A LONE ‘HEMSINLI’ IN YEREVAN

Today’s Zaman
0-116-a-lone-hemsinli-in-yerevan.html
May 5 2010
Turkey

Sergey Vartanyan’s roots are in HemÅ~_in, near Rize, and he is looking
forward to the opening of the Turkey-Armenia border. His family was
forced to migrate to Armenia in 1915.

They first lived in the CavuÅ~_tepe (HaykaÅ~_en) village in Van’s
Gurpınar district. Vartanyan’s great-grandfather, Vardan, was a
village elder.

Vardan immigrated to Yerevan with his family 95 years ago. He took
choreography lessons in Yerevan and became the head of the Armenian
State Ethnographic Dance Group in 1930.

Vartanyan was born in Yerevan in 1952. He has never visited Van but
he has heard that his family’s home in Van is still standing. It’s
isn’t his past that makes Vartanyan the subject of this piece; rather
it is the newspaper "Dzayn Hamshenakan" (The Voice of HemÅ~_in),
which he has been publishing for six years. This is why Vartanyan,
whose family is originally from Van, is called HemÅ~_inli (one who
is from HemÅ~_in). His interest in his family’s Turkish roots in
general and particularly the people of HemÅ~_in, who live in small
towns located in Turkey’s Eastern Black Sea province of Rize, began
years ago and culminated in The Voice of HemÅ~_in newspaper, which
was founded in 2004.

Initially it was printed every month, with 12 pages monthly, but due
to financial constraints it is currently printed every two months on
eight pages. Its circulation has declined from 1,500 to 1,000 over the
course of the last six years. One of the reasons for the decline is
the availability of the newspaper online. All pages of the newspaper
can be accessed in PDF format on the website

The website also features music videos by Black Sea artists such as
Altan Civelek, Harun Topaloglu and the Vova group, which is known for
playing traditional HemÅ~_in melodies. It also contains information
about the HemÅ~_in culture and photographs from HemÅ~_in. The Voice
of HemÅ~_in is printed in black and white. It may not have a high
circulation, but I found that it reaches many countries including
Syria, Russia, the US, Lebanon and certainly Turkey.

Noting that it is manly read in Abkhazia where there is a large
population of Christian HemÅ~_inli, Vartanyan says: "The Voice of
HemÅ~_in is currently published in both Russian and Armenian. If we
had an English version we would have more readers. But I do not have
the financial means."

I asked Vartanyan about his interest in HemÅ~_in. He explained that
for 30 years he has been following the traces of Armenians who speak
dialects of Armenian ever since he came across them in Sochi as a young
boy. His work on the HemÅ~_in culture, which started out of curiosity,
has evolved into a profession. Of course he’s done a lot of studying
over the years as well. "We were going to Sochi [a coastal city in
the south of Russia] with my father’s car in 1950. It was the first
time I saw Armenians who didn’t speak like us. It was very fascinating
to me. During our vacation in 1969, we visited the Armenian Moldovka
village near the Sochi Airport. There were over 2,000 Armenians who
were trying to open a school in this village. I began researching
why and how these Armenians came to Sochi. I tried to understand
why they were speaking in different dialects. I was not able to find
any serious source on them because of the Soviet Union’s censorship
policies. When I began my journalism career in 1981, this curiosity
turned into a job. I would go to Abkhazia, Krasnodar and Sochi and
write about the stories of Armenians living in these areas.

According to a census in 1979, there were close to 74,000 Armenians in
Abkhazia and 121 Armenians in Krasnodar. There were reports that the
actual population was higher. Scientific studies indicated that the
majority of these people spoke the ‘HemÅ~_in dialect’. I traveled
around those areas for many years and I relayed the stories of
Armenians I met to Yerevan."

Vartanyan’s writings on HemÅ~_in culture were first printed in various
magazines and newspapers. He intensified his research after he founded
his own newspaper in 2004. It was easier to investigate and write
because there was no problem finding a publication outlet.

Vartanyan (58), who studied philology, is not only the newspaper’s
editor in chief but is also involved with everything from the
content of the news to its composition and even its distribution. The
newspaper does not have an office. Vartanyan has turned a section of
his home into an office and he prepares the newspaper from there. He
currently does not have a team. His only helper is his Turcologist
friend Lusine Sahakyan. Sahakyan, from Yerevan State University’s
Turcology department, takes care of the newspaper’s Turkish and English
translations. The biggest supporter of the Voice of HemÅ~_in newspaper
is the "HemÅ~_in Fellow Citizenship and Philanthropy Foundation,"
which was set up in 1992. Vartanyan notes that HemÅ~_inlis living
in Russian territories tried to set up similar newspapers in the
past but were shut down due to restrictions imposed by the Soviet
administration and adds that The Voice of HemÅ~_in newspaper has
filled a major gap. "Similar activities by Armenians living in
Russian lands were banned by the Soviet administration. In the
Krasnodar region [located in southern Russia] and in the Caucasus
the more-than-half-a-million Armenians had newspapers and magazines
in Russian but did not have any publications in Armenian. With this
in mind I set up the newspaper to give Armenians the opportunity to
be able to read in their own language. We distributed our newspaper
for free, especially in Krasnodar and Abkhazia where there are many
HemÅ~_inli Armenians. The demand for the newspaper has increased. We
are sending it to more places now."

I ask Vartanyan about the newspaper’s publication policy. His immediate
response is, "We don’t get involved in politics." Indicating that the
newspaper does not include any political articles, he says: "I am not
interested in politics. I don’t really like it and I have never signed
up as a member for any party. The Voice of HemÅ~_in mainly prints
letters and articles from Armenians living in Krasnodar and Abkhazia. I
have a section with stories about teachers and students in Krasnodar
and Abkhazia. There are many painful memories. Additionally, I allocate
space to books, activities and new articles about HemÅ~_in culture. In
short, the newspaper is in general oriented towards learning. The
newspaper contains articles on the history, philology, folklore,
dances, music and dialects of Christian and Muslim HemÅ~_inli people.

He found Muslim HemÅ~_inlis as well Vartanyan says he does not have
any trouble finding contributors.

Noting that he receives articles on the HemÅ~_in culture from people in
other countries, he says "Since I used to work at the Armenian Science
Academy’s Archeology and Ethnography Institute’s Folklore Department,
most of the writers are friends from my academic circle. Even though
I don’t pay copyright fees, I receive articles from foreign academics
about HemÅ~_in culture. It’s appealing for them to write for this
kind of a publication."

The newspaper is not the only means by which Vartanyan provides
information about HemÅ~_in culture. He’s also organized conferences
about the HemÅ~_inlis. He has compiled stories, legends and songs
he learned in HemÅ~_in villages in Russia and the Caucasus that he
has been visiting since 1981 into a few books. "While working for a
children’s newspaper with a circulation of 220,000 in 1978, I had
collected public stories, legends and conversations that students
studying at Armenian schools in various Soviet republics shared with
me in their own dialects. I published two books of the best ones. The
books were later translated into Turkish, English and German."

Vartanyan recalls that in addition to HemÅ~_inli Armenians he also
focuses on HemÅ~_inli Muslims. He notes that he has published several
articles on HemÅ~_inli Muslims and has added these articles to his
archives. Due to his efforts Vartanyan has been recognized with the
Armenian Writers Union Award. "I compile materials on HemÅ~_inlis in
Turkish as well. According to my calculations, there are up to 30,000
HemÅ~_inli Muslims in Turkey today. Even if most them can not read and
write in Armenian, they can speak the HemÅ~_inli dialect. In recent
years, Dr. Sahakyan examined 16th century Ottoman tax registers and
published an article on the demographics and names of regions in
Bayburt and Malatya. Nowadays he is focusing on Trabzon. He also
has articles on HemÅ~_inli Muslims that have been translated into
different languages."

Vartanyan, who worked for different newspapers in the 1980s, also
found evidence of HemÅ~_inli Muslims in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. He
notes that most HemÅ~_inli Muslims moved from the Black Sea region to
Soviet lands (mainly Adjara and Abkhazia) either during the forced
migration period (1915) or before it. Then the Soviets forced them
and other minorities to migrate to Central Asia (Kazakhstan and
Kyrgyzstan). "In 1944, 1,385 HemÅ~_inli Muslims living in Adjara
[Georgia] were expelled to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan on the orders
of Stalin. People from Trabzon’s Surmene and HemÅ~_in also came
to these areas. In 1984 I found HemÅ~_inli Muslims in Kyrgyzstan’s
Osh and Kyzyl-Kiya regions. Then I found more in Kazakhstan. There
were up to 3,000 HemÅ~_inli Muslims living in Central Asia. I took
their photographs and wrote down their stories, legends and songs. I
published a portion of these in a book in 2009. I have thousands
of archives."

In addition to journalism, Vartanyan is also busy with publishing.

Publishing letters and articles from HemÅ~_inli people has become
his second job. He wants to do even more. He wants to set up a new
building for the newspaper, a publishing house so he can publish
more on HemÅ~_in and set up a museum on HemÅ~_in culture. This is his
dream. He also wants to see Rize and HemÅ~_in. While he doesn’t travel
to HemÅ~_in, his newspaper does. And that is enough for him for now.

Andan Genc: ‘He is working to preserve the HemÅ~_in culture’ "I’ve
known my journalist friend Sergey Vartanyan for a very long time. I
personally saw the trouble he goes through to publish the Voice of
HemÅ~_in newspaper last year when I went to Yerevan. He came across
HemÅ~_inli Armenians in Russia for the first time in Sochi in 1969. He
then intensely researched HemÅ~_inli people and the HemÅ~_in culture
in the central parts of Russia and in the Central Asian republics. He
publishes his research and the papers of researchers who study
this culture in the Voice of HemÅ~_in. For the last five years he
has been publishing the newspaper monthly. But sometimes it takes
up to three months. He mails his new editions to his supporters in
Russia, Abkhazia, Syria, the US, Lebanon and Turkey through his own
means. My friend Vartanyan has also been compiling HemÅ~_in stories,
songs and legends since 1969. He also has some books that have been
translated into Turkish. He prepares his newspaper in an environment
that is reminiscent of the local press in Turkey. There are serious
financial difficulties involved. But despite all the challenges and
hardships he is working very hard to preserve the HemÅ~_in culture
and language. He does not have private funds and he finds asking for
money inappropriate. He does everything on his own. He welcomes all
kinds of support."