PRESS RELEASE
Gomidas Institute
42 Blythe Rd.
London W14 0HA
UK
12 November 2009
Adana Massacres, 1909 Focus of Istanbul Workshop
by Roland Mnatsakanyan
Sabanci University (Istanbul) just hosted an international workshop
entitled "Adana: 1909: History, Memory, and Identity from a Hundred Year
Perspective " ( 6-7 November 2009). The workshop included scholars from
the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Turkey. The event was
sponsored by Gomidas Institute (London), Sabanci University, Istanbul
Bilgi University History Department, the International Hrant Dink
Foundation, and Bogazici University History Department. A capacity
audience filled the lecture theatre and included professors, students,
journalists and members of the public. There was simultaneous
translation between English and Turkish. The papers that were presented
will be published in English and Turkish editions.
In their opening remarks, Cengiz Aktar and Ara Sarafian welcomed the
participants and pointed to new opportunities for holding such meetings
in Turkey today. They explained that the Adana 1909 workshop was
organised to mark the centennial of the Adana massacres. It began with a
call for papers in Turkish, Armenian and English, and the presentations
at the workshop reflected the different interests of participants.
The first paper was an unusual one, as it was a discussion of Turks who
saved Armenians in 1909. The fact that Armenian were massacred was a
given, and the speaker presented a sensitive examination of righteous
Turkish officials who saved potential victims. The speaker used Ottoman
records to show how Ottoman Armenians petitioned the state to recognise
one such Turkish official for his role in saving an entire community.
This first paper took some of the sting out of the workshop, where the
audience could sympathise with the Armenian victims of 1909 without
vilifying "Muslims" or "Turks" as single categories. Subsequent papers
followed with the same sensitivity.
Each session was chaired by a senior scholar and was followed by a
discussion. The workshop thus benefited from the presence of additional
senior scholars, such as Selim Deringil, Caglar Keyder, Mete Tucay and
Hülya Adak.
The organisers considered the workshop a success.
The papers that were presented could be summarised as follows (not in
the order of presentation at the workshop).
Some New Perspectives
Abdulhamit Kirmizi gave a well-nuanced paper discussing the fact that
some Muslims saved Armenians during the 1909 massacres. The role played
by such Muslims was actually acknowledged by Ottoman Armenians after
1909. The speaker’s focus was Major Hadji Mehmet Effendi and his men who
defended Sis, the seat of the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia, from
attacks by neighbouring tribes and villages. Kirmizi used Ottoman
documentation to discuss such Muslims, many of whom were decorated by
the Ottoman government. The actions of these officials were the opposite
of other officials who encouraged the actual massacres. Another well
nuanced and probing paper concerned a complex range of different factors
related to the Adana massacres. It was stressed that some of these
factors could only be probed in a speculative but informed manner at
this stage of debates. One such factor was identified as the presence of
tens of thousands of impoverished migrant workers who could not find
work in Adana in April 1909. Sinan Dinçer ( Ruhr University , Bochum )
discussed such migrant workers in Adana province that season and
suggested that they could have been drawn into the fighting for no other
reason than to loot and steal Armenian property. The speaker stated that
he was not arguing that this was a major factor explaining the
massacres, but it might have been a significant contributing factor.
Views from Europe
Two presentations discussed French and German records related to the
Adana massacres. Vincent Duclert (EHESS) contrasted the position of the
French government following the Hamidian massacres, the Adana massacres,
and the Armenian Genocide. He noted that the French government was
reluctant to press the Ottoman authorities after the Adana massacres
because many French officials supported the Young Turk government.
Instead, French authorities played down the issue in France. Dilek
Güven (Sabanci University) discussed German consular records, as well
as the records of the Baghdad Railway company. These records attested to
the terrible suffering of Armenians in 1909. She noted that German
policy towards Ottoman Turkey was uncertain at that time, especially as
the 1909 massacres were reportedly carried out by supporters of Abdul
Hamit II–whom the Germans had backed until the 1908 revolution.
Benedetta Guerzoni (independent scholar) discussed how imagery of the
Adana massacres was constructed in western newspapers, with particular
reference to Italy and France.
Some Armenian Sources
Ara Sarafian (Gomidas Institute) and Zakarya Mildanoglu (independent
researcher) discussed Armenian records related to the events of 1909.
Sarafian introduced Hagop Terzian, who published a powerful report in
1912, on the 1909 events. Terzian included his own testimony in Adana
city, as well as the testimonies of others in smaller communities.
Sarafian argued that Terzian’s text had a certain popular
force-of-argument which challenged official accounts that tried to play
down the incidents. Sarafian quoted Terzian to stress the devastating
role of the newspaper "Itidal" in agitating and fermenting violence
against Armenians. Zakarya Mildanoglu presented the Adana massacres
through the Armenian periodical press with many illustrations from
different journals. His accounts included satire as a powerful tool to
convey what had happened to Armenians. (Mildanoglu was also responsible
for a separate exhibition of photographs depicting the Adana massacres.
These images and texts were displayed at the workshop).
American Witnesses
The role of American missionaries as witnesses was discussed by Lou Ann
Matossian (Cafesjian Family Foundation) and Barbara Merguerian
(Armenian International Women’s Association), with powerful papers
related to events in the cities of Adana and Tarsus. Tarsus was also the
focus of Oral Çalislar, a well known Turkish journalist, who presented
the testimony of Helen Davenport Gibbons in her book, "Red Rugs of
Tarsus." Çalislar, who has published the Turkish translation of this
work, gave a personal reflection regarding his native Tarsus. (The
Gomidas Institute has just published a critial English edition "The Red
Rugs of Tarsus.")
Human and Material Losses
The reality of Armenian losses was stressed by Osman Koker, who gave a
fascinating paper on Armenian communities in Adana province, illustrated
by photographs and postcards. He included images from Antioch,
Alexandretta, Marash, Beylan, Sis, Adana, Tarsus, and Koz Olouk.
Sait Çetinoglu (Belge Uluslararasi Yayincilik) gave a forceful
presentation on the organisation and plunder of Armenian properties in
1909, while Asli Çomu (Cambridge University) gave a solid paper based
on land records from the Adana region in the 1920s. These records gave
new insights into how Armenian properties were broken up and parcelled
out to Muslim refugees. The actual number of Armenian casualties during
the massacres was discussed by Fuat Dundar, who raised some questions
about the demographics of the Adana massacres based on his work on the
massacres of Abdul Hamid II and the Armenian Genocide. The fate of
Armenian orphans following the Adana massacres became a major concern
for Armenian community leaders. Nazan Maksudyan gave a moving paper on
the fate of such orphans, especially in "foreign" orphanages. One key
concern was assimilation in government run orphanages where the language
of instruction was Turkish and not Armenian.
Literary Responses to the Massacres
The legacy of the 1909 massacres could not be explained by simple
numbers for casualties or lost properties. Literature was a powerful way
to convey a sense of violence, loss and trauma, that accompanied events
and lingered on in the lives of survivors. Marc Nichanian (Sabanci
University) and Rita Soulahian (McGill Univeristy) discussed the
literary response to the Adana massacres, with particular reference to
Arshagouhi Teotig, Taniel Varoujan, and Zabel Yessayan. (Unfortunately
Nichanian could not be at the workshop and his paper was beautifully
presented by Hülya Adak (Sabanci University)).
Ottoman Parliament
Anastasia Iliena Moroni ( EHESS & Panteion Univ. , Athens ) discussed
how the Adana massacres were presented in the Ottoman Parliament.
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