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

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A soup pot with spoons around itAt the same time, when it came to describing events surrounding the rounding up of local Armenians byofficial decree, Necmi depicts ordinary people as passive bystanders. His language suggests a silencingboth on the part of witnesses and on his own: “During the deportation, a branch passed through Divriği.They were taken through side roads so that the crowd wouldn’t be noticeable. My mother used to say,‘One night we heard footsteps out on the street. We went to the gate of the courtyard and looked. Peopletied to one another by ropes were going by in silence. Many were moaning and coughing. They justwalked off.’ And my father used to say, ‘We woke up one morning and there weren’t any Armeniansleft in Divriği. We went into the houses and they just stood empty. In one of the houses, the dinner tablewas set, with a soup pot with spoons around it.’ It seems that the order came so suddenly. In themarketplace it was announced: ‘Let the Armenians gather.’ They said ‘It was announced, the town criercried, the shops were closed. They took the Armenians behind the municipality. We don’t know whathappened. Everyone ran to their homes. We don’t know what happened afterwards.’ We can’t find thewitnesses of that moment.”Yet Necmi insists that relations between Muslim families and their Armenian neighbors were close, beforeand even after 1915. He emphasizes the shared culture of the town: “There was a small group of musicians.If they were going to an Armenian wedding, they sang in Armenian. If it was a Turkish wedding,they sang the same songs in Turkish, and if it was a Kurdish wedding, in Kurdish. They knew them all.An Armenian family lived next to us. There were also one or two Armenians below the Muslim familywho lived on the other side. These were families who had been deported. Our Armenian neighbors wereinvited to dinner one evening during Ramadan. The neighbor said, ‘Tell us beforehand so that we canfast.’ As we shared a wall, we knocked on their wall when we woke up at night to eat our last meal beforefasting. They’d say ‘Yes, we heard you, neighbor.’ They’d follow the traditions, breaking the fast justlike Muslims. While we were praying, you could tell their lips were moving as well. There was the wifeof the last priest in town. The poor woman had suffered all the trials of the deportation. My mother toldme the story. While they were running away, a crowd appeared at the edge of a cliff. They felt the needto hide. But her youngest daughter began to cry. Fearing that they would be discovered, she threw herown daughter from that cliff three hundred meters high. She used to cry as she told my mother. Her husband,Vardan Efendi, used to gather kittens, put them in his sack and take them to the slaughterhousefor the animals to find some food. On his way he would ring our bell for a chat with my father. And whenthe sounds of the kittens were heard, he would say, ‘I’m bringing the Armenian convoy.’ He would jokelike this.” While Necmi suggests that the fact that survivors spoke about 1915 with their Muslim neighborsdemonstrates their intimacy, joking is also a means of expressing emotions like anger which canbe difficult to express directly.Necmi states that the town was impoverished as a result of the destruction of the Armenian community.But his account also shows that locals gained property as a result: “The locals gained nothing. Therewere very few Armenian artisans left downtown. All those neighborhoods were demolished. As a child,42
I used to go into the garden. The church was across our house. A man used to climb up the tower fromtime to time, with a hammer in his hand. They auctioned the Armenian houses. Those who bought themripped out the stones to sell them to builders.” Necmi’s own father purchased a house that the familyused to rent during the summers in what was once an Armenian neighborhood.Necmi’s account, based on what was transmitted to him by his elders and his own experiences as achild, reveals a sensitivity to the complexity of Muslim-Christian relations in the day-to-day life of anordinary Turkish town. Unsurprisingly, his narrative is marked by a number of silences. For example,what might have gone unsaid in survivors’ accounts? In the accounts of local Muslims? Some of the internalcontradictions in the narrative suggest that as a native son who is also a keen observer of local affairs,Necmi himself may be of two minds about some key issues, as are many individuals of Muslim originin Turkey.43
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 and 22: Yet to a large extent, Turkish inte
Page 23 and 24: this, we can’t. It’s impossible
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 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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