Tag: armenians in istanbul

  • The Armenian Istanbul | Asbarez Armenian News

    The Armenian Istanbul | Asbarez Armenian News

    The Armenian Istanbul

    BY MARIA TITIZIAN

    “Hüzün does not just paralyze the inhabitants of Istanbul, it also gives them poetic license to be paralyzed.”

    ― Orhan Pamuk, Istanbul: Memories and the City

    Maria Titizian
    Maria Titizian

    When my Marashtsi grandmother moved to Canada, I was 12 years old. I had only seen pictures of her. She was the typical Armenian grandmother of her generation, the survivor generation…plump, dressed in dark clothes, long, willowy white hair tied in a bun, round face, full lips and tired eyes. When she finally landed in Toronto, I thought my life would be complete. I had felt the absence of grandparents in my life and I was ready to embrace her wholly.

    The first words that came out of her mouth were Turkish and although I had heard enough Turkish at home when my parents wanted to discuss something privately, the Turkish that flowed from her mouth had a slightly different feeling to it.

    My preconceived image of a grandmother – loving, giving, caressing – were quickly replaced by a distant woman who just looked sad all the time.

    She lived for two years with us and then passed away. She was 62 years old. She looked 80. I remember my mother weeping over the loss of her mother and becoming distant herself for a time.

    It was only years later that we learned about the demons that haunted my grandmother, a survivor from Marash who married an orphan from Urfa. She always seemed dejected, always wallowing in some kind of melancholy or yearning, or sadness. I never got to know the colors of her soul. It’s hard to say but it was in that state of melancholy where she seemed to be most comfortable and most contented. I don’t remember her laughing, ever.

    I don’t think about her very much. She remains a distant memory. The rare times I do remember her is when I hear Turkish.

    I was moved to remember her countless times for a few days last month when I went to Istanbul for the first time. Everywhere I went, the Turkish words I associated with my Marashtsi grandmother seemed to float to the surface of my consciousness. Çocuk, oğlan, kız, ben bilmiyorum and so many other words I had heard in the quiet, endless conversations she would have with my mother.

    And it confused me. It was at once familiar and strange, it felt like home yet it wasn’t supposed to be, I needed to hate it but I couldn’t. Conflicting emotions were battling one another causing me to lose my balance. Poise and equilibrium were shattered as the colors, sights and smells of Istanbul, the dishes I had eaten and prepared my whole life, the smell of brewing coffee, the roasting chestnuts sold in carts around the city transformed themselves and became crude images from different periods of my life sketched by a quivering hand on pieces of scrap paper.

    As I walked along narrow streets and wide boulevards, as I entered musty old buildings with circular staircases steeped in history or met people I didn’t think I would meet or who even should have existed, those scraps of paper were swirling about, each one narrating a long-forgotten story from my life. I was moved to tears as I am wont to do, I was falling down rabbit holes, I was climbing mountains, I was lost in the labyrinth of history and memory and imagined existence.

    As I walked along those narrow streets and wide boulevards of Istanbul, I was in the shadow of my Marashtsi grandmother’s suffering. It was the language that had floated from her mouth the first time I heard her that was engulfing me and guiding me.

    There is a lot that can be said about Istanbul if you are Turkish or a tourist or a businessperson. I am still not sure what to say about Istanbul as a Western Armenian who can trace her roots to Marash and Urfa and Musa Ler. It is the East and the West, it is the Orient, it is the new and the old, it is Bourj Hamoud and Paris, it is Muslim and secular, it is Armenian churches tucked away behind heavy wooden doors in a fish market or out in plain view alongside soaring mosques, it is huge with so many small compartments of living all rolled into one inexplicable metropolis.

    You meet the Armenians of Istanbul, you hear their lyrical Western Armenian, you listen to their stories and witness their struggles, you confront their reality and you suddenly realize that you don’t know anything at all about them. And you are ashamed at your ignorance while you are humbled by their tenacity, their drive to protect the remaining traces of an Armenian legacy that stretches back for centuries. You don’t know what to do with all this information that has taken up dwelling in your brain. You don’t know how to process it, so you begin to take it apart, piece by piece and you start telling stories.

    via The Armenian Istanbul | Asbarez Armenian News.

  • Armenian foundation to build hotel and residential building in Istanbul

    Armenian foundation to build hotel and residential building in Istanbul

    Istanbul-based Armenian foundation has been permitted to build a hotel and residential building in Istanbul.

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    APA reports quoting Armenian media that 15,000 square meter construction project of Mkhitaryan college and church has been approved.

    As a result of the amendments made to the project, a hotel and residential building will be built in the territory of the foundation known as “Inci Sinemasi” with the church and college preserved.

    According to the amendments, the plan for the construction of trade center in the area has been annulled.

    News.Az

    via News.Az – Armenian foundation to build hotel and residential building in Istanbul.

  • Young activists march to protest attacks on Armenians in Istanbul

    Young activists march to protest attacks on Armenians in Istanbul

    PanARMENIAN.Net – Members of Young Diplomats Club NGO and Nikol Aghbalyan Student Union marched to the UN office in Yerevan to pass a letter protecting against the attacks on Armenians in Istanbul.

    145215The activists further urged Armenian public, NGOs, youth organizations to unite in protest against discrimination of Armenians in Turkey.

    As one of the activists told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, the rally urges international organizations against showing the same indifference as was demonstrated during the Armenian Genocide.

    On Dec 28, an 85-year-old Armenian woman was repeatedly stabbed and killed in her home, with assailants carving a cross on her chest. On Jan 6, three assailants tried to kidnap an elderly Armenian woman. Other attacks include the Nov 2012 beating of an 87-year-old Armenian woman, and a failed attempt to abduct an elderly Armenian woman on Jan 6. Three elderly Armenian women were attacked in Istanbul on Jan 22, 23 and 25.

    via Young activists march to protest attacks on Armenians in Istanbul – PanARMENIAN.Net.

  • Istanbul feminists protest attacks on Armenian women

    Istanbul feminists protest attacks on Armenian women

    Istanbul feminists protest attacks on Armenian women

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    Activists of the Istanbul Feminist Collective held a march in Samatya district of Istanbul against recent attacks on elderly Armenian women, Bianet.org reported.

    The protesters, carrying placards saying “Armenian women are not alone,” “I am Maritsa, I am Eva,” “Don’t touch my neighbor,” laid flowers in front of the house of 85-year-old Maritsa Kucuk who was brutally murdered on Dec. 28.

    A number of attacks were committed against elderly Armenian women in their homes in Samatya over the past few months, one of which resulted in a death. The first attack in the past few months was on Nov. 1, 2012. A woman named Gonul A. was beaten by an intruder, and her valuables were stolen. On Nov. 28, Tuivat A. (87) was attacked inside her house. She lost one eye in the attack and her valuables were also taken. On Dec. 28, Maritsa Kucuk (85) was brutally murdered in her house, where she lived alone. In the fifth attack, Sultan Aykar (80) was stabbed as she entered her house.

    Source: Panorama.am

    via Istanbul feminists protest attacks on Armenian women – Society – Panorama | Armenian news.

  • Armenian teacher brutally murdered in Istanbul

    Armenian teacher brutally murdered in Istanbul

    Turkey-murderAn Armenian school teacher was brutally killed in Istanbul two weeks after the murder of another Armenian women, Haberturk informs.

    Colleagues of Ilker Sahin, 40, not having any news from him, decided to visit him. Seeing the door closed they called the police. Entering the house the police officers found the body of the Armenian man with a slashed throat. They suppose that Sahin fought with the murderer or murderers for quite a long time. The police refuted the possibility of murder for robbery.

    Sahin had been working at Aramian school for nine years.

    via Armenian teacher brutally murdered in Istanbul | Public Radio of Armenia.

  • They Moved to Turkey In Order to Buy a House In Armenia

    They Moved to Turkey In Order to Buy a House In Armenia

    A Stroll Through Istanbul – Part 3

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    When I asked Artash from Gyumri why he wound up in Istanbul, the young man answered, “The cheapest ticket I could find brought me here.”

    After getting discharged from the army, Artash couldn’t find work in Armenia. He came to Turkey with his mother and sister.

    Artash works in a small shoe factory alongside other Armenians, Georgians, Turks and Kurds in the Kumkapı neighborhood of Istanbul. He says he’s gotten a lay of the land and knows who to make friends with and who to stay away from.

    He says that if you treat people normally, they will do the same back.

    Artash’s family lost their home in the 1988 earthquake. His mother raised the kids by herself in one of those temporary wagon shelters.

    Back in Gyumri, Artash worked at a small amusement park for peanuts. He says he’d rather work illegally inTurkeyand make enough money to make a real difference in his life.

    Artash says the police know everyone who is working illegally. It’s just a matter of not getting into trouble or making trouble. If you do, the authorities will let you go about your business.

    “Otherwise, the cops can stop you on the street at any moment. In a few days they’ll send you back topArmenia.”

    Artash’s mother Zima works as a housekeeper for a Turkish family. She cleans, cooks the meals and takes care of the old folk. His sister works at the gold market inIstanbul.

    Artash has been tasked with the job of saving enough money to buy a house in Yerevan or Gyumri. He says he has no intention of permanently staying inTurkey.

    The young man confesses that some people from Armeniahave found success in Istanbul but that they avoid talking about it.

    “People are afraid to say too much. There’s a lot of theft going on here. Armenians have no qualms about stealing from other Armenians. There are Armenians who go into business with Turks, but since the Armenians are illegal all the paperwork is registered in their partners’ names,” Artash says.

    Artash’s mom has had trouble adjusting to Istanbul, but she’s not one to voice her concerns. Her main objective in life now is to be able to buy a home for her kids.

    “Do you think I wanted to come here? Armenians are an industrious people. They are ruining Armenia. I would have stayed in my homeland and worked. This isn’t our country. No matter how well the Turks treat us, it’s not the same,” says an emotional Zina.

    Photos: Saro Baghdasaryan

    via They Moved to Turkey In Order to Buy a House In Armenia | Hetq online.