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22.01.2009

ON MANIFESTAIONS OF IDENTITY IN TURKEY

   

Ruben Melkonyan

Melkonyan_Ruben (medium) In Turkish reality the issue of ethnic origin is rather delicate and it often finds reflection in politics, directly touches on state officials and politicians, causing different speculations. In Turkish “national” state belonging to other ethnos is regarded as an insult, something equal to “alien”. It is also a widespread method of “accusations” perceptible by vast masses.

Very often state officials of high rank and politicians have to go into the problem of ethnic identity and relating “accusations”. You can notice some blur and contradictions in their statements and comments. Among high-ranking Turkish officials the name of Turkish prime-minister Recep Erdogan is often mentioned in the context of ethnic identity and it is pointed out that he is not “pure-blooded” Turk. In the course of the discussion on his name on 6th December, 1997 in Sghert Erdogan tried to answer these accusations with his inherent ingenuousness: “They say I’m rizian or laz. I say that I am not laz. I asked about it my father, and he asked his grandfather who was mullah and he answered this way: “Tomorrow we’ll die. God will ask: “Who’s your god, who’s your prophet, what’s your religion? He will not ask about your nationality or kin. And then you answer: “Thank God I’m Muslim” and pass by.

But if we follow the ideas he expressed later, we’ll see that he contradicts to himself. Thus on 21st May, 2004 in Romania he declared that: “There are no more ideologies in the world. Both ethnic and religious ideologies are perishable”. This was followed by another statement which contradicted to the foregoing and which was made on 11th August, 2004 in Georgia: “I am also Georgian; our family is Georgian family which moved from Batum to Rize”. And on 12th April, 2005 in Norway Erdogan said: “I’m Rizian, my wife is from Aghert, she is Arab and not Turk”. Such a mess in his thoughts let Turkish media suppose that Erdogan is in the identity crisis now.

Different observations and facts let us attend, that among Turkish Armenians who had adopted Islam and their successors there is a strata of those who, having Armenian origin not only reject it, but also try to prove to their milieu their “pure-blooded Turkish” or Muslim descend and become convinced anti-Armenian. There is definitely some psychological point too. They psychologically regard the part of Armenians who could abide to their roots as their main enemies. The hostile attitude towards Armenians in Turkish society is also an important condition of anti-Armenian manifestations among those who had Armenian origins. They psychologically don’t want to belong to the hostile nation, that’s why they choose the road of assimilation with the dominant nation. Turning to this matter, the ethnographer Harutyun Marutyan expresses the following idea: “Publications, direct and indirect pressure of political and economic character may cause people to try to get rid of pinned labels, change their milieu, break off with their relatives and people of the same nation and in fact choose the road of assimilation and estrangement”.

Different sources impute Armenian or at least “non-pure Turkish” origin to many famous Turkish nationalists, and this, as it was mentioned above, can be used in political speculations. Among such examples we would like to mention the statement which was put into circulation recently saying that one of the most ardent anti-Armenians, the chairman of Workers party Dogu Perinchek has Armenian roots. We should remind you, that he is one of the most active extirpators of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide and he was condemned for the denial of the Genocide in Switzerland. Some Turkish circles made a big stink, and Perinchek was nicknamed as “the conqueror of Lozano”. The radical-chairman of Workers party evaluates the Armenian Genocide as “imperialistic lie”. Perinchek’s son is in the track of his father and he also joined the struggle against the recognition of the Genocide. It is worth noting that at present Dogu Perinchek is detained on “Ergenekon” terrorist organization case which caused a sensation in Turkey.

The scandalous disclosure of his routs drew a wide response in Turkish media. Thus, it was mentioned that Dogu is a native of Apchagha village in province of Eghin (Akn, Erznka). It is worth noting that province of Akn is well known for the great number of apostate Armenians and historical sources confirm that up to 1915 this province was inhabited mainly by Christians, generally Armenians and Georgians.

But Turkish magazine “Chronicle” came out with more serious facts of Perinchek’s origin. There are quotations from archival documents of the Ottoman court in the article which give information on demographic, social, economic, religious, ethnic situation in the region. In accordance with them there were many Armenians in the region at the close of 19th and the beginning of 20th century. Most of them were craftsmen, and they mainly lived in village of Akn. There were also many Armenians in the villages of Kemer-gab, Apchagha, Ilich and e.t.c. The village of Apchagha, the native village of Perinchek’s ancestors, was mainly inhabited by Armenians. The village headman, the members of the council of elders were Armenians. Some of their names have even remained in the court records: the son of Hakob Krikor, the son of Artin Kirkor and e.t.c. As it was mentioned in the foregoing article there was wide spread and at the same time interesting regularity among Armenians of Akn. They all had generic names (it should be mentioned for comparison that the surname law was put into circulation only in 1934, and only after that Turks began to use surnames), but it is interesting that most of them were made up of Turkish names: Mouratoglu, Degirmendjioglu, Chilingirolu, Ayvazoglu, Perinchegoglu and e.t.c. But there was one more interesting detail in the records of the court. In spite of the fact that most of them had Turkish generic names, their surnames were Armenian. Turkish and other surnames were exclusions. In that very court documents there are records saying that the Perinchoglus were Armenians, and there are even court cases where they were involved and there was mentioned that; “Perinchoglu Stepan and Khachatur of Armenian “millet” (nation)”. The father of Dogu Perinchek’s grandfather Mehmet Sadik was born in 1850 in Apchagha. His son Mehmet Djemal Perinchek also was born in the same village (1887). But as you can see, their surnames are not Armenian and, in fact, the above mentioned peculiarity is infringed. This may be regarded as exclusion but the facts from the court documents throw light on this and many other questions. Thus in the records of Ottoman court it was written clearly that Mehmet Sadik Perinchoglu was “muhetdi”, and muhetdi means a person who has converted the faith, it means that he had adopted Islam in the second half of 19th century, but there was nothing said about the reasons of the conversion of faith. This also means that Islam conversion policy with its ascents and declines continued during the whole history of Ottoman state. Dogu Perinchek is the offspring of Islamized Armenian. His Armenian descend made him take the road of self-denial and Turkish chauvinism.

However even this circumstance does not save the likes of Perinchek from the danger of accusation of being non-Turkish by Turkish society. This is what Bagrat Esdukyan, the journalist of “Akos” daily, writes about in his article “Who is Armenian?”: “What can we say to those who have disavowed their nation? Those who have not only disavowed but even hate their nation. But it occurs that collective memory doesn’t let you disavow your nation. It will reveal the true face of the adjurers and show what they have been trying to escape from for their whole life”.


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