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01.03.2010

ARMENIAN CATHOLICS IN TURKEY

   

There is an incomplete idea of the current situation of Armenians in Turkey in the discourse of Armenia and the comprehensive examination of this issue is of great importance. It should be mentioned that the study must include both the issues of Apostolic Armenians and the issues of Catholic, Protestant and Islamized Armenians¹.

While speaking about the problems of Armenian Catholics in Turkey it should be mentioned that they have originated not only in the spiritual and church plane, which, undoubtedly has a community-preserving function, but they have also been caused by human factor (the issue of mutual perception), as well as by the policy carried out by Turkey in regard to the community.

It is remarkable that the activity of the Armenian Catholic community in Turkey is presented rarely and insufficiently both by Armenian and Turkish mass media. It is natural that the “oversight” in the work of the Armenian party is conditioned by a number of obstacles, and the Turkish party confines itself to the superficial information, mentioning only the existence of the community which, undoubtedly, is a targeted policy, aiming to trumpet the confessional dissociation of the Armenians in that country.

When did the Armenian Catholic community in Turkey appear? It is a well-known historical fact that the conversion of the Armenians into Catholicism in the Ottoman Empire was initiated by Vatican by which decision groups of missionaries, who managed to convert by different means a small part of Armenians, were sent to Western Armenia.

Catholicism was adopted mainly by the villagers who thus tried to avoid Turkishizing, Islamization and, of course, physical extirpation².

The Turkish persecutions of the Armenian Catholics and confessional controversy with the Apostolic Armenians were finished after the meddling of the Pope and European states. As a result, in 1830 Turkish sultan recognized Armenian Catholics as a separate “Armenian Catholic nation” (millet)³ and allowed them to have their spiritual leader. This even more aggravated the splitting of the Armeniancy, especially, when in 1846 Armenian Protestants also acquired the status of separate “millet”.

Back in the 20s of the19th century many Armenian Catholics lived in Istanbul apart from those who lived in other cities and villages. There is no doubt that the Ottoman Empire carried out twofaced policy in regard to the Armenians. On the one hand, creating separate community (millet) it tried to split the Armenians on the religious basis, and on the other hand, it realized that in case of any problems with the new community it would have to reckon with European states, and mainly Rome.

During the Genocide Armenian Catholics living in the Ottoman Empire did not avoid the massacres and forced Islamization either. According to different data from 150 thousand Armenian Catholics living in the Empire only about 20 thousand survived and, mainly because of the forced deportation, settled in Lebanon, Syria, France and some stayed in Istanbul and Ankara.

The successor of the Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Turkey, left the status of the Armenian Catholic community, which had a hard time (just like the Apostolic Armenians living in Istanbul), the same.

There is scarce information about the number of Armenian Catholic community in Turkey; according to some data there are about 14 thousand Armenian Catholics⁴ though this number seems rather suspicious if we take into consideration that they did not avoid the forced deportation and massacres as the data of Rome shows that there were about 8500 members in the community in those years. Meanwhile, in 1980 the community became even smaller and the number of members reduced to 4500 people. The political instability in Turkey, military coups and pressure on the Armenians made the most part of the community leave for France, Canada and USA. It is not excluded that the Western countries played an important role in the organization of the emigration.

One of such examples is the comparatively recent emigration policy of the members of the Armenian Catholic community in Iran to the US initiated and managed by a number of Israeli and Iranian (Islamic) organizations.

Despite all these, today’s Armenian Catholic community in Turkey has 3650 members who mainly live in Istanbul and Ankara and are subject to Istanbul archiepiscopacy.

Unlike Istanbul the Armenian Catholic community in Ankara is not organized and this is one of the oversights of the Armenian Catholic Church though the difficulties are connected with the killings of the spiritual figures of other Catholic communities in Turkey⁵. Let us add that such steps may have an impact on the priests serving communities and this is the reason why Catholic Armenians live isolated. They are not even connected with the Catholic community in Istanbul. From time to time priests from Istanbul visit the city and try just to unite the community which consists of 60 families. In fact Armenian Catholics in Ankara have no church, and the church would have contributed to their uniting but raising such a question in Turkey is associated with great difficulties. As a result, Armenian Catholics are obliged to gather in French church where the sermons are delivered in Turkish because the community is fully Turkish speaking.

Unfortunately Armenian Catholics in Ankara do not speak Armenian at all and, according to some information, they have even no intentions to learn. E.g. Henry, Armenian Catholic living in Ankara, said: “I have never wanted my children to speak Armenian. We do not need Armenian here; there is even no school in Ankara. That would be of no earthly use”. Armenians in Ankara live like the citizens of Turkey and they remember that they are Armenians only when somebody reminds them. Armenian, which is of no practice usage, is estimated from the point of view of market reality. And in this case the importance of the language, religion or culture from the point of view of preserving the nation are not important at all, especially if the national identity is simply useless heritage of their fathers and grandfathers⁶.

The situation is quite different in Istanbul where the episcopate of the Armenian Catholic community is situated. Is should be mentioned that the community has about 2000 members who are rather organized and besides the churches belonging to the community there are also beneficial structures which facilitates, at some extent, the problems arisen.

There are 12 Armenian Catholic Churches in Istanbul, and only one church works in the city of Mardin, which is used by several Armenian Catholic families living isolated. Priest from Istanbul visit that church once a month to recite the mass.

Almost all the structures belonging to the community are situated in Istanbul and they carry out their activity for the good of the nation. Inside the community great work is carried out by the youth unions, the Union of Women. If in Ankara the community has no educational facilities, here there are four schools where more than 500 pupils study.

How do they treat Armenian Catholics in that country? Any report connected with the issues of that community causes speculations. E.g. Kurshat Kagramanoglu in one of his articles compares human qualities of the Armenian Catholics and Apostolic Armenians trying to strain the relations between the members of those communities through his negative evaluations: “despite the fact that the Armenian Catholics are smaller in number they look down at the Apostolic Armenians”⁷,¬ - mentions the author.

The point is that the comparison was made between Hrant Dink and the current editor of “Agos” newspaper, the representative of the Armenian Catholic community Etienne Mahchupyan. It is obvious that the confessional factor is not of essential importance in the Turkish policy carried out in regard to the Armenians; the national identity is the key factor.

Unfortunately, the opinions dividing Armenian Catholics and Apostolic Armenians are also sounded by the representatives of the Armenian community in Istanbul. E.g. “… it is well known that such Turkish speaking and cosmopolite Armenians as Etienne Mahchupyan want to control both the material sources and the administrative bodies of the community. They have not managed to do that yet. But it is obvious that after the death of Dink this lamp has passed on to Mahchupyan. This is an attempt to create a new community of atheist and Turkish speaking Armenians, independent of the Patriarchate. Though the spiritual figures from the Patriarchate pestered with their sectarian behaviour, I expect nothing good from Etienne Mahchupyan. And then after all why this man, being a Catholic, dares to interfere in the affairs of our community? The fact is that the Catholic community of Istanbul consists of the people who are separate from the Apostolic community. During the visit of Catalicos they even did not come to their church to greet him”⁸.

Such rare opinions let us assume that the treatment to the Armenian Catholic community is not very positive and it cannot contribute to the consolidation of the Armenians in Turkey.

There is rather obscure notion of the processes going on in the Armenian community in Turkey and the main reason is the absence of the information which does not allow scrutinizing the developments going on there.

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