Speaking to One Another - The International Raoul Wallenberg ...

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Loneliness of Galileo: Grandpa, who are these Gavurs?Kamil was a student at the Veteran Mustafa Kemal Primary School in the central Anatolian town ofAkşehir in the early 1960s. Although the school building, a mysterious and frightening space, piquedKamil and his friends’ curiosity, only years later did they learn that it had once been a religious school:“You know the benches used in the churches for prayer, we studied on them. Of course that was a mysteryto us. They were saying, ‘Here is a kilise [church], or kirse [in the local dialect]’. There was a big organin the basement. We were all curious about it. When we touched a key, a sound came out of it andwe ran away. The teachers used to warn us not to touch it. But we knew nothing about the organ beingplayed in church. We weren’t told any of this, this was a secret. Like something hidden.”People don’t want to talk about these thingsAs a curious child, Kamil wanted to know the secret and constantly asked his grandfather: “Grandpa,who are these gavurs?” [“heathens”]. As he was begging his grandfather, “Grandpa please tell me, grandpatell me please” and pushing him, his grandfather tried to escape: “Oh Kamil, I’m tired! Oh, Kamil,don’t make me tell you these stories.” There were places such as gavur’s neighborhood, gavur’s house,gavur’s hamam [public bath] but the gavurs themselves weren’t there, nor did anybody talk about them,to satisfy his curiosity: “And also it was as if the state, or let’s not say the state, but somebody has forbiddenit somehow. People don’t want to speak about these things. I don’t exactly know if they wereafraid or what.”The knowledge that was hidden from the boy Kamil, “That this church was an Armenian church, thatthe people who prayed in this church were Christians of the Gregorian sect, that it was a religiousschool” he learned when he grew up.Although the teachers tried to keep the children away from the organ, his grandfather used his tirednessas an excuse and ‘somebody’ forbade speaking about it, it is impossible to cover the traces of the gavursor to inhibit a child’s curiosity:“Who was the guy who said, ‘the world keeps spinning even if you hang me’? Galileo, you know, theybring him to the inquisition. He says, ‘ok, the world isn’t spinning.’ While walking out the door, he says,‘mate, you are a fool, the world is spinning.’ ‘Come on, don’t act like that,’ he says. The Armenians andthe Turks have lived together for such long years, however much we might want to shut this out, end22
this, we can’t. It’s impossible because we’ve lived such a companionship, such a friendship, such neighborliness.”Kamil turns his face to official history in order to understand the history of this neighborliness, the secretof the ownerless churches or the neighborhood, houses and hamams which changed owners: “Wecame here in 1071. Who is here? Armenians are here, Greeks are here.” From this date, when accordingto official history the doors of Anatolia are opened to Turks, until World War I, when outside forcesmade “the two people enemies of one another”, the relationship between the Turkish population andArmenian population was “exceedingly good.” However, according to the history that Kamil recounts, a23
Page 2 and 3: Published by:Institut für Internat
Page 5 and 6: ContentsForeword...................
Page 7 and 8: ForewordThe project “Adult Educat
Page 10 and 11: Aras, Yasin Aras, Welat Ay, Cenk Ce
Page 12 and 13: The main audience of this book is o
Page 15 and 16: “Wish they hadn’t left”:The B
Page 17 and 18: ed by 1915 and where memories of Ar
Page 19 and 20: 1915 tends to be represented by int
Page 21: Yet to a large extent, Turkish inte
Page 25 and 26: een very advanced in trade and craf
Page 27 and 28: How to Come to Terms with Phantom P
Page 29 and 30: It is always you who has to be nice
Page 32 and 33: to the way he was raised: “They f
Page 34 and 35: empathize with Armenians: “My aun
Page 36 and 37: Adil is not the only one marked by
Page 38 and 39: ness may be an attempt to overcome
Page 40 and 41: dernity and the oral transmission o
Page 42 and 43: A soup pot with spoons around itAt
Page 44 and 45: What if My Mother is Armenian?Ruhi
Page 46 and 47: If I were younger I’d get baptize
Page 48: with butter. We’ll serve the impo
Page 51 and 52: The time Salih and Gavrik are worki
Page 53 and 54: Turkey’s changing context is refr
Page 55 and 56: ‘It was to be expected.’ And my
Page 57 and 58: against one another. The feet of th
Page 59 and 60: Fear of Losing a CityZübeyde was b
Page 61 and 62: half for me.’ But what do our Mus
Page 63 and 64: e discussed when the kids were arou
Page 65 and 66: possible by the difference in relig
Page 67 and 68: The Charm of AraratMehmet is a 62-y
Page 69 and 70: dogs protected the sheep against wo
Page 71 and 72: The Story of the “Night People”
Page 73 and 74:
“I don’t know why, but my grand
Page 75:
Research in Armenia:“Whom to Forg
Page 78 and 79:
and can generally be located in Tur
Page 80 and 81:
“Whom to Forgive? What to Forgive
Page 82 and 83:
“Private Stories”After the esta
Page 84 and 85:
Recalling MemoriesOral history diff
Page 86 and 87:
In the village of Ujan, where the v
Page 88 and 89:
The home-museum of Gevork Chaush in
Page 90 and 91:
Memorial in the Ashnak village dedi
Page 92 and 93:
other regions are entirely populate
Page 94 and 95:
sources and materials for their mem
Page 96 and 97:
Ergir’s Soil is Strong, Ergir’s
Page 98:
Tatevik, the granddaughterof Mihran
Page 101 and 102:
eral meanings in Armenian -”whole
Page 103 and 104:
The Gospel with Golden Binding of S
Page 105 and 106:
keeps a copper chalice that was bro
Page 107 and 108:
In some families the passports of t
Page 109 and 110:
at that time, Mustafa and Jamal, wh
Page 111 and 112:
People were so frightened to lose g
Page 113 and 114:
naked, they were decapitating every
Page 115 and 116:
Water, Fire, Desert“There was an
Page 117 and 118:
his mother dragged him behind her,
Page 119 and 120:
Many of our narrators mention the R
Page 121 and 122:
In the word-stock of the survivors
Page 123 and 124:
in Kurdish villages, and helping th
Page 125 and 126:
“Well, They Are Human Too”Even
Page 127 and 128:
member this well, they said, the el
Page 129 and 130:
speak to each other. Questioned by
Page 131 and 132:
Hamze Ptshuk, survived from Hosnut
Page 133 and 134:
“I don’t Know...”Why did this
Page 135 and 136:
“My Dear Almast, Write it Down, W
Page 137 and 138:
took his rifle and ran. The dog fel
Page 139 and 140:
she didn’t tell it to me. In the
Page 141 and 142:
elder guy in this house died and hi
Page 143 and 144:
AH - Turks always killed to get int
Page 145 and 146:
“My Father used to Tell us at Hom
Page 147 and 148:
person... I have never seen him, bu
Page 149 and 150:
gotten what you knew”. So, out of
Page 151 and 152:
a paid Adult Residential Facility,
Page 153 and 154:
It was probably after 60s... My fat
Page 155 and 156:
the Vardevar 1 day . Even if we mak
Page 157 and 158:
that this wasn’t a dream... and..
Page 159 and 160:
was our historical village. Nich, I
Page 161 and 162:
just filming around myself with no
Page 163 and 164:
that person whether I could take a
Page 165:
[Turk. wife]”. In the morning I t
Page 168 and 169:
4 Albert Mamikonyan,1953, in Kirova
Page 170 and 171:
11 Almast Harutyunyan,1920, Ujan vi
Page 172 and 173:
18 Eleonora Ghazaryan.1949, Ashnak
Page 174 and 175:
26 Nairi Tajiryan,1936, Egypt (Cair
Page 176:
33 Vazgen Ghukasyan,1933, Ashnak vi
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