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Armenians in Turkey Today: A Critical Assessment of the Armenian Minority in the Turkish Republic

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Armenians in Turkey Today: A Critical Assessment of the Armenian Minority in the Turkish Republic

Armenians in Turkey Today: A Critical Assessment of the Armenian Minority in the Turkish Republic

    Tessa Hofmann
ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY Dr. Tessa Hofmann A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE SITUATION OF THE ARMENIAN MINORITY IN THE TURKISH REPUBLIC 2 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY The author Dr. Phil. Tessa Hofmann is a member of the Eastern Europe Institute of the Free University of Berlin and author or editor of ten books on Armenian history and culture. She is also a volunteer human rights activist and defender of minority rights since 1979 and has published or lectured on many occasions on the situation of the Armenian minority of Turkey. In this capacity, she is also an expert for German federal authorities and administrative courts dealing with asylum applications of Turkish citizens of Armenian ethnic background. The Armenian Benevolent Foundation, New York, gave her the first Garbis Papazian award in 1988 in recognition of her scholarly and humanitarian activities and the Hrachia Ajarian University of Yerevan awarded her the academic title of Professor. The Forum of Armenian Associations in Europe The Forum of Armenian Associations in Europe was established in 1998 to assemble and facilitate co-operation between Armenian organizations in the European Diaspora. It now counts member organizations in 18 European countries and growing. The Forum is pluralistic and deals with all issues of interest to its member organizations, including international relations, human rights issues, economic co-operation and cultural matters. The EU Office for the Armenian Associations of Europe assists Armenians associations in working with the European institutions; it helps provide information of the highest standard to the European institutions on Armenians issues and disseminates information on EU policies that are relevant to Armenians. Acknowledgements The FAAE wishes to express its heartfelt thanks to the author and to all those who contributed to this report with information, financial contributions and practical assistance. Questions or comments on the text should be addressed to the EU office of the FAAE. The EU Office of Armenian Associations of Europe 40 rue de Washington, B-1050 Bruxelles, Belgium Tel : ++ 32 2 640 81 88. Fax : ++32 2 646 05 25. October 2002. Responsible editor: Nicolas Tavitian ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 3 Contents CONTENTS ................................................................................................................................................................3 FOREWORD...............................................................................................................................................................5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................................6 RECENT REFORMS AND CHANGES ...............................................................................................................................6 RECOMMENDATIONS ..................................................................................................................................................7 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................9 HISTORICAL SETTLEMENT AREA .................................................................................................................................9 CHRISTIANITY AS AN INTEGRAL COMPONENT OF NATIONAL IDENTITY .............................................................................9 PRESENT NUMBERS, SOCIAL SITUATION AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ARMENIANS IN TURKEY ..........................9 I. IN OTTOMAN TIMES: HISTORICAL REVIEW AND BACKGROUND ................................................................12 II. IN THE TURKISH REPUBLIC..............................................................................................................................15 ONGOING PERSECUTION ..........................................................................................................................................15 LEGAL DISCRIMINATION: BANISHMENT AND CONFISCATION OF PROPERTY ....................................................................15 VARLIK VERGISI KANUNU: THE PROPERTY TAX FOR NON-MUSLIMS 1942-44 - A VIOLATION OF ARTICLES 39 AND 40 OF THE LAUSANNE TREATY ...........................................................................................................................................16 DISCRIMINATION IN THE '1970S ................................................................................................................................16 SERFDOM: FEUDAL CLIENT RELATIONSHIP .................................................................................................................17 FORCED ISLAMISATION AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 1980S ..........................................................................................17 THREAT TO LIFE AND LIMB: ATTACKS ON THE ARMENIAN COMMUNITY IN ISTANBUL. ......................................................18 III. ARMENIAN INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR PROBLEMS .....................................................................................23 1. CHURCHES..........................................................................................................................................................23 2. ARMENIAN SCHOOLS ............................................................................................................................................25 3. FOUNDATIONS. ....................................................................................................................................................27 IV. VIOLATIONS OF FUNDAMENTAL........................................................................................................................31 INDIVIDUAL CIVIL RIGHTS ....................................................................................................................................31 1. FREEDOM OF CHOICE OF PROFESSION ...............................................................................................................31 2. THE RIGHT TO HOLD POLITICAL OFFICE..................................................................................................................31 3. PROTECTION AGAINST DISCRIMINATORY TREATMENT DURING MILITARY SERVICE .....................................................31 4. FREEDOM OF OPINION, CONSCIENCE, RESEARCH AND THE PRESS ..........................................................................32 V. ANTI-ARMENIAN REPORTING IN THE TURKISH MEDIA ...............................................................................35 VI. NEGLECT AND DESTRUCTION OF ARMENIAN CULTURAL HERITAGE ....................................................39 VII. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. ................................................................................................43 RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................................................................45 4 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 5 Foreword 87 years after Turkey’s Armenian population was exterminated, the country’s small remaining Armenian minority is still the target of intense prejudice, often nurtured by part of the country’s media and political establishment. Armenians are still subject today to an impressive array of discriminatory measures, whose apparent purpose is to make life as an Armenian impossible in Turkey. Turkey is now knocking insistently at the door of the European Union. Should not the country’s current policies towards the survivors of the genocide be an essential litmus test of its willingness to adopt ‘European values’ and consolidate democracy? The purpose of this report is to provide accurate information on the current situation of Armenians in the Turkish Republic to all those, including political leaders, elected representatives, diplomats, officials, journalists and experts who are involved in Turkey’s preparations to join the European Union. The report was written by Dr. Tessa Hofmann, one of the foremost specialists in her field; and our hope is that it might help contribute to an improvement in the policies of the Turkish Republic regarding its Armenian minority in particular and Armenians in general. Nicolas Tavitian Advisor, EU Contact and Information Office of the FAAE 6 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY Executive summary Some 70 000 Armenians still live in Turkey, most of of discrimination and abuse; and freedom of speech is them in Istanbul. The Eastern part of Turkey is this carefully circumscribed. Criticism of the government’s people’s original homeland, which was emptied of treatment of minorities, in particular, is out of the Armenians in the course of the genocide of 1915, of question. follow-up cleansing operations in the following Armenians are regularly the target of campaigns and decades, and of persistent discrimination towards harassment, in which part of the media and political Armenians and other Christians in these areas. Most elite join forces to whip up public fear, resentment and Armenians belong to the Apostolic church, while a anger toward an urban minority now representing at small minority are Catholics or Protestant. most 0.1% of the country’s population and routinely blamed for the country’s troubles. The school The situation of Armenians can be described as the curriculum also contributes to teaching hatred of the combination of intense prejudice with an impressive Armenians. As a result, “Armenian” remains a term of range of discriminatory legal and administrative abuse and polls indicate that Armenians are the most measures. The accumulation of the many restrictions, hated people in Turkey, while 73% of Turkish children the arbitrariness with which changes occur and the think Armenians are “bad people”. legal uncertainty, which favours arbitrariness, determine the daily life of the Armenian community in The country’s thousands of Armenian historical Turkey. The aim of these restrictions is the assimilation monuments, furthermore, are also being intentionally or emigration of the Armenians. destroyed or left to decay, in a massive effort at obliterating the memory of the Armenian presence in The activities of Armenian organisations, like those of Anatolia. all non-Muslim minorities, are strictly restricted to the religious, social and educational fields, under the authority of the church and of religious foundations. The right of association is not recognized to minorities. RECENT REFORMS AND CHANGES Yet even strictly religious activities are gravely hindered through government measures resulting inter The Turkish Grand Assembly passed a package of alia in a critical shortage of priests, confiscation of reforms in August 2002 to prepare the way for EU church property, dissolution or paralysis of essential accession. As far as Armenians and other non-Muslim decision-making bodies within the church, and minorities are concerned, this package introduces two interference in church elections. relevant changes: Schools are subjected to similarly abusive interference - It is now allowed to broadcast TV or radio concerning the education of teachers, the number of programmes in their mother tongue. weekly hours teaching is allowed in the Armenian - Religious foundations belonging to minorities can language, (currently 4), who is and is not allowed to now acquire property- providing they obtain a specific attend an Armenian school or how schools are run. For authorization from the Council of Ministers. instance, the authorities can and do paralyse the operations of schools at will. Violent attacks on schools Both reforms mark progress of sorts. But the changes also occur on occasions, though they are more often concerning the rights of religious foundations to own targeted at churches or cemeteries. property is considerably limited by the obligation to obtain permission from the Council of Ministers, a Nor are individual rights and freedoms respected as far procedure wide open to abuse and discrimination. as Armenians are concerned. Armenians (and other Furthermore, while these reforms do address real non-Muslim minorities) are barred from the civil problems, they address only a small fraction of the service, army careers and the legal professions; wide range of measures affecting the situation of Armenians doing their military service are the victims Armenians and other minorities. ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 7 prejudice. This must also involve a revision of Some changes, furthermore, are now being introduced schoolbooks, particularly in the field of history. for the worse: the education ministry has recently changed the school curriculum to reinforce its anti- 6. Turkish politicians and high-level Armenian bias. representatives of the authorities must also recognize their own responsibility for the protection of minorities and be called to answer for public statements hostile to Recommendations minorities. The following demands and recommendations stem 7. Those Armenians still remaining in Turkey as from the available evidence. well as the members of others non-Muslim minorities should no longer have to feel 1. The authorities must protect the members of threatened. Among the confidence-building the Armenian community in Turkey as well as measures to be implemented, the Turkish their institutions against attacks and threats; State must guarantee unrestricted access to they must also investigate and prosecute all levels of the civil service to members of those responsible for such offences more non-Muslim minorities. Members of minorities consistently than in the past. must furthermore actively and forcefully be encouraged to apply for positions in the civil 2. The discrimination and mistreatment of service, as they have de facto been excluded servicemen belonging to non-Muslim from such opportunities for decades. minorities must be stopped, and a control body as well as a complaint procedure must be 8. The practice of prosecuting those Turkish created for that purpose in the army. citizens who publicly express the opinion in words or in writing that the Armenian genocide 3. The systematic financial pilferage of religious is a historical fact must be stopped foundations must be put an end to. In this immediately. The European Community, in line respect, a series of laws governing the with previous European Parliament situation of minorities must be revised, and all resolutions, should for its part take appropriate the properties of foundations confiscated measures to encourage Turkish academics, under the previous law must be returned to publishers and journalists to contribute to the their owners. inter-ethnic reconciliation through a critical reassessment of history. 4. Discriminatory and offensive reporting on 9. The Turkish government is called upon to minorities in general and on Armenians in comply with its obligation under numerous particular must be stopped. This also applies international agreement and treaties to protect to the Turkish media, who must exercise self- and maintain Armenian cultural assets. In control and must recognize their responsibility particular, it should prevent any further for the creation and hardening of prejudices manipulation or destruction of Armenian against minorities. Appropriate measures must cultural monuments under the pretext of their also be taken so that Turkish citizens protection, of their restoration or of commenting on the Armenian genocide as a archaeological research. It would be desirable historical fact are protected from attacks in the for that matter to set up international teams of Turkish media. researchers and experts in the field of conservation and restoration, in which experts 5. The disturbing anti-Armenians atmosphere, from Armenia should also take part. based on ignorance and prejudice, which obviously prevails in broad sections of society, must be countered through education in schools aimed at reducing ethnic and religious 8 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 9 The Armenian Apostolic Church is thus the oldest state Introduction church in the world since the disappearance of the smaller, older Christian kingdoms of Northern In 2003, the Republic of Turkey will celebrate its 80th Mesopotamia. The Christian faith and national identity anniversary. This, along with the country’s wish to join merged at an early stage, but after the first big schism the European Union as a full member, offers an of Christianity at the Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.), occasion both to carry out a critical inventory and to the Armenians found themselves siding with the other examine whether the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923 pre-Chalcedonian churches such as the Syrian proved to be an instrument for the protection of the Orthodox, Coptic and Ethiopian churches. collective and individual rights of “non-Muslim Christianisation has left a deep mark on Armenian minorities“ in Turkey. history and culture and Christianity is therefore an integral component of Armenian identity. The documentation that follows relies extensively on published sources such as reports by non- Present numbers, social situation governmental and human rights organizations, academic analyses as well as coverage by the and geographical distribution of Armenian, Turkish and German press. These sources Armenians in Turkey have indeed been accepted as the basis of legal evidence by the judicial authorities of the Federal The national office for statistics of the Republic of Republic of Germany. Turkey estimates that, out of a total number of 82,000 Armenian citizens in Turkey, eight to ten thousand live This report concentrates on the situation of the abroad, predominantly in Germany, the Netherlands Armenian minority in Turkey within the last ten years. and Belgium. Of the 72,000 who remain in the country, 1 However, it also deliberately includes earlier events. only five percent live outside of Istanbul . Even the Medium and long-term developments must be taken Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, into account to understand the problems of the published by the U.S. Department of State for 2001, Armenian minority, as well as their ongoing and estimates the number of members of the Armenian 2 recurrent character. Apostolic church in Turkey at only about 50,000 . In the 1990’s, the number of Armenian Catholics Historical Settlement Area (Armenian Uniates) in Turkey shrank from about 5,000 3 to less than 2,000 (in 1999) ; the number of Armenian Protestants is estimated at 500. The Armenian Until 1915, the area of historical settlement of the community in Turkey estimates its own numbers at Armenian people was the Armenian highland, defined 2 about 60,000 to 65,000. Strikingly, the official census as a territory about 300,000-400,000 km situated in Turkey shows virtually no increase of the Armenian between the adjacent plateaus of Iran and Anatolia, minority since 1935: the official record for 1935 gives a and between Northern Mesopotamia and the 4 figure of 57,000, compared to 58,000 for 1965 . Caucasus. This is where the ethno genesis of the Armenian people took place around the middle of the Additionally, 12,451 citizens of the Republic of first millennium B.C. The economic, agricultural and Armenia currently live in Turkey according to Turkish political centres of this region were the Van plains and Interior Secretary data of 2002. A total of 82,249 the Ararat valley. By contrast, the current settlement citizens of the Republic of Armenia are thought to have area of Armenians is restricted to the Republic of 5 2 entered Turkey between 1997 and 2001 . Armenia (29,740 km ) and Nagorno Karabakh (5,000 km2.) Christianity as an integral 1 See Voskeritchian, Taline: Drawing strength from the history and cultural legacy of their beloved city. In: „AIM“ (Armenian International Magazine), December 1998, p. 38 2 component of national identity Department of State: Annual Report on International Religious Freedom 2001. December 2001, p. 382. Internet source: http://www.state.gov/gdrl/rls/irf//2001/ 3 See Avakian, Florence: Interview with Patriarch Mesrob II of Istanbul and Turkey ( PART I) , In: Azg/Mirror-Spectator On-Line, 27.05.1999; Internet source According to the traditions of the Armenian Church, http://www.arzo.com/arzo2/MIRROR_SPECTATOR%2005_27_1999.htm 4 Committee for Monitoring Minority Rights: Minorities in Turkey. (Istanbul), 02.06.1996, P. 3 Christianity became a state religion as early as 301. 5 See „Agos“ (Internet edition of 17.07.2002). http://www.agos.com.tr/indexeng.html 10 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY As the Armenian population of the Ottoman empire Antiochia, 35 Armenians), Iskenderun, Kırıkhan 13 was estimated before World War I and before the (Hatay, only two Armenians in 2001 ) as well as in 6 genocide of 1915-16 at 2.5 to 3 million , the Vakıfıi Köyü (Vakıf), the last Armenian village in 14 percentage of the total Christian population would Turkey (150 inhabitants ). Those parishes catered to have amounted to one quarter of the total Ottoman the spiritual needs of small communities and of population. Today Armenians form the largest individuals scattered over vast areas at the time. The Christian minority in an environment that is almost priest in Vakıf died a few months ago, leaving his exclusively Muslim. Among 67.8 million inhabitants in position vacant. On important holidays or on certain 7 the Republic of Turkey , less than one percent are special occasions, members of the Clergy are 8 Christians (foreigners included ); the number of all dispatched from Istanbul in order to hold religious Christians in Turkey is in fact probably only about 0.15 services, to give the sacraments and to carry out other 9 percent . services for the benefit of the remaining communities. All parishes outside of Istanbul have shrunk markedly Although outside historic settlement areas, Istanbul is since 1964, and many disappeared towards the end of not perceived as an Armenian Diaspora community: the 20th century. Today, none of them still retains its “Istanbul is not a settlement of immigrants (Kaghut) own priest. Only 200 families still lived in Diyarbekir in like Beirut. It is something unique, between the the 1960s, home to the only Apostolic Armenian parish Fatherland (Hairenik) and the Diaspora (Spyurk). We in Anatolia at that time. In June 1985, are a community (Hamaynk)“, the Armenian Patriarch came across Only 200 families still explained Robert Haddeler, publisher as few as 35 Armenians there and in of the daily newspaper Marmara, lived in Diyarbekir in 1994 Scottish travel journalist William published since 1940, about the Dalrymple met only Lussine (Lüsye the 1960s; …in 1994, special position of Istanbul for the 15 Baco), a distracted old Armenian Lussine was the last Armenians . Armenians can look woman in the care of Kurds who had Armenian inhabitant back on a long story in Istanbul, which forgotten her language when her of an area where started in the 6th century. 200,000- husband was killed. Lussine’s Kurdish 250,000 Armenians lived in 570,000 Armenians caretaker reported that the roof of the Constantinople around the turn of the dilapidated church collapsed under had lived in 1914. 20th century. The Kurtuluş quarter has the weight of the snow in the winter of the largest Armenian population today, 1993-94. Lussine was the last Armenian inhabitant of but they previously inhabited traditionally “Christian” 10 an area where 570,000 Armenians had lived in 1914 . quarters such as Yeşilköy (San Stefano), Bakırköy, She was brought to Istanbul a few years ago by the Kumkapı, Samatya, Altımermer-Yedikule, Kadıköy Armenian author Mıgırdiç Margosyan and died shortly (Chalcedony) as well as the Princes Islands (Papaz thereafter in the Armenian elderly home of Yedikule. Adaları) where many Armenians from Istanbul spend Now only an old Armenian by the name of Anto the summer months. As skilled workers, craftsmen and (Andranik) lives in Diyarbekir and serves as caretaker independent entrepreneurs, they belong to the lower to for the Armenian church. upper urban middle classes of Turkey. They are scarcely represented in public service positions, due to 11 There were five other priests with their own parishes both open and covert discrimination: state officials in Kayseri (which counted 20-30 Armenians including must be Muslim (cf. IV.1.). 12 surrounding villages and towns ), Antakya (or Ethnologists estimate that, apart from Christian 6 7 Ibid. Armenians, there are 30,000 to 40,000 Muslim ‘crypto- U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor : Country Report on Human Rights Practices; Turkey 2001. March 4, 2002. p. 1 Armenians’, living in Turkey who have adapted to the Internet source: http://www.state.gov/g//drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/eur/8358.htm 8 Duncker, Gerhard: Fremde Federn: Christen in der Türkei - wie Fische auf dem Trockenen. „Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung“, 14.12.2001, p. 14. – The author is an http://www.virtualani.freeserve.co.uk/kayseri/kayseri.htm 13 Protestant pastor in Istanbul. Department of State, Annual Report, op. cit., p. 385. 9 14 Oehring, Otmar: Zur Lage der Menschenrechte in der Türkei - Laizismus = Hermann, Rainer: Die Enteignungen in der Türkei dauern an; Kassationshof: Annahme Religionsfreiheit? „Missio“, 2001, No. 5. aller Vermögenswerte der NichtMuslime seit 1936 ist gesetzwidrig. „Frankfurter Allgemeine 10 Dalrymple, William: From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium. Zeitung“, 20.12.2001, p. 12; there are only 135 inhbabitants according to the report of Radio London, 1997. p. 81 f. Free Europe/Radio. –see Naegele, Jolyon: Turkey: Village Survived The Century's First 11 According to Patriarch Mesrob II. (1999). – see. Avakian, op. cit. Mass Ethnic Expulsion. Internet source: 12 In 1937, two thousand Armenians are supposed ot have lived in Kayseris – a town of http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/1999/05/F.RU.990527132152.html 15 about 70.000 inhabitants at that time.. – see. „Virtual Ani“, Internet source quoted from: Voskeritchian, op. cit., p. 38 ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 11 Kurdish or Turkish majority of the population. There are also about 20,000 Hemşinli Muslims whose homeland is between Trabzon (Trapesunt) and Erzurum, though they are also disseminated further to the northeast. Although some of their ancestors had adopted Islam as early as the 16th century, the Hemşinli were able to better preserve their Armenian dialect than many Armenians in Istanbul. With the exception of the Hemşinli, Armenian Muslims and Crypto-Christians are scattered minorities. As such, they are particularly exposed to humiliations and ongoing persecutions on the part of fellow Muslims, who doubt their religious loyalty and continue to identify them with Christian Armenians. 12 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY Timid reforms were attempted in the first half of the I. In Ottoman times: 19th Century, in the context of the collapse of Ottoman military despotism, and under pressure from the great historical review and European powers of the time. The Russo-Turkish background Peace Treaty of Adrianople (22 February 1829) obliged the Ottoman Empire to improve the living Nine-tenths of the historic Armenian settlement zones conditions of its Christian subjects for the first time. came under the domination of the Ottoman Turks after Ten years later, in the Constitutional Charter of about 200 years of devastating wars between the Gülhane (1839), Sultan Abdülmecid (Abd al-Majid) Ottoman Empire and Iran (Peace Treaty of Diyarbekir, granted the same status to all citizens regardless of 1639). The regions of Kars and Ardahan were later their religion, and guaranteed the integrity of the acquired by Russia after the Russo-Turkish war of person as well as the rights to honour and property. 1877/8, only to be signed away to Turkey by the But it was only after the Crimean War (1853-6) that the former Soviet Union in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of Constitutional declaration of 1839 was implemented, 1918. through the Decree Hatti Hümayun („Imperial Edict”) of 18 February 1856, influenced by the British The position of the Armenians as well as all remaining Ambassador to Constantinople of the time, Lord non-Muslims (Christians and Jews) in the Ottoman Stratford. As a consequence, Sultan Abdülmecid was Empire was determined by Muslim legal principles. able to convince the Paris conference a few weeks Non-Muslims were socially and legally subordinate, later, where the outcome of the Crimean War was paid two types of tribute (dschisija and charadsch) as negotiated, that his readiness for reform should be well as additional and higher taxes and were not expressly recognized in article 9 of the Treaty of Paris allowed to possess their own land as the ground they of 30 March 1856. cultivated was granted only as feudal tenure. Until 1908 military service remained out of the question for Sultan Abdül Aziz, who succeeded his murdered non-Muslims and they were not allowed to carry brother on the throne in 1861, finally topped off the weapons. The Ottomans established an Armenian reforms with the first Ottoman Constitution, Apostolic Patriarchate as early as 1461, shortly before promulgated on 23 December 1876. In this the conquest of the Byzantine capital Constantinople, constitution, all subjects of the Sultan were referred to whose rule included the pre-Chalcedonian, i.e. the as “Ottoman citizens” and guaranteed citizens’ basic east and west Syrian churches. rights as well as individual freedom such as freedom of conscience, the right to own property, etc. The Millet The Armenian Apostolic church was a component of system was preserved however, and this is one of the the millet system. The word millet (Arabic for nation) imperfections of, and contradictions within, the designated not an ethnic unit, but a denomination or constitution. religious community. To the three traditional communities of faith of the Ottoman Empire- the ermeni milleti (Apostolic Armenian church), the rum Due to the difficult political situation in the country, milleti (Greek-Orthodox church) and the yahudi milleti Sultan Abdülhamit II dismissed Parliament on 14 16 (Jewish) – were added the katolik millet under February 1878 and suspended the constitution for 30 pressure from France and Austria in 1831 and the years. Under article 61 of the Berlin Treaty (13 July recognition of the Armenian Protestants (ermeni 1878), the Ottoman government was obliged to “carry protestant milleti) in December 1850. According to out immediate improvements and reforms in the Muslim tradition, the Millets administered their internal provinces inhabited by the Armenians, as required by matters and law as long as these concerned only local needs, and to protect them against the internal disputes between members of the same millet. Circassians and Kurds”. However pressure was not exerted by the European powers as they had in other 16 instances- as France had done for instance as the A union of all Catholic religion(s) in the Ottoman Empire under the authority of an Armenian Uniate bishop. - See Koutcharian, Gerayer: Der Siedlungsraum der Armenier protective power for the Maronite Uniates in Lebanon unter dem Einfluss der historisch-politischen Ereignisse seit dem Berliner Kongress 1878: or Russia in protecting the Orthodox Greeks and eine politisch-geographische Analyse und Dokumentation. Berlin, 1989 (Freie Universität Berlin/Institut für Anthropogeographie, Bd. 43), p. 43 Balkan Slavs- because the Armenian Church did not ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 13 belong to a supranational religious group within In genocide research, the genocide of the Armenians, Christianity. alongside that of the European Jews, the genocide of the Khmer Rouge, and that of the Hutus in Rwanda is 19 At the beginning of the 20th century, a Turkish considered an example of ”total genocide “. Robert F. nationalism developed in response to the freedom Melson defines it as „the first total Genocide of the struggles of the Greeks, Balkan Slavs and Arabs. The 20th century“ and a “prototype for the following turn of events, including the loss of Turkish territories genocides”. The Association of Genocide Scholars, in the Balkan war (1912-13), confirmed its ideologues declared on 13 June 1997 in a resolution, “that the in their belief that the preservation of the Ottoman mass murder that was committed to the Armenians in Empire required the turkification of this multi-ethnic Turkey in 1915 represents a case of Genocide and multi-religious country, which would have to be according to the United Nations Convention on the achieved through the assimilation of Muslim minorities prevention and punishment of genocide. [The as well as the deportation, and if necessary the Association of Genocide Scholars] condemns the annihilation, of the Christian groups. The all-powerful denial of the Armenian Genocide by the Turkish nationalistic war government of the so-called young government, their official and unofficial agents, and 20 Turks, officially called the Committee of Unity and their supporters .“ Progress (Ittihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti), who ruled after 1913, implemented this program in 1913-1914 through With the Peace Treaty of Sèvres (10 August 1920) the the displacement of the terrorized Greek population of de facto powerless Ottoman government recognised Eastern Thrakia and of the Ionian. Starting in 1914, Armenia as an independent country (Art. 88) and Christian Ottoman citizens, agreed that US President The Lausanne Treaty indirectly 21 and particularly Greeks and Woodrow Wilson would Armenians, were exploited to revives the Ottoman millet system, determine the boundaries of death in slave labour camps in contradiction with the officially the Armenian State. But the or murdered. After the secular nature of the Turkish changes failed due to the annihilation of the intellectual armed and political resistance and political elite of the Republic of the opposition established Ottoman Armenians at the end of April 1915, the by Mustafa Kemal in Ankara and triggered an attack annihilation of the total Armenian population, planned on the Republic of Armenia, planned in the spring of and organised on a national scale, was set initiated. 1920 and launched on 23 September 1920. A further 22 The reorganised Ottoman intelligence service Teşkilat- 198,000 Armenians died from massacres, epidemics ı Mahsusa (“Special Organisation“) of 1916, which and starvation before the assault was stopped by the 17 included 30,000 people at the height of the genocide, Sovietization of the Armenian Republic. carried out this task through massacres and death marches, in which hundreds of thousands of victims The armistice of Mudanya, which followed the takeover died of plague, hunger and general exhaustion. On 4 of Smyrna and Constantinople by Ankara’s opposition October 1916, the German ambassador Radowitz troops on 11 October 1922, opened the way for an responded to an enquiry by the Reich’s Chancellor as International Peace Conference in Lausanne on 20 follows: “(...) if one estimated the total number of November 1922, whose subcommittee for national Turkish Armenians at 2.5 million and the number of affairs considered the Armenian demand for a those sent away at 2 million, and accepted the same homeland for the surviving Armenians (12-14 ratio between the number of survivors and the dead, December 1922). At the Committee meeting of 7 July as among the orphans of Sister Rohner, one would arrive at a number of more than 1.5 million dead and 19 See Melson, Robert F. : Revolution and Genocide. On the Origins of the Armenian around 425,000 survivors. The previous estimations of Genocide and the Holocaust, Chicago, 1992; Scherrer, Christian P.: Preventing Genocide: the dead varied between 800.000 and 1 million and at The Role of the International Community. Internet source: 18 http://www.preventgenocide.org/prevent/scherrer.htm; first glance do not seem exaggerated .“ 20 quoted from Armenian National Institute, Internet source: http://www.armenian- genocide.org/affirmation/recognition/69.htm 21 According to the Wilson-decision of 22.11.1920, the Republic Armenia was awarded an increase of 90.000 square kilometers of Ottoman territory.which included parts of “ armenian provinces” Wan (20.000 square kilometers of 39.300 total area), Bitlis (15.000 of 27.100 square kilometers) and Erzurum (40.000 of 49.700 square kilometers). 17 22 Parlar, op. cit., quoted from Avakjan, op. cit., p. 78 See the disscussion of the numbers of the victims in Koutcharian’s documentation, op. 18 Parlar, op. cit., quoted from Avakjan, op. cit., p. 78 cit., p. 156 14 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY 1923 there was no longer talk of the right to self- determination or to a homeland for the Armenians, but rather only of the “Armenian refugees“. The solution of this problem was entrusted to the League of Nations. The Armenians are thus no longer mentioned in the Treaty of Lausanne of 24 July 1923. Protection is not granted to ethnic groups, but exclusively to non- Muslim religious minorities, i.e. Christians and Jews. The far more numerous non-Turkish Muslim ethnic groups of Turkey are ignored and suffer to this day of the denial of the rights denied them in the fields of culture, language and tradition. Although the Lausanne Treaty does not list the non-Muslims of Turkey by name, it only acknowledges the Christian Denominations already recognized in the Ottoman Empire as millets, i.e. the Greek Orthodox (rum millet), Armenian Apostolic, Armenian Uniates and Armenian Protestants. The Syrian churches suffer to this day of the fact that they are deprived even of the very limited protection of the Lausanne Treaty. A government body called the Minority Commission (Azınlıklar Tali Komisyonu) is competent for and endowed with full powers on matters relating to minority affairs. Although the existence of this Commission only became known in 1999, it seems that it has existed in secret since 1972. Established at the request of the Prime Minister, its exact functions and competence are still unclear. The Minority Commission is believed to be composed of five members, including one representative each from the “National Security Council” (Milli Güvenlik Konseyi), the “National Intelligence Service” (Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı), the Interior and the foreign ministries, and a Ministry of State subordinate to the Prime Minister’s office with responsibility for foundations. A representative of the Health or Education Ministry is consulted on questions concerning minority hospitals and schools. The decisions of the Committee are irrevocable, they cannot be appealed even by the minorities themselves, and cannot even be overturned 23 by an order of the courts . 23 From Oehring, op. cit., p. 23 ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 15 II. In the Turkish Republic Legal discrimination: banishment and confiscation of property Ongoing persecution Banishment During the persecution of the Pontic Since the early 1920’s a series of laws and regulations Greeks in 1922-24 have governed the return of Armenians of Ottoman nationality as well as questions relating to Armenian As British historian Christopher Walker writes: “The properties. These laws were aimed at impeding or Pontic Greeks (in Trebizond province) were savagely preventing the return of Armenians of Ottoman persecuted in the years 1922-24, until the community nationality into Turkey. A law was adopted as early as was virtually wiped out; and as a spin-off of their September 1923, stating that no Armenian who had persecution Armenians were subjected to renewed emigrated from Cilicia and the “Eastern Provinces” 24 attacks .” could return to Turkey. A second law of 23 May 1927 states that all citizens who had not participated in the 1929 in Harput, Diyarbekir and Mardin war for independence and had not returned to Turkey between 24 July 1923 and the announcement of the In the summer of 1929 and in the following months, law would lose their citizenship. “new deportations of the sad remnant of Armenian peasants and artisans, living on the fringes of the In August 1926, the Turkish government announced ancient home country of Turkish-Armenia, were set in that it would retain all property seized before 6 August 25 motion .” 1924. This concerned mainly the property seized by the Young Turk wartime junta deported Armenians, “At that time altogether 30,000 Armenians were which, according to official announcements, had been banished. “in a despatch dated Aleppo, 14 November registered and safeguarded by the state for the 1929, British consul A. Monck-Mason reported that deportees. Armenian peasants, who had survived refugees had been arriving continually for the deportation and later ventured to return to their village preceding six months from the regions of Kharput, of origin, found that Muslims had occupied their farms Diyarbekir and Mardin. In his opinion, ‘the settled and threatened to kill them if they insisted on the return policy of the Turkish government seems to be to get rid of their property. In many cases the Muslim mob hung of all Christian elements in the distant Anatolian the returning Armenians from their own fruit trees with 27 provinces by all means short of absolute massacres the encouragement of the local authorities . (…).’ Aleppo, he continues, has been the sanctuary for the daily caravans of Armenians. ‘Whole families are Deportation sick, and nearly all are absolutely destitute.’ He quotes an Armenian from Kharput saying: ‘in Turkey today we Members of non-Muslim minorities who do not have no means of existence; we are persecuted, possess Turkish citizenship are threatened with robbed, ill-treated, thrown into prison, judged, and, if deportation in times of crises. Thus, at the height of we are lucky, deported.’ Bombs had been thrown into Greek-Turkish tensions over Cyprus in 1964, Turkey churches, and the Armenian bishop of Diyarbekir applied a law from the 1950s which annulled the murdered by seven drunken soldiers. Estimates of residence permits of 20,000 Greeks, many of whom those expelled in the 1929-30 deportations put the were married to Turkish citizens and owned real estate 26 number at 30,000 .” in Turkey. They had to leave Turkey within a few days and could only leave with 20 kilograms of baggage and 28 20 Turkish Lira . 27 Koutcharian, op. cit., p. 172 24 Walker, Christopher J: Armenia: The Survival of a Nation. London, 1980. p. 345 Lang, David Marshall; Walker, Christopher: The Armenians. 2nd rev. ed. (London, January 25 Walker, op. cit., p. 348 1977) (Minority Rights Group Report No. 32), p. 15 26 28 Walker, op. cit., p. 348 Committee for Monitoring Minority Rights, op. cit., p. 5 16 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY Current problems. When the House of by the Turkish author and politician Yilmaz 35 Representatives of the USA debated a resolution Karakoyunlu recounts individual stories illustrating about the genocide at the Armenians in October 2000, the repression of non-Muslims in Turkish society then opposition politician Tansu Ciller called for the during WW II, a fact long suppressed. Not only did the deportation of the allegedly 30.000 Armenians without author receive one of the country’s most important 29 Turkish citizenship living in Turkey . literary prizes in 1990, the 1999 film by director Tomris Giritlioğlu, based on the novel, also won an award. The film nevertheless triggered a sharp controversy when Varlik Vergisi kanunu: the property Turkish state television aired the movie on its first channel at the end of 2001 (in the meantime, the tax for non-Muslims 1942-44 - a author of the novel had become Minister with violation of Articles 39 and 40 of the responsibility for the state television). The Turkish Lausanne Treaty Daily News wrote about the film: “ It shows that a large community in Turkey is ready to share its country's After the occupation of Greece during Nazi Germany, 'dirty laundry' with the world and join the long list of parts of the ascending elites in adjacent Turkey nations and communities who are trying to apologise 36 30 showed increasing sympathy for the Nazis . On 12 for a past they are not proud of .” But Members of November 1942, an additional tax, levied exclusively Parliament complained about its “unpatriotic on non-Muslims, was introduced on the basis of law behaviour”. Critics from the ranks of the Nationalist 4305. This law concerned 4 to 5 thousand of an Movement Party (MHP) as well as the Old Kemalists of estimated 28,000 Armenians, Greeks, Jews and even the Party of the Democratic Left took offence that Dönme (Jews or Christians converted to Islam), the Etyen Mahcupyan, an Armenian from Istanbul, Armenians being affected by the highest taxes . 31 contributed to the script together with two Turkish Those who could not pay up were exiled or Authors. Ahmet Cakar (MHP) was outraged by the fact condemned to forced labour in “Turkey’s Siberia”, that the film suggested that Armenians in Aşkale were namely in the quarries of Aşkale near Erzerum, where treated the same as in a German concentration camp. 32 21 forced labourers died . According to Turkey’s Head “Either, one angry nationalist declared, one sides with of Government at that time, Şükrü Saracoglu, the tax the Armenians, these ‘so unbelievably treacherous and did not aim to finance war costs, but to help turkify the rotten people’, or for the Turks. ‘Thank God I am a economy, as only 8,000 of the 19,000 firms registered Turk and a Muslim’, he continued and filed a lawsuit in Istanbul at the time belonged to Turkish Muslims . 33 against Yücel Yener, CEO of TRT, that ‘Traitor of the 37 The „property tax” was repealed on 15 March 1944 Fatherland’ .” after the country had collected more than six billion current Turkish pounds . 34 The “Association of Opponents of Genocide”, a human ²rights Initiative based in Germany for the human rights of Turkish descendents received a letter of refusal Current problems. 70 years after the introduction from the author of the film when the Association of the discriminatory and ruinous property tax, the enquired whether he could show the video at a public political elite of Turkey has so far had difficulties to event. approach this subject objectively. The popular novel “The pearls of Ms. Salkım” (Salkım Hanımın Taneleri) Discrimination in the '1970s 29 It burdens the Tukish-Armenian relations: US-Repräsentantenhaus wirft der Türkei Völkermord an den Armeniern vor. „Berliner Zeitung“, Internet source: http://www.priest- The increase in requests for asylum by “Turkish akbulut.de/armenierd.html 30 Turkish Cinema Newsletter, Internet source:http://www.turkfilm.net/arc46.html Christians” has led European churches to focus their 31 „One of the darkest events in Turkish history was the Wealth Tax (...), levied attention on the situation of the Christians in Turkey. At discriminatorily against non-Muslims in 1942, hobbling Armenians with the most punitive rates.“ - Smith, Thomas W.: Constructing A Human Rights Regime in Turkey: Dilemmas of the end of 1979, the “Churches Committee on Migrant Civic Nationalism and Civil Society. Draft Paper presented at the American Political Science Association annual conference hold in San Francisco, August 29 - September 2, 2001. p. 4. Workers in Europe” a panel of different European - Internet source: http://pro.harvard.edu/papers/042/042001SmithThoma.pdf 32 Committee for Monitoring Minority Rights, op. cit., p. 1 33 35 The information comes from the Turkish historian, Ridvan Akar, who wrote a two-volume Y. Karakoyunlu is member and deputy of ANAP Party. 36 book about happiness tax. From: Hermann, Rainer: Auweia, unsere Perlen rollen in den Quoted from Turkish Cinema Newsletter, op. cit. 37 Gully. „Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung“, 29.12.2001 Hermann, Rainer: Auweia, unsere Perlen rollen in den Gully: Kanalreiniger gesucht/ 34 Hartunian, Hambarsum: Vom Lausanner Friedensvertrag bis heute. „pogrom. Zeitschrift looking for a sewerage cleaner; Ein Kinofolm im Fernsehen nötigt die Türken zur Prüfung für bedrohte Völker“, Jahrgang/ set of issues 11, No. 72/73, May 1980, p. 34 ihres Geschichtsbildes. „Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung“, 29. Dezember 2001 ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 17 churches, produced a documentation and came to the following conclusion on the subject of the living A Fla could be handed over to another Agha conditions of remaining Christian minorities in Eastern as a gift or payment, and he could be given to and South-eastern Anatolia: “There has been an his daughter if she wanted to marry. The increased in cases of violence against Christians reason why these Flas were able to escape during the years 1975-1979, whereas at the same the genocide of 1915 and the earlier time, the Christian population is plainly declining. The massacres is that they were the only capable following conclusions can be drawn: workmen, i.e. blacksmiths, weavers, dentists, and traders. The remaining inhabitants of the ! Christians are victims of recurrent acts of force that area were poor Kurdish peasants who were are specifically aimed against them. economically dependent on the Armenians. ! If the victims report the acts to the police or the courts, the group will be exposed to retaliation. So the Aghas resolved to rescue all who had ! The police and the court authorities accept the not been able to escape although many were withdrawal of reports without forwarding the case forced to convert to Islam. The latter, called to the district attorney. ‘Musulmani’, freed themselves from this ! Persons who were arrested because of crimes vassalage, but achieved no better position against Christians have been released shortly after than before. their conviction, even if the official judgment in some cases orders several years in prison. Today the Flas are still in the hands of their ! Escaping or residing in a foreign country no longer Aghas and must serve them. However, the offers Christians protection from persecution as influence of the Aghas on communal living has long as they still have relatives in Turkey who can declined considerably, which means that the be used to intimidate or blackmail those living in Armenians receive less protection from their 38 Europe . Aghas than before. On the other hand, the non-tribal Kurds (...), namely the poor, illiterate Serfdom: feudal client relationship farmers mentioned above who had been suppressed for many centuries by the Aghas, The researchers of the report mentioned above also gained in significance. They represent 80 attacked the continued practice of slavery at the percent of the total population [in the region], expense of Christian peasants in a region that was and were able to attain political power in the described merely as “East of the Tigris”. (“Fla” from region as a result of their number and Arabic “Fellacha”, or “peasants”; in Kurdish, this is an increased political awareness. insult for “non-believers” or Armenians.) These serfs performed vassal services for Kurdish landowners, in They regard the Armenians as the puppet of order to receive protection against others. The their enemies, the tribal Kurds, and commit all breakdown of the feudal system and/or the loss of kinds of atrocities against them in the power of the tribal Kurds vis-à-vis the non-tribal Kurds knowledge that they will not be met with much only aggravated the situation of the Christian resistance. They need not fear punishment, as Armenians: neither the police nor the Aghas would take 39 action .” “Each Agha has power over some Armenians who are in the position of vassals (...) In return Forced Islamisation at the beginning for services to the Agha, the Flas receive their of the 1980s protection. Until recently (15- 20 years ago) a Fla had to perform every type of work for his Turkey is considered a secular country, where the Agha, carry his meal and his weapons, dye his separation of state and religion is anchored in the clothes, take care of his children, serve him constitution. In practice however, the opposition food or coffee, etc. between state and religious institutions is much less 38 39 Christliche Minderheiten aus der Türkei: A report of a committee of churches Christliche Minderheiten, op. cit., p. 41 f. 18 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY than in western democracies. The real reason for this Hürriyet thus reported in June 1989 that the Justice is that, for the Founder of the Turkish movement for Ministry denied a post to Niyazi Gosker from Gohta modernisation, the Committee of “Unity and Progress”, (Adiyaman district), after it became known that the 44 and for their Kemalist successors, Islam meant applicant was a converted Islamic Armenian . The 40 “ethnicity, not religious belief” . Religious and authorities openly prohibit the return of a Muslim nationalistic fanaticism increased after the military Armenian to Christianity. In 1989, a court of appeals coup of September 1980. The increase in the thus rejected the request by Ismail Gupar, a Muslim conversion of Christian Armenians to Islam may be Armenian, to correct the religion recorded on in his due to this. These conversions occurred among a identity card from “Islam” to “Christian”, following the nation that, for centuries, has always resisted attempts conversion of the plaintiff to the “Jehovah’s 45 at conversion, with rare exceptions in times of Witnesses”, a sect persecuted in Turkey anyway . existential crises, and has never done so voluntarily. The then Armenian Apostolic Patriarch in Jerusalem For Armenian Christians, but also for their Muslim caused a controversy in the Turkish press when he environment, this religious commitment is an integral published a report in February 1988 according to component of collective ethnic identity- the forced which a million Armenians lived in Turkey who had 46 conversion to Islam is equivalent to the forced been Islamicized by force . renunciation of one’s own people. Threat to life and limb: attacks on The population of the countryside and of small towns was subject to particular pressure. Alongside individual the Armenian community in cases, which were triumphantly reported in the Turkish Istanbul. press each time with a picture and full name of the convert- thus, preventing the return of the converted to “Istanbul’s Kristallnacht” of 6-7 his or her former beliefs- there were also collective conversions in the 1980s, such as the case of the 600 September 1955 inhabitants of the Armenian village Harent (Acar in Turkish) in the district of Siirt, in the early summer of In times of international crises in Turkey- as regularly 41 1983 . The Islamic Armenians of Harent had already happens in connection to Cyprus, with Greece and transformed their church into a mosque by the end of since 1991 with the Republic of Armenia- the 42 1983 . The residents of Harent (Acar) were known as Armenian minority in Turkey again becomes the target especially aware Armenians, who regularly listened to of acts of violence tolerated by or even connected to the Armenian and Kurdish foreign programmes from the State. Thus, during the so-called 47 the Soviet Armenian radio in Yerevan. They also gave ’Kristallnacht ’ of Istanbul, Turkish mobs equipped their children specifically Armenian first names such as with shovels and axes attacked Greek and Armenian Sevan, Ararat or Yerevan. It was therefore supposed residential quarters, looted businesses and killed three 48 in Armenian circles outside Turkey that the population people . The riots resulted in the looting of 4,000 in this border area now overwhelmingly inhabited by Greek, Armenian and Jewish businesses; the arson, Kurds had been forced to convert after the failure of a looting and desecration of 24 Greek and 4 Armenian punitive expedition by the Turkish military in Iraqi- churches; the desecration of numerous cemeteries; 43 Kurdistan at the end of May 1983 . On 23 October the destruction of 32 Greek and eight Armenian 1984, the daily newspaper Tercüman reported that 19 schools; and over 300 casualties. The total damage 49 Armenians in the district of Gerger in the city of amounted to between $270-360 million dollars . What Adiyaman were also converted. triggered the riot was the intentional dissemination by the Turkish secret police of the false report of an But even a conversion to Islam does not protect the Armenians from discrimination. The daily newspaper 44 45 From: Marmara, 30.06.1989 „Nor Marmara“, 28 April, 1989 46 „Nor Marmara“, 17 Februar, 1988 47 The parallel between the „Reichskristallnacht“ of 9 November, 1933 and the acts of epd-Documentation, No. 48/79, Frankfurt am Main, 12 November, 1979 violence of 6/7 September1955 consists in the fact that their political initators sought to 40 Kieser, Hans-Lukas: Armeniermord und Diplomatie. Von der Lästigkeit vertuschter intimidate and drive out the respective victim groups through organized mass violence in Geschichte. A draft for Traverse, section „Debatte“. Internet source: which terror was supposed to be limited to material damage. 48 http://www.hist.net/kieser/mak4/TraverseDebatte.htm Committee for Monitoring Minority Rights, op. cit., p. 1 41 49 See die Istanbuler Zeitung „Güneş“, 25. July 1983 Hartunian, op. cit., p. 34; Die antigriechischen Tumulte vom 6./7. September 1955 in der 42 „Güneş“, 25.01.1984 Türkei. Ed. The Journalists’ Union of the Athen’s Daily Newspapers. Reprinted in: „pogrom“. 43 Koutcharian, op. cit., p. 172 Zeitschrift für bedrohte Völker, Jg. 11, Nr. 72/73, May 1980, p. 86 f. ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 19 alleged Greek assault on the birthplace of Mustafa young Archimandrite Hayk Manwel Yerkatian (born in Kemal “Atatürk” in Thessalonica. 1954), who was arrested on 10 October 1980 at Istanbul airport and was convicted in March 1983, after Retaliation for the attacks of Armenians an excessively long pre-trial detention, to 14 years in abroad in 1977-1979 prison followed by four years of “internal exile”. This sentence was handed out because he was arrested in With the creation of four foreign Armenian militant possession of the 1950 autobiography of the deceased underground organisations from 1975 on, the Armenian priest Schikaher, which describes, among Armenians minority was once again placed in the other things, the genocide of 1915, as well as of a map position of hostage and became the defenceless target of Armenia published in 1888 by the Uniate Armenian of Turkish acts of retaliation. Several bomb attacks order of the Mekhitarists. Furthermore the judgment were thus carried out against Armenian religious and referred to Yerkatian’s history teaching at the boarding cultural institutions in Istanbul between 1977 and 1979. school of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, The church of the Armenian Apostolic Patriarchate hence abroad. During Yerkatian’s detention while was bombed in retaliation for an assault on the son of waiting for trial he was tortured by having his finger- the Turkish ambassador in The Hague on the 19 and toenails torn out. After many years of international October 1979 . 50 protests, on 18 May 1986, he was released from the military prison of Çanakkale to the Armenian Although the French secret services shot Hakob Patriarchate in Istanbul, officially due to his poor Hakobian, the leader of the most active underground health. He has not been amnestied since then. organization, in Athens in April 1988, the Turkish state security service took it for granted that ASALA Hrant Güzelyan, an Armenian Protestant lay preacher, continued its activities, even on Turkish territory. For a was convicted on 9 March 1982, in Istanbul to 16 long time, Turkish officials frequently used the months’ imprisonment for alleged “anti-Turkish accusation of collaboration with the ASALA and foreign propaganda” and for “turning Turkish children into Armenian circles to incriminate extreme left-wing Armenians”. Güzelyan was the actual initiator of a Turkish opposition groups. When Turkish security relocation program that was later taken over by the forces launched an action against a training camp of Apostolic Armenian Patriarchate. Starting in the the opposition group TIKKO (“Worker and Peasant 1960’s, Güzelyan had tried to resettle the remaining Liberation Army of Turkey”) in Gatera near Izmit on 24 Western Armenian population to Istanbul through this January 1988, a 24 year-old Armenian, Manvel Demir, program in order to teach their children in the language was heavily injured, and later died in the hospital. In and belief of their ancestors. The thinking behind the 1989 the parents of the victim raised allegations program was that an Armenian community against four of the policemen involved in the action, concentrated in Istanbul could be cared for more who were accused of severely torturing Manvel Demir easily, more cheaply and more intensively than a during his interrogation, even though their son had no minority scattered outside Istanbul. Turkish authorities 52 connection whatsoever either with ASALA or TIKKO . 51 had already threatened Güzelyan earlier on . Anti-Armenian media campaigns and the Political persecution of Armenian acts of violence by the extreme right, clergymen and laymen after the military 1992-1994 coup of 1980 A new wave of violence against Armenian cemeteries, At least 14 Armenians were arrested and some of churches and schools in Istanbul broke out when the them tortured after the military coup of 1980 in post-Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan once again failed to Istanbul. These were respectable and active members reconquer the region of Mountainous Karabakh, of the community. The most startling case is that of the populated by an Armenian majority, which had been under Azerbajainiani administration during the Soviet 50 Hofmann, Tessa: Anschlag auf armenische Kirche. In „Berliner Sonntagsblatt“, 4 52 November 1979 Armenischer Kirchenführer in der Türkei verschwunden. In: „idea-spektrum“, 25.3.1981, 51 „Kotschnak“, 19.02.1988; „Nor Marmara“, 30.06.1989 Nr. 16/17; See also Koutcharian, op. cit., p. 175 20 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY period. Turkey had openly declared itself the protector also belong to the Turkish people. Then, in the of Turkish-Azeri interests in the Eastern Caucasus, Armenians will only be found in the 56 Transcaucasus from the outbreak of the conflict in and Museums . ” The columnist Mustafa Necati Özfatura, around mountainous Karabakh in 1988, and joined notorious for his inflammatory anti-Armenian articles in Azerbaijan’s embargo and blockade against the “Türkiye”, voiced an open threat of genocide shortly Republic of Armenia in 1993, even though the latter thereafter: “we will make sure that the number of the had stated repeatedly (in 1993), that Nagorno Armenians in Armenia becomes as much a museum 57 Karabakh, not Armenia, is a party to the conflict and statistic as in Anatolia .” Azerbaidjan’s negotiating partner. Graffiti first appeared on Armenians schools and churches in Since March 1992, an anti-Armenian campaign Istanbul in 1992 after Karabakh Armenian units took provoked by the Turkish media and politicians also led over the territory of Khodjalu, inhabited by to disadvantages in professional and business life. The Azerbaijanis, at the end of 1992, which caused violent Armenian daily newspaper Marmara reported on 9 reactions in the Turkish media, with frequently racist March 1994 that an atmosphere of hostility was being overtones. Someone wrote on the wall of the Armenian generated against members of minorities, and school in the Istanbul district of Feriköy: “You will pay particularly Armenians and Jews. Armenian the bill!” A slogan in another place read: „Karabakh will industrialists and members of Trade associations 53 become your grave! ”. Anonymous hate mail and received anonymous faxed letters with the demand: telephone threats accumulated at Armenian “Don’t do business with Jews and Armenians! ” institutions, including the Apostolic Armenian Moreover, the recipients received a list with the names Patriarchate. and addresses of Armenian and Jewish characters and were requested to add to the list and pass it on to The comments made by Turkish President Turgut Özal five further addresses to create a snowball effect. in the spring of 1993 alarmed not only the Armenian Although even the nationalistic newspaper Hürriyet minority in Turkey, but also to condemned this letter-campaign as the Armenians of the “Don’t do business with fascist, this case of racist worldwide Diaspora. Özal, Jews and Armenians!” discrimination in Turkish business life who had sided with those in is not an isolated one. As a result of a Turkey who called for a military intervention on behalf concerted disinformation and slander campaign, in of Azerbaijan, declared during a trip through which Turkish media and public authorities openly Azerbaijan and the post-Soviet Turkic Republics of collaborated, Armenian lawyer and spokesperson for Central Asia: “what will happen then if three of our the Armenians Patriarchate Luiz Bakar deplored at a bombs hit Armenia? Will they [Western Powers] press conference convened on the 18 October 1994 54 intervene in Turkey? ” Hinting at the Armenian that Armenian businessmen and industrialists had genocide of 1915-16, he threatened: “They [the recorded a collapse, or at least a drastic decline in Armenians] learn nothing from history. In Anatolia, they their business with Eastern Anatolia. On this occasion, also tried it. But they got an incredible slap in the face Ms. Bakar condemned the ongoing smear, [i.e. the genocide]. And they have not forgotten the disinformation and hate campaign in the Turkish pain to this day. If they try it again here [in Azerbaijan], media, calling it “anti-Armenian paranoia” and turning relying on this or that foreign country for help [i.e. to the Turkish media representatives, asked: “Is it 55 Russia], they have something coming .” Alpaslan another 6 and 7 September that you want? Do some Türkes, the founder of the exteme right wing party circles wish us to leave our homeland and seek refuge Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi (MHP- the Nationalist elsewhere? (...) What is the goal of this psychological Movement Party) was among those who advocated a war directed against the Armenians? Is it that military intervention in Armenia. On 8 April 1993, the Armenian children can no longer play on the street, official daily newspaper Türkiye had already that Armenian women can no longer go to the market, 58 announced: “Like the Karabakh mountains, Armenia that Armenian firms can no longer operate? ” has been Turkish land for millennia (sic!) and it will 53 56 Armenisch-Deutsche Korrespondenz, June 1992, Nr. 76, p. 13 Ibid. 54 57 Quoted from „Armenisch-Deutsche Korrespondenz“, June 1993, No. 80, p. 15 Quoted from Marmara, 3.5.1993 55 58 „Türkiye“, 16.04.1993, Quoted from Armenisch-Deutsche Korrespondenz, op. cit., p. 16 Quoted from Marmara, 27.10.1994 ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 21 60 In an apparent response to this press conference, a actions against the Armenian minority in Turkey! ” new flood of hate mail delivered to Armenians at their Five days later unidentified individuals wrote anti- work or private addresses was started in the Istanbul Armenian slogans on the walls of the Surb neighbourhoods of Bakırköy and Yeşilköy where many Hovhannes-Avetaranitch church (church of the Hl. Armenians live. These letters were signed by the “Ülkü Apostles John, also named Narlıkapı church). Because ocakları” (Coalition of Idealists, literally: “idealistic of its isolated situation, this Apostolic Armenian church herd”, “idealistic patriots”), a youth organisation consecrated in 1749 in the Narlıkapı district (today affiliated with the MHP. In their letters they described Yedikule) has since been a prime target for Turkish the Armenians as parasites that for the centuries had riots. On 10 April 1993, the Armenian cemetery of exploited the Turkish people, whose kindness had Kumkapı was also desecrated and destroyed. Three been answered with massacres; they added that their days later, the Turkish daily newspaper Cumhuriyet” patience would soon be exhausted; and that the reported the desecration of 12 Armenian and six Armenian massacre -allegedly -begun under the Catholic graves in the Kadıköy district. Ottomans would now resume. The mass graves of Turkish victims that were discovered in Erzurum and All five Armenian cemeteries in Istanbul were Northeast Anatolia wounded the hearts of the Turks. vandalised during the wave of violence from 10 April All of which proves that the Turkish people has raised 1993 to August 1994, particularly those located in the a snake at its breast. The letters ended with the threat: Kumkapı and Kadıköy neighbourhoods. At least 20 “they will be called to account for everything. Do not facilities belonging to the Apostolic Armenian church forget: Turkey belongs only to the Turks. We will free and its communities were subjected to attacks, in Turkey of this exploitation. Don’t force us to send you some cases repeatedly. In January 1994 in the weekly to Yerevan! So leave now, before we do! Or else, it will paper “Aydınlık”, Baskın Oran, lecturer on questions of boil down, as our Prime Minister (Tansut Çiller.) said, minorities at the University in Ankara, mentioned that to: ‘either you put an end to it, or else we will.’ That is a Armenian schools and churches were continually 59 final warning !” The Armenian Patriarch informed of thrown stones and shot at. The aggressors also threw 61 the hate mail campaign the Mayor of Istanbul and the excrement through the church windows . Part of the Chief of Security in a letter dated 23 October 1994, attacks occurred during church services, which set off and the President, Prime Minister Çiller, Interior and panic among the faithful. On 11 July 1993 “unknown” Foreign Ministers, as well as the Minister responsible perpetrators hurled molotov cocktails into the Narlikapi for Human Rights, in another dated October 24, a church during a baptising ceremony, and the church’s letter in which he deplored the hostility towards windows and marble portal were to be repeatedly Armenians by the„Ülkü ocakları” at a time when he damaged in the course of further attacks. On 4 was very disturbed by the false reports concerning January 1994 the church was shot at for the first time. alleged ties between the Armenians, their church and On 26 September 1993, an “unidentified person” the PKK. Moreover the Patriarch appealed directly to climbed up the bell tower of the Surb Astvatsatsin- Alparslan Turkeş, described in one of the letters as the church (the Church of the Holy Mother of God) in the leader of „Ülkü ocakları”. Türkeş disputed any Bakırköy district and damaged the cross while another connection between his party and the hate mail culprit entered the church through the main door, campaign in a telephone conversation on 24 October where he urinated. 1994 and in a meeting with Armenian representatives from Bakırköy and Yeşilköy. The Patriarch reminded The relevant Parish Councils and the Patriarch him however, that some persons who had been complained repeatedly to the competent authorities. involved in an assault on the Armenian church of “the The patriarch at the time, Karekin II (born Bedros Birth of Maria” in Bakırköy had access to MHP Kazancyian), wrote to the governor of Istanbul on 26 headquarters. July 1993. In this letter dated on 22 July 1993 he listed all previous attacks and recalled his earlier letter of On 5 April 1993 approximately 100 people February and May 1993, which had elicited no demonstrated in Bakirköy, which is inhabited by many reaction. The chairperson of the Narlikapi church Armenians, threatening: “If the international community council made it known that the church had been remains indifferent, we will carry out the necessary 60 Marmara, 6.4. 1993 59 61 Quoted from Marmara, 24.10.1994 From Marmara, 17.01.1994 22 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY attacked ten times during the course of 1993. On 12 January 1994, then Archbishop Mutafyan reported in an interview with the weekly newspaper Tempo an attempt by believers, incited by the Imam of the mosque of Beyazid to storm the building of the Armenian Patriarchate. This had been prevented only 62 thanks to the intervention of the police . While Article 312 of the Turkish penal code (concerning appeals to inter-ethnic hatred) was used innumerable times against critics of Turkish national politics, in this case the Muslim clergymen responsible were freed without sanction and even remained in office. There are only two reports of offenders being caught after attacks against Armenian institutions. In March 1994, “Islamic terrorists” were blamed for the attacks 63 on Narlikapi church . This is surprising since the numerous attacks on this church are most probably attributable to perpetrators from the environment of the extreme right party MHP. This arouses the suspicion that the arrest of “Islamic terrorists” is intended to incriminate political opponents connected with the Refah party or Islamic fundamentalists. The second incident reported in the Armenian press in Turkey is the arrest of “thieves” who were charged with the looting of an Armenians church at the end of August 1994. The anti- Armenian riots and media agitation against Armenians in 1992-1994 were the first to attract the attention of Turkish human rights activists. A Committee for Monitoring Minority Rights was first established in January 1994 in the Istanbul section of the Human Rights Association (Insan Haklari Dernegi, IHD). “The Committee aims to follow up the violations of the rights of ethnic, cultural and religious groups 64 living in Turkey and inform the public in this respect .” 62 Marmara, 13. 01.1994 63 Marmara, 26.3.1994 64 Quoted from a report dated 2. June 1996. ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 23 all there is the secularisation, which – as mentioned – III. Armenian institutions threatens to deplete the religious minorities of their prime identifying characteristics. While the majority of and their problems Sunni has sufficient strength in numbers to retain their identity either through other criteria than religion or Under the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne, through informal religious networks, minorities cannot Armenians in Turkey are not seen as an ethnic gather a similar cohesion. Secondly the nationalist minority, but rather as a religious, i.e. non-Muslim nature of the Turkish republic constitutes a major minority. Their minority rights therefore only problem for the non-Muslim minorities. This is because encompass the maintenance of the Armenian nations tend to endorse the majority’s language, language to the extent that it is part of the Armenian religion and perception, all of which contradict or at Apostolic or Uniate Armenian rites. The church and least differ from those of most of these minorities. private Armenian schools thus represent the most Furthermore most non-Muslim minorities tend to have important institutions for the preservation of Armenian a different ethnic or national background than the religious as well as cultural identity. Meanwhile, over majority of Turks. So from this perspective too, their the decades, legal and administrative restrictions have position is highly volatile. This dual assimilatory led to a continuous erosion of their ability to operate. pressure, religious through secularisation and ethnic The Committee for Monitoring Minority Rights of the through nationalism, has recently been reinforced by human rights association of Turkey describes the the revival of Islam. This revival as has been pointed situation as follows: out previously originates in a The accumulation of the many somewhat moderate level from “Despite the formal acknowledgement of certain restrictions, the arbitrariness […] the state and in a more radical form from the Islamists. (…) The rights such as the right to and the legal uncertainty two non-Muslim minorities, freely observe religious determine the daily life of the Armenians in particular, find activities, to maintain the Armenians community in Turkey. their treatment put into the ownership of the property held context of Turkish foreign policy The aim of the restrictions is the by the Armenian foundations 66 .” and to issue publications and assimilation of the Armenian conduct education in their community own language under the 1923 1. Churches Lausanne Treaty which granted the Armenians the ‘minority’ status, the community witnessed restrictions The institution of the Apostolic Armenian Patriarchate on these rights to varying degrees in parallel to the in Turkey was not originally established by the 65 changes in the political climate .” Armenian Church, but by Sultan Mehmet II soon after the Conquest of Constantinople to counterbalance the The accumulation of the many restrictions, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate. Since its foundation, the arbitrariness with which changes occur in the world of Patriarchate of Constantinople (Istanbul) has erected domestic and foreign policy and the legal uncertainty, 55 churches, most of them in the 18th and 19th which favours arbitrariness, determine the daily life of centuries. The number of churches and chapels used the Armenians community in Turkey. The aim of the for service has declined continuously over the last restrictions is the assimilation of the Armenian decades. Today, according to the Armenian Apostolic community, as noted by the Austrian South-eastern Patriarchate, there are 38 churches and chapels in European expert Florian Biber: Istanbul as well as its surroundings, administered by 67 33 Parish Councils . However, religious services are “The pressure on the Armenian community to only held in 30 churches, and in many only on the day assimilate also points to a general observation in of the Patron Saint, as well as at Christmas and respects to homogenising tendencies in Turkey. The Kemalist Republic conflicts with the Armenians and other non-Muslim communities for two reasons. First of 66 Bieber, Florian: Religious Minorities between the secular state and rising Islam: Alevis, Armenians and Jews in Turkey. Internet source: http://www.juedisches-archiv- chfrank.de/kehilot/turkei/TY-mind.htm 65 67 Committee for Monitoring Minority Rights, op. cit., p. 3 Information from Patriarch Mesrob II. (1999). See Avakian, op. cit. 24 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY Easter. Services are rotated from church to church due of the problems of the Armenian church in Turkey to a lack of clergymen. becomes apparent from the following passage from a memorandum dated 29 March 1978 by Patriarch The Uniate Armenian church maintains 12 churches Schnork and entitled “obstruction to self- and chapels in Istanbul and its surroundings as well as administration”: another church in Mardin (Southeast Turkey), while the Protestant Armenians possess four churches in The institution of the Synod has been the highest Istanbul. advisory and decision-making body in the Armenian church, as it is in other churches too. The synod Problems selects two central bodies: a religious and a secular committee. The election of the latter was not permitted, A lack of priests. Only 25 clergymen are currently thus endangering the unity of decision-making and the available to the Armenian Patriarchate, including the integrity of the church.” Patriarch himself. In 1985 the Patriarch of the time already complained of a shortage of at least 60 priests. Even the Parish Councils are not fully operational. The chronic shortage of priests is caused by the Their autonomous operation is prevented by the closure of all theological universities in Turkey in 1969. “Çevre” ordinance of 1974, whereby both the electors While the Muslim universities were later allowed to and the candidates to Parish Council elections must be reopen, the Armenian (Dprevank) and the Greek- residents of their respective Parishes. This Orthodox theological seminaries on the Chalkis island requirement is hardly achievable however, due to the (Heybeliada) remained closed. Armenian clergymen constant decrease in the numbers of the Armenian who were not Turkish citizens were not allowed to Community of Istanbul over the last 40 years. practice in Turkey, while Armenians who were Turkish citizens and attended seminaries abroad ran the risk of Obstruction to elections within the church. Karekin, not being allowed to return to Turkey . 68 83rd Patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic church in Turkey, died in March 1998. On 23 March 1998, an Obstruction of church autonomy. In Turkey, as in electoral commission was formed to organise the the rest of the World, the Synod is the supreme body election of the 84th Patriarch. It was to be carried out of the Armenian Apostolic church. It selects both the according to the „Armenian Constitution” of 1860, a Spiritual and the Secular Committees. Only three of charter granted by the Ottoman government the nine positions on the Religious Council are filled, concerning the self-government of the Armenian because re-elections are forbidden and some Apostolic millet, and according to the relevant Turkish members have since died. regulations of 18 September 1961. As part of the procedure, the electoral commission also directed a The Synod and the Secular Committee were closed in formal application to carry out the elections to the 1961, following the military coup of 1960. A Turkish government on 20 May 1998. There were two 69 “Consultative Committee of the Patriarchate ” was candidates: Bishop Şahan Sıvacıyan and 42 year old established in its place, with government permission, Bishop Mesrob Mutafyan, until then representative of in 1990, whose dissolution the government ordered on the Patriarch and Locum tenens until the elections. 1 December 1997. The Secular Committee, established by Patriarch Karekin, had advised him on As soon as Mutafyans' candidacy was known, a legal, media, real estate and educational questions. massive campaign of slander was launched by the 70 The Turkish government justified the ban saying that high-circulation daily Turkiye and by TV channel Turkey is a secular country and that such a Committee TGRT, which belongs to the same media group, both would form a precedent for other religious communities associated with the Islamist party Fazilet (Virtue) and “cause unrest”. The Committee’s members were Party- formerly Refah (prosperity). The campaign threatened with legal prosecution if they did not swelled in the course of April 1998 into a flood of immediately cease their work. Today, the Patriarch has accusations of the worst kind against Mutafyan in no advisory committee for civil matters. The continuity particular and the Armenians in general. On April 12th, 68 70 Duncker, op. cit. See also Baker, Barbara G.: Turkish State Blocks Patriarchal Election. “Compass Direct”, 69 Oehring, op. cit., p. 24 August 19, 1998. Internet source: http://www.churchnet.org.uk/news/files3/news089.html ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 25 1998, Turkiye started a series of articles under the title Assaults and attacks on churches. “the Actions of the Armenians”, which dealt for 1. On 11 April 1997 “unknown perpetrators” example with the “true events of 1915”, in an article attacked Surb Astvatsatsin church (Holy which drew upon the entire repertoire of Turkish denial Mother of God) in the Istanbul district of Eyüp- 72 of the genocide of 1915. The main message of the Islambey . series was the affirmation that Armenians had 2. On 22 April 1997, Marmara reported that, on murdered hundreds of tshousands of Turks in 1915. the eve of the Muslim Bayram festival, unidentified individuals perpetrated an attack On 14 April 1998, Türkiye published an editorial with explosive materials on the Surb Yeria dedicated exclusively to Mutafyan. The newspaper church (church of the holy Elias) in Eyüp- wrote that the bishop was an extremist and was suing Nişanca. The paper commented that: “the Turkey at the European Court of Human Rights; that assaults on this church are almost he was a member of the Armenian Daschnakzutiun innumerable. It is also incomprehensible that Party; that he was connected with the foreign powers the security authorities have not prosecuted in an alliance intended to restore the Treaty of Sèvres the previous assaults.” and thus destroy Turkey; that he was planning a 3. On Sunday, 23 June 2002, the German press conspiracy and terrorist attacks against Turkey, agency (DPA), based on information from the together with the Armenian community of Turkey; that Turkish news agency Anadolu, reported: “A Mutafyan was a special agent for Armenia, and so on. bomb has exploded in front of an Armenian church in Istanbul. The blast caused light On the 23 April 1998 “Türkiye” published another damage according to Anadolu. There were no editorial under the title „the Armenian menace”, calling clues as to who the culprits or their motives the government, among other things, to prohibit the might be. In Istanbul there were two further election of a new Armenian Patriarch and other bomb attacks, damaging several businesses. community activities. Mesrop Mutafyan filed a lawsuit Here too, the details are unclear. At the for “injury of his individual rights and to the honor of the beginning of the month, a charge placed under 71 Armenian people” . On 9 May 1998 Marmara a tree exploded not far from the Blue Mosque.” announced that Mutafyan had won in first instance 4. Under the headline “New Attack on Armenian against Türkiye. The same day however Marmara also Church in Turkey”, the Armenian daily reported that “certain university groups” had conducted newspaper Azg (Yerevan) reported on 29 opinion polls in the Turkish population on the subject of June 2002, on the basis of news from the the elections to the Patriarchate and „asked very few Armenian newspaper Marmara: “(...) windows 73 helpful questions.” of an Armenian church in Istanbul’s Kandili borough were broken, the rope of the bell was Simultaneously, the TGRT television channel was torn off and the church’s door was marred. giving headline coverage to Türkiye’s smear campaign Tigran Gevorkian, head of Kandili parish against Mutafyan (see for example on 7 and 9 May council said the police was informed about the 1998). incident and an inquiry was launched to track down the perpetrators. Recalling that a bomb On the 14 May 1998, the Patriarchate’s electoral exploded last week near the Armenian church commission published a statement to the Turkish of Saint Gregory in another Istanbul borough public stating that the current press campaign was the daily writes that the impression is that “we spreading hostility and hate against all Armenians in are going back to former days.’” Turkey. At that sensitive time before the elections, this had to be seen as “threatening and unjustifiable acts”. 2. Armenian schools On 18 May 1998, the Turkish newspaper Radikal wrote, the press campaign against Mutafyan gave the All 19 Armenian day schools in Istanbul are private impression that the government did not wish to see the schools, financed exclusively by the Armenian young and pugnacious Mutafyan become Patriarch. Apostolic as well as Armenian Uniate communities (4 72 Marmara, 12. April 1997 71 73 Marmara, 23. April 1998 This is the church of the Twelve Apostles (Surb Yergodasan Arakelots Kilisesi) in Kandilli. 26 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY schools). Four of the schools are secondary schools, Orthodox, Chaldean). If a child is enrolled in a Turkish four are intermediate schools (6th to 8th grade) and school in the meantime, he or she cannot change to an seven are elementary schools. The number of Armenian school later on. Furthermore, the “Çevre“ students who go to private Armenian schools rather regulation forces children to attend a school in their than Turkish public school is declining; in 1999 there own district, a provision which again forces Armenian 74 were 3.800 students . The number of Armenian communities to keep loss-making and poorly attended schools has also declined correspondingly. According schools open, while other schools are overcrowded, to article 10 of the law on foundations, school buildings but cannot be extended. which are left empty or which are no longer used can be handed over to another foundation with the same A proof of Armenian religious affiliation must again be purposes. However, a decision of the Council of provided when a child enters secondary school, Ministers is required on every such occasion, and this regardless of the fact that it has already been provided takes a long time. The entire procedure constitutes a when he or she entered primary school. 75 violation of article 40, line 2 of the Lausanne Treaty . Children from bi-national marriages are confronted The Turkish state finances only Turkish teachers, who with particular problems, as the Turkish Ministry of are most often forced on the Armenian schools, as well Education’s inspectors consider only the paternal as the obligatory Turkish headmasters (deputy descent due to Muslim legal traditions. Thus a child directors). Only five schools are high schools (9th to with an Armenian father can only go to an Armenian 11th grade). school for as long as the father lives. The refusal by school If he dies, the child is no longer Problems authorities to allow children considered an Armenian and may no longer attend the Armenian into Armenian schools The report made by the Turkish school. Children with Armenian forces parents to repeatedly mothers and non-Armenian fathers ‘Committee for Monitoring Minority Rights’ (1996) stated: go to the courts- a fruitless are prevented from going to 77 “Turkey, a party to the 1995 UN recourse. Armenian schools . Convention for Children’s Rights, had put reservation on three articles, namely The Turkish Director and Armenian Headmaster. Article 17 granting children the right to develop their The Deputy Headmaster of an Armenian school is own culture in their own language, Article 29 always an ethnic Turk. He is responsible inter alia for acknowledging the right of minorities to broadcast countersigning all school correspondence. He can thus radio and TV programmes in their own language and paralyze the work of a school at will. The Turkish Article 30 giving the right of education in one’s own school council must vet the Armenian Headmaster 76 language .” before he can enter into function. This ratification is often delayed and sometimes altogether denied. The freedom to choose a school is threatened. Each school year Armenian parents must reapply for The five surviving Greek schools in Istanbul have to state authorizations for their children to attend contend with similar problems as the Armenians. Here Armenian schools. These formal applications are time however, the office of the Deputy Headmaster is consuming. The authorities’ request for proof of the always used much more openly to both control and pupils’ Armenian Apostolic or Armenian Uniate gather information. On 10 June 1997, Milliyet reported affiliation is difficult to fulfill, especially for families living that the Turkish Ministry of Education had invited the in areas without churches and therefore without the Turkish Headmasters of the Greek schools to a possibility of baptizing their children or register them meeting. There they were blamed for allowing that with the church. Alternatively, the children and their “...the students enter into Greek schools as Turk and parents might have identity documents indicating that come out again as Greeks.” It was their patriotic duty they belong to another Christian denomination (Syrian to keep an eye on and prevent the active Turkish teachers at these schools from working closely with 74 According to information of the Apostolic Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II. in an with their Greek colleagues. Too narrow a cooperation Florence Avakian. See Avakian, op. cit. 75 Oehring, op. cit., P. 31 76 77 Committee for Monitoring Minority Rights, op. cit., P. 2 Oehring, op. cit., P. 30 ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 27 would be seen as treason. The headmasters were force such an initiative on our schools?’ concluded the 78 representatives of Turkey and have to report newspaper .” everything they see. Marmara commented on 10 June 1997 that “all of this looks very familiar to our school Attacks on schools. Like Armenian churches, directors. They have not forgotten that the Minister of Armenian schools are the target of nationalistically or Education discussed the same issue with the Turkish religiously motivated aggressions against the directors of our schools two years ago, where he Armenian minority in Istanbul. On 9 July 1997 called for vigilance.” Marmara reported that anti-Armenian graffiti appeared on the walls of the Dadian School in Bakirköy Acute lack of teachers. There has long been an (Istanbul), which featured the name of the former acute shortage of teachers as a result of the obligation, Armenian underground organisation ASALA. introduced in 1971, to attend a Turkish boarding Unidentified individuals had carried out two attacks school for teachers outside of Istanbul for four years. using explosives against the same school just a few Many Armenians give up the teaching profession days earlier. because trainee teachers are forced by this obligation to live among Turks and away from their community 3. Foundations. and parental protection. Naturally, Armenian language and culture are not part of the education of Turkish Turkish nationals belonging to non-Muslim minorities teacher trainees, although the Armenians must later shall enjoy the same treatment and security in law and teach in the Armenian language. Their linguistic level in fact as other Turkish nationals. In particular, they will therefore be as high, or as low, as it was when shall have an equal right to establish, manage and they came out of secondary school as they acquire no control at their own expense, any charitable, religious further linguistic knowledge during their studies. and social institutions, any schools and other establishments for instruction and education, with the In 1970, there was already a 30% shortage of right to use their own language and to exercise their Armenians teachers. Nevertheless, by contrast with own religion freely therein. Greek private schools, non-Turkish citizens are not (Treaty of Lausanne, Article 40) allowed to work as Armenian teachers. In addition, unlike the Greeks, Armenian candidate teachers must Under Turkish law, churches and their institutions do obtain an official authorisation before they are not count as legal entities, let alone as subjects under appointed. This procedure can last up to a year. public law; they cannot be incorporated as associations or companies, but rather only as Reduction in native language instruction. The foundations. Due to legal restrictions, the income of number of hours per week of teaching in Armenian has these foundations can come only from the sale, rental been reduced steadily since 1972 and is now only 4, or leasing of real estate. Foundations belonging to one of which is dedicated to teaching religion. The non-Muslim minorities therefore set aside the income occasional announcement by the Ministry of Education from property rental to support their public facilities that the remaining subjects will also have to be taught such as schools and hospitals, but also to the in Turkish is cause for considerable concern among maintenance of their churches and retribution of 79 the Armenian community in Istanbul. The newspaper clergymen . Marmara commented on such a directive issued in January 2000: “The teaching of subject matters in The Government oversees religious facilities and Armenian is a right our schools enjoy. If all subjects education through its Directorate of Religious Affairs are to be taught in Turkish then what is the point of (Diyanet Işleri Müdürlüğü). Religious officials, including spending so much to maintain and preserve our imams, are civil servants. Religious minorities, Armenian schools? The newspaper therefore reported established under the Lausanne Treaty in 1923, and that the Turkish authorities have said they would send their affiliated churches, monasteries, and religious Turkish teachers to schools, if the Armenian schools were unable to teach those subjects in Turkish. ‘At this 78 Turkish Ministry Demands Teaching in Turkish. In. „Asbarez Online“, January 31, 2000. juncture, when we are preparing to integrate with 79 Hermann, Rainer: Die Enteignungen in der Türkei dauern an; Kassationshof: Annahme aller Vermögenswerte der NichtMuslime seit 1936 ist gesetzwidrig. „Frankfurter Allgemeine European standards, how can the education ministry Zeitung“, 20.12.2001, P. 12 28 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY schools are regulated by a separate government ! On 18 May 1997 Radikal reported the agency, the Office of Foundations (VakıFlar Genel expropriation of a 250 year-old residential house of Müdür-lüğü). The “VakıFlar”, an institution dating back the Kavafyan family in Istanbul. An older to the Ottoman Empire, must approve the operation of descendant of the family still inhabited the house churches, monasteries, synagogues, schools, and with his wife; they are now homeless. The national charitable religious foundations, such as hospitals and Vakif Administration had prepared the 80 orphanages . There are 160 minority foundations, expropriation for quite a long time. There the including Greek Orthodox (about 70 sites), Armenian authority, asserting that it could not verify that the Apostolic (about 50) and Jewish (20). Minority 89 year-old man had inherited the house from his foundations may not acquire property for any purpose, parents who died in 1960, obliged him to pay the although they can lose it. If a community does not us rent accumulated over a considerable time to the its property because of a decline in the size of its Vakıf administration. congregation over 10 years, the VakıFlar takes over 81 direct administration and ownership . ! On 10 June 1997 Marmara reported that the Recent problems. The Jewish, Armenian and mayor of Şişli (ANAP party) had sought to Orthodox communities are in danger of losing a expropriate a large portion of land of 6400 m2 number of properties because of a law that states that belonging to the Karagözyan orphanage. Prior to “extinct” properties - buildings which have had a this, an offer of purchase had been made to the prolonged absence of clergy or laypersons or a lack of trustees of the Orphanage, but the absurd price 82 attendance- revert to the government . offered (64 million lira, compared to an actual value of one trillion lira) reveals that this offer was An extraordinary difficulty results from the fact that a sham. Furthermore, both the acquisition of non-Muslim foundations can only run those properties replacement property and access to the proceeds which they had included in the list of investments they of the purchase were prohibited to the Armenian submitted in 1936. The Turkish law on foundations of institutions. When the trustees rejected the sale, 1926 and 1935 prohibits the acquisition of property the mayor ordered their immediate expropriation. after 1936 but is enforced selectively and only to non- As a result of intensive efforts of the Armenian Muslim foundations since 1974. Based on this community as well as a shift in public opinion selective interpretation, 39 of the Armenian Community caused by the appeals of the Armenian community of Istanbul’s properties have fallen into the hands of and of part of the left- wing Turkish media, the the Turkish state. There is only one case where mayor of Şişli withdrew his decision to expropriate disputed real estate was returned to the legal on 17 June 1998. Marmara reminded its readers in successor of the previous owner (the Armenians family a commentary of 19 June 1998 that the danger Palakasyan). was only momentarily avoided, because the expropriation of this property was not be the first The real estate confiscated exclusively from non- attempt of its kind and would certainly not be the Muslim minorities is found in parts of the city with high last. The confiscation of the garden of the property prices. The real estate belonging to Armenian Mekhitarist School (an Armenian Uniate order) in 83 foundations was and is still particularly targeted . Istanbul/Pangaltı is regularly put back on the agenda. Recent examples are indicated below in chronological order: ! On 13 June 1997, Hürriyet reported that the mayor, who belongs to the Refah party in Beyoğlu (Istanbul) allowed the historic Protestant Armenian church of Çiksalın to be destroyed entirely. The 80 U.S. Department of State: Annual Report on International Religious Freedom for 1999: church had been expropriated a year and a half Turkey. Washington, DC, September 9, 1999. Internet-Fundselle: http://www.state.gov/www/global/...f/irf_rpt/1999/irf_turkey99.htm, P. 1 81 before that in order to build a health centre on the Annual Report in International Religious Freedom 2001, op. cit., P. 383 82 International Coalition for Religious Freemd: Religious Freedom World Report: Turkey. Area. Updated June 8, 2001. Internet source: wysiwyg://102/http://www.religio...freedom.com/wrtpEurope/turkey.htm, P. 2 83 Hermann, Rainer; Welle von Enteignungen in der Türkei: Nicht-Muslimische Stiftungen in Bedrängnis. „Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung“, 16.03.1999 ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 29 ! The Turkish newspaper Sabah reported on 26 provision excluding the acquisition of new assets by March 1998 that the mayor of Eyüp in Istanbul new foundations. He said, after publication of the wished to expropriate the garden around Church recent judgement, that it is very difficult to understand, ‘Surb Astvatsatsin’. He was reported to have been as it is in contradiction with the Turkish constitution as planning for some time to build a shopping centre well as against human rights. The Turkish Constitution there. The parish raised a complaint against the guarantees equality regardless of belief, religion and plans. Marmara commented that: “It is known that, race. The Patriarch is convinced that the present legal for some time now many district mayors have been situation in Turkey can be improved. Those properties looking to take our property. Where might this lead whose entry in the property register has been or will be 84 to? ” deleted cannot be return to the foundations. And the Patriarch therefore asked rhetorically whether it is ! In April 2000 Marmara reported that the City Turkey’s intention to make it impossible for foundations Council of Istanbul-Kartal wanted to seize a part of to receive enough income to maintain the value of their the premises of the church (St. Mark) in order to property. He also asked Ankara whether each Turkish widen the street. The chairperson of the citizen does not have the same right to property. community council, Ms. Marie Özçelik, protested this and recalled that the city had already seized a The latest decision of the Court of Cassations part of the church’s property in 1972 without acknowledges the European “Progress Report” on compensation to widen the streets: “we have Turkey published by the European Commission on 13 submitted a complaint and nothing came of it. I November (2001). In its chapter on “Assets, Citizens leave the decision up to the conscience of the and Political Rights”, this report notes that the 85 officials ”, said Ms. Özçelik . Christian churches are still confronted with difficulties, especially on the question of the ownership of The supreme judiciary authority on cases involving property. Turkey had avoided addressing the question expropriations is the Court of Cassations in Ankara, of minority rights in its National Programme, adopted in which in a decision from December 2001 created a March the same year, in which it charts its course to precedent for an extensive expropriation of the non- EU membership. This omission presumably is Muslims in Turkey. The court stated more explicitly probably due to an intervention by deputy Prime than ever before that, since 1935 minorities in Turkey Minister and chairperson of nationalistic movement can neither acquire property nor accept donations or party (MHP), Devlet Bahçeli: he had argued that inheritance. If there is no remaining living legal Turkey would confess to having made mistakes in the successor of the original owner, as is the case of most past, but not as far as the corresponding chapter is 87 donations and inheritance, the property goes to the concerned .” Turkish state. The case concerned the transfer of real estate to the foundation of the Armenian hospital Surb On 1 August 2002, the Grand National Assembly of Prkitsch (Holy Redeemer), whose services are popular Turkey announced a 14-point Reform programme that with Turkish patients as well, due to the very good included the abolition of the ban on Christian reputation the hospital enjoys among the Istanbul foundations inheriting property in force since 1936. 86 population . The judges of the court of cassation However, the new rules envisaged already appear in found that the foundation had to transfer the real many ways criticisable, overly bureaucratic and estate in question to the Turkish treasury. The only therefore of no practical value: remaining appeal now available to the plaintiff is the ! Foundations must prove to the Council of European Court of Human Rights. Ministers that there is a need and an economic basis for such ownership, and the Council of Patriarch Mesrob II repeatedly indicated that Turkey Minister’s Council must approve such does not comply with its obligations under article 42 of ownership (compare with the problems of the Treaty of Lausanne, for example in the obligation Armenian schools, III.2.) to provide equal rights. The article contained no ! Foundations may not establish contacts with foreign relief organizations in any way without 84 Marmara, 26. March 1998 85 Quoted from Asbarez Online, April 19, 2000. Internet source http://www.asbarez.com/aol/2000/000419.htm, P. 2 86 87 Herrmann, Die Enteignungen, op. cit., Ibid. 30 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY the approval of the Ministry of the Interior, the Foreign Ministry and the Council of Ministers. ! The regulations must be viewed as highly discriminatory in view of the fact that they apply only to non-Muslims (the ownership of real estate for Muslims is free from such restrictions), the regulations must be considered as strongly discriminatory. Since 1936 hundreds of buildings have been confiscated by the State and used for other purposes. There has been no mention whatsoever of returning the properties confiscated under the law of 1936 to their rightful owners. ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 31 the police, the military, or the diplomatic service: for IV. Violations of fundamental instance, there are no Armenian judges or Armenian 89 career officers . “ individual civil rights In a paper published in 2001 Dr. Otmar Oehring, Head 1. Freedom of choice of profession of the Human Rights Unit of the international Catholic Mission Missio in Germany, who has extensive Turkish nationals belonging to non-Muslim minorities knowledge of the human rights situation in Turkey, will enjoy the same civil and political rights as Muslims. wrote: „[It] is still true... that the access of members of non-Muslim minorities to the civil service is obstructed All the inhabitants of Turkey, without distinction of and prevented to this day in numerous ways. religion, shall be equal before the law. Admission to military schools is categorically denied. This is not only a violation against the equality principle Differences of religion, creed or confession shall not of Article 10(1) of the Turkish Constitution of 1982, but prejudice any Turkish national in matters relating to the also a violation of Article 39(2) of the Treaty of 90 enjoyment of civil or political rights, as, for instance, Lausanne .“ admission to public employments, functions and honors, or the exercise of professions and industries. There are hardly any lawyers among the members of Treaty of Lausanne, Article 39, 1,2 the Armenian minority of Istanbul, as experience has taught them that they will not be able to find clients in In spite of the protective provisions of the Treaty of Turkish society due to anti-Christian or anti-Armenian Lausanne as well as corresponding provisions in the prejudice. Turkish Constitution, non-Muslim applicants are discriminated against on the job market. They are 2. The right to hold political office excluded from top and intermediate positions in the civil service and in the security forces. The US State With the exception of one member of the Jewish Department’s 1999 Human Rights Report puts it minority, there are no non-Muslim members of the somewhat superficially: “some members of religious Grand National Assembly of Turkey. There are no minorities claim that they have limited career prospects provisions for reserved seats for members of religious in government or military service as a result of their minorities, as exist for instance in the Islamic Republic religious affiliation. There are no non-Muslim senior of Iran. officers in the military, according to a senior military official, because non-Muslims do not apply to attend the military academy and officers must be 3. Protection against discriminatory 88 graduates .“ treatment during military service The underlying reason for the de facto exclusion of Christians are often subject to discriminatory and members of non-Muslim minorities lies in the degrading treatment from fellow soldiers and from continued hold of Muslim legal tradition: „under Islamic superiors during their military service. “They are religious law (Sharia), it is illegal to give executive insulted as ‘infidels’ or as ‘dirty Christian pigs who governmental posts to non-Muslims. It is true that this won’t even let themselves be circumcised’. [T]hey are law was occasionally disregarded even in Ottoman harassed and physically abused. At the same time, times. But the Islamic population is consciously aware they are constantly threatened with forced of the impropriety of such violations, in particular since circumcision. [...] Not all Christian recruits are able to religious law entitles and even requires religious withstand such mental and physical terror, so that Muslims to act in the government’s place if it fails to 91 many are ‘voluntarily’ circumcised .” honor its „obligations“. Armenians, like other Christians, cannot take high-level posts in the courts, It is difficult however to obtain information about the 89 Deutsch-Armenische Gesellschaft e.V.: Bericht zur Lage der Armenier in der Türkei. 88 US. Department of State: 1999 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Released Februar 1989, P. 6 90 by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. February 25, 1999. P. 54. Internet Oehring, op. cit., P. 32 f 91 source: http://www.state.gov/www.globa...ts/1999_hrp_report/turkey.html Ibid. 32 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY 94 scope and the specific forms of violence against young could result in criminal prosecution . Many members Christians due to the particularly strong taboos of the Armenian minority of Istanbul have therefore concerning sexual violence in Middle-Eastern „cleaned“ their personal libraries of such „incriminating“ societies. literature during times of crisis. To this day, merely mentioning the genocide in public can lead to criminal 4. Freedom of opinion, conscience, prosecution. Here are four current examples of this. research and the press a) Freedom of Speech, Opinion The genocide of Armenians of Ottoman nationality and Conscience during the years 1915 and 1916, for which the nationalist war-time regime Ittihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti During times of crisis, religious leaders of non-Muslim Party is responsible, represents to this day the biggest minorities in Turkey, in particular of the Greek and political taboo in the Turkish Republic. The historical Armenian communities, are expected to declare factuality of this event is officially denied or played publicly their loyalty to the Turkish government, and to down as a forced relocation with collateral damages condemn the governments or legislatures of Greece required by war or civil war. Consequently, it is and Armenia or even the Armenian Diaspora or the impossible for relatives or spokespersons of the legislature of those states or institutions who recall the Armenian community in Turkey to publicly memorialize past and present persecution of non-Muslims in the victims or to publicize the genocide of 1915 in a Turkey. In October 2000, the debate over Resolution manner other than that of the official position. On the 596 on the Genocide of the Armenians in the US contrary, they have to endure that Turkish museums of House of Representatives led to a renewed interest of local history, such as in Van or in Erzurum, have Turkish media in such declarations of loyalty by sections about the alleged extermination of the Turkish Christian religious leaders in Turkey. When Yusuf 95 and Muslim population by the Armenians. On the Akbulut, the Syrian-Orthodox priest of Diyarbekir , not border to Armenia in the vicinity of Iğdır, a 45 meter only affirmed journalists’ queries that a Turkish high, martial monument was dedicated to the alleged genocide victimizing Armenians „of our religion“ had Turkish victims of an Armenian genocide on October 5, taken place in 1915, but that Syrian-Orthodox 1999, along with a similar museum. The monument Christians were also affected, the prosecutor of the consists of five crossed swords and, according to a State Security Court in Diyarbeki initiated proceedings spokesperson of the governor of Iğdır, it is also visible against him on October 18, 2000. In the accusation, he from the Armenian capital city Yerevan: „’Whenever referred among other things to an October 4, 2000 the Armenians look towards their holy Mount Ararat, article of Hürriyet correspondent Ayhan Acetden that 92 they will see our monument’“ The official opening was published under the damning headline „The took place in the presence of the entire military elite of Traitor Among Us“. Through this, and through earlier Turkey, including the chief of staff Hüseyin Kivrikoğlu publications (in the Diyarbeki tabloid Star, in the local as well as president Süleyman Demirel. In his address, paper Olay, and in a programme broadcast by the Minister of State Ramazan Mirzaoğlu claimed that Kanal D, a cable TV channel, all on October 3, 2000.) between 1915 and 1929 Armenians killed almost the priest had, in the opinion of the prosecutor, 93 80,000 people in Iğdır . committed the crime of „public incitement among the In the past, the mere possession, even by foreigners 94 Cf. the case of the Armenian priest Manwel Jerkatjan is described above under II. – Ralph-Raymond Braun, then tour guide and Ph.D. student at the University of Konstanz, temporarily present in Turkey, of books about the Germany (now an author of travel handbooks), was arrested in the city of Van on June 10, 1982, when two German-speaking Turks overheard him telling the German study travel genocide of Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire group that he was guiding on the Vansee island Achtamar about the persecution of Armenians in the years 1895-1896 during the reign of Sultan Abdülhamit II. The two Turkish listeners reported the tour guide who was thereupon sentenced to 16 months jail and a subsequent five months ‘probational stay’ in Ankara “for slander and abuse of Turkishness”, 92 Cited in Wolfgang Koydl, Die Täter setzen sich ein Denkmal: Türken errichten Mahnstätte even though Braun’s comments about the persecution of Armenians in the late 19th century für Opfer armenischer Übergriffe (The perpetrators memorialize themselves: Turks erect a did not mention the actual genocide of 1915/1916. The offense was compounded by the memorial for the victims of Armenian attacks.Süddeutsche Zeitung, December 1, 1999, p. fact that two “incriminating books” were found in his baggage: a book on the situation of 10. Kurds in Turkey, authored by Jürgen Roth and others, and the trial records of “The trial of 93 From 1878 to 1917, Iğdır belonged to the Russian Empire, and between 1918 and 1920, Talaat Pascha”, originally published in 1921. (Berlin 1921; republished 1980 and 1985, to the first Armenian Republic. A report on the mass deaths among the then mainly Göttingen/Wien). R.-R. Braun spent six months in the Diyarbeki prison and was not Armenian population due to hunger and epidemics can be found in Melville Carten, The released until early January 1983 after the intervention of then Foreign Minister of Germany Land of the Stalking Death: a Journey Through Starving Armenia on an American Relief Genscher. 95 Train. National Geographic Magazine, November 1919. Published in excerpts on the Pastor of the Meryem- (St. Mary’s) Church, with a community now comprising just 35 Internet at http://www.virtualani.freeserve.co.uk/history/accounts/igdir.htm. people (10 families). ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 33 population to hatred and enmity on the basis of numerous criminal proceedings resulting from the differences of class, race, religion, religious affiliation publication of critical articles concerning Turkey’s or region“ (§ 312/ 2-3,31 Turkish Penal Code – TPC). minority politics as well as her historical taboos. One of After a total of three court hearings the proceedings the most important written contributions about the against Pastor Akbulut were closed on April 5, 2001 for genocide of the Armenians, the book „the Armenian the following reasons: a) the strong international Taboo“ by French genocide researcher Yves Ternon, interest generated by the case, as well of the presence was immediately impounded and banned after its of international, including also parliamentary, publication in 1993. Ayşe Zarakolu was subjected to observers; b) the defense’s arguments that the systematic financial as well as physical sanctions by accused had not understood his statements as an the state. The publication of the Turkish edition of interview (public statement), but as a private opinion; Professor Vahakn N. Dadrian’s study „Genocide as a and c) the court’s view that there were no addressees Problem of National and International Law: The World for any appeals to interethnic hate since there no War I Armenian Case and Its Contemporary Legal longer were any Armenians or Syrian-Orthodox people Ramifications“ (1989) caused its Armenian-American living in the region. Therefore, this was not, as many author and its Turkish publisher to be charged in have claimed, an „acquittal“, but a sophistic reasoning February 1995 with „racist and separatist incitement of that allowed the closure of a procedure that had come the Armenians against the Turkish society“. However, to strain foreign relations. In the summer of 2001, the during the trial the judge conceded that the religious leader was denied permission to travel to prosecutor’s assertions were not true, and that, even if Germany where he was supposed to receive the the Armenians were incited, they would not present a Shalom-Preis, (Peace Prize) which is annually danger to Turkish society, since they had become a awarded by the Association for Justice and Freedom dwindling minority in Society. The judge in the of the Catholic University of Eichstätt. proceedings against Yusuf Akbulut in April 2001 appears to have also followed a similar argument. b) The case of Akin Birdal Turkish publisher Ayşe Nur Zarakolu, who died of At an October 2000 conference in Bremerhaven cancer in early 2002, had to serve four prison (Germany), Akın Birdal, the former chairman of the sentences for her courage as a publisher and was Human Rights Organisation of Turkey, supposedly tortured on one occasion. In an interview held on 3 stated publicly: „everybody knows what has been done July 1997, Ms. Zarakolu said: to the Armenians, and Turkey must apologize for it.“ Legal proceedings were instituted against him “There are some subjects in Turkey which cannot pursuant to § 159(1) TPC for „public slander of be discussed, like the Armenian genocide. But if Turkishness. The proceedings were opened on 1 you want to stop genocide, you must discuss its March 2001 and the prosecutor, who is relying on an history as the Germans now do. article in the Turkish paper Gözcü, is seeking a prison sentence of six years for the internationally acclaimed I am not prepared to leave Turkey and live in Turkish human rights activist. The court has so far another country. They must leave, not us. We love been convened eight times. In September 2000, Birdal our country and we want to make it more had been released from a ten-month sentence democratic. It is more difficult to do it from outside. pursuant to § 312 TPC („Incitement of interethnic We believe our work is important for everybody who hate“). The sentence resulted from Birdal’s public wants to change the system. We want to make support for the rights of the Kurds. Turkey a real democracy, a country of different 96 religions and races who can live together .” c) Freedom of the press Current Problems. In the years 2000-2001, which In 1990, the Istanbul publisher and human rights were characterised by strong anti-Armenian activist Ragıp Zarakolu was, together with Birdal, one resentment, the Turkish human rights activist, of 90 founding members of the Turkish Human Rights Society (IHD). Zarakolu, and even more so his wife 96 Penny Young, Turkey (Interview with Ayse Zarakolu). Index On Censorship (Index On- Ayşe Nur Zarakolu, have had to suffer through Line), on the Internet at http://www.oneworld.org/index_oc/news/turkeya030797.html. 34 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY journalist and author Yelda found herself forced to leave her hometown of Istanbul. She requested political asylum in Germany because of the impossibility to write truthfully in Turkey about the discrimination of ethnic and religious minorities and about taboo issues such as the genocide of Armenians. Her request for asylum was immediately granted as entirely justified by the relevant German authorities. This example shows that publishers or journalists who specialise professionally in minority issues and human rights violations cannot pursue their profession in Turkey – not even if, like Yelda, they try to use a pseudonym. d) Freedom of research In May 1997, the German Academic Dr. Hilmar Kaiser, who specializes in the history of the persecution of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, was forbidden the use of the Ottoman state archive of Turkey „for life“ by Necati Aktaş, the Assistant General Director of the 97 archive of the Turkish Prime Minister . 97 Mannik Khatchatrian. Genocide scholar „banished for life“ from Ottoman Archives. 18 May, 1997. Asbarez, on the Internet at http://www.cilicia.com/armo10e4.html. ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 35 V. Anti-Armenian Reporting The expert for South-Eastern Europe, Florian Bieber, writes two years later in a study: “In the nineties, the in the Turkish Media conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan puts Armenians again in an awkward position. (...) Attacks The improper, untruthful, and often defamatory against Armenian churches und misrepresentation of reporting of the Turkish media on Armenians and Armenians remain commonplace in Turkey. Frequently Armenia over decades and up to the present day is attempts were undertaken by the government to one of the main causes of the fear of further connect the PKK with Armenians. This aims at inflating persecution among the Armenian minority. A direct the role of Armenians in order to construct a connection between the reporting and attacks on conspiracy theory against the Turkish state. Since Armenian properties has been sufficiently Armenians are the largest non-Muslim group in demonstrated. In the context of anti-Armenian riots in Turkey, they are prime targets of religious and 1993, the Turkish daily newspaper Cumhuriyet quoted nationalist propaganda. Here again the rhetoric of the a cemetery guard on 13 April 1993, who responded in secular Nationalist und Islamist coincides.” 101 full sympathy for this wave of riots against Armenian and Catholic cemeteries: “Every day one sees and reads something anti-Armenian on television and in ARMENIAN AND KURDISH SEPERATISTS THREATEN the newspapers. The boys are influenced by it. That is TURKEY 98 not their fault! ” A campaign of slander The hostile reporting of minorities in the media Apparently, the coupling of anti-Armenian and anti- reinforces an already existing hostile frame of mind Kurdish resentments in the 1990s was the obvious about Armenians in Turkish society. The Committee result of an initiative by leading Turkish politicians and for Monitoring Minority Rights says to this: “the Media high-ranking military men. Hürriyet published a secret play an important part in the systematic harassment of letter of Turgut Özal, the Turkish President at that time minorities, humiliating their ethnic and religious to the Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel on 12 identity. To give an example, at a time of acute November 1993, in which Özal proposed among other competition, the boss of one of the powerful things, to regain the sympathies of the population in newspapers can accuse his rival of being ‘the son of a the Kurdish territories by propagandistic means, if Greek’. The word Armenian is frequently used as an necessary by specific disinformation. Apparently, the insult. During periods of escalating tension between string of “disclosures” of Turkish Army leaders and Turkey and Greece or Armenia, Greeks and high-ranking civil servants on an alleged Kurdish- Armenians living in Turkey become a target of Armenian alliance against Turkey since the summer of 99 harassment .“ 1993 until the kidnapping of Öcalan served to reach this goal. Partially, this campaign was also directed to „Turkish nationalism (...) has by no means ceased to the Armenian Republic that was repeatedly accused in harass the Armenian community up to the present day. the Turkish media of hosting training camps for the Attacks on Turkish diplomats in the 1970s by ASALA, PKK. As Turkey took pretext of the alleged existence an Armenian organization based outside Turkey, and of such training camps in Northern Iraq to launch the Azerbaijani-Armenian armed conflict in the early cross-border military punitive expeditions, similar 1990s revived anti-Armenian campaign chiefly by the action against its Armenian neighbor could not be press and the racist movements. Hostility against excluded. Armenians from time to time assumes such dimensions that Turkish subjects Armenians can be The commander of the tank division in Bitlis, General held responsible for the acts of the PKK (Kurdistan Tagma, claimed in July 1993 that every seventh PKK- Worker Party) from 1980 on. In fact it has become member was Armenian and uncircumcised: “The PKK- customary to hear that the word ‘Armenian’ used as an members are the grandsons of those [Armenians] who 100 insult by these circles .” struck the Ottoman Empire in the back during the First 98 Quoted from Armenisch-Deutsche Korrespondenz, p. 15 99 Committee for Monitoring Minority Rights: Minorities in Turkey, p. 2 100 101 Ibid, p. 4 Bieber, Florian, p. 8 36 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY 102 World War!” In the influential Milliyet, Ünal Erkan, the PKK through the World Council of Churches, and the Governor of the State of Emergency in Southeast- that the money went to buying weapons. Asked about Turkey at the time declared: “In our computer we have this by the reporter of Günaydın, the substitute of the registered 800 PKK members of Armenian descent. Patriarch of the Armenians in Turkey, Archbishop One part originates from Syria and Iran, another part Mutafyan denied the claims and observed that until 103 from Armenia!” Erkan in Diyarbekir complained of that point not a single Armenian PKK fighter was the danger of a Kurdish-Armenian alliance on January caught, or else he would have been shown 10 hours 26, 1994. On this occasion, he spoke of one hundred daily on television; the newspaper proceeded to insult Armenians in the rows of the PKK as well as “600 Mutafyan on 9 December 1993, calling him a „Yalancı foreign militants”. Erkan gave the “Armenian question” Papaz (lying priest). [the common Turkish description of the genocide of 1915] and “revenge for 1915” as Armenian reasons for Türkiye claimed again in September 1994, with the alleged collaboration. To explain the Kurdish reference to Turkish Prime Minister Ciller, the General reasoning, he gave the alleged opinion of a PKK- Staff and the Foreign Ministry, that the PKK Commander: „If we [Kurds] were led by one of our maintained six camps in Armenia where it was allowed own, our leadership would be weak. However, if we to publish three newspapers. The paper claimed that take one of them [Armenians], he will pursue our the population of three Armenian towns as well as 13 104 cause with a firm hand.” Armenian villages was being instructed to become PKK-fighters. The Azerbaijani military defeat in and Since the summer of 1993, the claim emerged around Mountainous Karabakh, perceived by many repeatedly in the Turkish media that PKK leader Turks as a national shame, was explained by the Abdullah Öcalan (Apo) was himself an Armenian and, intervention of the PKK on the side of the 107 according to national television TRT (first program) Armenians . The right-wing nationalist paper from 6 March 1994 his true Armenian name was Artin “Tercüman”, quoting Azerbaijani news agency Turan, Hakobian. The television reporter of TRT explained to already claimed on 15 February 1994 the existence of the Kurdish citizens in Turkey that the Armenians had an alliance of the PKK with the Armenians in the 105 seized control of the PKK . Shortly thereafter, the eastern Transcaucasus: according to this source, Turkish Daily News located the PKK-leader in Lachin, Öcalan had found refuge in Armenia and received $12 in a territory controlled by Karabakh-Armenian forces. million dollars from the Armenian government. The Turkish national television TRT repeated this Apparently, 600 PKK-fighters were fighting with the 106 108 “announcement” . Armenians against the Azerbaijanis . Turkish journalists traveled to the Republic of Armenia The disinformation campaign in the Turkish media in the autumn of 1993 in order to see for themselves reached a new high on 25 May 1994 when the two that PKK training camps existed. A co-worker of the newspapers Tercüman and Sabah tried to prove the magazine Aktüel found only 21 villages of the Yezidi “dirty collaboration” between the Armenians and the Kurdish speaking minority in Armenia, whose PKK with a photo showing PKK-leader Öcalan with an inhabitants appeared to be disturbed by the fate of the alleged Armenian clergyman. “Turkish security forces” Kurds in Turkey and who did not deny their partially were said to have taken the photo on 3 March 1994 existing sympathies with the PKK. In spite of a noisy during a secret meeting between Öcalan and the headline announcing “the collaboration of the PKK with clergyman. Özgür Ülke (Free Country), the successor the Armenians”, even Hürriyet had to admit on 11 newspaper to the pro-Kurdish organ Özgür Gündem November 1993 that it did not discover any Kurdish made the correction on May 31, 1994 that the photo training camps in Armenia. Nevertheless, other media shows M. Yohanna, the Syrian-Orthodox bishop of subsequently repeated the claim: the newspaper Aleppo, and furthermore that the photo was not taken “Günaydın” claimed on 6 December 1993 that both the at a recent secret meeting but at an meeting on 10 Armenians and the Greek Orthodox church financed March 1993 which the Kurdish news agency KURD- HA also reported on, as did the magazine Özgür Halk 102 (Free People) on 15 July 1993. The photo in question Quoted from Marmara, July 17, 1993 103 Quoted from Marmara, August 2, 1993 104 Quoted from Marmara, January 27, 1994 105 107 See also Marmara, March 7, 1994 Quoted from Marmara, September 12, 1994 106 108 See also Marmara, March 19, 1994 Quoted from Marmara, February 16, 1994 ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 37 had been seized by “Turkish Security Forces” during a be victims of the Armenians. As one can read on a search in the rooms of the agency Özgür Gündem on Turkish propaganda website on the Internet scientists 10 December 1993, and obviously subsequently unambiguously ascertained the identity of these bones 109 passed on . as Turkish, even decades after the event. Milliyet reported on 2 May 1993 on the discovery of a mass But in spite of such corrections and multiple protests of grave with one thousand corpses in the village Tazegül the Apostolic Armenian Patriarchate, the photo was in Erzurum. The director of the Institute of History of often published as evidence by the Turkish media, with the University in Erzurum claimed on this occasion that its last publication so far in the newspapers Ortadoğu Armenians had killed three million men between 1916 and Yeni Asya in October 1994. The Turkish and 1918 in the area of Erzurum, Erzincan, Muş, 113 authorities enlarged it to the size of a poster and Artvin, Bitlis, Ağrı, Kars among others . Hürriyet added the provocative subtitle “Apo is a servant of the reported on the discovery of a further mass grave by Armenians” and then hung it up at public places and in security forces at the foot of the Ararat (Turkish Ağrı 114 public buildings in Eastern Turkey. Sabah and Dağ) on 11 March 1994 . Simultaneous to the Cumhuriyet reported on October 23, 1994 in Van that disclosure of the “dirty alliance” between the PKK and citizens were forced by policemen to glue the photo on the Armenian clergy, the second channel of the 110 the windshields of their cars . Turkish public television showed two historical series in 1993-94: “Experienced History” and “The Blood on It is not only the media, but also schoolbooks and the Wall”, the latter being a pseudo-documentary work „statements of politically responsible persons“ that that was produced in the middle of the 1980s. contribute to anti-Armenian prejudice and acts, writes “Experienced History” began with a talk-show in April 111 Turkey expert Otmar Oehring . „The example of a 1994, in which pro-Turkish scientists were allowed to poll conducted in 1999 among (Turkish) youths publicly express their view on history and once again concerning their attitude to Armenians shows the repeated their accusation that the Turkish population results of the educational bias in schools, of of Anatolia had been the victim of the Armenians 115 statements by politicians on the subject and the during the World War I and not the other way round . reporting stance of certain news media. This specific In a further part of the series, it was maintained that poll showed that 44.2% of youths thought that there the Armenians had always been a foreign body in the 116 were no good Armenians; that 28.9% believed that the country . The talk show, broadcast a few days before majority of Armenians were bad, but that there were the Armenian Annual Memorial Day of the genocide some good ones; that 24% believed that the majority (24 April 1915), as well as the defamatory shows on of Armenians were good, but that there were some television frightened the Armenian society in Istanbul. bad ones; and, finally, that 2.7 % believed that there Marmara reported with unusual openness on the were no bad Armenians. In another poll concerning the feelings of the Armenian readers: ”our readers ask us, most unpopular people, also conducted in 1999, the how much longer the national television intends to Armenians took first place with 76% of answers continue its targeted anti-Armenian agitation and who, 112 naming them.“ in the places of authority, will protest?” After the broadcasting of the second part of “Experienced History” on 6 April 1994, “unidentified individuals” set ARMENIANS AS MURDERERS OF TURKS AND MUSLIMS fire to the Surb Harutyun Church in Kumkapı, Istanbul, at 11 in the night. Since the 1970s, the Turkish media has dwelt on the crimes that Armenians are said to have committed Current Problems. Since the 1990s, in their home against Turks and Muslims during and directly after the country or abroad, a few Turkish human rights activists First World War. In the East of Turkey, mass graves and scientists have dared to acknowledge as a have been “discovered” again and again in the main historical fact or condemn the genocide of Armenians. area of settlement of the Armenians until 1915, the They thereby not only risked criminal prosecution, as skeletons or parts of skeletons of which were said to in the case of Akin Birdal (see IV.4.b), but were also 109 113 See also Armenisch-deutsche Korrespondenz, December 1993, Nr. 82, p. 14 Marmara, May 3, 1993 110 114 Quoted from Marmara, October 24, 1994 Marmara, March 11, 1994 111 115 Oehring, ibid., p. 32. Marmara, April 4 and 6, 1994 112 116 Ibid. Marmara, April 20, 1994 38 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY deeply insulted, both professionally and personally by On April 12, 2000 Türkiye reported on another event in the Turkish media. One of the most common insults Germany and on one of the participants, the Turkish and insinuations consists in being called a traitor, an author and human rights activist Doğan Akhanlı: “One instrument of foreign intelligence services, as well as of the Armenians, Doğan Akhanlı, who addressed the an „ethnic Armenian“ or „degenerate“. Being meeting and claimed that over a million Armenians denounced in the Turkish media as a „traitor to the were murdered, vomited his revenge upon the nation“ can lead to prosecution in the security courts, Ottomans and Turkey.“ Mr. Akhanlı, who among others as is illustrated by the case of Yusuf Akbulut. has published a novel about the genocide of the Armenians (Kiyamet Günü Yargiclari – The Judges of On April 20, 2001, under the headline “Degenerate the Final Judgement, Istanbul 1999), has variously Turk“, Süleyman Selcuk reported in the European been decried as “Armenian“ or “ethnically Armenian“, edition of Hürriyet on the ethnically Turkish chairman for it is evidently unbearable for his opponents that an Society of Opponents of Genocide based in Frankfurt ethnic Turk should “admit“ the genocide of Armenians. on the Main, who had handed a petition to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey for the recognition of the In the year 2001, there were a total of six proceedings genocide of the Armenians signed by more that 10 000 pending against Hürriyet in Germany by Turkish and Turkish citizens. In November 1999. In April 2001, Mr. German academics who had been defamed in articles Ertem participated in a press conference on this of its European edition in connection with the genocide subject held in the buildings of the German Parliament: of Armenians. Professor Udo Steinbach, head of the „while Turkey was being accused yesterday in the Middle-East Institute (Orient-Institute) in Hamburg, was German Parliament of having committed genocide of accused of being involved in secret service activities the Armenians, the ethnically Turkish chairman of the directed against the Turkish state. A similar accusation Society of Opponents of Genocide, Ali Ertem, vomited was levelled at the Turkish social scientist Dr. Taner his hate of Turkey.“ Akçam, who was the first Turkish academic to acknowledge the genocide of When lecturer and sociologist of “Every day one sees and reads Armenians: the Turkish media Turkish origin Dr. Elcin Kürşat- something anti-Armenian on portrayed him as an instrument Ahlers reported on the genocide television and in the or a pupil of the German federal of Armenians at a conference of newspapers. The boys are intelligence service. the Protestant Academy of Mühlheim (Ruhr, Germany) on influenced by it. That is not In May 2001, Cem Özdemir, 23 March 2001, Ertuğ their fault!” then German Member of Karakullukçu, then editor-in- Parliament of Turkish origin, chief of the foreign edition of Hürriyet, claimed in an obtained an injunction against Hürriyet, because the article that she had attacked „the founder of the paper, in a defamatory campaign lasting several Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, vomiting weeks, had insinuated that Özdemir had kissed the saliva, slime and hate. “Furthermore, Hürriyet wrongly hand of an Armenian priest at a ceremony in Cologne. claimed that the academic sympathized with the PKK and had demanded that Turkey pay damages to Hürriyet, the most widely circulated daily newspaper in 117 Armenians . The paper painted a „gang of people of Turkey, is published daily under the nationalist motto Turkish origin“ who had „wandered off the true path“ at „Turkey for the Turks!“ this „hate-conference“, organized in part by Ms. Kürşat-Ahlers. „With regards to these ‚opportunists’ in The Armenian newspaper Agos, which is published in Mühlheim, he [Karakullukçu] made a drastic appeal to Turkish, reported in July 2002 that a Turkish police dog ‚Ankara’: „The head of the snake should be crushed trained to sniff drugs in Ankara was given the while it is still small.“ Hürriyet wrote a total of 14 Armenian male first name “Artin“. When the articles agitating against the academic, who by no newspaper enquired with the Istanbul police means remained the only victim. authorities, where “Artin“ is currently stationed, they were told that it is customary in Turkey to give dogs 118 117 foreign names . Maron, Thomas. Der Kopf der Schlange soll zerquetscht werden: Academic Elcin Kürsat-Ahlers is fighting against Hürriyet’s portrayal of her as a national traitor. Frankfurter 118 Rundschau, Nr. 179, 4 August, 2001 Agos, 19. July 2002, Nr. 329, P. 1 ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 39 Armenians were burned alive in 1895, an event then VI. Neglect and destruction characterized as a holocaust by American missionary Corinna Shattuck. The cathedral has been used as a of Armenian cultural fire station by the local fire brigade since the heritage extermination of the Armenians of Urfa in October 121 1915. It was transformed into a mosque in1993 . Turkish authorities hinder the preservation of churches and chapels used for religious services by the The list of destructions, both active and passive, is 122 Armenian Church in many ways. Any restoration, long. We list only a few examples below : renovation, or even alteration and extension of any kind, of churches beyond a certain cost threshold are The church of Surb Sarkis (Holy Sergios) of Tekor subject to the authorization of the Vakiflar Genel (now Dikor), erected in the 5th century and believed to Müdürlügü (General directorate for religious be the earliest domed basilica in Armenia, stood intact Foundations) and, more recently, to that of the Foreign until the year 1912, when an earthquake caused the Ministry. This procedure was never authorized by the collapse of the dome, most of the roof, and much of Lausanne Treaty and is in fact in direct contradiction the southern facade (in some books other years are 119 with it (Art. 40, para. 2 VL) . given than 1912). Another earthquake in 1936 caused an unknown amount of additional damage. The In the past, many such authorizations were rejected present condition of the remains - with only fragments under the pretext of protecting historical monuments. of the concrete core remaining, entirely stripped of Urgent repairs have thus been delayed or prevented facing stone - is mostly the work of man rather than 123 year after year. The construction of new churches was earthquakes . out of the question, even as the number of mosques increased constantly in Turkey, and is currently at ! The church of Zipni in the village of the same about 70 000. name (today Varli), probably erected in the 7th 124 century, was turned into a mosque . While the authorities hinder the maintenance of churches currently in use, the rich and extremely ! The Monastery of the Holy Apostle Bartholomew valuable historical art of the Armenian architectural was blasted. It had been erected on the site of the heritage is also systematically and intentionally martyrdom of the apostle in the province of neglected. This neglect and destruction of an Aghbak, region of Vaspurakan, and was architectural heritage which is both sacred in character considered one of the most important pilgrimage and of worldwide significance has been frequently sites of the Armenian people and Christian world. documented in the past, both by Armenian and non- 120 Armenian scholars . Sacred historical monuments ! The Monastery of Holy Karapet (St John) was require especially intensive maintenance and plundered and partly devastated in 1915. It was restoration in an earthquake-prone region with strong turned into a heap of stones during the artillery temperature variations both in winter and in summer. trainings of the Turkish army in the 1960’s. The Yet since the foundation of the Republic of Turkey, stones were later used for the foundation of a Armenian churches and monasteries have been village of the same site. destroyed, diverted from their original purpose and used as stables, for storage, and even as jails and ! The Turkish army destroyed the Monastery of lavatories. In some cases, they have been protected Varak (Varakavank in Armenian, Yedi Kilise in as examples of “Seljuk architecture” while in others Turkish, near Van) on April 30th 1915, during the they have been transformed into mosques. A siege of Van. A Kurdish village, called Bakraçlı, particularly sinister instance of such a conversion is later grew up around the ruins of the surviving that which affected the cathedral of Urfa, in which 300 121 Dalrymple, op. cit., P. 78. 122 Unless otherwise referenced, all the information that follows is from: The Genocide of the Armenians by the Turks. Erevan, 2002. P. 27 f. 119 123 Oehring, op. cit., P. 28 the Web site „virtual Ani“ provides an exhaustive description with historic and 120 Mainly through the Armenian organisations „Terre et culture“ and „Research on contemporary illustrated documentation. Armenian Architecture“, which operate without government permission and thus can only http://www.virtualani.freeserve.co.uk/tekor/tekor.htm 124 work under „conspiratorial“ conditions. For more details see: http://www.virtualani.freeserve.co.uk/magazberd/magazberd.htm 40 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY churches. Parts of the buildings were used as a as khatchkars). He writes inter alia that „during warehouse and stable. Varakavank is now left to the construction of the dam of Keban in 1965 125 „decay naturally“ . the artificial lake had become a threat for a series of historical monuments and the task of ! Only the church of Surb Sargis (Holy Sergios) rescuing the buildings emerged. Five stands among the five churches of the monuments were especially important: a pair monastery of Khtsgonk (9-11th centuries; of fine Ottoman mosques, a small Syrian Beşkilise in Turkish), which remained in use Orthodox church, and two Armenian churches, until 1920, when the Turks expelled the one of which contained exceptional tenth- remaining Armenian population of the Kars century frescoes. The rescue operation is region. After this, the area became a restricted recorded in the Middle East Technical military zone that was closed to visitors (as University (Ankara) Keban Project late as 1984 a special permit was needed to Proceedings. The report describes how the travel to Digor). When historians next visited two mosques were moved stone by stone to a the monastery in 1959, only Surb Sargis new site. The Syrian Orthodox church was remained standing, though seriously surveyed and excavated. The two Armenian damaged. It was reported that villagers at that churches were entirely ignored. Although the time said that Turkish soldiers had blown up most ancient and perhaps the most interesting the churches. The modern inhabitants of of the threatened monuments, they did not nearby Digor still say the same thing. There is even receive a mention in the report. They little doubt that the destruction was caused by now lie for ever submerged beneath the water 127 explosives. Lumps of masonry from the of the lake.“ destroyed churches have been flung far from their original positions. The slopes between The same situation occurred during the construction of the spurs are filled with shattered fragments of Birecik dam. Among other buildings to disappear was stonework, chunks of inscription-covered wall, the medieval monastery fortress Hromkla (in Turkish fragments of columns, and bits of ornate “Rum Kale”) near the upper reaches of the Euphrates. sculpture. The damage to the St. Sargis From 1147 to 1292, this building was the seat of church is even more telling - the side walls of Armenian Katholikoi and of a Skriptorium which the apses and chapels have been blown produced some of the greatest among Armenian outward, evidently by explosives placed within illuminations. the building. The location of a dated piece of modern graffiti (positioned so that it was lit by While there is evidence of numerous instances of a window that is now destroyed) suggests that intentional destruction until the 1970’s, a new problem the destruction took place sometime after appeared in the 1990‘s, that of “destructive 126 1955 . restoration”, i.e. pretences of archaeological excavation and amateurish restoration. In this ! The Church of the Holy Apostles (Arakelots) in connection, the excavations carried out in Ani, the Kars was converted into a mosque in 1998. medieval capital of the Armenian kingdom of Shirak are especially deserving of criticism. „Starting in 1991, ! The numerous stone fragments engraved with archaeological excavations began on various valuable Armenian stone engravings and structures at Ani. These excavations are under the inscriptions were used for repair work on a direction of Professor Beyhan Karamağaralı of mosque in Bitlis in 1973. Hacittepe University, Ankara. Critics have said that she has no understanding of Armenian art, and that most ! William Dalrymple reports examples of of her work at Ani has little to do with proper systematic destruction of Armenian cultural archaeology and consists mainly of clearing the debris heritage (churches and stone crosses known and fallen masonry that has accumulated over a building to expose any surviving foundations. Material 125 Neglecting Armenian Monuments, Turkey Violates Lausanne Treaty. „Armenian Forum“, that modern archaeologists would seek to carefully 17 August 2000, Internet source: http://www.gomidas.org/forum/af6mon.htm 126 See also photos of the cloister before and after its destruction in „Virtual Ani“, 127 http://www.virtualani.freeserve.co.uk/khtzkonk/khtzkonk.htm Dalrymple, op. cit., P. 85 ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 41 record and study is simply discarded. What is certain is money into the pockets of their local political and that she is rarely on-site, happy to allow her business allies in Kars (Professor Karamağaralı has excavations to be left to the shovels and pickaxes of reportedly called them a ‘Mafia’) then the ‘restorations’ 128 129 unsupervised labourers.” will continue until everything in Ani is destroyed.” “In 1995 extensive excavations were started along the It seems particularly disastrous that the future of Ani is length of the outer walls, on both sides. The centuries in the hands of a member of the MHP, as Prof. of debris that had accumulated at the base of the walls Karamgarali became a member of that far-right party in 130 was cleared away - in some parts this was over 3½ May 1998 . metres deep. This was not an attempt to make an archaeological excavation: no archaeologists were As further illustrated by the example of Ani, the present and the material removed was not inspected Armenian origin of monuments is never mentioned. but simply dumped into tipper trucks and taken away. Instead, they are described as Byzantine or Turkish Most of the excavating was done using heavy monuments, or described by the name of the dynasty machinery including bulldozers and excavators.” under which they were constructed (Bagratide in Shirak, Artsruni in Vaspurakan), without a mention of “This work was done as a prelude to a similarly the ethnic affiliation of these Armenian aristocratic questionable ‘restoration’ of the walls, organised and families. paid for by the Turkish Ministry of Culture. Restoration in Turkey most often simply means destruction followed by crude rebuilding - many historic SYSTEMATIC DESTRUCTION OF HERITAGE AND monuments in that country have been irreparably DISCOURAGEMENT OF SCHOLARS ruined by such so-called restorations, and the walls of Ani were not to be an exception (…). In 1998 work on “I had heard other similar stories of the mysterious the walls was stopped after condemnations of the end disappearance of Armenian remains, and the following results.” year, working as a journalist for the Independent, I was able to investigate the subject in some detail. (...) By However, a great deal of money was being made from the end I had amassed a body of evidence which the so-called restorations by local building contractors showed the alarming speed at which the beautiful, and politicians (who are often the same people: the ancient and architecturally important Armenian MHP, the governing party in Kars, is known to be churches of Anatolia were simply vanishing from the heavily involved in the Turkish construction industry). face of the earth. (...) There was nothing very sinister In 1999 the process of destruction was resumed on an in the cause of the condition of the buildings. Some even larger scale. The workers now had an on-site had been damaged by earthquakes; and the explosion stone cutting factory, the walls of which were entirely of Turkey’s population had caused a demand for built from stone looted from the ruins. building material which the churches readily supplied; others had been fatally undermined by Turkish These ‘restorations’ have nothing to do with preserving peasants digging for ‘Armenian gold’, the legendary El the buildings or encouraging tourism, and their Dorado of riches supposedly buried by the Armenians appalling results have nothing to do with simple bad before they were ‘deported’ in 1915. planning or a lack of knowledge of what should be done - there was never a valid archaeological reason “Nevertheless it was clear that the Turkish antiquity to start the work because it goes against every authorities had not exactly gone out of their way to established practice of modern archaeological stop the Armenian monuments from falling into decay. conservation elsewhere in the world. During the 1980s numerous Seljuk and Ottoman mosques and caravanserais had been restored and The truth is that the surviving monuments at Ani are consolidated, but this treatment had not been being exploited like an opencast mine for the extended to one single Armenian church. The extraction of money. As long as Ani can be used by Ankara politicians as a conduit to distribute State 129 „Virtual Ani“:http://www.virtualani.freeserve.co.uk/history/history4/history4.htm 130 From „Turkish Daily News“, May 19, 1998. Internet source: 128 “Virtual Ani”. http://www.virtualani.freeserve.co.uk/history/history3/history3.htm http://www.turkishdailynews.com/old_editions/05_19_98/dom2.htm 42 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY Armenian monastery on the island of Aghtamar in exercises; their hewed stones are used as building 131 Lake Van, arguably the most famous monument in material . Eastern Anatolia, had belatedly been given a guardian, but this had not stopped the building’s decay: five of Turkey has signed up to numerous international the main sculptures - including the famous Adam and agreements concerning the protection of monuments Eve - had been defaced since the guardian’s and the cultural heritage of minorities. It is a member appointment, and there had been no attempt to of UNESCO but has not declared a single Armenian consolidate the building in any way. One British monument situated on its territory as World Cultural architectural historian I talked to maintained that there Heritage, not even those attracting numerous tourists was a ‘systematic bias’ in what the Turks restored or such as the Island of Akhtamar on the lake of Van or preserved. Moreover it was clear that academics - both the ancient city of Ani. The Revised European Turks and foreign - were strongly discouraged from convention on the Protection of the Archaelogical working in Armenian archaeological sites or writing Heritage, signed by Turkey on 30 November 1999, Armenian history. A British archaeologist (who, like came into force on 30 May 2000. „This Convention almost everyone I talked to on this subject, begged to updates the 1969 Convention to take account of remain nameless) told me, ‘It is simply not possible to considerable changes affecting archaeological work on the Armenians. Officially, they do not exist and heritage over the last 20 years, with the development have never done so. If you try to get permission to dig of major urban planning and large-scale engineering 132 an Armenian site it will be withheld, and if you go projects in most European countries.“ But, in a study ahead without permission you will be prosecuted.’ The published on 17 August 2000, Armenian [criminal] truth of this was graphically illustrated in 1975 when lawyer Anahid M. Ugurlayan came to the conclusion the distinguished French art historian J.M. Thierry was that “Thousands of Armenian cultural monuments are arrested while making a plan of an Armenian church subject to a policy of wilful neglect on the part of 133 near Van. He was taken to police headquarters where Turkey.“ he was fiercely interrogated for three days and three nights. He was released on bail and managed to escape the country. In his absence he was sentenced to three months’ hard labour. “Fear of this sort of thing severely restricts the investigation of Armenian remains and leads to a kind of selective blindness in those scholars whose professional careers demand that they continue to work in Turkey.“ William Dalrymple: From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium. London, 1997 pp. 83 ff. According to 1974 UNESCO data, 464 of 913 buildings that remained standing after the genocide of 1915 were destroyed, 252 were turned into ruins and 197 are in dire need of reconstruction. Though Turkey has adopted legislation for the preservation and reconstruction of historical monuments, no Armenian monument has been repaired in Turkey up until now without changing its Armenian nature. A program of falsifying the monuments is being implemented now, and the work of „repairing“ the walls of Ani has now 131 The Genocide of Armenians by the Turks, op. cit., P. 27 started. Armenian architectural monuments are being 132 133 Press release of the Press service of the Council of Europe, 30 November 1999 Neglecting Armenian Monuments, Turkey Violates Lausanne Treaty. „Armenian Forum“, blasted systematically and become targets military 17 August 2000. Internet source: http://www.gomidas.org/forum/af6mon.htm ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 43 generated a durable feeling of arbitrariness, VII. Conclusions and powerlessness and insecurity among the members of the Armenian minority of Turkey. In a city whose recommendations. history and culture has been marked by an Armenians presence for one and a half thousand millennia- and Turkey has signed a number of international thus, longer than by Turks- Armenians now feel like agreements that provide for equal rights for all people foreigners, guests or hostages. In 1994, the paper and, moreover, guarantee the specific rights of “Armenian International Magazine” quoted an minorities: Armenian of Istanbul as saying: “We are guests here. If they say we have to leave, there is nothing we can • Article 14 of the European Convention on Human 134 do about it .” In June 2002, an Armenian woman Rights states that “the enjoyment of the rights and from Istanbul still described the relations of the freedoms set forth in this Convention shall be Armenian minority with the Turkish state and Turkish secured without discrimination on any ground such society at large in similar terms: “We are hostages in as sex, race, colour, language, political or other their hands. Sure, they allow us to pray in our opinion, national or social origin, association with a churches. And we are also allowed to pay for our national minority, property, birth or other status.” schools. But that is all. They do what they please with us.” The memory of the wave of attacks on Armenian • The Commission on Security and Cooperation in churches and schools and the threats of the 1990s is Europe’s Meeting of Experts on National Minorities still alive. (1991) guaranteed the rights of all minorities to establish and maintain their Two political developments own educational institutions, “We are hostages in their hands. must be underlined in this organizations, and Sure, they allow us to pray in our connection as serious associations. churches. And we are also impediments to the improvement of the situation allowed to pay for our schools. of minorities. • Article X of the Turkish But that is all. They do what they Constitution provides equality and the right to be please with us.” 1. The increase in right-wing free from discrimination. extremism tolerated by the state. “While it is true that Ankara has reined in Turkish ethnic extremists, enforcement of civic • On July 24, 1923 the treaty of Lausanne was nationalism has weighed more heavily on Kurds, adopted with Turkey as a signatory. Islamists and the left. ‘Separatist’ violence generally has elicited a harsher response that violence Almost 80 years have passed since the signing of the committed by right-wing ülkücüs, literally, ‘idealists’, Treaty of Lausanne. During this period, Turkey has who espouse a toxic ethnic Turkish, and in some experienced many events and crises. Yet from the cases Pan-Turkic, nationalism. Former Prime Minister point of view of non-Muslim minorities, the last 80 Tansu Çiller referred to the ülkücüs as ‘those who years have been marked by the disregard and have fired bullets for the state’, who are ‘honourable’ infringement of the provisions for their protection and will be remembered with respect.’ If anything, the provided by the Treaty of Lausanne. racist right is being rehabilitated. The Milliyetçi Haraket Partisi (MHP), or National Action Party, has long Of the treaty’s provisions concerning the rights of inhabited fringes of Turkish politics, its greatest claim minorities, there is not one which has not been more or to infamy probably being its ties to Mehmet Ali Agca, less systematically flouted. That this was allowed to the would-be assassin of Pope John Paul II. In the happen is also the result of the indifference of, and April 1999 elections, however, the MHP won 16,5 disagreements between, the signatory powers of the percent of the popular vote, making the second largest Lausanne Treaty. The serious abuses of general human rights as well as of collective and individual minority rights has 134 Armenian International Magazine, August-September 1994, page 61 44 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY party in parliament and the lynchpin partner in the the Turkish Historical Society (Türk Tarih Kurumu), a 135 current [October 2002] coalition government“ . body established in 1931 on the orders of Mustafa Kemal. Nevertheless, this development does not It is worth remembering that the attacks and threats constitute a genuine counter current to the nationalistic against the Armenian community in Istanbul and and religious tendencies referred to above, and against some of its members in the 1990s were individual dissident voices do not counterbalance the caused overwhelmingly by members of the far right state-sponsored historical propaganda: „The (Turkish “Ülkü oçalklari”. Historical) Society is still active, along with state archivists and republican-leaning historians, in 2. The Islamization of the state. The secular promoting nationalist historiography. Among other character of the Turkish republic has been increasingly issues, there has been a concerted effort to diminish eroded over the last two decades. The leader of the the Armenian Genocide. The Ministry of Foreign Human Rights office of the Catholic missionary Affairs also publishes denials and wields its diplomatic organisation “Missio” in Germany summarizes the influence, most recently arranging to have a resolution extremely dubious evolution of human and minority memorialising the massacres withdrawn from 137 rights as follows: ”otherwise, how could the Bureau for consideration by the U.S. Congress.“ . Religious Affairs, once considered as an instrument in the fight against Islam, or at least to exercise a close Obstacles to democratisation: half-hearted efforts control over it, have a budget provided by the state of towards reform. The half-heartedness of the efforts € 471.4 million in 2000, and 90 000 employees? The for reform are not the cause of the difficulties in State no longer controls Islam, the state has protecting human and minority rights in Turkey, or of instrumentalized its Sunni variant, which it manages the difficulties involved in carrying out academic and and supports. Turkey has thus to some extent become journalistic work relating to the historical roots of an ‘Islamic’ or rather a ‘Sunni Republic’. Is Religious organized mass violence. freedom guaranteed in such a climate? The revision of those parts of the Turkish criminal code Freedom of religion comprises freedom of belief, which had been extensively abused for the prosecution conscience and worship, that is, the right to practice of dissidents in the past, thus proved to be one’s religion undisturbed. A constitutional counterpart disappointing. Article 8 and 312 as well as other of religious freedom is the duty for the state to exercise articles of the criminal code have not been deleted but religious and ideological neutrality. This religious even partly extended. For instance, article 8, part of neutrality is undoubtedly not provided in Turkey. The the anti-terror Legislation, previously dealt only with only religious freedom which is truly guaranteed is that “written and oral propaganda” which threatens the of those who conform to the Sunni variant of Islam state security; after revision, this came to include 136 supported by the State . “visual propaganda” as well. By contrast, the scope of article 312,2 which prohibits the “incitement to hatred A positive development. Non-governmental on the grounds of class, religion or race” has been organisations dedicated to the improvement in the restricted to cases where a “threat to public order” can human rights situation and, to a lesser extent, the be proved. Yet at the same time, revised article 312 protection of minorities, began to appear in the 1990s. now includes a new criminal offence, i.e. cases of A number of scientists, authors and publishers, in “insult to a part of the population or to the honour of Turkey and especially in the Turkish-speaking the People”. This allows every critical comment on communities abroad, particularly in Germany and in Turkish history to be misinterpreted as a criticism the USA, have initiated a critical debate on formerly against the honour of the people and prosecuted as taboo issues relating to Turkish history, and such. particularly on the subject of the 1915/16 genocide of 1,5 millions Ottoman Armenians. This has irrevocably The prosecution against Ömer Asan, who belongs to broken the governmental monopoly of opinion on the the Islamicized Pontus Greek minority, illustrates how interpretation of history, which had been guarded by the “reformed” paragraphs of the criminal code are still essentially used as a gag. Six years after the 135 Smith, op. cit., P. 4 f. 136 137 Oehring, op. cit., P. 40 Smith, op. cit., P. 4 ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY | 45 publication of his book “Pontos Kültürü” (Istanbul, must recognize their responsibility for the creation 1996), he was called a “traitor” and “a friend of and hardening of prejudices against minorities. Greece” in a television programme and accused of Appropriate measures must also be taken so that supporting those who seek to re-establish Orthodox Turkish citizens commenting on the Armenian Christianity in the Pontos region. „These accusations genocide as a historical fact are protected from snowballed, in what seems like an orchestrated attacks in the Turkish media. assault undertaken by the influential, nationalist MHP 138 party (...) .“On 21 January 2002, the State Security ! The disturbing anti-Armenians mood, based on Tribunal in Istanbul banned the latest edition of the ignorance and prejudice, which obviously prevails book “Pontos Kültürü”. Proceedings were initiated in broad sections of society, must be countered under article 8 of the criminal code on 10 July against through education in schools aimed at reducing Mr. Asan and his publisher Ragip Zarakolu. A total of ethnic and religious prejudice. This must also about 100 authors and journalists are currently being involve a revision of schoolbooks, particularly in 139 prosecuted in Turkey . the field of history. Recommendations ! Turkish politicians and high-level representatives of the authorities must also recognize their own The following demands and recommendations stem responsibility for the protection of minorities and be from the available evidence. called to answer for public statements hostile to minorities. ! The authorities must protect the members of Turkey has a two hundred year ! Those Armenians still the Armenian community long history of reforms that were remaining in Turkey as in Turkey as well as their well as the members of institutions against attacks largely forced upon it from others non-Muslim and threats; they must abroad, but without the backing of minorities should no also investigate and the majority of the Turkish elite. longer have to feel prosecute those threatened. Among the responsible for such offences more consistently confidence-building measures to be implemented, than in the past. the Turkish State must guarantee unrestricted access to all levels of the civil service to members ! The discrimination and mistreatment of of non-Muslim minorities. Members of minorities servicemen belonging to non-Muslim minorities must furthermore actively and forcefully be must be stopped, and a control body as well as a encouraged to apply for positions in the civil complaint procedure must be created for that service, as they have de facto been excluded from purpose in the army. such opportunities for decades. ! The systematic financial pilferage of religious ! The practice of prosecuting those Turkish citizens foundations must be put an end to. In this respect, who publicly express the opinion in words or in a series of laws governing the situation of writing that the Armenian genocide is a historical minorities must be revised, and all the properties fact must be stopped immediately. The European of foundations confiscated under the previous law Community, in line with previous European must be returned to their owners. Parliament resolutions, should for its part take appropriate measures to encourage Turkish ! Discriminatory and offensive reporting on academics, publishers and journalists to contribute minorities in general and on Armenians in to the inter-ethnic reconciliation through a critical particular must be stopped. This also applies to the reassessment of history. Turkish media, who must exercise self-control and ! The Turkish government is called upon to comply 138 Dowd, Siobhan: Silenced Voice: Ömer Asan. „Digital Freedom Network“, April 8, 2002. with its obligation under numerous international Internet source: http://www.dfn.org/news/turkey/omer.htm 139 Ibid. agreement and treaties to protect and maintain 46 | ARMENIANS IN TURKEY TODAY Armenian cultural assets. In particular, it should prevent any further manipulation or destruction of Armenian cultural monuments under the pretext of their protection, of their restoration or of archaeological research. It would be desirable for that matter to set up international teams of researchers and experts in the field of conservation and restoration, in which experts from Armenia should also take part. Naturally, a legal revision and reform can only take hold if they are conceived not as a cosmetic, but as a sustained structural transformation. Turkey has a two hundred year long history of reforms that were largely forced upon it from abroad, but lacked the backing of the majority of the Turkish elite. This discrepancy has been the cause of the reluctance and half-heartedness which are still witnessed today on Turkey’s “Road to Europe”.