ©armenews.com
    http://www.armenews.com/article.php3?id_article=104890

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