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The Armenian Weekly; Volume 74, No. 11; March 22, 2008
Community:
1. The Weekly Expands Events Coverage
2. Aslanian Lectures on Julfan Merchant Trust
By Andy Turpin
3. Kalayjian on Intergenerational Transmission of Mass Trauma
By Andy Turpin
4. ‘The Wall of the Genocide’ Wins Telly Award
***
1. The Weekly Expands Events Coverage
The Armenian Weekly will now allocate more pages to covering community
events in order to provide our readership with extensive news from across
the Eastern United States in a timely manner. Pages 4 to 7 will be devoted
to covering specific events; pages 12 to13 will list upcoming events; and
page 14 will include birth announcements, weddings and obituaries.
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2. Aslanian Lectures on Julfan Merchant Trust
By Andy Turpin
BELMONT, Mass. (A.W.)-On March 13, Dr. Sebouh Aslanian, visiting assistant
professor of history at Whitman College in Washington, spoke at NAASR on
"Merchant Communities of the Indian Ocean: Honor, Trust and Reputation Among
Julfan Armenians."
Aslanian studies the role of trust and cooperation in the Early Modern
period (17th-18th centuries) of long-distance trade by focusing on the
Armenian merchants of New Julfa and Isfahan during the Safavid Empire of
Iran.
Aslanian was born and raised in Ethiopia and was educated at McGill
University in Montreal, the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social
Research in New York, and Columbia University, where he received a PhD in
2007. His dissertation, "From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean:
Circulation and the Global Trade Network of Armenian Merchants from New
Julfa, Isfahan, 1605-1747," was selected as the best dissertation in the
humanities at Columbia in 2007.
He is currently writing a book with his wife, Dr. Houri Berberian, on the
trans-imperial activities of the Venetian-Armenian family the
Scerimans/Shahrimanians, originally from New Julfa.
The Merchant of Julfa
"What interests me in general is that the Julfan Armenian community was the
only Eurasian community of the Early Modern period whose merchants operated
in all the land and sea based empires of the world," Aslanian began.
"They were very active in the Russian empire and the three major Islamic
‘gunpowder’ empires of the world at the time: the Persian Empire, the Mughal
Empire and the Ottoman Empire."
Aslanian stated, "The second element is that out of all the Eurasian
commercial communities, they are the ones to have left us historians a very
rich paper trail to follow, in excess of over 200,000 primary source
documents. This makes them incredibly unique. My colleagues are all very
jealous because other communities, other cultures, did not leave such
records."
"Julfa dominated the [silk] market for 200-300 years of their history. It
used to be a backwater until the Safavid silk empire spread to the region.
It then became incredibly important, the way petroleum has become important
to communities in the past century. The Julfans went on to create this
amazing trade empire from London and Amsterdam, to Manilla, to Mexico and
Acapulco-all within 50 years of being forcibly relocated to New Julfa from
Old Julfa, near today’s Iranian-Azerbaijani border, by Shah Abas."
He noted that the Julfans were given a great deal of autonomy and that they
governed themselves.
Aslanian recounted, "In 1619 the Julfans won the right to sell Iranian silk
at a state auction bid. They were granted a quasi-monopoly on the selling of
silk to Europe over very zealous European merchants."
Showing pictures on his PowerPoint presentation of the distinct Julfan
churches and cathedrals (which have an onioned or mosque-like dome rather
than the traditional Armenian conical roof), Aslanian stated, "The
Islamicate look is an important part of Julfan culture."
On a graphic map, he pointed out the various ports and trade route cities
where Julfan Armenians had established colonies, churches and business
dealings. He noted that many of them were the result of the severity of
monsoon zones around the Indian Ocean. "Wind direction is a very important
factor as to why some communities got built and others did not," he
explained.
Aslanian added, "In the 18th century, London and Cadiz, Spain (‘the gateway
to the Americas’), Marseille and Amsterdam also became important Julfan
centers."
Explaining the dynamics of the Julfans, Aslanian said, "Surrounding the
nodal center in a trade network, there are sub-nodes [churches, colonies,
etc.] all of which contribute to circulation" of information and capital.
He noted, "All merchants were men in this period. Women could lend capital,
but did not circulate. Priests were sent to colonies and sub-nodes to
maintain culture, spread information about defrauders in instances, and
collect taxes from churches in the Indian Ocean. The economic factor is
always important."
Speaking to the importance of gossip in commercial dealings, Aslanian said,
"Some merchants wrote up to 20,000 letters of commercial correspondence. The
language they use is a peculiar mercantile ‘Julfa dialect’ that only a
handful of people can read-though the characters are in Armenian."
He noted that the dialect is 60 percent Persian, 20 percent Turkish, 10
percent Armenian and 10 percent Hindu, Italian and Tibetan.
Trust
Turning his discussion to the nature of trust, Aslanian explained that in
the context of the 16th-18th century, where there are no international
agencies to ensure trust, the structures established to ensure honesty are
crucial.
He continued, "The Julfan operation acted essentially as a coalition. Think
of it like a gentlemen’s club with strict rules and codes of conduct. You
also had to demonstrate you had direct lineage going back to ‘Old Julfa’ and
they did not mingle with other Armenians when they traveled."
He explained that one had to abide by the very strict codes of conduct
dictated by Julfan law. "You could never defraud a fellow Julfan merchant
and you had to contract work exclusively with other Julfans."
Trust was also based on an individual’s past behavior, he said. "In this
way, merchants were always very rational and acted accordingly to ensure
long-term gains and not short-term profits."
Aslanian explained how the Julfans maintained their system, stating, "There
could be corporal punishment for defrauding offenders. People found out
about dishonest behavior through merchant correspondence and gossip gathered
in India and Manila."
He said of its efficiency, "In the time it took information to travel in
that period (four months), you can bet that the first letter received would
be a letter about someone’s cheating behavior."
Aslanian read a quote from a merchant’s letter saying of the possibility of
being "blotted out" from the community, "I would rather choose to die than
be ‘blotted off’ the list of Julfa merchants."
He detailed that for major mercantile disputes, an assembly of merchants
existed as a semi-formal regulatory council. Aslanian explained, "Twenty to
thirty very wealthy Julfan merchants provided mediation to Julfan disputes,
under the autonomy of the Safavid authority. There were also informal
community courts in every network place. If the offender fled their
punishment, shame tactics would be directed at their family wherever they
resided."
Q&A
During the question and answer session, it was asked how trust bonds and
information networks were maintained when widespread robbery and brigandage
occurred.
Aslanian answered, "Most Julfan merchants wrote at least six copies of each
letter to send through different networks, thus increasing the chance of it
being received. In case of robbery, most transactions long-distance were
enacted using letters of credit" in place of hard coinage.
Tightlipped and insular as Julfan culture was, it was not martial based.
Quite the contrary, he explained, "the Julfans had to rely on techniques of
survival and prosperity to compete with the militarized other merchants such
as the British and Dutch East India Companies."
He added that solidarity is also universally a form of economics, in that
"if you reduce ‘transaction costs [those of legal suits brought by merchants
against each other], you reduce overall community profit-loss."
This consensus factor also curtailed merchant growth, Aslanian detailed.
"You could not exceed 2,000 merchants in all cities worldwide at any given
time and maintain solidarity based upon Julfa’s population of 30,000."
In 1747, the Julfans’ economic backs were broken and the network collapsed,
although isolated merchants maintained their status into the early 19th
century.
Asked whether the Julfan model was related to any other, or later simulated,
Aslanian replied, "I don’t know that honestly. The community that comes
closest to the model is that of the Maghribi Jews [of North Africa]."
The Jews were the dominant merchant class in Iberia until their expulsion to
the Maghrib in 1492.
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3. Kalayjian on Intergenerational Transmission of Mass Trauma
By Andy Turpin
WATERTOWN, Mass. (A.W.)-On March 14, Dr. Ani Kalayjian, adjunct professor of
psychology at Fordham University, spoke at ALMA on the after-effects of
genocide and the therapeutic modalities she has utilized to deal with this
form of "Intergenerational Transmission of Mass Trauma" that was the title
of her lecture. She also discussed the physical, psychosocial and spiritual
impact of the Armenian genocide on the offspring of survivors.
Kalayjian explained that among survivors of all genocides and mass trauma,
"Insecure attachments create relational problems. If you don’t resolve your
feelings, the trauma is transmitted to the next generation, not unlike a
physical disease like diabetes."
In this way, as opposed to the survivor disregarding their own mental health
ailments for the sake of their family or community, taking steps towards one’s
self-care and recovery in fact benefits the family and community more in the
long-term by not transmitting the trauma to further generations.
In comparison, this rationale is similar to the safety procedure on an
airplane of a parent placing an oxygen mask on themselves first, instead of
their child, to allow for greater maneuverability to take control of the
problem’s solution rather than self-sacrifice.
Kalayjian diagramed that people’s communities and social support systems are
dictated by their family, religious groups and affiliations, social
organizations belonged to, and involvements in service to others.
She explained that in relation and interaction to these groups, "Trauma
leads to self-focus, fear, over-protectiveness, distrust, guilt, anger,
helplessness, insecurity, sadness, rejection, abandonment, suspiciousness,
etc."
Kalayjian continued, "Trauma freezes time and gets trapped in the brain, as
well as in the cells." This fact has been demonstrated since the Victorian
age with Freud’s 1892 "burnt pudding" experiment that related traumatic
experience to subconscious olfactory and kinetic memory alongside conscious
remembrance.
Kalayjian also added that compounding the transmitted effects of genocide
trauma on the diasporan Armenian community was the example that "In places
like Glendale, Armenians don’t integrate into the rest of American society.
They create little ghettos like ‘Hye-wood,’ as the community in Hollywood is
sometimes called."
Alongside localized projection of anger and traumatic behavior onto family
members and friends, Kalayjian cited the tendency in Armenian communities
towards infighting and the formation of schism organizations as examples of
"horizontal violence or aggression."
She stated, "Armenians fragment into groups and see the other as not as good
as us our group. We need to be mindful, so we don’t dump these [trauma
effect] feelings on other people."
Kalayjian said that among studies conducted of second- and third-generation
trauma survivors and their families, Armenian and otherwise, a majority of
younger generation members (in their 20s, 30s and 40s) expressed guilt over
having a better life than their parents materially or over not having
experienced their parents’ trauma; expressed a sense of constant failure; a
need for constant work and activism; a loss of faith; losses of trust in
truth and human rights; and the "overwhelming burden of being Armenian."
She added, "People say that you can see a deep, continued sadness in
Armenian eyes."
Kalayjian said that she has met Armenian parents that strive to raise their
children in anger. She suggested to all ages present, especially those on in
years, to achieve closure with traumatic feelings, prefacing that not all
steps come in specific order or from the perpetrating community.
She detailed some steps as: acknowledgment and remorse, validation,
reparations, compensation, facing one’s negative emotions, and importantly,
finding a new meaning in life outside of the trauma.
Kalayjian also suggested being mindful of one’s body language and pushing
oneself to humanize the perpetrator community in some way through
interaction. She said her mother once demonstrated negative body language
when she subconsciously took three steps back while speaking to an
Armenian-friendly Turkish academic.
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4. ‘The Wall of the Genocide’ Wins Telly Award
The 29th Telly Awards competition recently honored "The Wall of the
Genocide," a 10-minute documentary produced by Bedo Der-Bedrossian and Bared
Maronian, with a Telly Award for excellence in film and video production
under the category of history/biography. It is a poetic presentation of
Armenian history from the day Noah’s Arc rested on Mount Ararat to Feb. 19,
2007, the day Hrant Dink was murdered in Istanbul, Turkey.
The documentary is sponsored by the ANC of Florida and produced by Armenoid
Productions, a division of Ayasa Video Productions Inc. of Coconut Creek,
Florida. It debuted in Boca Raton, Fla., on Aprill 24, 2007, at the
Mardigian Hall of Saint David Armenian Church as a part of a program
dedicated to the victims of the Armenian genocide.
"The Wall" was a "labor of love" produced with a small budget and the
creative talents of Florida Armenians. Producer Der-Bedrossian, an
accomplished photographer and a leader of the Armenian community in Florida,
said, "This Telly Award means a lot to us. We are confident that this
prestigious international recognition of our work will in fact open new
frontiers for our creative team to work on similar and hopefully funded
programs."
"Our goal is to make this award-winning short documentary available to as
many Armenian and non-Armenian educational venues as possible free of charge
and to embark upon our next project," said Maronian, a three time Emmy
Award-winning TV professional who is also the documentary’s writer and
director.
"The Wall of the Genocide" can be viewed online by visiting:
The producers can be reached by emailing [email protected].