A cat tale in e-mails

WHY AN ARMENIAN MAY NOT BE NAMED “A YOUNG TURK”
OR
A CAT TALE IN E-MAILS

Zarine L. Arushanyan


(Статья опубликована в еженедельнике Armenian Weekly, США, 29.03.2008 г.)

“About 1.5 million people were killed as a result of Armenian Genocide organized in Ottoman Empire by the government of Young Turks, 1915–1919."
ArmenianHouse.org - Armenian Genocide in Turkey 1915

To start with, I shall say that I live my quiet life in Yerevan, though since 1988 the life in Armenia may hardly be named “quiet”.  Anyhow, after the war for the independence of Artsakh, the meetings of 1996 and the assassinations in Armenian Parliament in 1999, I managed to create an isolated small world for myself, a kind of “ivory tower”, as one of my relatives named my life style in the recent years.  You may grin at me, but because of the adverse circumstances of daily routine in Armenia, I preferred to choose this isolation.  I try to work hard (when there is job to do), and read the literature that we had not been afford to hold in hands some 10 years ago.  Accidentally, in 2001, I got a cat, and because it resembled “vana katu”, the collection of the information about this domestic cat breed, became a hobby that I leaped into.  Thus, I finished an on-line course for feline breeders, then, again accidentally, I remade my course paper that was, of course, on Turkish Van cat (the name under which the breed was recognized and registered by various international cat fancy organizations), and prepared an article, named “What does a true Van cat look like?” that was published in a pet fancy magazine in October-November 2007 in Russia.  Meanwhile, a German cat fancier, showed interest in my article, and I translated it in English with some corrections.  To ground my negative attitude to the intentions of some cat fancy organizations to recognize all-white as a color of the Turkish Van cat, I gave the genetic background that would influence the health matters of the breed in this case, as well as referred to folklore, cultural traditions and history, including the cat images on Hittite, Urartu and Artaxiad (Artashesian) Dynasty period jewelry, armour and other handicrafts, that were mentioned in various articles, relating to the breed.  My German colleague in cat fancy replied, as soon as she received the English variant of my article, writing that she liked it and would do her best to edit it for the article might be published in Germany, but asked me to submit photographs of the Turkish Van cats, living in Yerevan, as well as the photographs or drawings of the named antiques.  It was not difficult to provide the photographs of the cats, but all my attempts to find the ancient cat images failed.  None knew, where they were, even those, who had published this information in their articles, replied with silence or referred me to somebody else.  Then, the German lady kindly offered her help in this search, and wrote me that she sent an inquiry to some USA Armenian organization involved in the preservation of Armenian cultural inheritance.  I was waiting for their reply with great hope.  Therefore, please try to imagine how much I was hurt, on reading in the German woman’s next e-mail the reply of the USA Armenian scholar, running that he advised her to contact archeologists in Armenia, but be careful, because there were many emerging “Young Turks” in the National Academy of Science of Armenia, who became aggressively nationalistic in the last 15 years, and offered her to contact an older Armenian historian of the same Armenian Academy of Science as a more objective source.


“Emerging “Young Turks”?  I was sitting in sad confusion, trying to understand, what all these might mean.  I addressed to the lady once more, demanding her explanations.  Very soon she forwarded me the reply from the USA Armenian scholar, and explained that some phrases of my article obliged her to find out, if they were correct.  These phrases were: “… If we advert to more recent period, we will see that the large light-colored cats with characteristic ring-colored tails are imagined at the jewelry of the period of Urartu or otherwise Ararat Kingdom (9th-6th c. c. B. C.).”  And then: “…if one takes into consideration that the continuous settlement of other, except the Armenians, ethnic groups on the Armenian Upland started during the last 5 to 6 centuries, i. e. much later than the named images of the Van cats appeared, then it may be understood that the legend, as well as the breed itself, has passed to the Turks from other ethnic groups “by succession”.

In the further course of our correspondence the German lady demanded from me to enter into debates with the Turkish breeders of van-kedisi and prove “Armenian” point of view as contrary to Turkish point of view.  When I refused, because we do not have any cat fancy organization in Armenia and it was my personal opinion, and because I did not want to enter into confrontation with anybody on national basis, she named me a nationalist, because of the passionate style of my article and criticism of Turkish history (O my God!  The history of Van is separated from Armenian history!), religion and traditions (as if I could write about red-and-white van-patterned vana katu without the explanation of the differences, existing between it and all-white van kedi, and the reasons for these differences).  To my further surprise she asked me about the permission to pass my article to a Turkish breeder of van kedisi, who resided in Germany for he might use my unpublished material in his book about van kedi, as well as asked me to translate from Turkish two articles on van kedisi.  It was in the beginning of January, and I needed two months to realize, what made my German colleague in cat fancy, apply to me with such criticism and offers.  To find the answers I reread all the works of Armenian historians that I had collected in my life, especially those that were published after 1988.  Nothing in these two phrases contradicted to the content of the mentioned written sources.  Then in the Web I found Turkish Governmental site page on the origin of the Armenians, and realized, why the lady offered me to translate the articles, written in Turkish.  The official statement of Turkish Government confirms that Turkish and Armenian are relative languages and have numerous words in common.  I thought:  “Wow!” and decided to write to the USA Armenian scholar, who named the historians of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, “Young Turks”.  I resent him his own reply to the German lady, and asked him what had made him use this comparison.  The following day I received his reply.  In particular, he made various quotations of reference publications and periodicals, thoroughly explaining, who the “Young Turks” were, where and when they had been at rule, as well as the meaning and usage of the idiom that originated of the name of the movement in the contemporary English.

I had no information of this person, but two things were evident for me.  First, he did not realize, why “the English idiom” hurt me, and the second, he did not understand of my given name that I was a woman.  Initially I did not want to contact him any more, but then I thought he could be a non-Armenian and did not know our history and language, as well as he was not aware that almost any Armenian knew, who were the “Young Turks”, and the names of the Three Pashas that had organized the Great Genocide.  I send him the citation, placed in the beginning of this article, and offered him to find an Armenian, who had 1915 Genocide victims in the family, to explain him, why it was immoral to use this worn idiom, when addressing to an Armenian.  When I had sent him my second e-mail, I tried to get more information about the man.  I searched the Internet, and to my great surprise, I found out that he was a respected authority in Armenian culture that had numerous publications.  This discovery put me into further deliberation.  From January, I tried to contact the Armenian academician, who was mentioned by this person as a trustworthy scholar, but this person went to the USA to read lectures, and was going to return to Armenia only in April.  So, I contacted one of his colleague, owing to whom I managed to clarify, what made the USA researcher to become so wrathful.

While we, the Armenians, on listening the Armenian speech somewhere abroad, ask each other: “Are you an Armenian?”, it means that we ask about someone’s Armenian ethnic origin, not citizenship, because in everyday life we are hardly interested in anybody’s citizenship.  We are sure that an Armenian remains the same Armenian everywhere.  We say: “an Armenian of America” or “an Armenian of France”.  For centuries, the patriotism and nationalism were the must for any representative of the nation, in order not to lose both our ethnic identity and country.  There was nothing dangerous in our nationalism for those, who surrounded us, but just to the contrary, our neighbors always threatened not only our independence, but also our physical existence.  I would not say that much has changed both in our mentality and the attitude of our neighbors to us.  But the world around does not stay still; it constantly develops and changes.  When someone is asked about the nationality in the official papers, it means that he or she is asked about the citizenship. The contemporary international researchers in archeology, ethnography and other social sciences have adopted some definite principles, and those, who disagree to adopt these principles, stay in isolation.  To co-exist in the modern world a person should admit the principle of the equality of all ethnic groups and nationalities.  If you will try to praise your own nation, you will be accused of nationalism and racism.  Any attempt to speak on the ancient origin of your nation, will be met with distrust.  So, our innocent belief that we, the Armenians, are the descendents of Hayk Nahapet (Patriarch), whom we consider a historical person or a hero of the epic that reflected the fight of the Armenians with Babylon, will come across the irony.  Our mentality resists admitting this point of view, but not because we are undereducated or aggressive.  We are to be this way patriotic, because of our close neighborhood.  It helps us to survive under severe conditions and develop our national culture and traditions.

At the same time the social sciences develop, and to communicate with the outside, we are to change our mentality and attitude to the outer world.  In ideal, this way of thinking is necessary.  But it is true only in general.  To illustrate this idea, I will give some examples on how this principles work in practice.  Example 1. Such terms as "Armenian plateau" and "Armenian highlands" were used in non-Turkish publications to describe the region until 1941, when these terms were replaced with the name of "Eastern Anatolia Region" at the request of Turkish officials.  The request was satisfied, and the long lasting tradition, existing in the Christian part of the world was left behind.  Example 2. In 1969 the delegates to the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF) voted in favor of granting breed recognition to the Turkish Van Cat. The application was supported by a letter, written by Professor Dr Emin Ariturk, the Acting Head of the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Ankara, who confirmed that the Van Cats of Turkey were a recognized breed and had been bred domestically in Turkey for many years.  Thus, the breed was named the Turkish Van cat, similar to the Turkish Angora cat, another cat breed, originated in the territory of modern Turkey.  These two cat breeds are named with the use of two place-names (toponyms), making the exception among the names of all other cat breeds.  Example 3. Turkish Daily News reported in 2005: “The Environment and Forest Ministry has announced that it has changed animal names that contain the words “Kurdistan” and “Armenia,” which they considered threatened Turkey's unitary state”.  Meanwhile, a United Nations Development Program official objected, noting that the change needed to be cited in relevant literature to come into effect.”  We may guess of the extract that, whenever the change will be cited in relevant literature, it will come into effect.  As we may see the number of the examples is the evidence of the tendency, as well as the process of attaching “national identity” to scientific terms, confirms the lack of equality in applying the principles that we are demanded to coincide with.  This distinction in the approach finds its continuation in popular publications, when, for instance, American and European writers with tender affection repeat Turkish interpretation of place-name “Anatolia” (in Turkish “Anadolu”) as “the land of mothers”.

Contrary to the “resolute step” of our neighboring nation, we are used to get adapted to ever changing circumstances, and in the outside world we, in our greater mass, are pliable, we easily recede, leaving behind, what we achieved with hard work and at the cost of enormous hardships.  Usually we easily forget, and hurry on to march in step with European time.  In our fright of being accused in nationalism and find ourselves in isolation we become the most passionate guardians of the objectivity in the valuation of our history and culture.  We discuss various foreign theories of our own origin, and our historians have divided into different hostile camps, and none of them wants to hear the arguments of the others, instead of trying to find the solutions that may satisfy both the requests of the contemporary scientific methodology in the analysis and evaluation of the archaeological and linguistic data, and serve our national interests.

The above-mentioned actual state of affairs, as I may guess, was the reason, why the USA researcher gave such a negative opinion of the largest part of our historians.  Of course, from the “scientific” point of view, he may be right.  But I look at his “devotion” to the principles from the ethical point of view, and it is not acceptable for me.  In case he wrote to my German cat fancy colleague that at his opinion naming Urartu “Ararat kingdom”, as well as declaring the Armenians the oldest ethnic group of the region was not correct, and advised her to contact Mr L. Abrahamyan, I would find the truth and enter the corrections in my article sooner.  But, unfortunately, he did his own choice, and applied his excellent knowledge of English idioms and world modern history in his way.  His replies show that he wrote them with the conviction in his own immaculacy that made me more upset, because I believe that naming an Armenian “a Young Turk” was a sacrilege that outraged the remains of our unburied victims, the ashes of whom hammer in our hearts, because none of their executioners had publicly recanted.

Unfortunately, the intolerance to our compatriots that has been displayed by the USA Armenian scholar is not a sole event.  Recently, we witnessed other type of such intolerance that had transformed into the hostility, developed within the internal political process, going on in Armenia.  Some of our compatriots forgot the severities, they had suffered not long ago, and the others between their long-lasting feasts and gambling refused to see that the “lean years” did not finish for everybody in our country.  This lack of “love to the neighbor” resulted in the social burst that led to victims.  I will not do guesswork, and will wait, when the results of the criminal investigation will be published, in the hope that this time those, who took the advantage of the people’s dissatisfaction in their miserable living and the internal policy of the authorities, and instigated the disorders that threatened our national security, will be revealed, and they and the faithful executors of their orders will be punished according to the law.  I am firmly convinced that the truth about the tragedy and the cooperation among the political forces, based on the mutual respect of other parties’ opinions, is the only way for the survival of the nation.