489) Armenian Brides

Heranus was a little child that Corporal Huseyin adopted during the Armenian emigration. Her father went to the United States to find a job before the emigration began. In other words, it was not in Turkey where he looked for a job. Heranus, placed under the protection of Corporal Huseyin when her mother was forced to emigrate to Aleppo, married Fikri, the nephew of Corporal Huseyin’s wife after she was given a Muslim name, Seher. . .

Meanwhile, Horen, adopted by a family living in another village and whose name was afterwards changed to Ahmet, visited his sister to tell her about their father, who had once come as far as Aleppo in search of his kids and had written a letter to them. While Horen took with him the express letter he received from his father through unofficial means to Aleppo, his sister did not accompany him. Horen accompanied his parents during their emigration to the US, whereas Seher stayed with her family in Turkey… They kept in touch by corresponding with each other. Horan sent letters to Seher to visualize the moments when he was photographed along with his parents. Seher also sent photographs of herself and her family from the Maden district of Elazig to her parents. Seher never met her parents and her brother who immigrated to the US again…

The Ottoman state was in a very confused situation early in the 20th century. While the pains of the Balkan War had not subsided, having to fight on dozens of different fronts during World War I brought with it massive destruction. Both the state and the society suffered serious traumas. The valiant warriors never returned from Gallipoli, Galicia, Palestine and Yemen. In the meantime, the missionaries were provoking ethnic groups in the country. The nationalist movements in the Ottoman Empire were tearing the country, already weakened as a result of World War I, apart. The Albanians, the Bulgarians and the Arabs were all seceding from the empire. Instigated by the Russians and missionaries, the pro-Tashnaks also wanted to secede from the country. “The pro-Tashnaks really wanted to take the advantage of our fathers serving in the army,” said an old man from Erzurum while recounting those days. All these were causing great sufferings. The Armenians were forced to emigrate all the way to the south. The situation affected a huge civilian population.

Anyway, let’s return to our initial story. I read Heranus’ story in a report by Erhan Basyurt, published in the Aksiyon news magazine, under the headline, “My Grandma is an Armenian.” I felt great grief and sorrow when I read it. I put aside such elements as social trauma, emigration and deaths; I mostly felt pity for a kid and her parents not able to see each other again. And then I cursed the pro-Tashnaks, the Unionists, the servants of the Tsars, and I also cursed the Protestant missionaries the most, because they all instigated one community against the other, whereas both communities had actually lived without troubling each other for over 1,000 years.

I am sure that most of us have similar stories in our minds as well as in our bags. My grandpa’s brother -- actually not his brother but his cousin, however, they were close enough to be brothers -- married an Armenian girl whose family had immigrated to the US. His kids were the cousins of my parents and we had strong kinship ties with them. I never saw that woman, but family members talked about her all the time.

I learned that the original name of this woman was Haykanor, who was very deep in her religious feelings although she was a converted Muslim, she did not respond positively when her siblings came from the US to take her with them to America, and she refused to live apart from her family. Her sister, Aunt Halime, still alive, would say with great sadness that she never had a chance to see her own uncles or cousins who were living in the US. Although Haykanor did not accept the proposal of her siblings to spend the rest of her life in the US, she managed to keep track of her siblings. She, however, lost track of them again. She never ever saw her parents again.

Although the Turkish and Armenian people belong to different religions, there have actually been kinship ties between them. A 1,000-year-old ancient friend.
When did the Turks fight the Armenians before the 1900s? They managed to live together on friendly terms for 1,000 years.
Some Armenian nationalists, some stupid Unionists and Russians dragged the two nations into a conflict.
This fight later turned into a blood feud with assistance from the big countries.
What a crying shame!

01.03.2006
MEHMET KAMIS
m.kamis@zaman.com.tr