ON MANIFESTAIONS OF IDENTITY IN TURKEY
Ruben Melkonyan
"Noravank" Foundation
22 January 2009
In Turkish reality the issue of ethnic origin is rather delicate and it
often finds reflection in politics, directly touches on state officials
and politicians, causing different speculations. In Turkish "national"
state belonging to other ethnos is regarded as an insult, something
equal to "alien". It is also a widespread method of "accusations"
perceptible by vast masses.
Very often state officials of high rank and politicians have to go
into the problem of ethnic identity and relating "accusations". You
can notice some blur and contradictions in their statements and
comments. Among high-ranking Turkish officials the name of Turkish
prime-minister Recep Erdogan is often mentioned in the context of
ethnic identity and it is pointed out that he is not "pure-blooded"
Turk. In the course of the discussion on his name on 6th December,
1997 in Sghert Erdogan tried to answer these accusations with his
inherent ingenuousness: "They say I’m rizian or laz. I say that I am
not laz. I asked about it my father, and he asked his grandfather who
was mullah and he answered this way: "Tomorrow we’ll die. God will
ask: "Who’s your god, who’s your prophet, what’s your religion? He
will not ask about your nationality or kin. And then you answer:
"Thank God I’m Muslim" and pass by.
But if we follow the ideas he expressed later, we’ll see that he
contradicts to himself. Thus on 21st May, 2004 in Romania he declared
that: "There are no more ideologies in the world. Both ethnic and
religious ideologies are perishable". This was followed by another
statement which contradicted to the foregoing and which was made
on 11th August, 2004 in Georgia: "I am also Georgian; our family is
Georgian family which moved from Batum to Rize". And on 12th April,
2005 in Norway Erdogan said: "I’m Rizian, my wife is from Aghert,
she is Arab and not Turk".
Such a mess in his thoughts let Turkish media suppose that Erdogan
is in the identity crisis now.
Different observations and facts let us attend, that among Turkish
Armenians who had adopted Islam and their successors there is a strata
of those who, having Armenian origin not only reject it, but also
try to prove to their milieu their "pure-blooded Turkish" or Muslim
descend and become convinced anti-Armenian. There is definitely some
psychological point too.
They psychologically regard the part of Armenians who could abide
to their roots as their main enemies. The hostile attitude towards
Armenians in Turkish society is also an important condition
of anti-Armenian manifestations among those who had Armenian
origins. They psychological ly don’t want to belong to the hostile
nation, that’s why they choose the road of assimilation with the
dominant nation. Turning to this matter, the ethnographer Harutyun
Marutyan expresses the following idea: "Publications, direct and
indirect pressure of political and economic character may cause
people to try to get rid of pinned labels, change their milieu,
break off with their relatives and people of the same nation and in
fact choose the road of assimilation and estrangement".
Different sources impute Armenian or at least "non-pure Turkish"
origin to many famous Turkish nationalists, and this, as it was
mentioned above, can be used in political speculations. Among such
examples we would like to mention the statement which was put into
circulation recently saying that one of the most ardent anti-Armenians,
the chairman of Workers party Dogu Perinchek has Armenian roots. We
should remind you, that he is one of the most active extirpators
of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide and he was
condemned for the denial of the Genocide in Switzerland.
Some Turkish circles made a big stink, and Perinchek was nicknamed
as "the conqueror of Lozano". The radical-chairman of Workers party
evaluates the Armenian Genocide as "imperialistic lie".
Perinchek’s son is in the track of his father and he also joined the
struggle against the recognition of the Genocide. It is worth noting
that at present Dogu Perinchek is detained on "Ergenekon" terrorist
organization case which caused a sensation in Turkey.
The scandalous disclosure of his routs drew a wide response in Turkish
media. Thus, it was mentioned that Dogu is a native of Apchagha village
in province of Eghin (Akn, Erznka). It is worth noting that province
of Akn is well known for the great number of apostate Armenians and
historical sources confirm that up to 1915 this province was inhabited
mainly by Christians, generally Armenians and Georgians.
But Turkish magazine "Chronicle" came out with more serious facts of
Perinchek’s origin. There are quotations from archival documents of the
Ottoman court in the article which give information on demographic,
social, economic, religious, ethnic situation in the region. In
accordance with them there were many Armenians in the region at the
close of 19th and the beginning of 20th century. Most of them were
craftsmen, and they mainly lived in village of Akn. There were also
many Armenians in the villages of Kemer-gab, Apchagha, Ilich and
e.t.c. The village of Apchagha, the native village of Perinchek’s
ancestors, was mainly inhabited by Armenians. The village headman,
the members of the council of elders were Armenians. Some of their
names have even remained in the court records: the son of Hakob
Krikor, the son of Artin Kirkor and e.t.c. As it was20mentioned in
the foregoing article there was wide spread and at the same time
interesting regularity among Armenians of Akn. They all had generic
names (it should be mentioned for comparison that the surname law was
put into circulation only in 1934, and only after that Turks began to
use surnames), but it is interesting that most of them were made up of
Turkish names: Mouratoglu, Degirmendjioglu, Chilingirolu, Ayvazoglu,
Perinchegoglu and e.t.c. But there was one more interesting detail
in the records of the court. In spite of the fact that most of them
had Turkish generic names, their surnames were Armenian. Turkish and
other surnames were exclusions. In that very court documents there
are records saying that the Perinchoglus were Armenians, and there are
even court cases where they were involved and there was mentioned that;
"Perinchoglu Stepan and Khachatur of Armenian "millet" (nation)". The
father of Dogu Perinchek’s grandfather Mehmet Sadik was born in 1850
in Apchagha. His son Mehmet Djemal Perinchek also was born in the same
village (1887). But as you can see, their surnames are not Armenian
and, in fact, the above mentioned peculiarity is infringed. This
may be regarded as exclusion but the facts from the court documents
throw light on this and many other questions. Thus in the records of
Ottoman court it was written clearly that Mehmet Sadik Perinchoglu was
"muhetdi", and
muhetdi means a person who has converted the faith, it means that
he had adopted Islam in the second half of 19th century, but there
was nothing said about the reasons of the conversion of faith. This
also means that Islam conversion policy with its ascents and declines
continued during the whole history of Ottoman state. Dogu Perinchek
is the offspring of Islamized Armenian. His Armenian descend made
him take the road of self-denial and Turkish chauvinism.
However even this circumstance does not save the likes of Perinchek
from the danger of accusation of being non-Turkish by Turkish
society. This is what Bagrat Esdukyan, the journalist of "Akos"
daily, writes about in his article "Who is Armenian?": "What can we
say to those who have disavowed their nation? Those who have not only
disavowed but even hate their nation. But it occurs that collective
memory doesn’t let you disavow your nation. It will reveal the true
face of the adjurers and show what they have been trying to escape
from for their whole life".