"Armenians in Turkey"

[Arnika]

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-189093-132-armenians-in-turkey.html

Armenians in Turkey

The mosaic of faiths and ethnic groups in Turkey is amazing, isn't it? Let's be honest, can any one of us say we do not have a Jewish synagogue or a Greek or Armenian church around the corner?

Although according to the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) a good 99 percent of the Turkish population is officially Muslim, there are still, astonishingly, many non-Muslim communities to be found in Turkey, even though most of us actually know very little about these groups.

Thus, this week, Today's Zaman will take a look at the Armenian community in particular. Let's discover their interesting stories and explore places in Turkey that still reveal the history of Armenians who lived on what is now Turkish soil.

According to a report on religious minorities in Turkey prepared by the Turkish Foreign Ministry in December 2008, there are around 60,000 Armenians living in Turkey today, around 45,000 of whom reside in İstanbul. There are also communities near Lake Van and in the southeastern Turkish province of Hatay. Together, according to the report, they run some 55 active houses of worship, and a total of 2,906 students receive education in Armenian at 17 elementary schools, five high schools and a kindergarten. Last, but not least, there are a handful of Armenian newspapers and hospitals in Turkey and, of course, we can find the important Armenian Patriarchate in İstanbul.

So, where do these Armenians come from? What is their story, their belief and their history? Well, actually, the Armenians currently living in Turkey are the descendents of a much larger ethnic community, which, originating somewhere in the Caucasus, settled in eastern Anatolia hundreds of years B.C.

After the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, many of his first followers, the Apostles, returned to their homelands to escape persecution in Jerusalem and to bring the "good message" of the life and teachings of Jesus to the world, and the Armenians if Asia Minor were actually among the first non-Jews to adopt the new religion of Christianity.

Converted by the apostle St. Gregory the Illuminator in A.D. 301, the Kingdom of Armenia became the first nation to accept Christianity as a state religion and established its own church, independent of both the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches existing at that time. Today this church is known as the Armenian Apostolic Church.

While the Armenian Apostolic Church remains the most prominent church in the Armenian community throughout the world, Armenians today subscribe to a number of other Christian denominations, as well. Prominent among these are especially the Armenian Catholic Church, which recognizes the Roman Catholic pope, and the reformist Armenian Evangelical Church.

During the Ottoman era, the number of Armenians is estimated to have been between 2 and 2.5 million. With the rise of the Ottomans in the 16th century, “Armenistan” became one of the empire's provinces and remained under Ottoman rule for the next three centuries until it was separated in the mid-1900s, at the end of the Russo–Turkish War, into Eastern Armenia, which was then ceded to the Russian Empire, and Western Armenia, which remained Ottoman until the end of the empire.

Recognized as a separate "millet," a kind of legally protected religious minority group in the empire's governmental system, Armenians were free to run their own religious, cultural and educational institutions and thus contributed much to the social, political and economic life of the empire; many Armenians held high positions as governors and in the banking sector.

Thus, along side the 55 active churches mentioned above, it is not surprising that one can find hundreds of other Armenian churches on Turkish soil today, the majority of which are either in ruins, inactive because of a lack of clergy or congregation or are being used for other purposes.

Discover Armenian roots in the district of Kumkapı, İstanbul

When in İstanbul, the Kumkapı district on the city's western Marmara shore is surely worth seeing and is definitely a good place to catch some Armenian spirit. The district is home to the largest segment of İstanbul's Armenian population. The Church of the Virgin Mary is open to visitors, and there is a friendly guide there who will show you around, describing aspects of Armenian life and the history of the district. You can also attend the Sunday service for more insight into the community, in addition to paying a visit to the Armenian Patriarchate, located right next to the church.

The Patriarchate, which was allowed to move to Constantinople after the Ottoman conquest of the city in 1453, is still the spiritual and administrative headquarters of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Turkey and Crete and which, at that time, was also the official governing authority over all Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. Relations between Ottomans and Armenians were not bad during the time of the empire. In 1861, Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire drew up a national constitution, but as the 19th century came to an end, relations became more and more tense. During the reign of Abdulhamid II in particular, many Armenians were persecuted, and in 1915, they suffered great hardship under the Young Turks administration during the infamous and still highly debated mass deportations of the Armenian population.

Vakıflı Köyü: An Armenian village in Turkey

One place that brings to mind those problematic times is the small village of Vakıflı Köyü, located close to the Syrian border, in the Samandağ district of the province of Hatay. As the only remaining ethnic Armenian village in Turkey, Vakıflı Köyü is today home to a community of about 130 Turkish-Armenians.

Its residents are the descendants of Armenians who resisted the deportations of 1915 on the Musa Mountain. As the story goes, its inhabitants repelled the attacks by Turkish troops for 53 days, until French sailors sighted a banner that the Armenians had tied to a tree on the mountain emblazoned with the words "Christians in Distress: Rescue" and freed the village. The province, under French occupation since 1918, was restored to Turkey in 1939.

Having suffered a severe lack of jobs that led to urban migration during the mid-2000s, the village was reconstructed with the help of civil organizations and the assistance of the Turkish government some years ago and has since developed in the field of organic farming and eco-tourism. The central church and the school building were renovated, and the traditional stone houses of the Armenian villagers were restored. Surely worth a trip!

07 October 2009, Wednesday

KRISTINA KAMP İSTANBUL