Talin Suciyan
The Angels of History: Our Grandmothers
The relationship between yayas born outside of Istanbul and the Armenian language was also highly intriguing. Some never learned Armenian, while others, speaking in local dialects, were shamed for it. The mistaken belief that Istanbul Armenian was the ideal and most beautiful version of the language played an active role in the rapid loss of these local dialects. The stories of our friends’ yayas in the diaspora are different from ours. The grandmothers of Armenians who migrated from Cilicia to the Aleppo-Beirut route or those who immigrated to the United States carry narratives distinct from those who remained in Turkey
The Istanbulite Armenian woman as a performative idol
The expected performance of an Istanbulite Armenian woman includes setting up tables during name days, hosting relatives, cooking well, being the one who brings the extended family together, keeping the house constantly clean and organized, and always being well-groomed and stylish. In other words, the Istanbulite Armenian woman must be a type of person beyond perfection!
An Anatomy of Privilege: Being an Armenian from Istanbul
The arrival of Armenians in Istanbul, whether during the Byzantine or Ottoman periods, occurred through the will of those who held power at the center. Armenians fleeing westward during the Celali rebellions settled near Istanbul, but the city did not easily open its doors. In the 19th century, Armenian men from the provinces (referred to as kawaratsi, living in places outside Istanbul, particularly in the eastern provinces or their yergir, homeland) were able to come to the capital—as cheap day laborers, porters, or bakers. In the 20th century, after successive disasters, Istanbul opened its doors to women and orphans who had survived massacres and deportations, granting them refuge in what was once known as Der Saadet (Gate to Bliss).
Survival as a work of art
Long before 1915, Armenians had begun migrating to the United States due to abusive taxation and other oppressive policies in the provinces. The best known of these migration centers is Fresno, the hometown of William Saroyan. Another, of course, is Philadelphia. Armenian families in Philadelphia, which is still a heavily Armenian-populated city today, have numerous correspondence with their relatives living in the Ottoman provinces, photographs, and family archives documenting the daily life of Armenians at the turn of the 20th century. The exhibit “The Armenian Genocide, One Family's Story”, organized last year at Stockton and Montclair universities, was a good example of this.
Armenian Literature, Catastrophe and its Representation: Seminars with Marc Nichanian
Although Hagop Oshagan, who was born and raised in Sölöz, near Bursa, is a well-known writer in the diaspora, the fact that he is less known and read by Armenians in Turkey, and that his works have not been translated into Turkish, is a very telling absence. These works, which provide significant information about the last period of the Ottoman Empire, and daily life in the provinces, thus will be extremely illuminating at the intersection of literature and history.
In April telling the truth is difficult, so is having the courage to hear it
Wasn't the destruction experienced by the Balıkçı family a reflection of our common, perhaps unspoken pasts, which in fact still exist? With Hrant Dink and Sevag Balıkçı, we clearly saw that an experience and temporality that had been ignored for a hundred years to make us believe that its time had passed, was actually always with us.
Unearthing, Discovering, Unlearning: Armenian Indigeneity in Turkey
The Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA and the Political Violence in the Modern World cluster course present "Unearthing, Discovering, Unlearning: Armenian Indigeneity in Turkey" by professor Talin Suciyan of the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich.