ARMENIAN CATHOLICS IN TURKEY
Arestakes Simavoryan
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01 March 2010
There is an incomplete idea of the current situation of Armenians in
Turkey in the discourse of Armenia and the comprehensive examination
of this issue is of great importance. It should be mentioned that
the study must include both the issues of Apostolic Armenians and
the issues of Catholic, Protestant and Islamized Armenians1.
While speaking about the problems of Armenian Catholics in Turkey it
should be mentioned that they have originated not only in the spiritual
and church plane, which, undoubtedly has a community-preserving
function, but they have also been caused by human factor (the issue
of mutual perception), as well as by the policy carried out by Turkey
in regard to the community.
It is remarkable that the activity of the Armenian Catholic community
in Turkey is presented rarely and insufficiently both by Armenian
and Turkish mass media. It is natural that the "oversight" in the
work of the Armenian party is conditioned by a number of obstacles,
and the Turkish party confines itself to the superficial information,
mentioning only the existence of the community which, undoubtedly,
is a targeted policy, aiming to trumpet the confessional dissociation
of the Armenians in that country.
When did the Armenian Catholic community in Turkey appear? It is a
well-known historical fact that the conversion of the Armenians into
Catholicism in the Ottoman Empire was initiated by Vatican by which
decision groups of missionaries, who managed to convert by different
means a small part of Armenians, were sent to Western Armenia.
Catholicism was adopted mainly by the villagers who thus tried to
avoid Turkishizing, Islamization and, of course, physical extirpation2.
The Turkish persecutions of the Armenian Catholics and confessional
controversy with the Apostolic Armenians were finished after the
meddling of the Pope and European states. As a result, in 1830 Turkish
sultan recognized Armenian Catholics as a separate "Armenian Catholic
nation" (millet)3 and allowed them to have their spiritual leader.
This even more aggravated the splitting of the Armeniancy, especially,
when in 1846 Armenian Protestants also acquired the status of separate
"millet".
Back in the 20s of the19th century many Armenian Catholics lived in
Istanbul apart from those who lived in other cities and villages.
There is no doubt that the Ottoman Empire carried out twofaced
policy in regard to the Armenians. On the one hand, creating separate
community (millet) it tried to split the Armenians on the religious
basis, and on the other hand, it realized that in case of any problems
with the new community it would have to reckon with European states,
and mainly Rome.
During the Genocide Armenian Catholics living in the Ottoman Empire
did not avoid the massacres and forced Islamization either. According
to different data from 150 thousand Armenian Catholics living in
the Empire only about 20 thousand survived and, mainly because of
the forced deportation, settled in Lebanon, Syria, France and some
stayed in Istanbul and Ankara.
The successor of the Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Turkey, left
the status of the Armenian Catholic community, which had a hard time
(just like the Apostolic Armenians living in Istanbul), the same.
There is scarce information about the number of Armenian Catholic
community in Turkey; according to some data there are about 14 thousand
Armenian Catholics4 though this number seems rather suspicious if we
take into consideration that they did not avoid the forced deportation
and massacres as the data of Rome shows that there were about 8500
members in the community in those years. Meanwhile, in 1980 the
community became even smaller and the number of members reduced to
4500 people. The political instability in Turkey, military coups and
pressure on the Armenians made the most part of the community leave for
France, Canada and USA. It is not excluded that the Western countries
played an important role in the organization of the emigration.
One of such examples is the comparatively recent emigration policy
of the members of the Armenian Catholic community in Iran to the US
initiated and managed by a number of Israeli and Iranian (Islamic)
organizations.
Despite all these, today’s Armenian Catholic community in Turkey has
3650 members who mainly live in Istanbul and Ankara and are subject
to Istanbul archiepiscopacy.
Unlike Istanbul the Armenian Catholic community in Ankara is not
organized and this is one of the oversights of the Armenian Catholic
Church though the difficulties are connected with the killings of the
spiritual figures of other Catholic communities in Turkey5. Let us add
that such steps may have an impact on the priests serving communities
and this is the reason why Catholic Armenians live isolated. They are
not even connected with the Catholic community in Istanbul. From time
to time priests from Istanbul visit the city and try just to unite the
community which consists of 60 families. In fact Armenian Catholics
in Ankara have no church, and the church would have contributed to
their uniting but raising such a question in Turkey is associated
with great difficulties. As a result, Armenian Catholics are obliged
to gather in French church where the sermons are delivered in Turkish
because the community is fully Turkish speaking.
Unfortunately Armenian Catholics in Ankara do not speak Armenian at
all and, according to some information, they have even no intentions
to learn. E.g. Henry, Armenian Catholic living in Ankara, said:
"I have never wanted my children to speak Armenian. We do not need
Armenian here; there is even no school in Ankara. That would be of no
earthly use". Armenians in Ankara live like the citizens of Turkey and
they remember that they are Armenians only when somebody reminds them.
Armenian, which is of no practice usage, is estimated from the point
of view of market reality. And in this case the importance of the
language, religion or culture from the point of view of preserving the
nation are not important at all, especially if the national identity
is simply useless heritage of their fathers and grandfathers6.
The situation is quite different in Istanbul where the episcopate of
the Armenian Catholic community is situated. Is should be mentioned
that the community has about 2000 members who are rather organized
and besides the churches belonging to the community there are also
beneficial structures which facilitates, at some extent, the problems
arisen.
There are 12 Armenian Catholic Churches in Istanbul, and only one
church works in the city of Mardin, which is used by several Armenian
Catholic families living isolated. Priest from Istanbul visit that
church once a month to recite the mass.
Almost all the structures belonging to the community are situated in
Istanbul and they carry out their activity for the good of the nation.
Inside the community great work is carried out by the youth unions,
the Union of Women. If in Ankara the community has no educational
facilities, here there are four schools where more than 500 pupils
study.
How do they treat Armenian Catholics in that country? Any report
connected with the issues of that community causes speculations. E.g.
Kurshat Kagramanoglu in one of his articles compares human qualities
of the Armenian Catholics and Apostolic Armenians trying to strain
the relations between the members of those communities through his
negative evaluations: "despite the fact that the Armenian Catholics
are smaller in number they look down at the Apostolic Armenians"7,¬ –
mentions the author.
The point is that the comparison was made between Hrant Dink and
the current editor of "Agos" newspaper, the representative of the
Armenian Catholic community Etienne Mahchupyan. It is obvious that
the confessional factor is not of essential importance in the Turkish
policy carried out in regard to the Armenians; the national identity
is the key factor.
Unfortunately, the opinions dividing Armenian Catholics and Apostolic
Armenians are also sounded by the representatives of the Armenian
community in Istanbul. E.g. "… it is well known that such Turkish
speaking and cosmopolite Armenians as Etienne Mahchupyan want to
control both the material sources and the administrative bodies of
the community. They have not managed to do that yet. But it is obvious
that after the death of Dink this lamp has passed on to Mahchupyan.
This is an attempt to create a new community of atheist and Turkish
speaking Armenians, independent of the Patriarchate. Though the
spiritual figures from the Patriarchate pestered with their sectarian
behaviour, I expect nothing good from Etienne Mahchupyan. And then
after all why this man, being a Catholic, dares to interfere in the
affairs of our community? The fact is that the Catholic community of
Istanbul consists of the people who are separate from the Apostolic
community. During the visit of Catalicos they even did not come to
their church to greet him"8.
Such rare opinions let us assume that the treatment to the Armenian
Catholic community is not very positive and it cannot contribute to
the consolidation of the Armenians in Turkey.
There is rather obscure notion of the processes going on in the
Armenian community in Turkey and the main reason is the absence of
the information which does not allow scrutinizing the developments
going on there.
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