Armenian
News Network / Groong
The Monument Shown on the
Cover of Teodigs 1919 Book Entitled Hushartsan
Abril Dasnamegi [Memorial April 11]: A closer look at a beautiful monument
and a plea for a serious effort to learn more about it.
Armenian News Network / Groong
August 18, 2014
Special to Groong by Abraham D.
Krikorian and Eugene L. Taylor
Long Island, NY
COMMENTARY
There is an activity that
has come to be known as Dark Tourism.
This is perhaps best viewed as a form of pilgrimage tourism wherein a
site or commemorative reminder of a catastrophe, disaster or tragedy no matter
how great or small, is the focus.
In Istanbul, had we known
of it when we made our first visit many years ago, we might have been in a
position to make an effort to see delve into something tangible, concrete
such as an exact physical site, symbolic marker, iconic monument, anything associated with the Turkish
genocide against the Armenians that began in 1915. This would have been before many of the
structural changes in the development of the city had taken place. Such an attempt at dark tourism might
well not have led anywhere because we had no access to any special guidebook or
information that would have been especially significant for Armenians
interested in such gloomy matters, but we could have tried. Would that there had been a booklet, or
even a list, detailed or otherwise.
One can only hope today that there might be one available in the future
for those interested in dark tourism.. Too little, too late? (See endnote just before the
Bibliography).
The well-known
journalist, writer, almanacist Teodoros Lapchindjian (1873-1929) writing under
the pen name Teodig (Teodik) published in 1919 in GBolis [Constantinople.
Arzuman printing house] a small volume, 129 pages in length, 26 cm or 10.2
inches in height with a very appropriately illustrated cover. The volume was devoted to the many Martyrs of April
11/24, 1915. (We will not go into
detail here about the exact number of martyrs covered by Teotig, some 763 from
a broad area, because it would require more than a little space to do that
justice.) The original work seems
nowadays to be quite rare and is apparently held only by a few libraries in the
world.
We have ourselves never seen
a copy complete with cover but happily a bilingual version of Teotigs Memorial April 11 is available due to
the work of Dr. Dora Sakayan and publisher Deniz Zarakolu (son of the pioneer
Turkish human rights activists, writers and publishers Ragip Zarakolu and his
wife the late Ayşe Nur Zarakolu) and others who participated and exercised
their talents in producing the translations etc. for the volume. The soft cover book, 24 cm high x 14.5
cm. wide, comprises 269 numbered pages with 6 additional pages at the end. It was published back in 2010 and has 70
pages of detailed and very interesting introductory material. To risk raising eyebrows by using a
double negative, the cover of the new publication is not unattractive, but it
seems not to convey any particular message that we could discern, neither does
it elicit any special emotion. It
shows a wall with a Virginia creeper-like vine with a few berries on it. It might well take some special
knowledge or insight that we do not have to interpret its selection and use.
The new volume is
constituted of facing pages - on the left hand side is the text in Armenian
complete with a circular bust photograph of the martyred person in question,
and on the right, the Turkish translation - minus the photograph (which would
be redundant, of course). This publication in Armenian and in Turkish was published by the
Zarakolu-owned and -operated (and all-too-frequently harassed by the Turkish
authorities-) Belge Publishing House in Istanbul.
As our title intimates,
the purpose of this brief communication is to call attention yet again, for it
has been known about by some at least, to a stone monument dedicated in 1919 to
the Armenians who were arrested in Constantinople at the outset of the
genocide, and many others who were martyred in that fateful period.
There is a full page photographic illustration of the monument in the
2010 expanded re-issue. It follows
page lxx (pg.70) and was taken from
the cover of a copy of the original version of Teodigs Hushartsan Abril Dasnamegi memorial. Owing no doubt to the limited quality of
what the Zarakolu publishers had to work with, and the non-glossy paper used
throughout, the reproduction is not of the very best quality and shows, of
course, only the front of the memorial.
There is nothing evident from the photograph as to who might have
executed the work, or even if the monument was free-standing or was on a
pedestal of some sort. The monument
appears for sure to be in a garden or park or similar area (perhaps a cemetery?
see below) because there are plants and other greenery apparent in the black
and white image.
We hope viewers will
agree with us that this is a very beautiful monument. (A partial listing and views of some
memorials to the Armenian Genocide may be found for example at http://www.armenian-genocide.org/memorials.html; or at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Armenian_Genocide_memorials#mediaviewer/File:ErmeniSoykirimAniti.jpg).
It is, moreover, very
important historically. It could
well command pride of place, if one dares use that phrase in such a sad context,
in a book on the history of Armenian art as it relates to the Genocide. We believe that this monument is the
earliest one anywhere. We also
suspect that it must only have been possible to erect this memorial at that
time because the war was over and the British had occupied Constantinople from
13 November 1918 onwards, and never did relinquish control to the Kemalists
until 23 September 1923.
(Incidentally, use of the Julian calendar was abandoned formally in
1926, although it was retained by some churches in their liturgical calendars.)
A quote from the English
version of the preface written by R. [Ragip] Zarakolu (pg. li (pg.51); for the Armenian pg. xxx (pg.30); Turkish, pg. xii
(pg.12) reads The Memorial stone for the martyrs of April 11, erected in
the Armenian cemetery at Taksim, has mysteriously vanished. The cemetery was in the block where
presently the Divan Hotel [Divan Otel] and Radio House [Radyo Evi] stand. The historian Pamukcuyan [Kevork
Pamukjian?] has reported that he once saw the pedestal of the Memorial stone in
the Military Guesthouse at Harbiye.
We need not devote much
space here enumerating the immediately obvious and relevant questions.
Is the Monument really
lost? Was it destroyed? Can anything be found in the Press of
the period, anywhere, concerning this monument such as its dedication
etc.? What was it made of? Who executed it? What were its dimensions? Was anything on the so-called recto or
backside? Was there a religious
memorial service, a belated Hokehankist for the Repose of Souls, upon any
formal dedication that may have taken place?
If the entire monument or
any part of it such as the pedestal still exists, is there any chance of
locating it/them? (Some have
posited on the Internet that it has been located but there seems to be no
confirmation of that and thus for us it remains a conjecture.) No mention of the said Teotig volume is
to be found in Pars Tuglacis monumental work (see citation in the select bibliography).
We present here some
views of the monument that we believe are about as good as we are going to get
given the situation. The images
derive from a scan of a post card image (no message) with a barely legible
circular stamped ink mark (not an official post office cancellation) in
Armenian type with April 11 Aksor [exile]the
rest is as yet illegible .G Bolis 1919 etc. (Needs further decipherment using more
sophisticated techniques but one gets the idea for sure. We thank John Gulbankian for confirming
the date and script with his eagle eyes.)
We know only of this particular unused photo post card but there may
well be more out there. A
concerted search just might turn something up
The card is in a private
collection, namely that of P.E. Apkarian. It is through the owners kindness that we
were allowed to make a scan in the first place, and secondly, that we have been
permitted to show it here.
For
the present, considering our somewhat limited information about the image, the
prime value of the image is to make more people aware of the monument. Viewers will certainly gain a better
appreciation of it, and consequently, we hope, interest will be elicited and
more research prompted especially among and by those who are in a special position,
either by virtue of their access to church records, contemporary press and
newspaper materials in Armenian (or Armeno-Turkish, or Ottoman Turkish for that
matter) or by reason of special geographical location, presence in or with
contacts in Turkey etc. (See for
instance the relevant article by Emily Greenhouse in the New Yorker Blog post
of June 28, 2013 entitled The Armenian Past of Taksim Square, http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/06/turkey-protests-the-armenian-past-of-taksim-square.html?printable=true¤tPage=all)
Undoubtedly these views
will sadden, even frustrate and anger anyone who studies and contemplates the
Memorial. Of course, all this
underscores yet again the transgenerational trauma that many with Armenian
connections feel when viewing such images (see Kupelian, Kalayjian, Kassabian
reference below).
As the 100th
anniversary of the onset of the genocide committed by the Turks against the
Armenians approaches, it seems both appropriate and timely to show good quality
scans of this very rare and especially significant item of remembrance. After all, Teotig was one of those who
was arrested but one of the very few who miraculously survived the entire
ordeal of being taken away. (The
new edition gives a very good biographical sketch of Teotig, as does the excellent
volume by Kuyumjian wherein one can read about his original family name of
Bozadjian, the variant Latinized spellings of the more recent surname such as
Lapjindjian etc.). Both books are
cited in the brief bibliography below.)
The first of the images
that follow shows a scan of a somewhat tattered cover of the original 1919
work. It was posted on the Internet
by a blogger at
http://hayatoldugugibi.blogspot.com/2006/11/teotigden-yeranik-aram-hakknda-iki.html). (We thank Marc Mamigonian of NAASR in
Belmont, Massachusetts for providing us with this URL. Incidentally, two copies of the Teotig
volume in question are available in the NAASR library but both lack the cover.)
A view of the front of
the post card is shown below.
Enlargements follow, all are courtesy of the
P.E. Apkarian Collection.
Significantly, the
pedestal of the memorial stone referred to in the Zarakolu preface is not
shown on the cover of the book (see above) but is on the post card. We will refrain here from making
comments on the symbolism of the art work.
CONCLUSION
The haunting question may
again be asked:- What are the chances of uncovering
additional reliable information?
We hope that we shall obtain more information before too long. This is surely an exceptionally worthy
project of discovery for someone or some group to undertake.
Endnote:
As an aside, we were
reminded by our friend Matthias Bjrnlund in Copenhagen that the site of the 20
gallows for hanging the Hunchagians is still there but we did not know back
then that this infamous event which took place on June 15,
1915 was in Sultan Bayazit Square.
Since then, in the course of our studies on imagery we have cast a wide
enough net on available pictures and photographs to learn much about the 20
hanged — ksan gaghvahdzneruh.
ADK remembers that Hokehankist for them was an annual special service at
the Church of Our Saviour in Worcester, Massachusetts. We should at least think about posting
something on that topic one of these days.
A FEW ADDITIONAL RELEVANT REFERENCES
First and foremost
Sarafian, Ara (2013) What happened
on 24 April 1915? The Ayash
prisoners.
(may be read
on Gomidas Institutes website at http://www.gomidas.org/submissions/show/5)
[Sarafian addresses and refutes the
central thesis of Yusuf Sarnay (2008) What happened on April 24, 1915?: The circular of April 24, 1915, and the arrest of
Armenian Committee members in Istanbul, International Journal of Turkish
Studies volume 14 (nos 1 & 2) pgs. 75-101.] Sarnays paper concludes with the
sentence The Ottoman governments decision to relocate (tehcir) the Armenian population living primarily within the war
zone to distant provinces was gradually expanded to the Armenians of the other
provinces of Anatolia and Rumelia, with consequences that are still a subject
of heated debates among historians.
We merely ask Oh? Not so
incidentally, readers will not be surprised to learn that the place from which Sarnays
article emanated is the State Archives of the Turkish Prime Ministry,
Ankara. Dr. Sarnay is the same
official Directeur Gnral des Archives dEtat du Premier Ministre under
whose tenure a re-issue was made in 2001 of the notoriously flawed piece of
propagandistic denial (first edition, 1917) entitled Aspirations et
Agissements Rvolutionnaires des Armnien avant et aprs la proclamation de la
Constitution Ottomane [ISBN:975-19-2658-0]; for an
electronic version of a 1917 copy in the University of Toronto Library see https://archive.org/details/aspirationsetagi00istauoft.]
Other works listed alphabetically
Ben-Amos, Dan and
Liliane Weissberg, editors (1999) Cultural memory and the construction of
identity. 333 pgs., Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Carrier, Peter
(2005) Holocaust monuments and national memory cultures in France and in
Germany since 1989; its origins and political function of the Vl dHiv in
Paris and the Holocaust Monument in Berlin. 267 pgs.,
New York: Berghahn Books.
Kupelian, Diane, Anie Sanentz
Kalayjian and Alice Kassabian (1998) The Turkish Genocide of the
Armenians. In: Yael Danieli, ed.
International Handbook of Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma, pgs. 191-210., New York: Plenum
Press.
Kuyumjian, Rita Soulahian (2010)
Teotig: Biography. viii, 243 pgs., London: Taderon
Press, Gomidas Institute, Tekeyan Cultural Association.
Lennon, J. John and
Malcolm Foley (2000) Dark Tourism, the attraction of death and disaster. 184 pgs.,
London and New York: Continuum.
Minas, Setrak Benjamin (1965) April 24 Armenian Memorial Day.
Why Armenians commemorate this day. 8 pgs., A publication of the Commemorative
Committee on the 50th anniversary of the Turkish massacres of the
Armenians, 212 Stuart Street,
Boston, Massachusetts.
Shamtanchian, Mikayel (2007) The
Fatal Night. An eyewitness account of the extermination of
Armenian Intellectuals in 1915.
Translated from the Armenian by Ishkhan Jinbashian. 67 pgs., Studio City, California: Hagop and Knar Manjikian
Publications.
Tuglaci,
Pars (2004) Tarih boyunca Bati Ermenileri [Western Armenians throughout
History] [Cilt, vol.] III (1891-1922) 876 pgs. Istanbul: Pars Yayin ve Tic Ltd. This beautifully illustrated and rich
compendium of western Armenian history by a dedicated and widely traveled
historian of Armenian heritage (born Parsegh Touglajian) shows no image of
either the book cover of the title page or even the book in an otherwise rather
detailed, and copiously documented coverage of the period, see especially the
last 200 pages or so.
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