Şekeryan Lecture Focuses on Post-Genocide Armistice Period’s Shaping of Armenian Community

Şekeryan explains that all Armenian political organizations, including the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF-Tashnag) (and the First Republic of Armenia which they controlled), the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party (ADL-Ramgavar) and the Hunchag Party, unified around the concept of “United Armenia.” Their projected Armenia would stretch from the Caucasus through Eastern Turkey all the way to Cilicia and include a Mediterranean seacoast as well coastline on the Black Sea. The Allied powers told the Armenian groups that this was impossible, because there were not enough Armenians left after the Genocide to populate the territory. Yet, Armenian political organizations tried to plan for such a future outcome. Their theory was to repopulate the region with the many orphans that were being saved from the Syrian desert, or from Muslim families.

Armenian Orphans of Istanbul

Şekeryan’s research focused on relief efforts for orphans, especially in Istanbul. However, rather than viewing the efforts from a humanitarian perspective, he focused on the political ramifications of the caretaking of these orphans. He argues that Armenian political organizations viewed these orphans as the seed of a population for the future “United Armenian state” that they wished to create.

To uncover the materials for his thesis, Şekeryan had access to archival issues of the Armenian press in Istanbul and other parts of the Ottoman Empire (Izmir, Adana), immediately after WWI from 1918-1923. Much of this has not been researched before.

The political coalition of the various Armenian parties was led by Boghos Nubar Pasha, head of the AGBU, who was considered the leader of the Western Armenians. Kapriel Noradoungian, a former Ottoman civil servant, Arshag Chobanian, the literary figure, who were both considered partisans of Nubar, along with ARF representative Avedis Aharonian of the Republic of Armenia rounded out the leadership.

Nubar and Aharonian applied to the Allies at the Paris Peace Conference for their dreamed-of Armenian state, and claimed that it could be populated if the orphans and refugees were collected in one place. This made the fate of the orphans a political and not just a humanitarian issue.

The orphans were not just passive participants in this process however. In many cases, the Armenian orphans of Istanbul showed more patriotism than their caretakers. Sekeryan noted multiple occasions where orphans banded together to demand that the orphanage give rations from the food which they were allotted, to the Armenian Army in Yerevan. When the orphanage leaders told them they needed to eat to be healthy, the orphans tried to save cheese and sell it in the marketplace! Finally, the orphans were satisfied in their selfless revolution when the orphanage leaders donated a sufficient amount of money to the Armenian army.

The well-to-do Armenians of Istanbul were united for a time in fundraising efforts to save these orphans, but the euphoria would not last for long.

The End of the Armistice Period

The current non-political stance of the Istanbul Armenian community can be traced back to the rise of the Turkish nationalist movement. When Mustafa Kemal and his forces approached the city after taking Smyrna in 1922, about half of the Armenians fled. Those who stayed had small businesses or were not politically involved. Much of intelligentsia, and almost everyone who was a member of the Hnchag, Tashnag, or Ramgavar parties fled the city. Even Patriarch Zaven Der-Yeghiayan, due to his involvement in the orphanage movement and his leadership of the Armenian community, was viewed as “nationalist” by the Kemalists and was forced to resign by the Armenian Civic Council (a body of laymen who ran the Armenian Church and community) and a more nondescript clergyman was put in his place. The Kemalists were welcomed by official proclamations by the Civic Council declaring their loyalty to the new Turkish State.

Although Şekeryan did not dwell on the subject, it is clear that the events of the end of the Allied Occupation turned Armenian Istanbul into what it is today, a community that focuses on the church and the Armenian culture, language in particular, through its venerable school system.

The lecture was well received and was followed by a question-and-answer session and refreshments. Representatives from the school as well as the Tekeyan Cultural Association, AGBU, and CSAI thanked the lecturer, who was presented a plaque of a William Saroyan quote.