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Houshamadyan Releases 'Ottoman Armenians: Life, Culture, Society'

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  • Houshamadyan Releases 'Ottoman Armenians: Life, Culture, Society'

    Houshamadyan Releases 'Ottoman Armenians: Life, Culture, Society'

    By Contributor on December 19, 2014 in Books & Art, Headline


    By Haroutiun Kurkjian
    Translated by Khatchig Mouradian

    This is the title of the volume that Houshamadyan presented to the
    public as its first publication, three years after launching the
    website with the same title (houshamadyan.org). Already from a first
    glance standing out as an elegant volume, it holds in its 270
    large-size (28×22 cm) pages multidisciplinary research articles and
    photo galleries documenting a variety of themes.

    Cover of 'Ottoman Armenians: Life, Culture, Society'

    The publication is realized in partnership with Haigazian University
    and the Department of Turkology at the University of Bamberg.

    Houshamadyan's director, Vahé Tachjian, is the editor of the volume,
    while Elke Hartmann served as publication director. Art director
    Silvina Der-Meguerditchian has accomplished her task with impressive
    professionalism and aesthetics. Other colleagues conducted the
    translation, copy-editing, and layout. The volume is fully in
    English.1

    The media covered the publication of the volume and its presentation
    to the public through brief book reviews, event reports, and
    interviews.2 But this text is of a quite different nature. Far from
    pretensions and responsibilities associated with writing a book
    review, it aims at conveying clear impressions about the oeuvre and
    the phenomenon, and then emphasizes connections with the present,
    using a brief overview of the contents of the book as a springboard.



    Overview of content

    The preface by Tachjian is followed by three photo galleries
    alternating in a structured and neat manner with five research
    articles. The articles, with their various approaches, can be
    designated respectively as ethno-sociology ("Why Was Pastirmaci
    Khatchatur Efendi Killed? The Life of an Ottoman-Armenian Elite in the
    Mid-19th-Century Erzurum/Karin" by Yasar Tolga Cora); political
    history ("Imprisoned Communities: Punishing Politics in the Late
    Ottoman Empire" by Nanor Kebranian); cultural history ("Mapping the
    Fatherland: Artzvi Vaspurakan's Reforms Through the Memory of the
    Past" by Dzovinar Derderian); and cultural bibliography ("Manoog
    Dzeron and Alevor: Unique Authors of the Houshamadyan Genre" by Vahé
    Tachjian). The fifth article is an exhaustive list of memory books
    prepared by Mihran Minassian, divided geographically by region.

    The three photo galleries are separate from the articles--which have
    their own photographs--and stand alone; yet, they stand as equally
    amazing productions, themselves a product of a multidisciplinary
    approach. They are titled "Families," "Crafts," and "School Life."

    It is worth noting that the foreword of the book, penned by Haigazian
    University President Paul Haidostian, and then the listing of around a
    dozen sponsors whose financial support, alongside the enthusiasm and
    impetus in collecting materials for the book, have motivated the
    director of Houshamadyan to announce the publication of a new volume
    every year. We learn from an interview that preparations for volumes
    two and three are already under way.



    Dual merit

    The publication is to be commended first because its quality sets it
    apart from similar works. Other works, published by intellectuals and
    scholars or foundations in Europe and America, in particular, have
    tried to be albums, research monograms, and encyclopedic indexes,
    sometimes all at once, and sometimes unclear about their aims. These
    publications are often little more than albums of randomly grouped
    photographs, confusing in their amateurish editorial and
    "historiographic" elements.

    One of the publications that stood out among these earlier works, with
    its scholarly and artistic value, was "Les Armeniens 1917-1939: La
    Quete d'un Refuge" (The Armenians, 1917-1939: In Search of Refuge"),3
    which, by the way, was co-authored by the founder and director of
    Houshamadyan, and already showed some of the characteristic contours
    of the current Houshamadyan volume.

    In addition to the unquestionable superiority of the publication, one
    has to note a central issue, which is the overall approach of the
    Houshamadyan team, emphasized in the preface. The publication follows
    the principles that guided the Houshamadyan website--namely, a
    multi-disciplinary approach; a diversity reflecting the Ottoman
    Empire's essence, both multilingual and multicultural; the use of a
    variety of multilingual sources reflecting the real character of the
    Ottoman Empire; an emphasis on the value and importance of
    Armenian-language sources in research in the field, as evidenced by
    the very articles contained in the volume; and the impossibility of
    disconnecting the Ottoman Armenians from the socio-economic framework
    of the empire. A condensed formulation of these principles are also
    found on the Houshamadyan website, and is reprinted as an excerpt in
    this article.

    The objective of the publication, just like that of the website, is
    the examination and appreciation of the daily life of the Ottoman
    Armenians with a holistic approach (and not only through "tragic and
    gloomy episodes"), because today we remain oblivious to many facets of
    that past, and a scholarly examination of the very Armenian sources is
    necessary to shed light on this multi-faceted Armenian community that
    is little known. To revive this Armenian past and, furthermore, to
    grant it tangible immediacy, the website and this volume employ visual
    material--photographs, drawings, maps--that serve as focal points for
    the transmission of memory.



    Partnership of historical accuracy, active memory

    The photo galleries make this commitment to a true recreation
    particularly palpable. The introductory page to the first photo
    gallery, "Families," after citing how photography became closely
    associated with Ottoman Armenians in the 19th century and reached the
    farthest corners of the empire by the early 20th century, emphasizes
    how photographs from that period reached Houshamadyan--often from
    private family collections from all over of the world, mainly in
    digital form, thus turning these photographs into sacred fragments
    from a destroyed world. The author notes, "Each [photograph] is the
    glowing reflection and legacy of a particular family's lost life. At
    the same time, each photo is a microcosm, a unique sample of the
    collective fate that befell the Ottoman Armenians. Life and
    Catastrophe..."4

    Such a study of a centuries-old national and communal life not only
    enriches the sources of our historical, sociological, and cultural
    understanding, but awakens our senses and memory. This approached is
    outlined in the second segment presented in this article.

    The author cites literary works that testify to this effort to
    recreate, and are closely associated with the sacramental value of
    remembrances. It is in this context that Krikor Beledian's "Semer"
    [Thresholds] and Norair Atalian's "Kapuyt Yerznka/Erzincan" [Blue
    Yerznka/Erzincan] are quoted. And the introduction to the first photo
    gallery concludes with the following statement: "To remember and to
    reconstruct our past lives based on these memories, and to never
    forget the Great Catastrophe."

    This living presentation of fragments from a past is, concomitantly,
    scientifically valid; that is, unlike other publications of the same
    nature, it reveals the inception, identity, and trajectory of the
    featured artifacts, documents, and photographs. Yet this scholarly
    approach to documentation is at the same time sensory-emotional. It's
    never commemorative, ceremonious, and superficial, as that would not
    constitute remembrance, but a mere masking of amnesia, and the
    mummification of the reality ofYergir [Homeland], a word that we
    ceaselessly utter, although it has stopped being a living presence for
    us. The Houshamadyan volume is welcome especially for being an active
    and a reviving memory.

    The volume, as well as the website, stand as a testament to a holistic
    vision that is scholarly and artistic, and particularly pedagogical in
    the broadest sense of the word. It is the kind of vision that we need
    as a collective--as do our education systems and schools. In the words
    of the editor, "We must make Armenian studies accessible to the new
    generations. ... We must turn the Armenian history class, the Armenian
    museum, and any effort pertaining to Armenian history appealing... We
    should not repeat the mistakes that made all this synonymous with
    expired and boring. ... [We should also be] creative. The historian
    should know how to work with the artist...and to give the historic
    material appeal and generate greater interest."4



    ***

    In view of this work that is imbued with the dual advantages of
    scholarly and artistic caliber and the expression of a comprehensive
    vision, it is worth pausing and thinking today, a century after the
    genocide, about this challenge to our ceremonial, pro-forma memory,
    and our abstract love for the homeland--and this, in a time when buried
    across Western Armenia, the decimated, transfigured remnants of the
    Armenian nation are showing the first signs of revival and taking
    ownership of their ancestral homeland.

    Houshamadyan participates in this challenge with its website and the
    current volume, standing as a factor for revival. Despite being born
    from the memory-deprived Western Armenian Diaspora, it weighs in
    against the deprivation of memory. And for that, Houshamadyan is
    twice, thrice valuable for us.



    Notes

    It seems to me that it is important to have sections in Armenian--and
    another European language besides English--in a volume such as this
    (even if a very condensed version was presented in these languages) to
    counterbalance the hegemony of the English language. On the website,
    the presence of a section entirely in Armenian has essentially
    resolved this issue. For the publication, the editors would determine
    the format in which other languages appear. What is expressed here is
    a general concern on the importance of such diversification.
    See, for example, the reports in Aztag (Beirut, May 15) on the event
    launching the book, and the interviews in Ararad (Beirut) and Agos
    (Istanbul) on March 27 and March 7, respectively, the latter in the
    newspaper's Turkish-language section.
    Les Armeniens 1917-1939: La Quête d'un Refuge, Raymond H Kévorkian;
    Lévon Nordiguian; Vahé Tachjian, eds. (Beirut: Saint Joseph
    University, 2006)
    The editor of the volume has used the term "Catastrophe" in English in
    reference to the genocidal crime, the Medz Yeghern. In European
    languages--in English in this particular case--one may be obliged to
    employ the term. On the Houshamadyan website as well, Medz Yeghern and
    "genocide" are used as equivalents of that "Catastrophe."

    It is worth noting here that academics and intellectuals in the West
    do not always demonstrate sensitivity to this terminology and,
    prompted by the Judeo-Christian thinking, employ the termAghed.

    The use of the term Aghed in reference to the Medz Yeghern or Armenian
    Genocide of 1915 is not simply an understatement, but a serious
    mistake that demotes the act from a historical-political Crime to a
    metaphysical-theological concept, or simply a natural disaster, like a
    flood or an earthquake. At best, the Crime becomes the victim of a
    dubious game of dual-meaning.

    (Here, I remember how in Turkey in the years following the 1895-96
    massacres, the euphemismsTebk and Medz Tebk were used in reference to
    the massacres, under conditions of censorship and self-censorship. Are
    we still there? What censorship are we subjected to now?)

    Let us not forget that Aram Andonian, a witness to the Medz Yeghern
    and a pioneering historian documenting it, titled the French version
    of his book Le Grand Crime, which was a literal translation of Medz
    Yeghern, unlike "Catastrophe" or some Aghed.

    Conclusion: The genocide must be termed as Yeghern, Crime, and not as
    Aghed or Catastrophe, even if capitalized, in order to convey the
    political and legal dimensions of the act.

    Interview in Ararad (Beirut) on March 27, 2014.



    First Excerpt: Historiographical overview, the aims of the website

    In the first place historical difficulties led us to think that we
    should create a website of such wide content and size. Thus
    researchers in Ottoman studies very often find serious difficulties in
    source utilization. ... [T]he materials comprising Ottoman history are
    also multi-lingual and their study demands multi-disciplinary work.
    When...this or that people's language and therefore potentially rich
    sources are ignored, then it is obvious that the given study will be
    somewhat lacking...

    In this sense Armenian sources have, for a long time, been the missing
    link in Ottoman studies. There exist many books and articles of a
    scientific nature that occasionally relate directly to the Ottoman
    Armenians, but they are mostly based on materials written in
    Ottoman-Turkish. These kinds of works are found so frequently that,
    over time, it has become usual or even 'acceptable' to ignore Armenian
    sources in Ottoman studies. ... This is something that is lacking and
    unacceptable.

    Indeed, the Armenian element's view concerning its own questions is
    missing, as is that of its daily life. Thus, concerning these
    subjects, the materials written in the Armenian language are varied
    and very rich. They lead us into a new Ottoman world, where even
    traces of its many faces are impossible to find in non-Armenian
    sources. ... Thus it is our aim to give a new value to Armenian-language
    materials concerning Ottoman Armenians and to make them available to
    the public that does not speak Armenian. We consider all this to be a
    natural necessity for Ottoman studies.



    Second Excerpt: One-sided polarization and a break in Armenian historiography

    One-sided polarization and a break in Armenian historiography...the
    Armenian element has made a special effort in the period subsequent to
    [the genocide] to make the division between the one-time
    Ottoman-Armenian and Ottoman-Turkish environment sacred. Ottoman
    Armenian historiography has not been exempt from this either, and has
    been ascribed to the influence of new facts upon it and whose axis
    from then on was the catastrophe. We think that this influence
    persists until the present day.

    Indeed, in the historiography concerning the Ottoman Armenians,
    subjects connected with the genocide are preponderant presences. Every
    time an attempt is made to move away from this and study the
    pre-catastrophe Ottoman Armenian era, there is still a general
    tendency to choose disaster dates, for example the 1895-96 massacres
    of Armenians or the 1909 Adana massacres.

    There is also a diametrically opposed tendency which is bounded by
    Ottoman Armenian heroic events, the Armenian rebellions against the
    Ottoman government, revaluing them and making them subjects for
    studies.

    In any case, what is missing is Ottoman Armenian social life, local
    microhistories, the daily round and the socio-economic environment
    that are immediately connected with the general Ottoman social context
    and, we think, in the end are important keys to the understanding of
    all the other events...

    It is clear the result is that Armenian and Ottoman studies, instead
    of becoming academic disciplines that mutually complement and enrich
    each other, they have, for a long time, become areas of
    specialization, each ignoring the other.

    http://armenianweekly.com/2014/12/19/houshamadyan-ottoman-armenians/

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