THE LAST ARMENIAN IN BANGLADESH
Jakarta Globe
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Jan 30 2009
Indonesia
Michael Joseph Martin is guarded about his exact age and is reluctant
to accept he will be the last in a long line of Armenians to make a
major contribution to the history of Bangladesh.
Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, was once home to thousands of migrants
from the former Soviet republic who grew to dominate the city’s trade
and business life.
But Martin, in his 70s, is now the only one left.
"When I die, maybe one of my three daughters will fly in from Canada
to keep our presence here alive," Martin said hopefully, speaking
broken Bengali with a thick accent. "Or perhaps other Armenians will
come from somewhere else."
Martin came to Dhaka in 1942 during World War II, following in the
footsteps of his father, who had settled in the region decades earlier.
They joined an Armenian community in Bangladesh dating back to the
16th century, but now Martin worries about who will look after the
large Armenian church in the city’s old quarter.
"This is a blessed place and God won’t leave it unprotected and uncared
for," he said of the Church of Holy Resurrection, which was built in
1781 in the Armanitola, or Armenian district.
Martin, whose full name is Mikel Housep Martirossian, looks after
the church and its graveyard where 400 of his compatriots are buried,
including his wife, who died three years ago.
When their children, all Bangladeshi passport holders, left the
country, Martin became the sole remaining Armenian there. He now
lives alone in an enormous mansion on the church grounds.
"When I walk, sometimes I feel spirits moving around. These are the
spirits of my ancestors. They were noble men and women, now resting in
peace," said Martin, who is stooped and frail, but retains a detailed
knowledge of the Armenian history in Dhaka.
Marble tombstones bear family names such as Sarkies, Manook and
Aratoon from a time when Armenians were Dhaka’s wealthiest merchants
with palatial homes who traded jute, spices, indigo and leather.
Martin, himself a former trader, said the Armenians, persecuted by
Turks and Persians, were embraced in what is now Bangladesh, first
by the Mughals in the 16th and 17th centuries, and then by the British.
Armenians were commonly lawyers, merchants and officials holding
senior public positions. They were also devout Christians, who built
beautiful churches in the Indian subcontinent.
"Their numbers fluctuated with the prospects in trading in Dhaka,"
said Muntasir Mamun, a historian at Dhaka University. "Sometimes there
were several thousand Armenians trading in the Bengal region. They were
always an important community in Dhaka and dominated the country’s
trading. They were the who’s who in town. They celebrated all their
religious festivals with pomp and style."
The decline came after the British left India and the subcontinent was
partitioned in 1947, with Dhaka becoming the capital of East Pakistan,
and then of Bangladesh after it gained independence in 1971.
These days, the Armenian Church holds only occasional services,
with a Catholic priest from a nearby seminary coming in to lead
Christmas prayers.
Martin said the Armenian social scene came to a halt after the last
Orthodox priest left in the late 1960s, but he is determined to ensure
the church’s legacy endures.
"I’ve seen bad days before, but we always bounced back. I am sure
Armenians will come back here for trade and business. I will then
rest in peace beside my wife."