“Misilmenî”: Exploring Perceptions about Christian and “Muslim Armenians” in the Kurdish Community in Turkey∗ Ramazan ARAS∗∗ “Misilmenî”: Türkiye’de Kürt Toplumunda Ermeni ve “Müslüman Ermeni” Algısını Araştırmak Citation/©: Aras, Ramazan (2014). “Misilmenî”: Exploring Perceptions about Christian and “Muslim Armenians” in the Kurdish Community in Turkey, Milel ve Nihal, 11 (1), 91-117. Abstract: This work attempts to go beyond discussions and metanarratives on the question of Armenians and explore the Kurdish perception of Armenians before and after the 1915. It examines diverse forms of state politics, con- structedness of perceptions on Armenians and their role in manifestation of violence and massacre as justifiable act. This work, more specifically, investigates perceptions of the Sunni Kurdish community of Christian Ar- menians before 1915 and the perceptions of “Muslim Armenians” who emerged as a new entity after 1915. Based on some writings of Kurdish intellectuals before 1915, some key religious texts that have been widely read in the Kurdish Madrassas and personal memories and life stories of ordinary Kurdish subjects, this work claims that the diverse forms of poli- tics of the state and manufactured anti-Christian discourses based on reli- gion (Islam) played an essential role in the formation of the negative perceptions toward both Christian and “Muslim Armenians”. ∗ The first version of this paper was presented at the International Conference on Islamized Armenians at Boğaziçi University in İstanbul, November 2-4, 2013. ∗∗ Assist. Prof., Mardin Artuklu University, Department of Anthropology [[email protected]] MİLEL VE NİHAL inanç, kültür ve mitoloji araştırmaları dergisi cilt 11 sayı 1 Ocak – Haziran 2014 Ramazan ARAS Key Words: Memory, Perception, Identity, State, WWI, Armenians, Kurds, “Muslim Armenians”. Atıf/©: Aras, Ramazan (2014). “Misilmenî”: Türkiye’de Kürt Toplumunda Er- meni ve “Müslüman Ermeni” Algısını Araştırmak, Milel ve Nihal, 11 (1), 91-117. Öz: Bu çalışma Ermeni meselesi üzerine mevcut olan tartışmaların ve genel/ha- kim anlatıların ötesine geçmeyi ve 1915 öncesi ve sonrasında Kürtlerin Ermeni algısını araştırmayı çabalamaktadır. Devletin farklı siyaset forma- larını, Ermeniler hakkındaki algıların kurgulanmışlığını ve bunların şiddet ve katliamların savunulabilir eylemler olarak tecelli edilmesinde oynadık- ları rolü incelemektedir. Bu çalışma, daha da spesifik olarak, 1915 öncesi dönemde Sünni Kürt toplumunda Hıristiyan Ermeniler hakkındaki algıları ve özellikle 1915 sonrası dönemde yeni bir varlık/kimlik olarak ortaya çıkan “Müslüman Ermeniler” hakkındaki algıları araştırmaktadır. 1915 öncesi dönemindeki bazı Kürt entellektüellerin yazılarına, Kürt medresele- rinde yaygın bir şekilde ve uzun zamandır okutulan bazı temel dini metin- lere ve sıradan insanların hayat hikayeleri ve anlatılarına dayanan bu ça- lışma, devletin farklı siyaset formlarının ve dine (İslama) dayandırılarak üretilmiş olan Hıristiyan karşıtı söy-lemlerin Kürtler arasında hem Hıristi- yan Ermeniler hem de “Müslüman Ermeniler” hakkındaki negatif algıların inşa edilmesinde önemli bir rol oynadıklarını iddia etmektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Hafıza, Algı, Kimlik, Devlet, I. Dünya Savaşı, Ermeniler, Kürtler, “Müslüman Ermeniler” Introduction The First World War not only resulted in the fall of the Ottoman Empire and deconstruction of political systems that endured for centuries, and the emergence of new nation-states in the post-war era; it also resulted in traumatic repercussions among communities living in the Ottoman territories. As a result of the mass violence, counter-violence, deportations, and terror of both the state appara- tuses and counter nationalist movements, the centuries old social fabric of multi-ethnic and multi-religious communities was severely damaged and mostly destroyed. There were dramatic changes in the social, economic, and ethno-religious demographic structures in dif- ferent regions particularly in Anatolia due to the catastrophic im- pacts of the war that resulted in extermination, deportation, forced migration, and the loss of hundreds of thousands of ordinary people from all communities. The physical and psychological impacts of these events, felt in all communities with loss and agony, have be- come fundamental markers of modern Turkish history. They have 92 MİLEL VE NİHAL inanç–kültür–mitoloji “Misilmenî”: “Muslim Armenians” in the Kurdish Community in Turkey left very deep scars on social bodies whose impacts are still felt to- day at both subjective and collective levels. WWI left thousands of orphans and lost children behind from many communities but, particularly the Armenian community. The emergence of enmity based on ethnic, religious, and nationalist dis- courses shattered communal ties and pushed certain nationalist gro- ups toward radicalization and the perpetration of violent acts toward their neighbors who were recoded as “rival enemies”. These acts were often legitimized and given consent through the employ- ment of a “politics of fear” (Ahmed 2003) and the manufacturing of legitimizing nationalist discourses for acts of violence. In this article, the main focus is to investigate and analyze the historical roots of Kurdish perceptions of Armenians and how these negative percep- tions were formulated and then re-fabricated through time. Moreo- ver, it aims to explore how these perceptions were sometimes used and abused by statist political apparatuses in their marginalization of not only Christian Armenians, but also Islamized and “Muslim Armenians”1. Nevertheless, there has been an urgent need for con- ducting researches on the question of how Armenian subjects also perceived neighboring Muslim subjects (Kurds and Turks) by other researchers working on these issues. How did they see and perceive each other? What kinds of counter-discourses, and ideologies that produced emotions of hate, anger and revenge toward Muslim sub- jects were incorporated into the nationalist and separatist discourses of Armenian groups? How were these nationalistic sentiments fue- led and disseminated among ordinary members of the Armenian community, particularly in the eastern part of the Anatolia? Inves- tigations based on these questions will enable us to learn more about the formation of minds, mentalities, and ideologies that alienated these neighboring communities before, during, and after WWI. Firstly, some writings of Kurdish intellectuals and their disco- urses before the war that address the Armenian question from dif- ferent angles will be examined to find some answers to such questions concerning hatred and enmity in the region. Aside from 1 Here, I am using the term Islamized Armenians to refer to those young, adult Armenians who willingly or unwillingly converted to Islam during and after the massacres. Later, I prefer to use the term Muslim Armenians for those Armenian orphans and children who were raised as Muslims, their children and grandchil- dren in the present. 93 MİLEL VE NİHAL inanç–kültür–mitoloji Ramazan ARAS these writings and discourses, counter-nationalistic discourses like those of missionaries who spread separatist feelings, and created and disseminated a fear of an independent Armenian nation-state, the influences of widely-circulated narratives about the cruelties of Armenian nationalist troops toward the Muslim population in the eastern part of the country, and other socio-political and economic factors will be emphasized in the analysis of the creation of hostility and hatred. Here, I want to clarify that I am not assuming that there were not any socio-political conflicts between these communities during the Ottoman rule. For centuries, diverse problems and conf- licts of interest were occurring not only between different religious and ethnic communities (as in the case of Muslim Kurds and Chris- tian Armenians) but also between Muslim communities and Muslim Kurdish tribes as well. Secondly, it is argued that religion (Islam) was also (mis)used as an instrument in the production of hate, antagonism and anger toward Christian subjects (Armenians and Assyrians as the “ot- hers”) by statist, local actors and bigoted groups2. As a case in this point, some religious texts (books of fıkh [Islamic jurisprudence]) that have been widely read by thousands of students in the Kurdish madrassas for centuries will be scrutinized. The (dis)continuity of negative perceptions about Muslim Ar- menians is questioned in the last part. As we learn from the writings of some Kurdish intellectuals, life stories and personal accounts of Kurds and Muslim Armenians and other resources, the Armenian 2 Macit Kenanoğlu has stated in his influential work Osmanlı Millet Sistemi – Mit ve Gerçek (The Ottoman Millet System: Myth and Reality) that “according to the main principles of the Islamic law, dhimmis (zımmiler) are not a group of people to be subjected to ordeals, disrespect, and discrimination. On the contrary, they have the same rights as Muslims as they do not bring any harm to Muslims.” (Kenanoğlu 2004, 23). In his enlightining work, Kenanoğlu describes the Ottoman iltizam system and documents how legal principles in this system created a pro- tective domain for non-Muslim subjects in spite of unwanted regulations and some principles in practice. I agree that Islamic law has acknowldeged the rights and freedom of non-Muslim subjects since the early periods of Islamic history compared to the Western legal system that started to acknowledge rights and freedom of non-Christian subjects just recently in the 20th century (Kenanoğlu 2004). However, it is essential to accept that diverse practices of Islamic law and principles and differing interpretations on the status of non-Muslim subjects by some Muslim scholars and religious leaders in the history of Islam sometimes – as in this case – played a role in shaping the minds of ordinary Muslim subjects. 94 MİLEL VE NİHAL inanç–kültür–mitoloji “Misilmenî”: “Muslim Armenians” in the Kurdish Community in Turkey community was outlawed as the “other” before and during 1915. Furthermore, “Armenianness” was defined and perceived as an “evil,” and as a marker of “infidelity” among Muslim communities. The homogenizing policies (Anderson 1983) of the new Turkish na- tion-state eventually resulted in the elimination of other ethnic and religious entities within its declared political borders. Due to this cruel process of manufacturing exclusionary discourses on the “ot- her” (De Certeau 1986), Armenians were stigmatized as “traitors”. It is interesting to see how these kinds of negative perceptions about Christian Armenians were disseminated and directed toward Mus- lim Armenians in the post-1915 and in the present. In the argument and analysis of this issue below, the concept of Misilmenî is the key concept demarcating the frame of Kurdish perception of Muslim Ar- menians in the contemporary period. I. The Making of Kurdish Mind(s): The Role of Kurdish Intellectuals in the 1900s It is not an easy undertaking to analyze changes, ruptures, and transformations in the Kurdish worlds in these critical times. One’s mind and world can be shaped and (re)made in multifold ways at both the subjective and collective levels. This suggests that there are fragmented and miscellaneous aspects of perceptions and mentali- ties that are formed in historical processes. In this context, making generalized and accurate statements about the impacts of Kurdish intellectuals on the Kurdish population in Istanbul and in the Kur- dish populated areas in the Ottoman territories will be a reductionist one. Therefore, the role of Kurdish intellectuals and the dissemina- tion of their thoughts through printed means (newspapers, journals, books etc.) among Kurdish people can be understood to be subject to a complex and high personal internalization process. This criti- cism aside, I still argue that the writings and statements of these in- tellectuals inform us about social and political circumstances in that era and that is why their statements are essential for understanding Kurds in that period. To what extent were these writings influential in the lives of or- dinary readers of newspapers and among the rest of the Kurdish community? Undoubtedly, we do not have any scale to measure this; however, as we learn from the letters of readers in newspapers 95 MİLEL VE NİHAL inanç–kültür–mitoloji Ramazan ARAS like Kürdistan3 and the Newspaper of the Kurdish Society of Soli- darity and Progress4 (Kürd Teavün Cemiyeti Gazetesi5, hereafter KSSP newspaper), readers welcomed and passionately read the ar- ticles of authors on many hot issues and problems in that era (see Kürdistan 1991, 65). Kurdish authors discussed many critical issues and ongoing social and political events in the community as well. For instance, Ismail Hakkı Babanzade (1876–1934) emphasized the education of Kurdish people in his writings while Said Nursi (1878– 1960) and others were warning Kurdish leaders and people not to collaborate with state actors in the region in their wrongdoings toward Armenians and other Christian people in the region. Said Nursi was an influential figure at that time and in touch with local people (1911). When locally available newspapers such as Kürdistan and KSSP are examined, one of the most noteworthy aspects of their coverage is the way in which the writers criticize the state policies regarding the creation of enmity toward the Armenian community among Muslim subjects. However, in the 30th issue of Kürdistan, for ins- tance, Jesuit missionaries were also harshly criticized and accused of producing hostility between Kurds and Armenians in Kürdistan (Kürdistan 1991, 81). In general, they criticize state actors for inter- vening in communal relations between Kurds and Armenians and creating hostility between Kurdish tribes. The Armenian question received tremendous coverage, particularly in Kürdistan. In the 3 Kürdistan newspaper was founded by Mikdad Midhat Bedirhan and published in both Kurdish and Turkish from 1898 to 1902. The first issue was published in April 22, 1898 in Cairo by Mikdad Midhat Bedirhan. As a four page newspaper, it was published in 31 issues. Issues 1 to 23 were published bi-weekly, and issues 24 to 31 were published monthly. Mikdad Mithad Bedirhan published issues 1 to 5 in Cairo. After his death his brother Abdurrahman Bedirhan took responsibility and published issues 6 to 19 in Geneva. Bedirhan moved due to political pressure from Hamidian regime. The newspaper moved to Cairo again and 20 to 24 were published there. Then, it moved to London again and issues 20 to 23 were pub- lished there. Later, issues 24 to 29 were published in Folkstone, and the last is- sues, 30 and 31, were published again in Geneva (Kürdistan 1991, 62-63). 4 The Kurdish Society of Solidarity and Progress (Kürd Teavün ve Terakki Cemiyeti) was founded in Istanbul and rapidly open many local branches in other cities particularly in the cities (Diyarbakır, Van, Elaziz, Bitlis, Muş, Siirt etc.) in the Kurdish region. 5 Kürd Teavün ve Terakki Cemiyeti newspaper was in circulation between 1908- 1909 (1998). 96 MİLEL VE NİHAL inanç–kültür–mitoloji “Misilmenî”: “Muslim Armenians” in the Kurdish Community in Turkey many issues of Kurdistan, Abdurrahman Bedirhan (1868–1936)6 cri- ticizes both the Armenian side for their separatist intentions and the Kurds for their support of the Hamidian regime. In the 9th issue, he states: “Armenians are fed up with the oppression of the state and that is why they raise their voices and hands demanding their rights. But Kurds, due to their ignorance, started to kill Armenians. It is a sin for Kurds to kill them. You (to the Kurds) are more oppressed than Armenians, but due to your ignorance you are not aware of yourselves, you do not raise your voices…” (Kürdistan 1991, 94). In his writings in the 25th issue in 1900, he makes a call to the Kurds not to collaborate with Abdülhamidian regime in its campaign against Armenians: To the Kurds… I do know that Armenians want to separate from the Ottomans and make Kurdish lands, Kurdistan, their sovereign lands. I know how much they are working on this and how they are trying to get European support, forming gangs and disseminating these kinds of ideologies among Ar- menian villagers… However, you should not believe that there will be an independent Armenian state in Kurdish lands... You should protect under your wings those innocent Armenians who do not support the acts and thoughts of those insurgent Armenians… Instead, you should rise aga- inst that regime (Hamidian regime, the state) who has been suppressing you by many means for 25 years… You should protect those weak and innocent Armenians and this is what Sharia of Islam orders… In your counterattacks, you should only be against nationalist Armenian groups or individuals, not the whole Armenian nation... (ibid. 445–448). Abdurrahman Bedirhan, the chief editor of Kurdistan, in an ar- ticle entitled “Kurds and Armenians” in the 26th issue of the newspa- per, addresses how state actors intervened in relations between both communities and planted seeds of hate and hostility through di- verse strategies such as empowering, training and arming particular Kurdish tribes for armed-operations against Armenians (Kürdistan 1991, 468). He documents violations and cruelties perpetrated by Hamidian troops that were recruited from particular Kurdish tribes as sharp shooters in the eastern borderlands of the Empire (Kürdis- tan 1991, 501–509, see also Klein 2011, Süphandağ 2006, Aytar 1992). For Bedirhan, the only solution for both Armenians and Kurds as 6 For more detailed information about the biographies of Mikdat Midhat Bedirhan and Abdurrahman Bedirhan please see Malmisanij 2011. 97 MİLEL VE NİHAL inanç–kültür–mitoloji Ramazan ARAS two oppressed communities is to collaborate with each other and rise against the Hamidian regime (Kürdistan 1991, 470). In the same vein, the Armenian question was discussed by many intellectuals in the KSSP newspaper. Seyyid Abdulkadir (1851–1925), as leader of the Kurdish association, and as one of the leading Kurdish figures in Istanbul, criticizes the former regime for its role in the creation of enmity between Kurds and their neighbors (KSSP newspaper 1998, 23; Malmîsanij 1999). In the writings of Kur- dish intellectuals,7 the question of Armenians is given considerable attention in different contexts, which indicates how the catastrophe of 1915 was actually presaged 6–7 years before and even 15 years in advance when considering the warnings of Bedirhan in 1900. Simi- lar warning can be seen in the first declaration of the Kurdish asso- ciation that appeared in the first issue of their newspaper. It states as its founding goals support for Kurdish peoples’ democratic de- mands, needs; the pursuit of peaceful relations with other people; and the assurance of civilized negotiations with other people. The other people referred to in its founding goals were principally the Armenians (KSSP Newspaper 1998, 63). İsmail Hakkı Babanzade,8 in his article entitled “Kurds and Kurdistan” in the first issue of the newspaper, harshly criticizes the statist discourse of the Hamidian regime, which presumed a histo- rically-constructed hostility between Kurds and Armenians. Baban- zade asks his readers to forget the crimes perpetrated by the previous regime and talks about his dreams for a new future for 7 The most influential intellectuals and writers were Amedli Ahmed Cemil, Bediüzzaman Said-i Kürdi, Ercişli Ahmed Şevki, Cizreli Mehmet Tahir, Halil Hayali, Malatyalı Bedri, İsmail Hakkı Baban, Süleymaniyeli Seyfullah and Amedli Süleyman Nazif. 8 İ. H. Babanzade was one of the influential Kurdish thinkers and politicians of the time. He became a new member of the newly formed Ottoman parliament in 1908 and MP of Baghdad. He travelled from Istanbul to Beirut and then to Kuwait during which time he tried to report his observations on social, political, and eco- nomic problems in the region (Babanzade 2002). As we learn from his travel let- ters published in the newspaper Tanin in 1908, the region was moving toward chaos step-by-step and that is why Babanzade warned the government in Istan- bul to take urgent measures to address the problems in the region (Babanzade 2002, 12). The Armenian and Arab insurgencies during and after WWI were those that Babanzade actually foresaw in diverse ways in 1908. 98 MİLEL VE NİHAL inanç–kültür–mitoloji “Misilmenî”: “Muslim Armenians” in the Kurdish Community in Turkey Kurds, Armenians and other Ottomans under the reign of the new government formed in 1908. He asserts: One of the aspersions on Kurds is that Kurds have always been in antagonism with Armenians and that Kurds have always been mortal enemies of Armenians. Up until the last period, there were never better neighbors than the Kurds and Armenians. Have there been any complaints from Armeni- ans about Kurds till the events that happened in the last pe- riod?... If Kurds wanted to attack Armenians they would have done it a long time ago... Like the Ottomans, Kurds are also respectful of the faith, life, property and honor of non- Muslim citizens… (KSSP Newspaper 1998, 69). Identical patterns of discourse can also be seen in the words of other intellectuals. In the writings of Seyyid Abdülkadir,9 the Hami- dian regime is defined as a troubling entity that manufactured en- mity, hatred, and dissension between both communities. He reveals how the social fabric of Kurdistan was damaged by that regime (KSSP Newspaper 1998, 77). In his article entitled “Kurds and Ar- menians” in the 9th issue of the same newspaper, Hüseyin Paşazade Süleyman talks about a centuries-old neighborhood and the mutual support that existed between Kurds and Armenians in this neigh- borhood. He claims that peace for both communities is only possible if they collaborate again as they did in the past and unite against all state-sponsored conflicts and hostility (ibid. 461–463). As we can see from the writings of members of the Kurdish Society for Solidarity and Progress, they were trying to play a role in healing the wound in the social body that was caused by the conflictual policies of the Hamidian regime. By emphasizing their possible role in the reconst- ruction of unity between both communities, they show how some community leaders of both Kurdish and Armenian communities were willing to reach a compromise in the region (ibid. 127). At the same time, they make an urgent call for the immediate resolutions of economic and social problems in the region, asking the new go- vernment to make a move promote and facilitate reconciliation between both communities (ibid. 359). 9 Seyyid Abdülkadir (1851-1925) was the head of the Kurdish Society for Solidarity and Progress. 99 MİLEL VE NİHAL inanç–kültür–mitoloji Ramazan ARAS Said Nursi10 also criticizes the former regime for its wrongdo- ings against both the Kurdish and Armenian communities in his writings of this era. In his work entitled Münazarat 2012[1911] which is based on his personal conversations with local people while tra- veling in Kurdistan, Nursi envisions a peaceful and content future based on the condition of having an alliance and friendship with the Armenian community. When ordinary Kurdish subjects ask him: “Armenians are treating us as their enemies and cheat on us. How can we have an alliance based on friendliness with them?” Nursi immediately responds to their question by saying that “The autoc- racy that was the base of hostility is gone (dead). Companionship will arise with the disappearance of despotism. I want to definitively say that the peace and happiness of this country depend on having an alliance and friendship with Armenians” (Nursi 2012[1911], 100– 102). To conclude, we do not know to what extent the writings and discourses of Kurdish intellectuals on Armenians were influential in the world(s) of the local Kurdish authorities and in the public. However, the events and massacres of 1915 can be seen as indicati- ons of how the state authorities along with local collaborators mostly superseded the efforts of Kurdish intellectuals. Moreover, re- searches based on archival resources and oral history accounts have documented collaborations between the state and local actors based on diverse social, political and economic interests (Aktar 2013a, 2013b, Aras 2011, 2013c, 2005, Aytar 1992, Kollektif 2009, Ritter and Sivaslian 2013, Balancar 2013, Kaiser 2014). The dominance of statist discourses and the accommodation of local elites to the interests of the Turkish state aside, I speculate that there were influences of Kur- dish intellectuals - particularly Said Nursi – in the formation of Kur- dish mind(s) when we consider the stories of protection of Armenians by their Kurdish neighbors against perpetrators (Aytar 1992, Aktar 2013a, 2013b, Aras 2005, 2013c). The Kurdish intellectuals’ labor of shaping Kurdish mind(s) and world(s) through their writings and also conversations on di- verse issues with ordinary Kurdish subjects – as in the case of Said 10 Said Nursi (1878–1960) appears as the most passionate defender of Kurdish rights and demands against the ruling government in this period. Nursi’s influence will reach its peak later in the Republican period and he will become the most promi- nent Muslim Kurdish scholar in Turkey. 100 MİLEL VE NİHAL inanç–kültür–mitoloji