Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Sunday’s Zaman
June 7 2009

Bishop Chuljyan, potential replacement for Patriarch Mesrob II, talks
of peace

Tall trees, a peaceful stream and picturesque mountains in the
province of Vanadzor, Armenia, present the perfect serenity for a
religious leader to think and reflect, and that is what Bishop Sebouh
Chuljyan does.

`Please help us be in contact with civil society organizations in
Turkey — be they cultural, environmental or children’s — so we can
have them over here either to do things together, maybe to plant trees
or give concerts. I value civil initiatives more than the opening of
the Turkish-Armenian border,’ he said, looking sharply into the eyes
of the curious Turkish journalists in his compound.
He was behind his busy desk filled not only with a variety of office
documents, but also some Turkish history books, Turkish novels,
Turkish television program scripts and a poem starting with the line,
`A Human Being Should Be Aware¦" (Farkında Olmalı
İnsan) by Turkish poet Can Yücel. On his windowsill,
there was a framed photograph of Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian
editor of the Ä°stanbul-based Agos daily who was assassinated in
2007. The two had become close friends when Dink visited Chuljyan in
Armenia.

Bishop Chuljyan was speaking to the Turkish journalists who are in
Armenia for the Turkey-Armenia Journalist Dialogue Project of the
International Hrant Dink Foundation, funded by the Heinrich
Böll Stiftung Association. This tall, impressive and determined
religious leader was direct in his statements.

`The important thing is to establish close ties between the Turkish
and Armenian peoples. Once they get to know and love each other,
political leaders would race to open the doors,’ he said, referring to
the closed border between Turkey and Armenia, which Turkey shut in
1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan after Armenia occupied
Nagorno-Karabakh, a part of Azerbaijani territory.

He runs a diocese of the Gougark region in the Armenian Apostolic
Church. With this high qualification and having been born in Turkey,
Bishop Chuljyan, 50, is also a natural patriarchal candidate for the
post in Ä°stanbul if there are elections for a new patriarch, if
the frail Patriarch Mesrob II has to retire for health reasons. Asked
if he would like to enter the elections in such a situation, he said
he would if the Turkish-Armenian community supports him, even though
he doesn’t like to live in big cities.

`I don’t like traffic and the hustle and bustle of the cities. I like
to go and visit Anatolian towns and villages,’ he said, adding that he
has been to Turkey several times, but mostly to small towns.

When it comes to questions on the debate of whether Patriarch Mesrob
II should be replaced due to his health problems, Chuljyan said he
believes that the patriarch should be replaced. `This is the right
thing to do,’ he said.

`I am from Malatya’

`I am from central Malatya. I went to see the house we once lived in
there, but the new owners of the house did not allow me to see
it. They cursed at me,’ he said, telling some other stories from his
visits in which he sometimes had terrible experiences because he was
being ousted since some villagers disliked Armenians. In some cases,
he was warmly welcomed by people.

`I was able to see my grandparents’ house,’ he said as his expression
changed from a mix of angry and sad to a big smile. He showed the
pictures he had taken in a person’s house in Malatya where he was
sitting on the floor with a group of townspeople and having a friendly
chat. In another picture, he was enjoying the fresh figs from a tree
in a garden that once belonged to his grandfather.

Chuljyan moved to Armenia when he was 9. When asked why he and his
family left the province of Malatya where he was born, he said that
they were tired of being humiliated because they were Armenian.

`Sebouh is my religious name. The name my father gave me is
Hayk. Because my name was not an ethnic Turkish name, my father had to
go through a series of difficulties to obtain my identification card,’
he said in reference to the difficulties that minority communities
faced in Turkey.

As he pulled out the picture of the pink-painted house where Dink
lived in the past, he said that he met Dink in Armenia and they are
from the same district in Malatya.

`I shared his ideas about fake nationalism. Nationalism is good when
it is patriotic and not extreme or fake. Hrant believed that extreme
nationalism was hurting both Turkey and Armenia,’ he said.

Like Dink did, Chuljyan also has had a great sense of giving back to
the Armenian community that raised him.

`We are a big family, seven boys and two girls. I went to a boarding
school in Ä°stanbul in HalıcıoÄ?lu. The
school is not there anymore because it was demolished during the
construction of the bridge over the Golden Horn,’ he said, adding that
he established a summer camp in his compound for poor Armenian
children who can enjoy themselves and nature.

`Please send me books from Turkey. I read a lot,’ he said near the end
of his meeting with the Turkish journalists. `I get so excited when
Turks and Armenians talk to each other. Because if they don’t, others
will be winners and we will be losers. ¦ And thank you for being
aware of me.’

07 June 2009, Sunday
YONCA POYRAZ DOÄ?AN VANADZOR Ä°STANBUL