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

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and can generally be located in Turkey’s region, which, starting from 1923, is called Eastern Anatolia), aswell as those fleeing other parts of Turkey found refuge in the territory of Eastern Armenia, at that timea part of Tsarist Russia, as well as in present Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, Iran, Greece, Russia,Georgia and elsewhere. Some of them later moved from these countries, to Western Europe and to theAmerican continent. In those years, many foreign governments and people helped Armenians by openingorphanages, which for many years remained the only chance of survival for the orphaned children.In the twenties, towns and villages in all Arab countries, Greece, Russia and Georgia were full of Armeniansliving in self-built wooden houses. While they were looking for jobs on the one hand, on the otherthey were trying to find their missing children, parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends withwhom they had started the dangerous journey of deportation, only to either lose them because of multipleattacks, or to leave the weakest and sickest along the way. There was no time to mourn the losses;the survivors had to look after each other to be able to start their lives all over again. There was no timefor grief, as they had to find those who were lost or missing, so they searched the newly opened orphanages. Young widows and widowers that lost their spouses joined together to help each other and raisetheir surviving children.Eastern Armenia was full of orphans, starving, emaciated and homeless people who begged every passer-byfor a piece of bread. Those who asked for food largely outnumbered those who could provide it.The population of Eastern Armenia, who was fighting in World War I on the side of Russia, was strugglingthrough a difficult period due to both the war and the persisting unstable political situation in Russiaas well as to the crisis that turned into genocide against the Armenians in Turkey. Additionally, therewas a significant Turkish-speaking 1 Muslim population on the territory of Eastern Armenia whose sympathieslay with the Turkish side. Therefore those Armenians who survived the massacres could onlylook for sympathy and support among the Armenian population in Eastern Armenia, which was the minorityof the country’s population. The resources of the Etchmiadzin Catholicosate and Armenian charitableorganizations were not sufficient enough to provide adequate food to the survivors. Soon, epidemicdiseases spread among the tired, frightened, orphaned and broken people and part of them died fromdisease, cold and hunger. During these years, hearses collected people who died overnight from theirwounds, hunger, cold and epidemic diseases from the streets of Etchmiadzin and Yerevan every day.In 1916-1917, some of the refugees began to return to their homeland, and in 1919 the rumor spreadamong the refugees that there was a coup d’état in Turkey and Armenians could now return home.Some people believed the rumors and returned with great hardship. However, the massacres were repeated,and in 1918-22 after losing more people, the returnee Armenians became refugees again, evictedfrom Western Turkey. The second wave of massacres in the environs of Van took place in the spring of1918. These were the very events which became the main reference point for the perception and mem-1 In this context the term “Turkish-speaking” was chosen because of the absence of a proper term denoting the identity of thisgroup. In the beginning of 20 th century their identity was expressed through religious affiliation – Muslim. Russian sourcescalled the Turkish-speaking Muslims in Southern Caucasus “Caucasian Ttars”; Armenians were calling them “Turks”.78
ories about Turkey and Turks for many Armenians, thus reshaping the attitude towards Turkey andTurks.This attitude, however, was suppressed because of the friendly relations between Bolshevik Russia andKemalist Turkey, as after 1920, Bolshevik Armenia could not have a conflicting policy from that of communistRussia and later the USSR. Therefore, the official ideology of Soviet Armenia considered it inappropriateto express negative opinions towards Turkey, and thus the attitudes of Armenians (those livingin Armenia) toward Turkey were confined within individual or family circles.Family memories of the present generation of Genocide survivors among the population of the Republicof Armenia, along with their apprehension about Turks and their influence on general public opinion,are represented in biographical materials which were used as sources for this work.79
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Published by:Institut für Internat
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ContentsForeword...................
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ForewordThe project “Adult Educat
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Aras, Yasin Aras, Welat Ay, Cenk Ce
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The main audience of this book is o
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“Wish they hadn’t left”:The B
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ed by 1915 and where memories of Ar
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1915 tends to be represented by int
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Yet to a large extent, Turkish inte
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this, we can’t. It’s impossible
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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 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
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Hamze Ptshuk, survived from Hosnut
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“I don’t Know...”Why did this
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“My Dear Almast, Write it Down, W
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took his rifle and ran. The dog fel
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she didn’t tell it to me. In the
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elder guy in this house died and hi
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AH - Turks always killed to get int
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“My Father used to Tell us at Hom
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person... I have never seen him, bu
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gotten what you knew”. So, out of
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a paid Adult Residential Facility,
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It was probably after 60s... My fat
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the Vardevar 1 day . Even if we mak
Page 157 and 158:
that this wasn’t a dream... and..
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was our historical village. Nich, I
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just filming around myself with no
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that person whether I could take a
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[Turk. wife]”. In the morning I t
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4 Albert Mamikonyan,1953, in Kirova
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11 Almast Harutyunyan,1920, Ujan vi
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18 Eleonora Ghazaryan.1949, Ashnak
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26 Nairi Tajiryan,1936, Egypt (Cair
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33 Vazgen Ghukasyan,1933, Ashnak vi
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