Armenians in Turkey

Armenians in Turkey ( _tr. Türkiye Ermenileri; _hy. Թուրքահայեր, Պոլսահայեր, the latter meaning Istanbul-Armenian) have an estimated population of 40,000 (1995) to 70,000. [cite web | last=Turay | first=Anna | title=Tarihte Ermeniler | publisher= [http://www.bolsohays.com Bolsohays: Istanbul Armenians] | url=http://www.bolsohays.com/webac.asp?referans=1 | accessdate=2007-01-04] [cite news|url=http://www.taraf.com.tr/Yazar.asp?id=12
accessdate=2008-09-02
title=Türk Ermenisiz, Ermeni Türksüz olmaz!
work=Taraf
first=Ayşe
last=Hür
date=2008-08-31
quote=Sonunda nüfuslarını 70 bine indirmeyi başardık.
language=Turkish] Most are concentrated around Istanbul, Turkey. The Armenians support their own newspapers and schools. The majority belong to the Armenian Apostolic faith.

According to the Armenian embassy in Canada, [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20021224235626/www.armembassycanada.ca/diaspora/diaspora3.htm Armenians in the Middle East] , Armenian Embassy of Canada. [http://web.archive.org Internet Archive] copy, February 14, 2003.]

The genocide, as we have seen, destroyed western Armenia and numerous other Armenian centers in Turkey. By the Second World War, Constantinople or Istanbul was the sole urban center with an Armenian presence. In 1945, an arbitrary property tax on the minorities impoverished many Greek and Armenian businessmen. Ten years later, mobs looted and burned Greek and Armenian businesses in Istanbul. At present there are some 75,000 Armenians in Turkey, the majority of whom live in Istanbul, where conditions, despite cultural pressures and occasional hostile acts, are not as unfavorable as one may imagine. Twenty schools, some three dozen churches, and a hospital maintain a strong Armenian identity. A number of Armenian newspapers, including the daily Marmara continue to publish, and Armenian organizations go about collecting donations and sponsoring cultural activities. The Armenian patriarch is also invited to official Turkish state ceremonies. Major problems include the lack of a seminary, Armenian institutions of higher education, and linguistic assimilation.

Turkish citizens of Armenian descent today are outnumbered by illegal Armenian immigrants from Armenia itself.Fact|date=May 2008

History

Armenians living in Turkey are a remnant of a once larger community. Estimates for the number of Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire in the decade before World War I range from between 1.5 to 2.5 million.

Starting in the late nineteenth century, poverty and ethnic tensions prompted the emigration of as many as 100,000 Armenians to Europe and the Americas. In 1894-97 at least 100,000 Armenians were killed during the Hamidian massacres. Further massacres in 1909 caused the death of an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Armenians. The Armenian Genocide followed in 1915, during which the Ottoman government deported up to 1,500,000 Armenians; close to 75% of all the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. Many died, while about 300,000 were adopted or married Turks and Kurds they met along the way.cite news|url=http://webarsiv.hurriyet.com.tr/2005/09/30/709428.asp
accessdate=2008-08-28
title=Son yıllarda bu kadar müspet tepki almadım
work=Hürriyet
date=2005-09-30
first=Sefa
last=Kaplan
quote=Anadolu’da anneanneniz gibi 300 bin kadın bulunduğu söyleniyor.
language=Turkish] [harv|Başyurt|2005. Hrant Dink: "300 bin rakamının abartılı olduğunu düşünmüyorum. Bence daha da fazladır."] Most of the survivors ended up in northern Syria, and some returned to their homes in Turkey at the end of the war.

In the immediate post-war period, military actions by Turkish Nationalist forces in southern Turkey led to the deaths of tens of thousands more Armenians, and hundreds of thousands of Armenian refugees. Mass deportations of Turkey's surviving Armenian population continued throughout the 1920s, others left willingly to escape poverty or discrimination.

During the Ottoman Empire, they were active in business and trade, just like the Greeks and Jews. [cite news|url=http://www.taraf.com.tr/yazar.asp?mid=370
accessdate=2008-08-27
title=Ermeni mallarını kimler aldı?
first=Ayşe
last=Hür
work=Taraf
date=2008-03-02
language=Turkish
quote=Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun kuruluşundan itibaren Müslüman-Türk unsurlar kendilerine sadece çiftçiliği ve askerliği yakıştırmışlar... Gayrı Müslimler de başka yolları kalmadığı için ticaret ve zanaata yönelmişlerdi.]

Population

The number of people of Armenian ethnic origin currently living in Turkey is higher the official numbers given, which comprise Armenians as per the definition of a Christian minority ("ekalliyet"). During the Armenian Genocide many Armenian orphans were adopted by local Muslim families, who sometimes changed their names and converted them to Islam. One source cites 300,000 but another analysis considers this an overestimate, leaning towards 63,000, the figure cited in the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople's 1921 report to the United States Department of State. [harv|Başyurt|2005: Evlatlıkların sayısı 300 bin mi, 63 bin mi? ... Ancak, 300 bin rakamı çok abartılı gözüküyor. O dönemde Ermenilerin toplam nüfusunun bir buçuk milyon olmadığı ve hepsinin tehcir kapsamına alınmadığı biliniyor. Bu durumda, 300 bin rakamı 12 yaşından küçük tüm Ermeni çocuklarının rakamından daha yüksek görünüyor.]

When relief workers and surviving Armenians started to search for and claim back these Armenian orphans after World War I, only a small percentage were found and reunited, while many others continued to live as Muslims. Additionally, some Armenian families had converted to Islam in order to escape the genocide.

Because of this, there are an unknown number of people of Armenian origin in Turkey today who are not aware of their ancestry as well as around 100,000 "secret" Armenians, called Crypto-Christians. [harv|Başyurt|2005: Prof. Cöhce ise, bu konuda daha iddialı. Ermeni mühtedi ve evlatlıklar arasında, 'Kripto Hıristiyanlar' ya da 'Gizli Ermeniler' olduğunu, bunların Müslüman görünüp Gregoryan geleneklerini sürdürdüklerini söylüyor. Cöhce, bu insanlar üzerinde son dönemlerde kimliklerine döndürmek için çalışmalar yapıldığını, yakın gelecekte bunların Ermenilerin hayallerini gerçekleştirmek için kullanılacaklarını ileri sürüyor.
Cöhce: "Türkiye'de yaklaşık 100 bin 'mühtedi' Ermeni var."]

According to an article by "Zaman" columnist Erhan Başyurt, İbrahim Ethem Atnur of Atatürk University alleges that the state colluded with the Patriarchy to artificially increase the Armenian population by raising orphaned Turks as Armenians. [harv|Başyurt|2005: Raporda, Türk çocuğu olduğu hâlde Güllü ve Cemile adındaki iki kız çocuğuyla, Çengelköy'de ikamet eden Yüzbaşı Abidin Bey'in evinden Nimet adındaki bir Türk kızının zorla alıkonarak Ermeni Patrikhanesi'nde üç gün tutulduğu, Müslüman oldukları anlaşıldıktan sonra ailelerine teslim edildikleri, fakat bir süre sonra yeniden kaçırıldıkları kaydediliyor. Yine Üsküdarlı Papaz Samayan Efendi tarafından alıkonan Cevri isimli kızın Türk ve Müslüman olduğu ispatlandığı hâlde teslim edilmediği vurgulanıyor. Türk kızların zorla Hıristiyanlaştırıldığı kaydediliyor. Amaç, Ermeni nüfusunu yüksek göstermek.
See Atnur's "Türkiye'de Ermeni Kadınları ve Çocukları Meselesi" for details. Through the book, the article also quotes Şeyhülislam Mehmet Nuri Efendi as having written "Bazı kötü niyetliler tarafından birçok Müslüman kızlarının ailelerinden alınarak Patrikhane'ye, Rum ve Ermeni yetimhanelerine nakledildiği bir kısmının da Hıristiyan aileler nezdinde hizmetçi olarak kullanıldığı bilgilerine ulaşıldığını." (January 2, 1922)] In the 1960s, some of these families converted back to Christianity and changed their names.

Journalist Hrant Dink says that the current population of around 50,000 is half of what it was eighty years ago as a result of a deliberate attempt instituted during the Single Party Period to reduce the population of the minorities. [cite news|url=http://www.radikal.com.tr/haber.php?haberno=153515
accessdate=2008-08-28
title=Ermeni mallarını kimler aldı?
work=Radikal
date=2005-05-23
first=Nese
last=Duzel
quote=Türkiye'de Ermeniler, niye 80 yılda nüfus artışıyla birlikte bugün 1.5 milyon olmadı da, 1920'de 300 bin olan nüfus bugün 50-60 bine düştü? Çünkü azınlıkların azaltılması politikası, devlet yönetiminin temel politikasıydı. CHP'nin 9'uncu raporunu okuyun. Tek parti döneminde azınlıkların nasıl azaltılmasının düşünüldüğünü görün.
language=Turkish]

40,000 [cite news | title=Armenians in Turkey | work=Economist | url=http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8173275 | accessdate=2008-08-24|date=2006-11-16 |quote=Marina Martossian, who has been working illegally for five months as a cleaner, is typical of 40,000 compatriots there.] -70,000 [cite news|url=http://washingtontimes.com/news/2007/mar/27/20070327-094847-1376r/
accessdate=2008-08-29
title=Politicizing the Armenian tragedy
work=Washington Times
date=2007-03-27
quote=Today, there are 70,000 Armenian citizens working in Turkey.
first=Abdullah
last=Gül
authorlink=Abdullah Gül] Armenians from Armenia work in Turkey, sometimes illegally.

Culture

Religion

Christmas date, etiquette and customs

Armenians celebrate Christmas at a date later than most of the Christians, on 6th of January rather than 25th of December. The reason for this is historical; according to Armenians, Christians once celebrated Christmas on 6 January, until the 4th century. 25 December was originally a pagan holiday that celebrated the birth of the sun. Many members of the church continued to celebrate both holidays, and the Roman church changed the date of Christmas to be 25 December and declared January 6 to be the date when the three wise men visited the baby Jesus. As the Armenian Apostolic Church had already separated from the Roman church at that time, the date of Christmas remained unchanged for Armenians. On January 6th, the following greetings are traditionally appropriate: "Krisdos Dzınav yev haydnetsav!" (Christ is born and revealed) and "Orhnyal e Dzınuntı yev Haydnutyunı Krisdosi!" (Blessed be Christ's birth and revelation). [cite web | url=http://www.lraper.org/main.aspx?Action=DisplayNews&NewsCode=N000001752&Lang=ENG | title=Why Do Armenians Celebrate Christmas on 6 January? | publisher=Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul | accessdate=2007-01-04]

The Armenians in Turkey refer to Christmas as "Surp Dzınunt" (Holy Birth) and have fifty days of preparation called "Hisnag" before Christmas. The first, fourth and seventh weeks of Hisnag are periods of vegetarian fast for church members and every Saturday at sunset a new purple candle is lit with prayers and hymns.

New Year's Eve, which falls within Hisnag, is spent with families. Armenians go to church to give thanks for the year past and in the evening, family members and friends come together for the evening meal. Poor, lonely, orphaned people are not forgotten and are invited to dinner. Since it is a period of fast, sea-food and vegetables are served, with topik and dried nuts always present. On New Year's Eve, around midnight, all lights are turned off and the Lord's Prayer is said at midnight. After the prayer, all lights in the house are turned on, and families greet one another, gifts are given to children and anuşabur is served. On New Year's day, Armenians in Istanbul often burst a pomegranate, a symbol of plenty, in the shop entrances, or put a pomegranate on their desks. At least one ayazma is visited.

On Christmas Eve, 5 January, seven purple candles are lit together and after attending church on sunset, families get together for the Christmas dinner which, like on New Year's Eve, is mostly sea-food based. On Christmas day, 6 January, churchgoers attend Christmas mass between 10:00 and 12:00. In the Kumkapi district of Istanbul, the Patriarch presides over a religious parade starting at 10:00 AM from the Patriarchal Headquarters to the Surp Asdvadzadzin Patriarchal Church. In the afternoon, an open-house celebration is held at the Patriarchate. On the second day of Christmas, 7 January, families visit graves of relatives and say prayers. [cite web | url=http://www.lraper.org/main.aspx?Action=DisplayNews&NewsCode=N000001768&Lang=ENG | title=Our New Year and Nativity/Theophany Traditions | publisher=Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul | accessdate=2007-01-04]

Armenian Apostolic Churches in Turkey

Besides Surp Asdvadzadzin Patriarchal Church (translation: the Holy Mother-of-God Armenian Patriarchal Church) in Kumkapi, Istanbul, there are tens of Armenian Apostolic churches. Many of them might be inactive because of lack of the flock or lack of clergy.

In Istanbul:

*Christ The King Armenian Church (Kadikoy, Istanbul)
*Church of the Apparition of the Holy Cross (Kurucesme, Istanbul)
*Holy Archangels Armenian Church (Balat, Istanbul)
*Holy Cross Armenian Church (Kartal, Istanbul)
*Holy Cross Armenian Church (Selamsiz, Uskudar, Istanbul)
*Holy Hripsimiants Virgins Armenian Church (Buyukdere, Istanbul)
*Holy Mother-of-God Armenian Apostolic Church (Bakirkoy, Istanbul)
*Holy Mother-of-God Armenian Church (Besiktas, Istanbul)
*Holy Mother-of-God Armenian Church (Eyup, Istanbul)
*Holy Mother-of-God Armenian Church (Ortakoy, Istanbul)
*Holy Mother-of-God Armenian Church (Yenikoy, Istanbul)
*Holy Nativity of the Mother-of-God Armenian Church (Bakirkoy, Istanbul)
*Holy Resurrection Armenian Church (Kumkapi, Istanbul)
*Holy Resurrection Armenian Chapel (Taksim, Istanbul)
*Holy Three Youths Armenian Church (Boyacikoy, Istanbul)
*Holy Trinity Armenian Church (Galatasaray, Istanbul)
*Narlikapi Armenian Apostolic Church (Narlikapi, Istanbul)
*St. Elijah The Prophet Armenian Church (Eyup, Istanbul)
*St. John the Baptist Armenian Church (Usgudar)
*St. John The Evangelist Armenian Church (Gedikpasa, Istanbul)
*St. John The Evangelist Armenian Church (Narlikapi, Istanbul)
*St. John The Forerunner Armenian Church (Baglarbasi, Uskudar, Istanbul)
*St. George (Sourp Kevork) Armenian Church (Samatya, Istanbul)
*St. Gregory The Enlightener (Sourp Krikor Lousavoritch) (Ghalatya, Istanbul)
*St. Gregory The Enlightener (Sourp Krikor Lousavoritch) Armenian Church (Kuzguncuk, Istanbul)
*St. Gregory The Enlightener (Sourp Krikor Lousavoritch) Armenian Church (Karakoy, Istanbul)
*St. Gregory The Enlightener (Sourp Krikor Lousavoritch) (Kinaliada, Istanbul)
*St. James Armenian Church (Altimermer, Istanbul)
*St. Nicholas Armenian Church (Beykoz, Istanbul)
*St. Nicholas Armenian Church (Topkapi, Istanbul)
*St. Santoukht Armenian Church (Hisar, Istanbul)
*St. Saviour (Sourp Pergitch) Armenian Chapel (Yedikule, Istanbul)
*St. Sergius Armenian Chapel (Balikli, Istanbul)
*St. Stephen Armenian Church (Karakoy, Istanbul)
*St. Stephen Armenian Church (Yesilkoy, Istanbul)
*St. Takavor Armenian Apostolic Church (Kadekoy, Istanbul)
*Saints Thaddeus and Barholomew Armenian Church (Yenikapi, Istanbul)
*St. Trinity (Sourp Yerrortutyoun) Church (Pera, Istanbul)
*St. Vartanants Armenian Church (Ferikoy, Istanbul)
*The Twelve Holy Apostles Armenian Church (Kandilli, Istanbul)

Other areas:

*Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebastea Armenian Church (Iskenderun, Hatay)
*Holy Mother-of-God Armenian Church (Vakiflikoy, Samandag, Hatay)
*St. George (Sourp Kevork) Armenian Church (Derik, Mardin)
*St. Gregory The Enlightener Armenian Church (Kayseri)
*St. Gregory The Enligtener Armenian Church (Kirikhan)
*St. Giragos Armenian Church (Diyarbakir)
*St. Vartanants (Ferikoy)

List of Armenian schools in Istanbul

Schools are kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12), kindergarten through 8th grade (K-8) or 9th grade through 12th (9-12). "Ermeni İlköğretim Okulu" means "Armenian primary+secondary school". "Ermeni Lisesi" means "Armenian high school".; K-8
* [http://www.aramyanuncuyan.net Aramyan-Uncuyan] Ermeni İlköğretim Okulu
* [http://www.bezciyan.k12.tr Bezciyan] Ermeni İlköğretim Okulu
* Bomonti Ermeni İlköğretim Okulu
* [http://www.dadyan.k12.tr Dadyan] Ermeni İlköğretim Okulu
* [http://www.kalfayan.k12.tr Kalfayan Cemaran] İlköğretim Okulu
* [http://www.karagozyan.org Karagözyan] İlköğretim Okulu
* Kocamustafapaşa Anarat Higutyun Ermeni İlköğretim Okulu
* [http://www.levonvartuhyan.com Levon Vartuhyan] Ermeni İlköğretim Okulu
* [http://www.merametciyan.org Feriköy] Ermeni İlköğretim Okulu
* Nersesyan-Yermonyan Ermeni İlköğretim Okulu
* Pangaltı Anarat Higutyun Ermeni İlköğretim Okulu
* [http://www.tarkmancas.com/ Tarkmanças] Ermeni İlköğretim Okulu
* [http://www.yesilkoyermeniokulu.k12.tr Yeşilköy] Ermeni İlköğretim Okulu; 9-12
* [http://www.getronagan.org Getronagan] Ermeni Lisesi
* Surp Haç Ermeni Lisesi ;K-12
* Esayan Ermeni İlköğretim Okulu ve Lisesi
* [http://www.pangaltilisesi.k12.tr Pangaltı] Ermeni Lisesi
* [http://www.sahakyan-nunyan.k12.tr Sahakyan-Nunyan] Ermeni Lisesi

See also

*Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople
*List of Armenian Patriarchs of Constantinople
*Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
*Armenian-Turkish relations
*Hrant Dink
*Varlık Vergisi
*Vakıflı, Samandağ, the only remaining ethnic Armenian village in Turkey.
*Agos
*Marmara (newspaper)

Footnotes

References

* citation|url=http://www.aksiyon.com.tr/detay.php?id=23084
accessdate=2008-08-28
title=Anneannem bir Ermeni'ymiş!
date=2005-12-26
journal=Aksiyon
first=Erhan
last=Başyurt
volume=577
publisher=Feza Gazetecilik A.Ş.
language=Turkish

This article contains some text originally adapted from the public domain Library of Congress Country Study for [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/trtoc.html Turkey] .

External links

General
*PDFlink| [http://www.armenian.ch/asa/Docs/faae02.pdf Armenians in Turkey Today] |348 KiB Tessa Hofmann
* [http://www.oia.net Organization of Istanbul Armenians of Los Angeles]

Media
* [http://www.agos.com.tr/ Agos Armenian weekly newspaper]
* [http://www.lraper.org Lraper, Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople Bulletin]
* [http://www.normarmara.com/ Marmara Armenian daily newspaper]