HOUSHAMADYAN: RECREATING ARMENIAN LIFE IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
Khatchig Mouradian
May 24, 2012
Historian Vahe Tachjian earned his Ph.D. in history and civilization
at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris.
His research covers the period of the French occupation of Cilicia,
Syria, and Lebanon between World War I and World War II; the Armenians
in the Ottoman Empire; refugee problems in the Middle East; and
Kurdish-Armenian relations. He has carried out extensive research
in archives in Paris, Berlin, Nantes, London, Cairo, Beirut, Aleppo,
and Yerevan, and is currently the project director and chief editor
of , which was created in 2011 by the Berlin-based
Houshamadyan not-for-profit Association, founded in 2010. The website
aims is to reconstruct the daily life of the Ottoman-Armenian and
his social environment in all its facets.
Articles and various materials about the Harput (Kharpert), Palu,
and Marash regions have already appeared on the website’s pages. New
articles and materials about many other Armenian-populated areas are
in preparation.
rug 300×174 Houshamadyan: Recreating Armenian Life in the Ottoman
Empire
‘…our plan has in view all the provinces of the Ottoman Empire
where Armenian community life existed until the beginning of the 20th
century. …it is our aim to show the many colorful aspects of this
rich life, to attempt to revitalize various different microcosms in
villages and towns. We are convinced that the more the emphasis is
placed on life, on ways of living, on local histories, the more we will
show how great the absence is of all that, the emptiness-demographic
and cultural-that is still noticeable, especially in eastern Anatolia.’
Tachjian’s publications include La France en Cilicie et en
Haute-Mesopotamie. Aux confins de la Turquie, de la Syrie et de l’Irak
(Karthala Editions, Paris, 2004, 465 pages); Introduction and Notes
to Ohannès Pacha Kouyoumdjian, Le Liban a la veille et au debut
de la guerre: Memoires d’un gouverneur, 1913-1915, with co-editors
Raymond Kevorkian and Michel Paboudjian (Beirut, 2003); Les Armeniens,
1917-1939. La quete d’un refuge, with co-editors Raymond Kevorkian and
Levon Nordiguian (Presses de l’Universite Saint-Joseph, Beirut, 2006,
320 pages); and The Armenian General Benevolent Union: One Hundred
Years of History, volume 1 (1906-40) and volume 2 (1941-2006) (AGBU
Central Board of Directors, 447 pages, 2006, Paris). His new book,
based on the diaries of two Armenian deportees (1915-18) from Ayntab,
is currently in preparation for publication.
Armenian Weekly Editor Khatchig Mouradian recently conducted an
interview with Tachjian via e-mail, about the Houshamadyan project.
Khatchig Mouradian-Town and village histories and memory books written
by Ottoman-Armenians have long been forgotten by Armenians-except
for a small group of history buffs and scholars. In Turkey, they
were never part of the discourse and were not incorporated into the
historiography. Houshamadyan challenges this status quo. Tell us
about the inception of this project and its mission.
Vahe Tachjian-Yes, the histories have been both forgotten and ignored,
but for different reasons. It is simply distracting for Turkish
official historiography to value Armenian books that, through local
history, local culture, local customs, and local characteristics,
turn the Ottoman-Armenian into an inseparable part of the Ottoman
legacy (although the Armenian authors of these books did not write
the histories of their villages, towns, or regions with that aim
in mind). In any event, when we use these books as primary sources,
it is obvious how much can be learned through them, especially about
19th- and early 20th-century Ottoman social and economic history.
Turkish official historiography ignores Armenian books of this genre,
simply because its policy is based on a denial that has, over many
decades, seen the names of formerly Armenian-populated towns changed,
and Armenian community structures destroyed. Attempts were made-and
continue to be made-to obliterate every trace of Armenians in formerly
Armenian-populated areas. These books are the proof of a rich and
abundant Armenian heritage in the region.
The question is different when seen from the Armenian historiography
point of view. For a very long time the focal point of Armenian
historiography was the Armenian Genocide. Everything revolved around
this date-even the pre-1915 history of Ottoman-Armenians. Thus there
is a leaning towards choosing the catastrophic dates in that history,
such as 1895-96, the years of the anti-Armenian massacres, or 1909,
the date of the Adana massacre. There is also a tendency diametrically
opposed to this, which is limited to the heroic acts performed by
Ottoman-Armenians, to the revaluing of rebellions against the Ottoman
government, and making them the subjects of study. Against this, the
Armenian books written about towns and villages present the social
life of Ottoman Armenians, local micro-history such as their daily
lives and the socio-economic environment that was immediately related
to the general Ottoman social context and that, I think, in the final
analysis, are important keys to understanding all the other events.
At the same time, we must approach books of this genre carefully.
They are often works written by people who were not specialists. They
were written by a generation that survived the genocide, and the
spirit and concepts of those times are very much evident in them.
They are often emotional, and an important part of their text has to
be put through a sort of scientific filter before using them. Thus
they may be used more as primary sources; it may not be very wise to
re-publish them in Armenian and present them to the reading public
without critical editions first being prepared. These kinds of
re-publications are not only meaningless, but also a waste of money.
In the plan that Houshamadyan has adopted, we attempt to put the
rich information found in these books into a general Ottoman context,
preparing scientific articles based on it (in Armenian and English),
and thus making it available to all.
K.M.-How does Houshamadyan operate? How is its content selected
and organized?
V.T.-Houshamadyan has, at present, one full-time researcher: me. I
write articles, edit others, take part in the search for pictures
and photographs that illustrate our website pages, and assist in
the preparation of maps, etc. Houshamadyan has a designer, Silvina
Der-Megerditchian, who is responsible for the layout of the pages
and the website’s visual content. We also have writers, who provide
articles in return for honorariums. The articles are usually written
in Armenian and translated into English. All the articles are first
read by two people belonging to the editorial board; it is then
decided whether they are worthy of being included in the website,
or if they should be amended, or simply refused. The subjects of our
articles are related to multiple themes and cover a wide geographical
area. Thus our plan has in view all the provinces of the Ottoman
Empire where Armenian community life existed until the beginning of
the 20th century. In other words, we have not restricted ourselves
to just the area of historic Armenia, but have encompassed places
that are far to the west, such as Konya, Bardizag, Yozgat, and even
places in the Ottoman-Arab provinces, such as Jerusalem, Baghdad,
and Aleppo. So, if our sources allow, it is our plan to reflect the
villagers’ daily life, the social and economic history in all these
areas until 1915. We don’t have a special way of choosing subjects
or places. We leave that to the preferences of our article writers.
K.M.-Who is Houshamadyan’s target audience?
V.T.-When over a year ago we began the Houshamadyan project, it
was our aim to create a trilingual website-in English, Armenian,
and Turkish. At present we only have the Armenian and English versions.
It may be said that the articles are aimed at the Turkish and Armenian
public. On the one hand, without provocations and by retaining a
scientific style, we are attempting to reflect on a vast, rich,
and abundant life-that of the Ottoman-Armenians. Without including
the genocide phase in our plan, we aim to show the many colorful
aspects of this rich life, and attempt to revitalize various
different microcosms in villages and towns. We are convinced that
the more emphasis is placed on their life, ways of living, on local
histories, the more we will show how great the absence is of all that,
the emptiness-demographic and cultural-that is still noticeable,
especially in eastern Anatolia. What’s lacking, of course, is the
Ottoman-Armenian, who is present on our website with his culture,
customs, trades, personal histories, photographs, etc.
The reason for the absence is 1915, with all of its atrocity.
On the other hand, we are trying, on our website, to present the
Ottoman-Armenian in the most authentic way possible. It becomes
obvious how close this same Armenian is, in terms of culture, customs,
and traditions, to the “Other,” in other words to his Turkish,
Kurdish, Arab, Greek, or Assyrian neighbor. But this resemblance is
often forgotten by Armenians. The emphasis is often placed on the
differences. The reason is simple: Armenian identity is, in many
respects, one that has been reconstructed after the genocide. Much
of the rich Ottoman legacy and characteristics that were, in the
years following the genocide, considered to be Turkish-Ottoman,
and therefore unacceptable in the Armenian’s “new,” reconstructed
identity, have been thrown away. We are therefore convinced that for
both today’s Armenians and the inhabitants of Turkey, the contents
of our website will contain many new insights.
K.M.-What material do you seek to acquire for the website? How can
readers contribute material and content?
V.T.-First, of course, is the work we carry out, what we do to
bring together the hundreds of written Armenian sources about these
villages and towns. They are, very often, rare books that are very
difficult to obtain. We therefore often work on digitized versions
of them. Collecting photographs is also a major task. Fortunately,
we have friends who have large collections of Ottoman-Armenian
photographs and, at the same time, believe in the importance of our
work and have opened their rich collections to us. We also turn to
those around us, asking them if they have any old family archives. We
do the same every time we visit other countries. The marvelous thing
is that visitors to our website take part in this kind of activity;
Houshamadyan has become a structure that is being built collectively.
We often receive digitized photographs, especially from the United
States, as well as sound recorded testimony, songs, films, and books.
We feel that our readers are gradually giving more importance to our
work, especially when people, who are totally unknown to us, send
materials to our address and make small donations through PayPal. It
is this kind of collaboration and assistance that inspires us. It is
they who infuse enthusiasm in our tiring and breathless work.
K.M.-If you were to describe the Houshamadyan website as you would
like to see it, say, in five years, what would it look like in terms
of its content and scope?
V.T.-We hope that by then, through all the articles on the website,
we will have studied an important percentage of the Armenian-populated
areas in this vast geographical area. Then we will be the owners of a
huge wealth of information. Once we have succeeded in achieving this,
it will be possible, using these materials, to create publications. For
example, it might be possible, taking only crafts as the subject,
to publish a book in which the crafts carried on in different
Armenian-populated areas are shown with all their individual
characteristics. Many examples like this could be cited.
We are also thinking of holding exhibitions in the future using our
materials. And hope that by then we will have succeeded in creating
Podcasts using our materials. We find their presence important in
terms of providing our website with extra vitality. We also hope
that by then, we will have attracted new donors, allowing us to
speed up the rhythm of our development. And finally, we are hopeful
that we will succeed in having a version of our website in Turkish,
something that has always been one of our priorities, but that for
financial reasons we have not yet been able to realize.
***
The Houshamadyan website uses various multi-media tools, such as
musical recordings of historic value, oral history recordings, old
photographs, pictures, old film footage, and maps. For this reason
a part of our work is collecting and preserving cultural artifacts
of all kinds produced by the Ottoman Armenians.Readers can help
in reconstructing this rich legacy by sending Houshamadyan various
materials, including:
– old or family photographs from the Ottoman period;
– books about Armenian-populated villages or towns;
– sound recordings of music;
– testimonies (either written, audio, or video)
Readers can also help develop and continue the project by donating
to Houshamadyan e.V., Berliner str. 101, 13189 Berlin, Germany.
For more information, e-mail [email protected] or visit
http://www.armenianweekly.com/2012/05/24/houshamadyan-recreating-armenian-li
www.houshamadyan.org
www.houshamadyan.org.