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

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Memorial in the Ashnak village dedicated to the victims of Genocide.articles and calendars were published, information was distributed through the Internet. Memories ofthe personal tragedies of people leaving their “hiding places” became topics of public debates for severalyears and of course, they were no longer as personal or unique. During that time many names, wordsand terms lost their “dissident” nature, becoming partially part of everyday life. As a result, currentviews of young people are more collective and social compared to the views of previous generations.The present generation, however, lacks personal contact with and conception of Turks. It should also bementioned that this experience is accumulated based on the stories of people who went to and returnedfrom Turkey, or those who temporary lived there, as well as the experience of students of internationalexchange programs having contact with Turkish youth and those who use the internet. Anyway, mostof Armenian population’s views regarding Turkey and Turks are still influenced by family stories, so, theprocess of understanding the attitude of the Armenian public toward Armenian-Turkish relationshipsthrough an analysis of “oral history” can help to reveal some answers.90
Ritualization of Past MemoriesIt is hard to estimate the exact number of Armenians comprising 97 percent of the population of the Republicof Armenia who are directly related to Western Armenia and have family or personal memoriesrelated to Turkey and Turks. In addition to Armenians (mostly from Van, Kars, Sasoun, Moush and Bitlis)that survived massacres led by Young Turks and moved to Eastern Armenia, which was under Russianrule, some Armenian refugees who previously escaped to other countries (Iraq, Lebanon, Syria,Egypt, Iran, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, France, Argentine etc.) later on in the twenties, forties and sixties,settled in Armenia in several waves, bringing with them particular stories of their families. Thesewere survivors and their descendants from Western and Southern Turkey, particularly from Adana, Sebastia,Marash, Kesaria etc. They were not only the bearers of memories of massacres that took place inTurkey, but they were also breeding the environment for those memories and feelings.The family stories of those who managed to escape the massacres have penetrated into the families representingthe native population of Eastern Armenia, currently the Republic of Armenia. The ways of “penetration”were various. First of all, most of the initial survivors who managed to escape to Eastern Armenia livedin the houses of locals or in constructions adjacent to them thus making their hosts witness their grief,their sorrow, their feelings and memories. Second, these stories “penetrated” through marriages, as wellas through neighborly and work relationships between the survivors’ descendants and locals. Actually,there are few people in the Republic of Armenia that would not be able to tell a specific story aboutthe events of 1915-1922: “Of the entire family of my daughter-in-law’s grandfather, he was the only oneto survive” (and then follows the story of rescue). “The aunt of my uncle’s granddaughter’s husband escapedfrom the harem of one of the Turkish Beks...”. “The neighbor of our neighbor’s grandfather threwhim over his shoulder and carried him home....”; “My co-worker’s grandfather was raised in an Americanorphanage and until the end of his life he could not forget how his parents were slaughtered in front ofhim”... Stories starting with such introductions could be found everywhere.Similar memories have the descendants of those Yezidis and their families who together with Armenianssurvived the Turkish massacres in1915-20 . . It is safe to say that the majority of Armenia’s currentpopulation is the bearer of such “memories”.In addition to this, there are regions in the Republic of Armenia, which are densely populated with peoplebearing and living with such family memories: there are entire villages and urban districts, wheresurvivors and those who moved to Armenia after extended wandering live together. Current villages insome regions of the Republic of Armenia such as Talin, Kotayk, Armavir, Vardenis and many villages of91
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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
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How to Come to Terms with Phantom P
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It is always you who has to be nice
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to the way he was raised: “They f
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empathize with Armenians: “My aun
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Adil is not the only one marked by
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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 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
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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
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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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