Turkey’s Secret Armenians

Members of Armenian community in Romania cast shadows during a rally marking the anniversary of mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Empire in 1915, in downtown Bucharest April 24, 2012. Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says that about 1.5 million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey during World War One in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by the Ottoman government. Successive Turkish governments and the vast majority of Turks feel that the charge of genocide is an insult to their nation. Ankara argues that there was heavy loss of life on both sides during fighting in the area. REUTERS/Bogdan Cristel (ROMANIA – Tags: POLITICS ANNIVERSARY RELIGION) – RTR315JR

Translated from Radikal (Turkey) – 21/2/13

The presence of “secret” Armenians in Anatolia has become the subject of a news  report in the Argentine press. In an article titled “The Footprints of Secret Armenians in Turkey,” Argentine  journalist Avedis Hadjian writes that people of Armenian origin, estimated to  number hundreds of thousands, continue to live in Anatolia and Istanbul under  false identities. Hadjian’s research begins in Istanbul’s Kurtulus neighborhood  and then takes him to Amasya, Diyarbakir, Batman, Tunceli and Mus.

Turkish or Kurdish identity

According to the report, those who have been hiding their real identity for  almost a century reside mostly in Turkey’s eastern regions. They have embraced  the Sunni or Alawite sects of Islam and live with Turkish or Kurdish identities.

Still, a tiny community living in villages in the Sason district of Batman  province preserves their Christianity. Stressing that no one really knows the  exact number of crypto-Armenians, Hadjian says he has seen that many of them are  scared to acknowledge their Armenian identity. He quotes a crypto-Armenian in  Palu: “Turkey is still a dangerous place for Armenians.”

The crypto-Armenians who live under various guises do not socialize with  those who live openly as Armenians, and evade contact with strangers. According  to Hadjian, some reject their identities even though they accept their parents  or grandparents were Armenian and their Turkish and Kurdish neighbors still call  them “Armenians” or “infidels.” Others acknowledge their real identity but say  they keep it secret from their offspring.

To church in winter, to mosque in summer

Hadjian says that identifying crypto-Armenians is not easy, recounting  several examples. The last Armenian in Amasya, Rafel Altinci, for instance, was  brought up as a Christian and graduated from the same school as Hrant Dink, the Armenian journalist who was killed. He then  converted to Islam, married a Turkish woman and raised his daughter as a Muslim.  Only recently has he begun to acknowledge that he is an Armenian. Jazo Uzal, a  villager from the province of Mus, goes to church in Istanbul, where he spends  the winters, but when he returns home during the summer he observes the Muslim  rites of worship, including fasting.

In Diyarbakir, lawyer Mehmet Arkan says he became aware of his family’s  Armenian identity at the age of seven. “Until 10 years ago, we used to conceal  our identity from everybody, but being an Armenian in Diyarbakir is no longer  dangerous,” Arkan says, pointing to the restoration of the Surp Giragos Church  in the city. He explains he does not feel less Armenian for being a Sunni and  performing Muslim prayers.

In some cases, secret Armenians have been transformed in surprising ways.  The Ogasyan clan from Bagin village in Palu, for instance, survived the “events” of 1915 and emigrated to the United States,  settling in Rhode Island. But before their departure, a Kurdish tribal chief  abducted the family’s youngest son Kirkor to use him as a laborer in his fields.  The chief then married off the underage Kirkor to an orphan named Zerman. The  couple settled in a village in Palu, converted to Islam and adopted Turkish  names. They even went on a Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca together.

Years later, relatives in the U.S. got in touch with Kirkor and Zerman.  Today the couple’s grandson is an imam in Harput, while their second-generation  nephew Oshayan Cloloyan is the archbishop of the Armenian Church in New  York.

Little girl in Raman Mountains

Hadjian writes about the presence of crypto-Armenians also in Tunceli and  its environs, and recounts an encounter he had in Sason. The journalist  describes a girl aged 6 or 7 in a group of Armenians heading to the Raman  Mountains on pilgrimage. Due to the force of the wind, the white sack on the  girl’s back turns around to reveal the Armenian cross. The journalist approaches  the girl to take a picture. She hides her face behind her scarf, and when asked  whether she is Armenian or has Armenian relatives, she answers: “We are  Muslims.”

Source: