Homecoming Part Two: The Baptisms
EDITORIAL | AUGUST 21, 2014 11:03 AM
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By Raffi Bedrosyan
The homecoming trip of the (no longer) hidden Armenians from
Diyarbakir to Armenia finally began this week, after months and months
of planning, preparation, resolving issues, emerging new issues,
seemingly endless three-way long distance discussions from Diyarbakir
to Yerevan through Toronto.
And now, the ‘new’ Armenians of Diyarbakir are strolling in the
streets and museums of Yerevan, tiptoeing into the various churches
scattered all over Armenia. Emotions are very near the surface… One
moment they burst into dancing in the streets as soon as they hear a
playful tune; the next moment they cry uncontrollably at a scene that
may mean nothing to passersby but has reminded them of something or
someone, all the way back in 1915.
Yerevan is full of Armenian kids from all over the world as part of
the Ari Dun [Come Home] program at the invitation of the Ministry of
Diaspora of the Republic of Armenia, which has also helped organize
our itinerary. The government officials arranged to meet the
Diyarbakir group on our first day along with hundreds of the Diaspora
children. The Diyarbakir group was extremely anxious about how they
will be greeted. The Armenian officials were equally curious about
these Turkish/Kurdish-speaking individuals, ranging in age from 18 to
83 but mostly middle-aged people from all socioeconomic and
educational levels, including teachers, students, doctors, housewives
and retired people. Some of them are sophisticated urban dwellers,
others are going abroad for the first time.
I am acting as the translator from Armenian into Turkish and back, but
my task needs to be more than just to relay statements and messages. I
have to be able to convey, from Turkish into Armenian, the incredible
desire and courage of these people in becoming new Armenians, and also
to be able to convey, from Armenian into Turkish, the honest sincerity
of welcome of the government officials. But I am happy to report that
by the end of the meeting, the previously anxious Diyarbakir Armenians
and the previously serious-looking government officials were dancing
the Diyarbakir halay together to Armenian music, while the kids from
the Diaspora, including Russia, US, France and Iran, watched these
grown-up kids in amazement. A government official says his parents are
from Mush, another one says from Sasun, then one of the Diyarbakir
people screams “My father is from Sasun, too.” Then the stories
remembered in common from Sasun begin. They don’t need my translation
any more. They have already started comparing Sasun village names and
hugging each other…
I was a bit apprehensive when the Diaspora Ministry people had told me
they had planned two hours of Armenian language lessons each day as
part of the itinerary, thinking that our group would be more
interested in seeing places. To my surprise, they all burst into
enthusiastic applause and were deeply grateful for the lessons.
When we visited the Madenataran’s manuscript treasures and Oshagan
where Mesrob Mashdots, the creator of the Armenian alphabet, is
buried, they understood better the mystery of the strange letters that
they saw for the first time in their lives just two years ago.
As I reported in previous articles, almost all of the group members
have some degree of ‘Armenianness’ in their family, some from one
parent, some from both. They have mostly decided to come out as
Armenians, but not as Christians –yet. Two of them have already been
baptized in Diyarbakir’s Surp Giragos Church, changing names, identity
and religion. Gafur Turkay has become Ohannes Ohanian and his wife
Nurcan has become Knar, proudly wearing not one but all three cross
necklaces given to her as presents after her christening. One of the
teachers in the group is determined to be baptized at Echmiadzin. The
risks he is taking are enormous. He is a primary school teacher in a
government school. He may lose his job, friends’ circle, or worse, but
his mind is made up. In addition, if he is baptized in Echmiadzin
instead of back home at Surp Giragos, he will gain bragging rights
over Gafur/Ohannes as being a more complete Christian Armenian… I have
arranged for the ceremony beforehand with Bishop Pakrad Galstanian of
Echmiadzin, formerly the Canadian diocesan Primate.
We also have a lady who has spent many sleepless nights trying to
decide whether she should get baptized too. Her dilemma is even more
dangerous. She feels she has an obligation to her long-suffering late
father, a hidden Armenian, who had encouraged her to become a
Christian Armenian before he passed away. But her devoutly Moslem
Kurdish husband has forbidden her from taking this step. The night
before our trip to Echmiadzin, she tells me she will not be able to go
ahead with the baptism.
In the morning we are off to Sardarabad, visiting the Victory Museum,
understanding the significance and consequences of the 1918 events. As
we approach Echmiadzin, the lady with the dilemma walks from the back
of the bus to where I am sitting, and tells me her final decision: “My
father suffered a lot, I know he is still suffering even though he is
dead, I need to do this to end his suffering. If I will suffer as a
result of this, I am prepared for it.”
So we end up having a double christening ceremony at Surp Asdvadzadzin
Church in Echmiadzin for the ‘new’ Stepan who took his Armenian
grandfather’s name, and for the new ‘Anzhel’ who took her Armenian
grandmother’s name. I am certain this was the first time in
Echmiadzin, or all of Armenia, where the Armenian christening ceremony
was carried out in both Armenian and Turkish translation word for
word. At the end, Pakrad Srpazan concluded with the statement: “To
become a Christian, one needs to be brave, to become both an Armenian
and a Christian, one needs to be doubly brave.” Everyone had tears in
their eyes, including Pakrad Srpazan.
Isn’t it ironic that these people chose to become Armenian on the same
day when Turkish Prime Minister and presidential candidate Erdogan
stated on national TV: “They [the opposition] said I was of Georgian
origin. Even uglier, they accused me of being an Armenian, sorry to
say?”
And isn’t it doubly ironic that if Erdogan does become President, the
presidential mansion that he will reside in was once owned by an
Armenian family known as the Kasapyan family?
Our reporting of the journey through Armenia toward a new life for the
(no longer) hidden Armenians will continue.
Raffi Bedrosyan is a civil engineer as well as a concert pianist,
living in Toronto, Canada. For the past several years, proceeds from
his concerts and two CDs have been donated to the construction of
school, highway, water, and gas distribution projects in Armenia and
Karabagh–projects in which he has also participated as a voluntary
engineer. Bedrosyan was involved in organizing the Surp Giragos
Diyarbakir/Dikranagerd Church reconstruction project, and in promoting
the significance of this historic project worldwide as the first
Armenian reclaim of church properties in Anatolia after 1915. In
September 2012, he gave the first Armenian piano concert in the Surp
Giragos Church since 1915.
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