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27.12.2010

“THE NUMBER OF THE RECLAIMED ARMENIANS GROWS”

   

Among the various processes taking place in today’s Turkey the processes round the ethnic issues occupy rather unique and important place. In this very context the reconversion (reconversion to Christianity) and such a phenomenon as reclaiming the roots should be considered. Various data come to prove that the process of reconversion is mainly spread among the forcedly Islamized and crypto-Armenians. Numerous facts from various sources prove that this process tends not to decline but quite the opposite – it gains momentum.

In the recent period Turkish sources rather often turn to that subject and bring rather interesting facts. Not long ago a remarkable article was issued in the Turkish authoritative “Radikal” daily (20.11.2010) where the author – Mine Tuduk, brings fresh examples of the reconversion among the forcedly converted Armenians. Below the aforementioned article translated from Turkish and abridged is brought.

R.M.

In the recent years the number of the people who after learning about their Armenian decent change their national identity has been growing. Yusuf Yilmaz (37 years old, jeweller): “Our family is from Adiyaman, but I spent my childhood in Ayntap. Everybody knew us as Kurd Muslims. My father and mother were fervent Muslims. My father was an official who was performing salah fiver times a day, and my mother was a housewife who took care of seven children and who kept fast. We spoke Kurdish but we knew Turkish as well. In summers when we went to Adiyaman while we were playing with the children from the neighborhood and when there was a controversy between us they said: “Get away giaour, you’re Armenian”. At first did not understand. One day when I was 12 I asked my mother and she told me that we were Christians and then we adopted Islam. She also told me that we were of the Armenian origin. When I learnt it, I began crying because in the school we were taught that Armenians were traitors. How could it happen that I was Armenian too?

I’d been in a state of psychological wavering for years because of the dual identity. I moved to Istanbul, tried to understand the Bible, started visiting Armenian Church in Yenikati district. When I was 19 I decided to be baptized as a Christian, and because of this my father and uncles had not talked to me for a while. I have been living as a Christian for 17 years. There is a saying in Islam “A man who rejects his origin is a mean person”. That is the story of reclaiming the roots told by Yusuf Yilmaz but this is not the only example.

High ranked source tells to “Radikal” that in recent 3-4 years especially in Istanbul an appreciable growth of a number of the Armenians who turning to the Patriarchate or churches have reclaimed their religion and roots. According to the source the number of such people annually increases by “hundreds”: “At first the issue of the Armenian origin of the applicant is studied and there are several ways for that. E.g. the registration books, documentary data of the Patriarchate and local verbal evidences. The most remarkable fact is that such people are mainly from Eastern Anatolia”.

Though the Armenian taboo has begun to be surmounted but it is still difficult for the Armenians who outwardly have Turkish or Muslim identity, to reclaim their true identity. The aforementioned source tells us about s tragedy of a person who wanted to reconvert: “A 30 years old lawyer who lived in Istanbul wanted to reconvert. He was from rather well-known family which emigrated from Central Anatolia where it has lands, gardens. In 1915, during the exile of the Armenians, despite the strict ban, they managed to give a bribe and to get to Istanbul. The lawyer accidentally found out five years ago that they are Armenians. His family was actively involved in the activity of the radical right organizations and they were educated as Turkish nationalists. When he found out that he was an Armenian “he went out of his head” because he perceived Armenians as enemies and aliens. Mother and father told him: “We had to do that. We did it for your sake”. He had been torn by an internal strife for five years. Finally he decided to reconvert but he family was against saying “You will make us harm”. “Now I am between Scylla and Charybdis. I fill comfortable neither in the Muslim environment nor in the Armenian”, - he said.

The pastor of the Armenia Evangelical Church in Gedikpasa district in Istanbul confirms the fact that the converted Armenians reclaim their roots. He pays attention to the fact that especially in the recent five years in this issue a growth has been noticed. He says: “In Anatolia there are about one million Armenians who lost their identity. Those people come to us from different towns, settlements, villages of Anatolia. Those people who had lived for decades as Muslims but who in reality were Christian Armenians come to us for an advice. They turn to the churches, priests to reclaim their roots. For those who live in Anatolia it is even more important because the places where they live are small and there are threats of pressure by the environment or isolation on behalf of their relatives. That is why many people in provinces give up on taking such a step.

The chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Armenian the Twelve Apostles Church in Kadali district of Istanbul Tigran Gevorgian says: “A human being cannot be cut adrift from his roots. Today there are many crypto-Armenians whose mothers or grandmothers were obliged to change their religion or identity due to political reasons.

Meral T. (45 years old, housewife): “My father was brought up in accordance with the Armenian culture, but both my grandfather and father and his brothers lived like Muslims outwardly. When I was 15 my mother told me that we are Armenians and I was very surprised. My father told me that after the exile they had to adopt Islam. At the age of 28 I married an Armenian from Istanbul and decided to reclaim my roots, so I was baptized”.

Selahattin Gultekin (45 years old): “I’m from the Armenian family from Dersim and I was brought up in accordance with the Alevi culture. Everybody in our environment knew that we were Armenians. Some members of our family after moving to Istanbul and France reclaimed their roots, they were baptized as Christians. In a course of time taboos in the society has been broken and such a state of things that prompted me that “the time has come”. Six months ago I was baptized and changed my name becoming Mihran Prkich. I am married and I have two children who study at the University. It is up to them to decide when “their time will come”.

Translated from Turkish by
Ruben Melkonyan

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