Hye Sharzhoom Armenian Action
Christine Pambukyan
Staff Writer
“The reason I titled my series of presentations “Armenians and ‘Other Armenians’ in Turkey” has to do very much with how the Republic of Turkey …, as a nation-state, understands, categorizes and defines Armenians” explained Dr. Hrag Papazian, the 19th Kazan Visiting Professor of Armenian Studies at Fresno State. “The Muslim and Alevi Armenians are ‘other Armenians’ due to their religion which leaves them outside the state-sanctioned definitional boundaries of Armenianness and of the ‘Armenian community’ in Turkey. The migrant Armenians are also to some extent ‘other Armenians,’ not because they are not recognized as Armenians, but because they are not citizens of the Republic of Turkey and their presence is acknowledged to some extent but legally is not fully there.”
On a rainy Tuesday, November 1, 2022, Dr. Papazian completed his Fresno State lecture series with a presentation titled “The Migrants from Armenia” at the Alice Peters Auditorium in the University Business Center. His first lecture analyzed the Christian Armenian community in Turkey, and in his second lecture, he discussed the status of the Muslim and Alevi Armenian communities in Turkey, whom he views as yet other “other” Armenians in Turkey.
In this final lecture prior to his return to Armenia to teach at the American University of Armenia, Dr. Papazian explained the relationship between the Armenians of Turkey and the Armenian migrants in Turkey, based on nearly two years of his research in Istanbul.
Dr. Papazian began his lecture by displaying and describing the fourth page of a comic he created with his wife, graphic artist Nooneh Khoodaverdyan. On this page, there is a migrant Armenian together with many items symbolic to this community. The character says “Yes, blood makes one Armenian, but that’s not enough. One’s conduct, one’s way of life should also be Armenian. I can’t really consider someone a true Armenian if they do not show any concern for Armenia, if they do not treat it as their fatherland. Now you might say that I’ve left Armenia myself… I had no other choice. I was unemployed and this is only temporary. It wasn’t easy to leave Armenia. It was even harder to come to Turkey. I keep feeling bad. This is the enemy’s country after all, and a hundred years have passed since the genocide. True Armenianness, as we consider it, also entails some moral conditions, like being hospitable, respecting one’s elders, caring for the family. It requires that a man defend his honor and a woman be decent and loyal to her husband.” Dr. Papazian then explained that the comic reflects much of what he discovered about what the Armenian migrants felt during his research.
Dr. Papazian next presented the history of Armenian migrants coming to Turkey from Armenia. The main influx of migrants began in the early 1990’s. “A real migration with people settling in Istanbul really started after the fall of the Soviet Union and the independence of Armenia,” said Dr. Papazian. “First, there was a crisis in the sending context, Armenia, and then the Republic of Turkey had acquired pull factors.” The reasons why Armenians began to emigrate from Armenia include the energy crisis, the security crisis, and an economic crisis. This includes the Spitak earthquake in 1998, the change in Armenia’s political system and the transformation from the state economy to capitalism, privatization, the loss of many jobs due to the closing down of numerous factories, and the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabagh. “In Turkey there was an economic pull factor, conditioned by … the neo-liberalization of the economy… [and] the privatization of especially the service sector, which resulted in increasing demand for low paid and undocumented… extra-legal labor to be exploited,” added Dr. Papazian. The housing was cheaper in Turkey in comparison to Russia, more jobs were available, and it was close by.
Furthermore, when conducting his research, Dr. Papazian stated that in Kumkapi, Istanbul, there were African and Asian migrants, but this neighborhood used to be a historically well-known Armenian community. “The number of Armenian migrants is estimated to be somewhere between twelve thousand and thirty thousand,” explained Dr. Papazian. “The Turkish president, Turkish media, and Turkish politicians often bring this number to up to a hundred thousand, but that is definitely not a credible number… it’s intention is to basically use the presence of Armenian migrants as a leverage in politics and international politics… when speaking about genocide recognition or other issues in relation to Armenia.” He also noted that most of the Armenian migrants are women who work in the service sector, in hotels, and in restaurants; as Armenian men go to Russia for seasonal construction work. However, there is a small number of migrants who go to Turkey to further their education or to find a spouse. “A large number of … Armenian migrants currently living in Istanbul are middle aged … and older women who work in houses and apartments mostly of local Armenians,” stated Dr. Papazian.
“These few tens of thousands of Armenians have only one working and one standing institution or organization… the Hrant Dink school,” emphasized Dr. Papazian. This school acts as the center where the migrants maintain their Armenian culture and pass on their culture and education to younger migrants or children of migrants. Children at this school learn from the same curriculum as the children in the Republic of Armenia, which allows these migrants to return to Armenia and continue their education once they complete their education at the Hrant Dink school.
“This school started in 2004 with only seven students, and at the time of my research, that is in between 2015 and 2017, they had already one hundred and fifty students and fifteen teachers, all members of the migrant community,” added Dr. Papazian. The school was founded in the basement of the Armenian Protestant church with the help of the pastor.
Dr. Papazian concluded his lecture by mentioning that although the local Armenian Church, community schools and institutions support the migrants, especially their school, interpersonal relations between local Armenians in Istanbul and the migrant Armenians are typically underdeveloped. The local Armenians often view the migrants as untrustworthy and at times employ condescending language calling them “uncivilized” and the like; while the migrants erect boundaries in a reactive manner, but also question the “Armenianness” of the local Armenians whom they at times qualify as “Turkified.”
At the end of the discussion, audience members were able to ask Dr. Papazian questions about his discussion. A recording of the lecture, along with other lectures of the Armenian Studies Program can be found on the Armenian Studies YouTube Channel at https://bit.ly/armenianstudiesyoutube.