Armenians in Turkey
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Armenians in Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye Ermenileri; Armenian: Թուրքահայեր, Պոլսահայեր, the latter meaning Istanbul-Armenian) have an estimated population of 40,000 (1995) to 70,000.[1] Most are concentrated in and around İstanbul. The Armenians support their own newspapers and schools. The majority belong to the Armenian Apostolic faith and though they are Turkish citizens, they are solely identified as Armenians rather than Turks by the Turkish society[citation needed] and Turkish state, as part of Treaty of Lausanne.
According to the Armenian embassy in Canada, "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."[2]
The assassination of the Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink has caused a deep trauma among the Armenian minority. During the Ottoman Empire just like the Greeks and Jews, they were bankers and merchants with extensive international contacts. Armenian citizens of Turkey today are outnumbered by illegal Armenian immigrants from Armenia itself[citation needed].
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[edit] History
Armenians living in Turkey are a tiny 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 and killed up to 1,500,000 Armenians, close to 75% of all the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. 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 and racial or religious discrimination.
[edit] Population
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This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can (October 2007). |
- See also: Demographics of Turkey
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. 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 a number of "secret" Armenians, called Crypto-Christians.[3] In the 1960s, some of these families converted back to Christianity and changed their names.
Approximately 40,000 Armenians from the Republic of Armenia work in Turkey, some of them illegally.[4]
[edit] Culture
[edit] Religion
[edit] 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).[5]
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.[6]
[edit] 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".
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[edit] See also
[edit] Notes and references
- This article contains some text originally adapted from the public domain Library of Congress Country Study for Turkey at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/trtoc.html.
- ^ Turay, Anna. Tarihte Ermeniler. Bolsohays:Istanbul Armenians. Retrieved on 2007-01-04.
- ^ Armenians in the Middle East, Armenian Embassy of Canada. Internet Archive copy, February 14, 2003.
- ^ Başyurt, Erhan (2006). Ermeni Evlatlıklar Saklı Kalmış Hayatlar. Istanbul: Karakutu Yayınları. ISBN 975-6054-26-3.
- ^ "Armenians in Turkey", The Economist. Retrieved on 2007-01-04.
- ^ Why Do Armenians Celebrate Christmas on 6 January?. Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul. Retrieved on 2007-01-04.
- ^ Our New Year and Nativity/Theophany Traditions. Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul. Retrieved on 2007-01-04.
[edit] External links
- Armenians in Turkey TodayPDF (348 KiB) - Dr. Tessa Hofmann
- Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople Bulletin
- Organization of Istanbul Armenians of Los Angeles
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