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

Fear of Losing a CityZübeyde was born into one of Van’s wealthy families in 1940. Her grandfather was a merchant whoowned nine shops in the city center. Although Zübeyde never met her grandfather, she grew up listeningto stories about how he migrated from Van by oxcart, leaving his shops and house behind. She sawAram Pasha’s house where her grandfather settled when the Armenians were “expelled” from Van, andremains inspired by the thought of the gold believed to be buried here and in the entire city of Van, andfilled with the fear that the former owners will return one day to take their houses, gold and the wholecity back. Zübeyde’s story sheds light on how the recent history of Van is remembered by its Muslim inhabitants.Zübeyde uses the term seferberlik [mobilization] to refer to the capture of Van by the Russians and Armeniansand the subsequent migration of Muslims: “Van belonged to the Armenians. The city center,the fields surrounding the castle belonged to the Turks. After the seferberlik, they persecuted Muslims alot. There were none left, they were all conscripted.” One of them is Zübeyde’s grandfather: “My grandfatherwent to the army, my grandmother and my uncle died. Only my mother survived. Back then busesdid not exist; there were ships, but not enough for everyone. They escaped with oxcarts. My motherremembers their wheels rolling over the corpses. The majority died because of the smell.” Before he setoff on his journey from Van to Diyarbakır, Zübeyde’s grandfather destroyed his property: “They openedthe barn doors. They let the animals out, and they set their house on fire so that it won’t be left to theArmenians.” And he buried the gold, source of inspiration for many legends: “In those days the currencywas gold or silver. They left the gold, thinking they would come back. My grandfather, while going toseferberlik, buried cans filled with gold.”Our soldiers were hardly picking beetsWith the changing of power relations in the city, the period Zübeyde calls seferberlik came to an end:“Turkish soldiers expelled the Armenians. As they said in the old days, ‘They repelled the enemy’.” Nowthe persecuted Muslims became the persecutors: “Sure, Armenians were also killed, were our soldierspicking beets? It was blood for blood, death for death, the strong against the weak.” And those who lefttheir property behind this time were the Armenians: “They took their lives and went. They didn’t takeanything. They said, let’s leave this house right now, just like that.” According to Zübeyde’s account,their departure did not differ much from that of the Muslims; they set their houses on fire, buried cansof gold.59