THE SKULL OF BEDROS TOURIAN REMAINS UNBURIED FOR 42 YEARS
Sona Avagyan
14:02, May 2, 2011
National fiasco on the eve of the poet’s 160th anniversary?
For the past 18 years, Henrik Bakhchinyan has been waging a relentless
battle with Armenian officials to have a few skull bones of 19th
century poet and playwright Bedros Tourian interred in Yerevan’s
Pantheon Cemetery.
Mr. Bakhchinyan is Director of the Charents Museum of Literature and
Art where the famous western Armenian writer’s remains are kept in
a locked box. The bone fragments have remained in storage, seemingly
forgotten, for years.
During their tenures, Director Bakhchinyan had petitioned the
previous two mayors of Yerevan to resolve the embarrassing matter,
but to no avail.
He has written letters all seven RA Minister of Culture since the
country’s independence twenty years ago. This list includes the
current Minister of Culture, Hasmik Poghosyan.
None of these officials have taken any practical steps.
Henrik Bakhchinyan says he prefers not to write to current Yerevan
Mayor Karen Karapetyan, not that he has anything against the man,
but based on 18 years of bitter experience dealing with government
officialdom.
Officials just can’t appreciate Tourian’s work
“I’ve grown tired of being rejected. To be honest, I’m totally
disillusioned. I’ll be leaving this position soon and I really don’t
see this issue being resolved in any way,” says the museum director,
adding that he and others are simply carrying out their sacred
obligation regarding one of the nation’s greatest poets.
Mr. Bakhchinyan says that the problem isn’t the lack of money but
due to a lack of sensitivity regarding the significance of Armenian
literature in general and the art of Bedros Tourian in particular. In
short, it’s due to the fact that most cannot, or do not, appreciate
Tourian’s art.
Over the years, there have been individuals who have come forward
ready to cover the costs of a burial. The expense would be minimal in
any event – just a small plot in the Pantheon and a bust of the poet.
“Some of our most famous intellectuals have been involved in this
matter and all have declared that the remains of Bedros Tourian must
be buried in the Komitas Pantheon and nowhere else. Recently, MP Viktor
Dallakyan, a respectable individual, has taken up the cause. He made me
some promises but, to date, nothing has resulted,” Bakhchinyan notes.
Tourian died at 20 without ever being photographed
Bedros Tourian died in 1872, at the age of twenty, from consumption.
He was buried in the Armenian Cemetery of Skudar in Istanbul.
In the late 1960s, the Istanbul Municipality decided to build a road
right through then cemetery and the problem of relocating the burial
sites cam up. The Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul Archbishop Shnork
Kalustian took the bold step to secretly remove the poet’s skull.
Hiding it under a cassock, Patriarch Kalustian brought the bones
to Etchmiadzin, presenting them to Catholicos Vazgen I. In 1969,
Catholicos Vazgen handed them over to the museum for safekeeping.
They’ve been there ever since.
During his short and tempest-tossed life, Bedros Tourian was never
photographed. The famous image we see today of Tourian was drawn
based on the facial features of the poet’s mother and sister and
recollections of friends.
It is the belief of Henrik Bakhchinyan that Catholicos Vazgen I
transferred the skull of Tourian to the museum so that the poet’s
actual face features could be restored scientifically. The issue of
what to do with the remains would be decided later.
Academician Andranik Tchagharyan, an anthropologist and skull expert,
got to work and successfully compiled a true image of Tourian’s face.
A sculpture was also crafted. Tchagharyan then dismantled the skull
and returned the bones to the museum.
“We have a debt to pay to Tourian. The bones have been kept here for
40 years now. They aren’t an object for display but sacred remains. As
such, they deserve a proper resting place in the homeland,” argues
Bakhchinyan.
Melinya Yeghiazaryan, Director of the Memoirs Division at the Museum’s
Literature Department, shares this view. She’s been working at the
Museum for 34 years, over which time 6 directors have come and gone.
Mrs. Yeghiazaryan told me that all of them left no stone unturned to
have the poet’s bones interred at the Pantheon. Once a week she burns
incense in the museum; a gesture of respect not only for Tourian but
for the personal effects of other noted individuals.
“I perform this small ritual here, but this is not the way it should
be done. You can’t tell me there’s no one tiny patch of earth on this
planet to bury Tourian’s bones. So that school teachers can bring
their pupils to the memorial gravesite to light candles and incense,
to lay flowers and to be told who is buried below.”
Henrik Bakhchinyan last visited the grave of Bedros Tourian in Istanbul
aback in 1993. The cemetery was in good condition and had just been
relocated a few meters off to one side. Others who visited the young
poet’s grave afterwards also reported that the site looked fine.
The museum director hopes that after Tourian’s bones are interred at
the Pantheon, Andranik Tchagharyan’s bust, or a copy, will grace the
poet’s grave.
Museum Director and Deputy Director at odds
This reporter contacted Gayaneh Dourgaryan, who heads the Press
Service at the Ministry of Culture, to see if they were planning to
resolve this matter once and for all.
Dourgaryan advised me to get in touch with Karo Vardanyan. She said
that Vardanyan would answer on behalf of the Ministry. Now here’s
where it gets a bit muddled.
Karo Vardanyan is the Deputy Director of the Charents Museum and
works for Henrik Bakhchinyan; at least on paper. But Vardanyan’s
views regarding the Tourian “fiasco” differ from that of his boss.
Pantheon burial to only cost $1,000
Vardanyan told me that the Culture Ministry had been ready to have
Tourian’s remains interred at the Pantheon. Two years ago, at the
behest of the Minister of Culture, a preliminary budget had been drawn
up as to the expenses of a Pantheon burial. The expenditure report even
included the cost of an urn for the remains to be buried in and that of
a moveable stage for the envisaged literary memorial event afterwards.
According to the estimate, the entire interment would cost around
350,000 – 400,000 AMD (about $1,000).
A roundtable discussion took place at the Charents Museum in 2009
regarding the issue. Invitees included members of the Writers Union of
Armenia, staff of the Yerevan State University’s Faculty of Philology,
representatives from the Pedagogical Institute, and the media.
Karo Vardanyan says that if the attendees had come to a consensus
regarding the burial at the Pantheon, it would have happened. They
would have given their consent to the project and a petition would have
then been sent to the prime minister for his approval. Let’s remember
that burial sites at the Pantheon are allocated by the government.
“However, since that assembly failed to reach a consensus on the
matter, the petition to the government remained on paper only. Imagine
this, only two people at that conclave were in favor of reburial. One
was Khachik Stambultsyan and the other was our museum director Henrik
Bakhchinyan. You understand the problem, right? We couldn’t have
submitted that petition to the government with just two signatures.”
says Karo Vardanyan.
Intellectual community can’t agree on what to do
According to Vardanyan, the others at the Tourian conclave also
viewed the skull remains were also of medical interest and not just
a human object to be buried. He says many wanted to see if Tourian’s
image could be restored from the skull, not realizing that such an
experiment had been successfully concluded years ago.
When I told Karo Vardanyan about this fact he replied, “Sure it
happened, but from what?”
He went on tell me that one participant even suggested that a memorial
be erected in the Tourian neighborhood located in the town of Avan
and that the skull be buried at its foot.
Vardanyan concluded by saying that since a majority consensus wasn’t
reached it has been decided to form a government committee at a
future jubilee celebration for Tourian. This body will review the
matter and decide what to do.
Should Tourian have two gravesites?
Given that 2012 will mark Tourian’s 160th birthday anniversary,
Vardanyan says he will remind the ministry to request that the
government form such a committee.
“This is a matter for just one person to decide, to say ‘let’s take the
remains to the Pantheon’. Let’s not forget that Tourian’s grave remains
till today at the Armenian cemetery in Istanbul. And it’s a special
grave. For decades, lovers have met at the grave,” notes Vardanyan.
He also doesn’t rule out that the skull should be returned to Istanbul
in the same impulsive way it was brought to Yerevan decades ago.
“Why should Tourian’s earthly remains be divided, especially when the
grave of the poet is in the Istanbul Armenian cemetery? I wouldn’t
like to see Tourian or anyone else have more than one grave. Why is
it that we are removing all our traces from the world by constantly
relocating them here?” Vardanyan asks, listing the names of other
noted Armenians whose remains have been so “repatriated”.
When asked if he wasn’t concerned that the Turks might destroy
Tourian’s grave if the skull is returned, in the same manner that
scores of churches and cemeteries have been obliterate in western
Armenia, Vardanyan replied that such matters were out of our hands
even though the Istanbul Armenian community keeps watch over and
cares for the Uskudar Cemetery.
“Is it so wrong to preserve the remains in the museum? We will present
the matter, in all its details, to the government committee formed
at the poet’s jubilee in order for a correct decision to be made. The
question remains – to bury or not to bury?” notes Vardanyan.
The Charents Museum Deputy Director adds that if the government
committee decides in favor of burying the skull bones, it must take
place at the Komitas Pantheon.
There can be no other place of reverence to honor the poet, Vardanyan
adds, since Bedros Tourian is one of our nation’s greatest luminaries.
From: A. Papazian
http://hetq.am/eng/news/850/