Hye Sharzhoom Armenian Action
Christine Pambukyan
Staff Writer
“My objective wasn’t then just simply to provide more translations of an Armenian writer’s work. I had two ideas in mind. One was to try to reorient Armenian cultural and social concentrations, especially in Armenian-Turkish history and the other was to introduce a new and kind of coherent way of producing translations from Armenian literature,” explained Dr. Nanor Kebranian, during a presentation about her new publication Captive Nights: From Bosphorus to Gallipoli with Zabel Yessayan, a thematic collection of three of Zabel Yessayan’s works into English.
Captive Nights was translated into English by G.M. Goshgarian and the book was co-edited by Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian. Captive Nights is number 14 in The Armenian Series of The Press at California State University, Fresno.
On Friday, February 25, 2022, at 7:00 P.M., researcher,writer, and translator Dr. Nanor Kebranian presented her new publication in a lecture titled “Reading History, Remaking Memory with Zabel Yessayan: On Translating an Armenian Author’s Turkish Women” over Zoom. From Singapore, the Oxford University graduate discussed how her new publication came to be and analyzed each of the short stories and their significance within Zabel Yessayan’s works and Armenian-Turkish culture and history. Captive Nights includes three of Zabel Yessayan’s Short Stories “Meliha Nuri Hanum,” “The Veil-Scenes from Harem Life,” and “Enough!”
The lecture began with a background of how the book came into existence. Dr. Kebranian explained that in general, translations from Armenian tend to be done in a haphazard manner and the works tend to be grouped together based on genre, a single author, or historical excerpt.
“It’s rare to find Armenian literature organized by theme or specific kinds of social or cultural experiences. So this volume might actually be the first of it’s kind in that respect,” stated Dr. Kebranian. She then continued to explain that her publication is similar to what the Armenian International Women’s Association is doing with their translations and publication of Armenian women’s writings into English, and the impact of Aras Publishing, an Armenian and Turkish language press in Istanbul, that is translating Armenian literature and history into Turkish. “It’s played a really incredible role in revising and rewriting history about the presence of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey just by translating Armenian literary works into Turkish,” explained Dr. Kebranian.
Next, Dr. Nanor Kebranian walked through the life and publications of Zabel Yessayan. “In life, Yessayan was keen to be translated into Turkish… She would have done the translations herself if her knowledge of Ottoman Turkish had been good enough,” explained Dr. Kebranian. She wrote letters to her husband in Paris informing him that the Committee of Union and Progress had published a Turkish translation of her works and that it made her quite famous in Istanbul. “She was quite pleased at finally being recognized by a great or big nation,” said Dr. Kebranian. Though Zabel Yessayan’s works were in high demand, she needed her husband, Dikran Yessayan, to translate her works.
In her teens, Yessayan’s father sent her to Paris to pursue higher education and protect her from the dangers arising against Armenians in Istanbul at time, including the massacres and political and socioeconomic repression of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. “Europe offered many Armenians who had the financial means, or other opportunities, a way to escape those circumstances, and Yessayan was lucky that her father presented those means to her.” Along with Zabel Yessayan came liberal Ottoman Turks who arrived in Paris to a new beginning, many of whom collaborated with Tigran Yessayan in Paris. Zabel Yessayan, as the wife of Tigran, was able to establish ties with Turkish representatives through her husband. Despite these relations, when Yessayan returned to Istanbul in 1903, she was faced with the anti-Armenian and pro-Turkish nationalism of her Turkish comrades.
When she returned to Istanbul, Zabel Yessayan published many works depicting what she witnessed during the Adana Massacres and the Massacres of Cilicia. “Several fictional stories appeared around this time in the Armenian press, and they dramatized the events of Cilicia through the perspective of Turkish women. They were presented as wives, mothers, and daughters who were implicated and involved in the crimes against Armenians in Cilicia,” explained Dr. Kebranian. These stories reflected Yessayan’s genuine feelings about what was occurring in the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians. They also emphasized how women had a role to play in social change and preventing violence. “Yessayan was calling women to rally support for Armenians in the hopes of preventing further instances of such violence,” added Dr. Kebranian.
Finally, Dr. Kebranian, des-cribed the short stories she has included in her new publication. First is Zabel Yessayan’s short story, “The Veil,” which is more than just a commentary on the attire of Muslim women. “It serves a much more symbolic, a subversive, even a polysemic role. It has multiple meanings… and operates on several registers,” emphasized Dr. Kebranian. The veil itself symbolizes sexuality within Yessayan’s works, specifically that of sexual differentiation rather than sexual desire. “As a story ‘The Veil’ suggests veiling is actually a marker of differentiation. It’s a symbol of a collective identity that expresses the collective marginalization of a hierarchically defined group of people,” analyzed Dr. Kebranian. Yessayan used the symbol of the veil to get around censorship and symbolize the solidarity between Turkish women and non-Muslim women in the Ottoman Empire.
Next is Yessayan’s story “Enough!,” which is “probably the clearest indication of Yessayan’s sentiments of solidarity,” stated Dr. Kebranian. Yessayan discusses the suffering of Muslim or Turkish civilians along with Armenians, the perpetual state of war of the Ottoman Empire at the time, and a longing for cooperation between Ottoman civilians. This work was published when Yessayan had a more pacifist ideology in her writing.
Finally, Dr. Kebranian discussed the first short story in the book, “Meliha Nuri Hanum.” At the time of Zabel Yessayan’s publication of “Meliha Nuri Hanum,” in 1927, the new Turkish Republic created a law that prevented Armenians from moving back to their homes and revoked their citizenship if they were not present during the Turkish revolution. The life of the main character in this short story, Meliha Nuri Hanum, is parallel to that of Zabel Yessayan at the time. “Meliha… seems to be an exact mirror of the Armenian women that she [Zabel] has presented in similar contexts. Meliha is also a nurse; Yessayan also worked as a nurse for months to support herself in Paris when she was a student there [and] Yessayan had to dress as a Turkish women to hide in Istanbul in 1915” analyzed Dr. Kebranian.
At the end of the discussion, viewers were able to ask Dr. Nanor Kebranian questions through the question module on Zoom. A recording of this discussion can be found on the Armenian Studies YouTube channel at https://bit.ly/armenianstudiesyoutube.
Also, the publication, Captive Nights: From the Bosphorus to Gallipoli with Zabel Yessayan, can be purchased online from the Abril bookstore at http://www.abrilbooks.com/captive-nights-from-the-bosphorus-to-gallipoli-with-zabel-yessayan.html and the NAASR bookstore at https://naasr.org/products/captive-nights-from-the-bosphorus-to-gallipoli-with-zabel-yessayan.