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28.02.2011

ARMENIAN VARTO CLAN IN EUROPE

   

Vercihan Ciflioglu

During the Armenian Genocide a large Armenian clan, which was called Varto, after its leader Vardan and which inhabited Sirnak province, managed to escape the massacres and to shelter in mountains. After that this group of survived Armenians, isolating themselves from the rest of the world, began their struggle for survival which had lasted for several decades. Over that period the self-preservation instinct impelled them to break Christian prohibition and to breed in and in. At the same time the members of the kin were fervent Christians. As it is known, the widow of Hrant Dink, Rakel Dink is also a member of Varto clan. During the personal meeting with her in May 2009 in Istanbul we asked her about contradictions between intermarriages and Christian prohibition, and she answered that the Apostle Paul had an idea according to which that the sin made under constraint was not a sin. Then saying that in case of intermarriages there was a major risk of different diseases she added: “There are no diseased or mentally retarded people in our kin and we consider it as a grace and sign of God who have not considered our constraint sin as sin”.

The Armenian community in Istanbul learnt about Varto clan only in late 1960s and by the combined efforts of the then Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul Shnorhk Galustian and the priest of the Armenian Evangelical Church Rev. Hrant Guzelian, at first the children of the school age and then the whole Varto clan moved to Istanbul. Of course, this initiative of the Armenian priests faced tough reaction of the Turkish special services which wanted to impede the revival of the splinters of the survived Armeniancy. However, after living for about a decade in Istanbul, Varto kin decided to migrate to Europe and today there is only one representative of that kin living in Turkey – Rakel Dink.

It should be accepted that there are many unrevealed details of the history of Varto clan, and there is almost no information about their life in Europe. In this regard the article by Vecihan Ciflioglu, Turkish Hurriyet Daily News newspaper’s correspondent of the Armenian descent, published in January 2011 is remarkable. The article tells about the current situation of Varto clan in Europe. As Vercihan mentioned he had recently spent about a week in Marseille where he met with different representatives of Varto clan, talked to the old and young members of the clan, and as a result he wrote rather interesting article which is translated and brought below with some abridgement.

R.M.

The representatives of Varto clan (Vardan in Armenian and Varto in Kurdish), which used to be one of the biggest clans in South-Western Anatolia, now live in Marseille and Brussels. The total number of the members of the kin in Europe is 1200; the languages they speak are Turkish and Kurdish. The only representative of Varto kin in Turkey is Rakel Dink. Her father, Siament Aga, possessed thousands of acres in Silop and Cizre districts of Sirnak province. The kin had moved to Istanbul in groups by the efforts of the 82nd Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul Shnork Galustian. Among those who moved were Rakel Dink and her father Siamet Aga. The later, like other members of the kin, could not sell his lands and thus, leaving them, moved to Istanbul. In several years numerous clan tried to leave for the Soviet Armenia, but later, in mid 1980s they started leaving for Marseille and Brussels. In Marseille, like in Sirnak, 500 members of the clan live all together in three settlements founded by them. The members of the clan who has grown up in France are involved in various fields of activity – from trade to politics. There are no more cases of intermarriage but traditions are still preserved and daughters-in-law and sons-in-law who become related with the clan must accept its rules.

One of the representatives older generation of the clan is Fidel Pargev Yalic, who is the son of the uncle of Rakel Dink. Pargev Yalic told that their clan had lived in Sirnak for centuries and added: “there were times when we were the richest clan in the south-west; we possessed thousands of acres”. Yalic mentioned that in 1915 they had broken off all the ties with the rest of the world: “We thought that there was no more Armenian in this world left except us. There were several hundreds of us and that’s why, though the intermarriages are prohibited in Christianity, we bred in and in, in order to preserve. Kurdish clans in Sirnak took away all our property; we were flattened out, besides, we were obliged to pay taxes. We suffered many privations on behalf of Kurds”. Yalic told that from 1915 to 1968 they lived in a kind of ghetto and only in 1968 they learnt that there were also other Armenians in Turkey besides them, and this caused unspeakable excitement. “There was a young man whose name was Orhan Bakir. One of his parents was Armenian and the other one – Assyrian. He passed his military service in Istanbul and there he found Armenians and learnt about the Armenian Patriarchate with which we established the relations. But for those ties, we might have been living there isolated till today”. Yalcin said they had not had even identity papers and they had not even known their exact age: “Later identity papers were given only to the men of our clan, just for military checkup”.

The other relative of Rakel Dink – Samvel Yagir added: “After the establishment of the ties with the Patriarchate they wanted to take children to Istanbul for educating them. I was in the first group and Rakel was in the second group. But one judicial problem has aroused: security services interfered when found out that the children of the clan are taken to Istanbul in large numbers. However, the issue, though with difficulties, was settled”. Yagir mentioned that the elders of the kin gathered and took a decision to live their lands in Sirnak and to move: till 1977 the clan had fully established in Istanbul. The members of the clan established in Sisli district in Istanbul where many other Armenians lived. The privations were left in the past; the Armenian Patriarchate took them under its wing, but the elders of Varto again decided to change their place of residence and in 1978 they sent a group to the Soviet Armenia to study the situation. But the group, after returning to Turkey, stated that because of the communism it would not be convenient to live in the Soviet Armenia. Yagir presented the reasons of their migration to Marseille and Brussels in mid 1980s in the following way: “One young man from our kin took part in the military coup in 1980 and then fled to France. When one of us is in danger we all rally round him. You may call it identity preservation instinct, but, however, the elders of the clan drafted a secret plan and set out. In two groups and in different ways we reached Marseille and Brussels. Today, though we live in different countries, but we are all united and we are well-informed about each other”.

The representative of the younger generation of the clan Karo Yalic (37 years-old) is the only one from Varto who is involved in politics: several years ago he entered the party of the incumbent president Nicola Sarkozi and undertook political activity. No matter how far is the kin from Turkey, the strong ties with Rakel Dink are preserved. Due to the efforts of Karo Yalcin a number of events in memory of Hrant Dink were organized in France and one of the streets in Marseille was called after Dink.

The question whether it was possible that Varto kin would rise a new wave of migration, Pargev Yalic answered the following way: “We have no problems in France and Belgium, but our heart is with Armenia, and maybe one day we will take a decision and all together will move to Armenia”.

Translated from Turkish into Armenian
by Ruben Melkonyan

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