PEROOMIAN DISCUSSES SEXUAL VIOLENCE, STATE CENSORSHIP
By Andy Turpin
April 16, 2009
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BELMO NT, Mass. (A.W.)-On April 2, the National Association for
Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) presented a talk by Rubina
Peroomian on the topic of her recently published book, And Those
Who Continued Living in Turkey After 1915: The Metamorphosis of
Post-Genocide Armenian Identity As Reflected in Artistic Literature
(Armenian Genocide Museum Institute, 2008).
Peroomian’s earlier English-language book Literary Responses to
Catastrophe: A Comparison of the Armenian and the Jewish Experience
(1993) analyzed Armenian and Jewish literary works written in response
to the horrors of genocide. Peroomian holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern
languages and cultures from UCLA and has been a lecturer in Armenian
language and literature as well as Armenian history at UCLA, the
University of Laverne, and Glendale College. She serves as a member
of the NAASR Board of Directors for southern California.
"I’m a very diligent scholar but it was the hardest thing trying to
find a publisher for my book," Peroomian began. "The book was very
popular in Yerevan but it had its disadvantages self-publishing so
I thank NAASR for their support."
Peroomian continued, "This is the second in a trilogy, the follow-up
to my first book in 1993… The first book dealt with those in the
Armenian Diaspora of the second and third generation and how they
dealt with trauma. I’m trying to finish the trilogy with a forthcoming
study of the effects of the genocide on those in Soviet Armenia and
how this trauma was transmitted."
"Since the book was published in Armenia, I felt a need to satisfy
Armenian readers with a 25-page schematic survey of the book in
Armenian," she said.
"The methodology encapsulates my readings of these various genocide
literatures that exist and the dynamics of them." Muslim Armenians in
Turkey, such as the Hamshen, she said, "are for some people a paradox."
"To answer the question, ‘Why this book?’ I’ve been interested in the
field of genocide literature in the diaspora for 25 years. But that was
the diaspora. But I always wondered, ‘What about those in Turkey that
couldn’t get out?’ Until 15 years ago we knew nothing of these people,
only that some tourists talked to some very old Armenians [in Turkey]."
Peroomian stated, "In Istanbul literature, you had to read between
the lines, and in fact more research is needed on Istanbul Armenian
literature."
Peroomian gave examples of the cryptic prose used to describe the
genocide and get past the state censors in works of fiction. "It is
very typical for the narrator to say in Istanbul Armenian literature
of the 1950’s and 60’s that ‘My mother and father had brothers and
sisters, but they all died before I was born.’"
"In that atmosphere of constant harassment and persecution, especially
for those Armenians living in the interior of Turkey, to them, all they
had to do was survive until they could go abroad or to Istanbul. And
this in fact was the intension of the Turkish government; to evacuate
these regions of Armenians."
Everywhere in Turkey after the genocide, she explained, it was banned
to talk about Armenians in the media. Only about a dozen novels in
the republic period talked about Armenians and most of them followed
the government line of ethnic identity."
But, she added, "Because of the Diaspora Armenians’ activities and
because of some of the Armenian armed struggle activities-like the
assassinations of Turkish diplomats-in the 1970’s, Turkish people
started asking themselves, ‘Who are these Armenians and what are
their claims?’"
"At this point, Turkish youth began to be raised to hate Armenians
as traitors that went against the Ottoman Empire. There are many
intellectuals and modernists who talk about these topics now in Turkey,
tasking the government to confront the past and do it justice in the
name of a multiculturalism that will only help to democratize Turkey."
However, she countered, "Author Orhan Pamuk says there are two souls
of Turkey [on the genocide issue] that are constantly combating each
other to change the other. Elif Shafak has said, ‘God save me from
my own people.’"
"Of course, these intellectuals are constantly under persecution and
harassment but they are active," Peroomian said. "And the more active
they are, the more active the ultra-nationalists are. Hrant Dink’s
assassination was proof of this."
Peroomian recounted the controversy caused in part by Dink when he
helped prove that Ataturk’s adopted daughter, a renowned pioneer
aviatrix and the first female combat pilot Sabiha Gokcen, was in
fact an Armenian orphan whose family had been decimated during the
genocide. She stated, "She was very popular in Turkey and for him to
expose the truth like that, [to them] he had to pay for it."
Of the questions that provoked her own research, Peroomian said,
"’Did women taken into harems and forced to convert to Islam truly
convert to Islam? How did they feel in their womb with [the child]
of the perpetrator inside them?’ These are the things I was looking
for in the research I’ve done."
Peroomian continued, "Henry Morganthau wrote in his memoirs about
the acts of rape against boys during the genocide as much as the
conventions for society in 1915 would allow. I’ve seen a few good
articles on sexual violence against male and female victims coming
forth."
She noted that such domination acts sought to de-masculinize and
de-humanize the victim. "There was physical violence as well against
Armenian women and boys after the genocide, in the orphanages and
in adopted families. And as we saw in the former Yugoslavia, sexual
violence is a form of genocidal war."
Peroomian cited the 1998 "Sexual Violence Report" by the UN’s special
rapporteur on human rights and noted, "There is so much research on
these topics, but at one point I had to stop and actually publish."
"I know I haven’t said the last word at all," she said. "I want this
to be my attempt to loosen the tongue of a forbidden past, that is
the Turks’ past as well."
And Those Who Continued Living in Turkey After 1915: The
Metamorphosis of Post-Genocide Armenian Identity As Reflected in
Artistic Literature is available for purchase at the NAASR bookstore,
online at naasr.org/store/home.php.