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The Armenian Weekly; Volume 74, No. 9; March 8, 2008
Features:
1. An Interview with Hilmar Kaiser
By Khatchig Mouradian
2. Book Review: Armenian Photographers
By Lola Koundakjian
3. Bach Society Showcases Demirjian’s Musical Explorations
By Andy Turpin
4. Poetry: E V E
By Tatul Sonentz
***
1. An Interview with Hilmar Kaiser
By Khatchig Mouradian
Hilmar Kaiser is a scholar of the Armenian genocide who is also known in
scholarly circles and the Armenian community for the controversy he
generates with some of his lectures and interviews. We first sat down at the
editorial offices of the Aztag Daily in Beirut on Sept. 22, 2005, for a
fascinating interview about the Ottoman archives and the Armenian genocide.
Kaiser received his PhD from the European University Institute in Florence,
Italy. He specializes in Ottoman social and economic history as well as the
Armenian genocide. He has done research in more than 60 archives worldwide,
including the Ottoman Archives in Istanbul.
His published works-monographs, edited volumes and articles-include
"Imperialism, Racism, and Development Theories: The Construction of a
Dominant Paradigm on Ottoman Armenians," "At the Crossroads of Der Zor:
Death Survival and Humanitarian Resistance in Aleppo, 1915-1917," "The
Baghdad Railway and the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1916: A Case Study in German
Resistance and Complicity," "1915-1916 Ermeni Soykirimi Sirasinda Ermeni
Mulkleri, Osmanli Hukuku ve Milliyet Politikalari," "Le genocide armenien:
negation a ‘l’allemande’" and "From Empire to Republic: The Continuities for
Turkish Denial."
In this interview, conducted in Boston in Dec. 2007, Kaiser discusses the
archives and speaks about his views on Turkish scholars-both the liberals
and state-sponsored genocide deniers.
Khatchig Mouradian-Let’s talk about your Turkish colleagues and how they
approach the Armenian issue.
Hilmar Kaiser-When I looked in Turkey over the past year for organized
"academic" treatment of the Armenian issue, I could identify at least eight
centers, which are in competition with each other; and then, within the
centers there is competition. What you have there is a flourishing chaos.
This is also understandable because the Turkish government puts money into
it. The government puts money into the project without having a right
assessment, so they burn a lot of money on staff that has zero impact.
There has to be a realization in certain circles-especially at the Turkish
Historical Society-that this level doesn’t suffice. Some people claim "our
product is inefficient because it’s only in Turkish and no one can read it."
They should understand that it is good that no one can read it, because once
it is translated, it will do more damage than anything else. Some authors
areas if talking in their own bathroom.
But now within the Turkish Historical Society and among some others there is
agreement that production has to meet U.S. University press standards and
anything else is a total waste of time.
We agreed that we disagree, and then we had discussions about the concept of
genocide, we have now discussed joint projects. It’s something else if that
will happen or not, but we at least explored what can be done together, in
areas where basically you wouldn’t burn the house. After two and a half
years in the Turkish archives, they got used to me being in Turkey, there
was no scandal, slowly they got used that I am a reality and they get more
comfortable and confident about the situation.
Personally, I have no problem talking to official historians or genocide
deniers because these guys have the nationalist credentials. They don’t have
to prove that they’re not Armenian spies so they are very cool about it.
They are very surprised that I don’t talk to the "liberals" about it, and I
tell them very clearly that it is, in my view, a self-deception to think
that a few Turkish scholars-regardless of how good or how bad their work is,
how respectable or unrespectable they are-who represent a very small layer,
a very privileged layer of Turkish society, the société, the upper one
percent, will change the country.
These people teach at very few places where very few students go to and they
basically dismiss a whole state university system with tens of thousands of
history students. So I just ignore them. If you want to talk to people who
train the teachers in Turkey, who go to countrywide universities, you have
to talk to other people.
>From a German perspective-I am German and it inspires me given the dialogue
of the 1970s and 1980s between east and west-it was always clear that
engaging the other side is inevitable and you make them part of the
solution. We can’t get rid of all of those we don’t like and then start
everything from the beginning, because these people will fight to the end if
they have nothing to lose. Respectable scholarship has nothing to do with
the name of the person who has written it-it is assessed on its own merit.
So people might change and agreements might replace disagreements. Never
give up too easy.
There’s a substance on which you can move on and I have been involved in it
during the last few years. There are hopeless cases among historians in
Turkey, of course. At one dinner, one outed himself as a fan of Adolf
Hitler. In Germany, I would report him to the police and he wouldn’t leave
the country for what he said. This was, at the same time, Holocaust denial,
racism and a call for inter-ethnic violence. You don’t have to deal with
those guys. There are clear standards. These standards are not to be
compromised. But the other guys, I don’t boycott them, clearly.
K.M.-You criticize the liberal scholars. But most of the decent scholarship
by Turks on the Armenian genocide is done by the liberal scholars and not
the ones on the state’s payroll, am I wrong?
H.K.-You have to look at the footnotes. Every book tells you what you have
done, at least what you claim to have done. Much of it is based on published
resources. It shows that they are not at the cutting edge. If you want
original research on a certain issue, given the low state of our knowledge
because of archival issues and other issues, you have to put in the time.
All these concepts about the Armenian genocide are developed on
generalization of a very narrow source basis. We have developed a lot of
Holy Grail items that we hear over and over again, but these are
generalizations of local events that didn’t necessarily spread. There is a
lot of crap that we have to throw out, and we have the documents to make
that point. One has to be more humble and more relaxed about it and be
careful about one’s findings.
K.M.-Talk about your relation with the head of theTurkish Historical Society
Yusuf Halacoglu.
H.K.-I met him at the Istanbul conference almost two years ago. Then I
visited him at the Historical Society’s conference about a year ago, where
he received me in a very friendly manner. Then we had little contact and I
visited him in June and in November again. Halacoglu is the only Turkish
historian who has put material on the table I cannot reconcile with my
current knowledge. He is an extremely smart guy, very professional. He is
ahead of me in some regards.
K.M.-Why do you say that?
H.K.-He has the material on the prosecution of war criminals during the war.
Meanwhile, I have obtained my own copy of the material, but there has to be
academic respect-it means, he has the right to publish it first.
According to this material, people who stole money, killed etc., were
punished. The list identifies the perpetrators, what they did and what their
punishment was. We know, for example, that the murderers of Zohrab and
Vartkes Effendi were executed by Djemal, and there were other executions.
People who stole money from the Armenian population and put it in their own
pocket instead of transferring it to the government got punished. We know
this but we need a careful analysis of it. We have no decisive answer yet.
K.M.-But they aren’t punishing them for stealing from the Armenians, are
they?
H.K.-We haven’t researched that. This element is surely part of it, but do
we really fully account for it?
K.M.-How would you qualify Halacoglu’s scholarship.
H.K.-The book on the 16th century is very good.
K.M.-No, I mean his scholarship on the Armenian genocide.
H.K.-This is not so easy, you have to see who is he. He is the
representative of the Turkish state. If there is a real debate between
persons with intellect and command of sources, Halacoglu leads the Turkish
team.
Dismissing him for past weak scholarship or political fanaticism-or whatever
argument you want to bring up and you may even have something in support of
your point-will not necessarily be productive. Don’t underestimate Yusuf
Halacoglu. I respect him. I might disagree with him emphatically but I’m
comfortable that I don’t have a fight with him at this point. The academic
resources of an entire state converge on this one person. The Armenians have
nobody coming even close to the shadow of him.
On the other hand, he is not antagonistic like the fascist I just mentioned.
Halacoglu is interested in dialogue, the question is on what terms. He has
no problem to talk with me, to talk with others.
K.M.-The way you are describing a notorious genocide denier might come as a
surprise to many.
H.K.-First of all, the description of deniers as a group is false. You have
people who are fully paid talking heads who have nothing to offer; they are,
unfortunately, the people who write the briefs for Erdogan when he goes
abroad. Then you have the kind of politically well-connected third-rate
academic creatures who are only interested in escalating the situation
because they can only live on escalation, because they have nothing to
offer. And then you have people who have serious disagreements with you.
The way Turkish materials have been used in one recent English-language
publication in this country-which is celebrated as great research-is totally
unscholarly. The celebration is there because no one is able to check the
sources. If that publication had been an Armenian genocide denial
publication, there would have been an outcry. Same methods of
misrepresentation of sources, speculation, you name it. It’s all there.
K.M.-Can you give a concrete example?
H.K.-For example, one scholar claims that the president of the Ottoman
Chamber was going to Germany in March 1915 to coordinate the decision of the
Armenian genocide, and he gives the source. The source says exactly the
opposite. I don’t want to go now into detail because I am publishing it.
K.M.-Talk about the Ottoman archives. What has changed in the past couple
of years?
H.K.-The Directorate for Demography in the Ministry of the Interior was
reopened. This collection was open for some time in the 1990s and was closed
for at least two years since 2005. This was a reopening, not a new opening
of collections.
The opening of other files is rapid, tremendous. They have opened the
Ministry of the Interior files for the Abdul-Hamidian period until the
second constitutional period. This is massive.
They have also opened the files of the Paris embassy and they are opening
more embassy files now. This is at a pace that has never been there.
However, there are still files-collections we spoke of in our previous
interview, like the files of the so-called abandoned property
commissions-that are not made available. We also don’t have possibly the
most crucial files on WWI concerning the Armenians, because they were
removed in 1919 from the files that were opened so far and have been put in
a new collection for the purposes of the government. So this is not-as some
people now claim-a cleansing of archives. This is just that certain files
were carried from one office to another office in the context of
administrative organization. This stuff, from what I understand, is not
going to be opened soon, not because the archivists are not motivated, not
because they are not interested, but simply because you have so many people
and so much work. There is a lack of resources.
There is no political opposition now towards declassification and
processing. What they simply don’t have is sufficient resources, which is
regrettable.
K.M.-What is the significance of the embassy files regarding the Armenian
issue?
H.K.-I haven’t worked with this, but, for example, the catalogs indicate
that the embassy files of London, St. Petersburg, Paris provide a lot of
insight into the massacres of the 1890s. Also, the embassies were spying
outposts. They were spying on the Armenian diaspora communities and the
spying was directed by the Ministry of the Interior through the embassies.
So you find a lot of Ministry of the Interior material in embassy files and
you find embassy reports to the Ministry of the Interior. This is very
important because we might have lost some material-physically totally
rotten-because of maintenance problems. So you might lose the draft in the
Ministry of Interior file but since the letter went out to the embassy, you
can have it in the embassy file, because the Paris embassy had a better
storage facility. Some of these files have been very recently repatriated,
which is exciting.
K.M.-You are talking about hundreds of thousands of files, and among them,
thousands of files might have relevance regarding the Armenian issue. How
many people are actually involved in researching these files?
H.K.-There is increasing interest among Turkish historians in Istanbul and
the provinces who have not been involved in organized campaigns so far
against Turkish "traitors" who say it was a genocide or against "Armenian
allegations." But what has transpired now during my talks is that the
Armenians have become a topic. One scholar is publishing 16th-century tax
registers from Yerevan-in Istanbul, not Yerevan. This has nothing to do with
the genocide but is very important for Armenian history. We have
19th-century income tax registers, 1840s, very important again. So where we
are going right now is a periodization of the Armenian cause/issue/problem,
as it is called in Turkey. The people no longer mix together the Tanzimat
era, Abdul-Hamid era, second constitutional period with the genocide and
then the occupation period. We see now increasingly very well-respected and
motivated scholars working on it not just because they want to prove or
disprove something-that might be just one aspect in it-but because there is
interest in the material.
>From the outside, Dr. Taner Akcam was there some time ago for three weeks,
and now he lectures us on the Ottoman archives, for which I’m very thankful.
Then, Garabed Moumdjian was there with me in 2006 for two weeks working on
the Young Turks on the ARF. He has sent shock waves through the whole
establishment. Every time I think about it I’m laughing. An Armenian walked
in, he spoke better Turkish than the Turks, he read Ottoman, handwritten
documents like we read the New York Times, he talked to the archival staff
in Arabic… The idea of the ARF, fanatic, blood-drinking killer and so on
got a devastating blow. There’s no one else. He’s the only Armenian who went
there possibly in decades (before, only Ara Sarafian went). Which shows that
these programs, whatever they do, don’t do one thing: They don’t bring
people to that point where many people had hoped they would bring them. So
we’re at that point and, this year, it seems I was alone.
K.M.-There’s so much research that needs to be done in these archives. Why
is the interest by scholars from outside Turkey so little?
H.K.-I was criticized by some less-informed elements in the Armenian
diaspora for going to the archives because now they cannot say it’s closed
anymore. Why did we push for having it open if we don’t want it open? For
some people, this was obviously just political talk. I have to be very
critical about this. All these donations the community put into research,
obviously none of it is coming there. So when I am going there, people
should not think that I am going on an Armenian ticket. If there was five
percent Armenian money in it, it would be nice.
My colleagues ask me in Turkey where all these Armenians are. They feared
that the moment they opened the door, a mob would raid their place. So you
had basically the cavalry waiting for the Indians to attack and in four to
five years one lone Indian has showed up. And so they understand that their
projections of a big Armenian conspiracy is just a formulation of their own
fears that has relatively little to do with reality.
When I say the archives are open, it’s limited, clear, but there certainly
is no excuse not to do it. It’s a very simple thing. Crucial evidence, about
whose existence we know, is not available at this time. But there is no
excuse not to exhaust what they have made available, because this has to be
done anyhow. If people say, Well we want to see the rest and then we’ll do
something, well that is unprofessional. One has to be at the cutting edge of
research. I think this kind of concept is not present.
K.M.-What do you think about Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s proposal for a
joint historical commission?
H.K.-A commission would have little to do. We have gone pretty well through
the Ottoman archives and not much is left on World War I. So what should a
commission do? Xerox the documents a second time? That would be perfect
nonsense. The cataloging of WWI files has to make rapid progress to provide
an archival basis for a commission. The issue is an illustration that
Erdogan does not have the best advisors when it comes to the Armenian
genocide. These people develop ideas without checking first whether the
pre-conditions for their own proposal exist within their own institutions.
Another matter is getting rid of such obstacles as Article 301. I cannot
expect anyone to agree with me when that would mean he would be regarded as
a criminal for doing so. The AKP government in Ankara has inherited a mess
created by its predecessors over decades. So it is small steps for the time
being, while hoping that the AKP does its homework and continues its overall
positive course.
—————————————— ————————————————– —
2. Book Review: Armenian Photographers
By Lola Koundakjian
Late in 2007, a 500-page volume titled Hai Lousangarichner (Armenian
Photographers) was published in Armenia. This volume may be out of reach for
most diasporans, but it is a must for collectors, scholars and lovers of
photography.
This impressive self-published encyclopedia, authored by Vahan Kochar, is a
labor of love. It is dedicated to the memory of his father, photographer
Andranik Kochar, whose lifelong dream was to publish a similar book.
The volume begins with a historical overview of mid 19th to early
20th-century Armenian photography, with reproductions of stamps and business
cards of studios representing a geographical region as vast as Fresno to
Central Asia.
Various cities where Armenian photographers were already active in that era
include Kars, Ardahan and Nor Nakhichevan, documenting everyday life,
Armenian monuments in their immediate region, and court photographers who
specialized in historic portraiture. Of importance as well are the diasporan
communities of Europe, the U.S. and the Middle East, which were equally
active in this art form during the same period.
The extend of this geographical reach and the level of early expertise and
renown allows us to conclude that no other visual art has been marked by
Armenian artists globally as much as photography.
The second part of the book is an alphabetical listing of 19th-century to
contemporary Armenian photographers, with biographical notes and examples of
their work. World famous photographers and photojournalists such as Ara
Guler, Arto Kavuk, Yousuf Karsh, Andranik Kochar, Harry Koundakjian and
Arthur Tcholakian have extended entries of several pages.
Although extensive, the encyclopedia lacks several important materials,
which I hope will be remedied in future editions. First and foremost, it
does not have a table of content, indices or maps. Most photos are not dated
and provide no source listings, copyright information, nor the names of
collections, museums or whether they are in the hands of private collectors
and estates. There are also very few Armenian women photographers listed in
the encyclopedia.
An alphabetical list of names in other languages and an index by
geographical regions would be most useful to anyone researching Armenian
photography; they should be able to use this volume without starting the
research from scratch as the encyclopedia uses mostly the Soviet Armenian
spelling of names.
Vahan Kochar states in the opening remarks of the book that his father
wished to open a museum in Yerevan to house an exhibit space, a research
center, a photo-laboratory and a conference hall. After reading his
impressive book, one wonders why Armenia does not already have such a
museum.
***
Mr. Kochar informed me via email that international language editions are
planned pending resources. Asked if he has collaborated with any museums and
collections overseas for material or technical resources, he said that he
did not get any such support, however he would be happy to collaborate in
the future.
Mr. Kochar is presently working on a three-volume manuscript on Armenian
photography, as well as his father’s lifelong dream of a Museum of
Photography in Yerevan.
Contents of the book may be viewed at
The volume Armenian Photographers is not currently available outside of
Armenia, but may be ordered directly from the author. Contact Vahan Kochar
by emailing vahan@vega.am.
———————————– ————————————————– ————-
3. Bach Society Showcases Demirjian’s Musical Explorations
By Andy Turpin
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (A.W.)-On Feb. 29, Harvard’s Bach Society Orchestra
presented at Paine Hall the third concert of its 53rd season (2008).
The concert featured pianist Charlie Albright (Harvard ’11) and composer
Elizabeth Lim (Harvard ’08) as the stars of the evening.
First on the program was the orchestra’s rendition of Igor Stravinsky’s
"Suite No. 1 for Small Orchestra."
Music historian David H. Miller was quoted in the program notes, saying of
the piece, "Composed from 1914-17, Suite No. 1 is composed of the first four
of the Five Easy Pieces, ‘Andante,’ ‘Napolitana,’ ‘Espanola,’ and
‘Balalaika.’ All of the movements are very short and relatively simple. The
‘Espanola’ was possibly inspired by Stravinsky’s recent visit to Spain, his
first, and although he cites in his autobiography that Spanish folk music
was ‘no revelation’ for him, its influence can be felt in this movement. The
final movement is inspired not by Spanish culture but by that of Stravinsky’s
homeland [Russia]."
The orchestra then presented a playing of Lim’s original composition "Night
Dance Ritual."
Lim wrote of "Night Dance Ritual," the winner of the 2007-08 Bach Society
Composition Competition: "Completed during my summer studies at the Brevard
Music Institute in July 2006, the piece pays homage to.North Carolina’s
eerily pitch-black nights providing inspiration for the piece’s atmosphere."
Just prior to intermission the orchestra presented Ravel’s "Le Tombeau de
Couperin." Miller is quoted in the program notes as stating of the piece,
"Ravel composed the work from 1914 to 1917, during the First World War.each
of the movements is dedicated to one of his friends who perished during the
war."
Post intermission, Albright took the stage on the piano to play Tchaikovsky’s
"Piano Concerto No.1 in B-flat Minor" as the pinnacle of the evening.
Albright’s playing of the "Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso" evoked at
times sentiments of enchanted woodlands and gay European boulevards. His
final "Allegro con fuoco" was parlance to his clever droll-schoolboy style
of musical bravado that would have been just as fitting for an Edwardian
salon and brought audience members to their feet in thunderous applause.
Elizabeth Lim (b. 1986) is a native of the San Francisco Bay area and began
her musical studies at the age of 4. Her first composition, "Imagine that I’m
a Ballerina," received honors at the National Parent Teachers’ Association
Reflections Contest in 1992. Lim continued to pursue her musical studies,
entering the Preparatory Division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music
to study piano, composition and voice in 1997. While a junior in high
school, Lim was elected a member of the California Young Composer’s Guild,
sponsored by the Music Teachers’ Association in California (MTAC).
In December 2007, Lim was named the Emerging Composer-in-Residence of the
Berkeley Symphony for their 2008 concert season. As part of her residency,
Lim will compose several new works for the symphony, as well as receive a
performance of her new work for orchestra.
Charles Albright (b. 1988) is a native from Centralia, Wash., and has been
playing the piano since the age of 3 and a half to critical acclaim.
Albright was the first place winner of the 2006 Eastman International Piano
Competition at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music in
July/August 2006, and all other prizes therein, including that for the Best
Performance in a Mater Class, the Best Performance of a 21st Century Work,
and the Audience Prize; the first place winner of both the Solo and Ensemble
Divisions of the 2006 Biennial NY Piano Competition at the Manhattan School
of Music in June 2006.
Aram Demirjian (Harvard ’08) from Lexington, Mass., is a music and
government concentrator in Adams House. As the 2006-07 music director of the
Bach Society Orchestra, he led the orchestra in repertoire including
Mendelssohn’s "Sottish Symphony," Barber’s "Adagio for Strings," Mozart’s
"Prague Symphony," and Beethoven’s "Egmont Overture" and "7th Symphony." The
2007-08 season is Aram’s second as music director.
The Bach Society Orchestra has been an official undergraduate organization
of Harvard University since the 1954-55 academic year. At its founding, the
orchestra loosely devoted itself to performing the music of J.S. Bach. Since
then, the repertoire has grown to span the historical continuum from baroque
to contemporary.
———————————— ————————————————– ———-
4. E V E
I met you
As an insider
Floating all alone
In the dark waters of
Conception and assembly –
A time period that lasted longer
Than for the Creator himself
To dream up, misconceive
To conjure and to mold
This chaotic cosmos
In solitary haste.
I sniffed
And choked
On your blood
In my savage trip
>From dark to light
>From calm to clamor
As I hung upside down
Screaming in terror
And to force two
Novice lungs
To survive
Sucking
On air.
Famished
I dug my fingers
In your full breasts
For comfort and food
Worshiped you as mother
Rejected you as consort
To your husband’s
Pandering lust
And desire.
Then
I had you
As my sister
And loved you
As such and shared
You with her who
In fact is none
Other than
You.
Mother
Grandmother
Aunt, niece, sister
Schoolmarm, schoolmate
Playmate and girlfriend
Sweetheart, fiancée
Spouse, partner.
And much
More.
I met you
In the Scriptures
Cavorting in the shade
Of the lone tree of desire
With snakelike roots
And enticing fruit
Forever stuck
In Adam’s
Throat.
Evicted
>From fair Eden
Your heel now seeks
The head of the serpent
To crush or to stand erect
On the apple-chocked
Throat or the supine
Neck of Adam –
Your sinning
Consort.
Tatul Sonentz
2008
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress