english

mashdots (prospect) street all the way down, it wouldn't be wrong if we say it equally divides the city into two. the beauty you cannor see upper left is "masis" (greater ararat).

well, i stayed in armenia long enough to write about it. if you ask “how long”, long enough: to be dialed as wrong number, by my armenia cellphone that can be had for free when you land to the airport.. to learn cafes/bars to go regularly.. to be stopped in the streets several times to be asked for adresses –perhaps this one has something to do with my “looking pretty like a hay (armenian)”; we’ll return to this one later. and the funny thing is, i stayed long enough to give an adress – yes, in yerevan, i replied the question “where’s l’orange cafe,” asked not by an ordinary person but a taxi driver , as “on tumanyan street”.

i stayed in hayastan (armenia) for 11 days. aiming at a minimum contribution to someones knowledge, i write here about my experience, observations and remainings in me.

turkish-armenian relations, as known, is a deep cut. may this one do some good..

flight and the first steps in the country


nowadays there’re two reasonable ways to go from turkey to hayastan: you can follow the same track of indirect exports from turkey and go by bus over georgia, or you can fly istanbul-yerevan like I did. two-way ticket fee of your currently single option armavia airways is 550 usd, you make your assesments yourselves. let aside the fact that you fly and land in ridiculous times of the day..

you get on the plane after suffering in a long desk queue you wait with turkey and hayastan hayer (armenians). the plane takes off late because of late-comers, well actually the reason is not coming late, but getting lost somewhere in the airport – i would call this an exception that happened to me by chance, but exactly the same thing happened when i was returning. of course I cannot tell yet that the frost approach of the hostesses are the first signs of the service quality in the country i was going to. seats with minimum gaps, food service with some cold meat and smoked cheese (later i tasted this one in yerevan too, something different and tasty), a flight that was announced as 1 hour and 45 minutes but completed in 1,5 hours (my return flight lasted 2 hours, and as you may guess I have no idea about the variation of durations), yerevan lights getting closer.. and a very sweet, gentle landing that you can taste the city through the windows. the timezone difference with our border neighbor is 2 hours: if you take off at 01:00 a.m.and fly for 2 hours, you land at 05.00 a.m.

exchange-visa-passport control procedure lasted 45 minutes, a performance that I found really successful. successful, because you’re in a country that your own country doesn’t represent itself diplomatically, and you have your visa when you land in yerevan.
visa application is a simple, single-page form. i gave this form and my passport to the desk official. he did the procedure in a short time, gave my visa and returned my documents. i asked if everything is completed, he replied “ok”. after having some steps away, i turned back as a man who is a slave to his goodwill: “doesn’t this procedure cost something?” he didn’t understand, i repeated: “won’t you ask money from me?” he opened the passport and showed a “15.000 drams” stamp (by September ’08, 300 drams is 1 usd). i said “ok but you didn’t ask for it?” “pay it!” he reacted sharply, as if i was the one who forgot about the money thing. anyway, i’m here to have fun after all.
contrary to the way the visa officials are, you pass a smiley passport control and have an obligatory duty-free shop walk; and you enter the country.

“cccp” (ussr, rest in peace) welcomes the ones stepping out: grey, cold, a little scary big concrete blocks. till you approach the city, you adequately feel that this was a former soviet republic: a short ride on a bad road and neglected buildings.

my “landlady” in hayastan, azniv andreasyan, had kindly managed to send a taxi to pick me. i couldn’t get rid of another taxi driver till I found my driver sent. i think he was romany, but he was there not to represent the romans but the universal character of taxi business: he first made a bargaining for 65 usd, his second pricing was 20 usd, and what i paid to my taxi sent was something like 10 usd.
i’d like to conclude about taxi drivers: till i got used to currency, distances and the taxi tariff, i paid a total of 70 usd to 2 separate taxi drivers. they didn’t object or thank. no nation’s taxi driver can represent his nation. he shouldn’t. i’m moving on from this topic right now.
*

close to 07.00 a.m., i’m at the main square of the capital of the country (“republic square”; ordering just as “square” to the driver, you can reach); and yet it’s dark. i couldn’t see one single police around. this confirms my previous information: this is a secure country. truly, neither as a tourist on my own, nor on behalf of people wandering in the streets at midnight, i witnessed a single unpleasant/bothering incidence. well yes i heard about some suburbs which are less secure, but just heard; i myself saw nothing irritating in the centrum.
let’s have a brainstorming about how this is possible: this is kind of a graceful nation, thanks both to the high level of education and the tradition of eastern culture; and of course, to capitalism being only in the beginning phase. gnp per capita is below 1.500 usd: income of ordinary citizen is quite humble. we’d better come back and have a look at the security and all again, when capitalist system gets further developed and the inequality in distribution of wealth gets deeper. anyway.

day life starts like one hour later compared to turkey.

among the first I noticed: there’re a bit too much groceries/markets, and most of them are open 24 hours a day. as i was coming from the airport to the city, i woke up an old man sleeping in his buffet to buy a cigarette – they’re that open. groceries look like those groceries of my country when i was a kid: a dim light, wooden shelves, biscuits and cookies sold in open boxes.
since we said “cigarette”, let’s have a look: everyone including the youth smokes everywhere, and it’s 50% cheaper compared to turkey prices. slim cigarettes are fashionable, even those macho-looking guys have thin cigarettes in their hands. the brand that i smoke which is being produced also in manisa/turkey, comes here from germany (and it’s price in germany is perhaps three times the price here).
alcoholic drinks: are for free, let’s say. in a decent place i paid 10 usd for 4 martinis. the cost in turkey for the same pleasure is so high that i could not dare to do the same thing for years. however, as far as the alcoholic drink prices are concerned, we should rethink if it is cheap here, or it’s high in turkey thanks to the taxes that our religious and (principally commercial) communionist government applies.


“a wonderful apartment”

daily cost of a hostel or a small hotel room almost equals to renting a furnished flat (35-50 usd). apartments are rented furnished here, and short-term rents like 1 week or 10 days are possible. i chose the latter, in order to get more comfortable and oriented.
my place that my friends rated as “a wonderful apartment”: a 4-floor building remained from the soviet era. compared to those giant and depressive alternatives i saw, it’s in much better condition; and yes, it’s wonderfully central. and the ceilings are almost 4 meters high. however: the furniture are my brother’s age if not mine, and apparently the flat had almost no cleaning. it can bearly be compared with the ‘humblest’ examples of those student apartments i saw/stayed in collage.

(do not trust the anatolian wind that you can frequently enjoy outdoors: there’s no water supply to the closet seat.)
nevertheless, it’s more than enough for me, I’m happy anyway.


erivan=yerevan

remember the military expedition of ottoman emperor selim I named “revan expedition”, aha: “revan” state of old iran equals today’s hayastan. (how about those “tough sultan”, “lawmaker sultan” expressions.. i think we’d better stop calling the guys like that. worse point is: we’ll forget their actual names.
since i started lecturing history, let me continue: armenian population in the region was 18%, when the region was occupied by russians in 1828.
having gained this information,
question to turkish nationalists: guess where were the majority of hayer at that date and throughout history?
and question to armenian nationalists: do you really want to talk about “in history which district belonged to who?
“inçevitse”=”anyway”..)

2 of 3 millons of total population lives in yerevan.

now.. you already learned about the republic square. the avenue on the left, which is one of the two from the square to upper part of the city, is abovyan street. learn this long street, then step in and out the streets that crosses this one, and finally take a walk at “mashdots” (inventor of armenian alphabet lived in 4th century. the other name of the street is “prospect”, meaning “street” in russian) which can be thought as a parallel street to abovyan: you almost learned the city, no way that you get lost.

if it’s crucial to make a similitude to one specific city in turkey, i would say ankara – a smaller and much more even-tempered one, of course. due to the capital atmosphere (ministries, governmental organizations etc.), being a planned city (city’s planner tamanyan is a man lived in 20th century. a saintly man who spent the money given to him to build a house for his own, for yerevan), the multiplicity of cultural events and the attention of people for these, number of monuments and statues, etc.

tamanyan sculpture in the front, and "cascade" at the back, which is another architecture to be seen.

some parts of the city, and images of macho guys/brunette girls, may also remind adana.
the thing is: in hayastan, you’ll most frequently think that any person or place, looks like someone or somewhere in turkey.
and when you give up getting surprised about the extent of this much similarity, you’ll start feeling in your hayrenik (home country, hometown).

try to learn the names of the streets and the sculptures; so that you’ll have valuable information about both armenian history, and the characteristic and sensitivities of the nation. all are honorable people. for example, this uncle abovyan was a writer. he’s respected as the father of armenian literature. he’s legendary for his demise: he has once climbed ararat. then he climbed once more. he never turned back.
know that the sculpture before the opera building is composer khaçaduryan, cited with şostakoviçs and prokofyefs; and as if it’s a rule, had troubles with the soviet administration, despite he was a communist himself. if you won’t be able to remember all these, learn about him for a practical reason: the sculpture is a popular and ideal point for meeting with friends.
pianist babacanyan sculpture at the other side of the opera building is also worth seeing.

khaçaduryan statue. at the back, is the opera building.

wideness of the streets, and their being connected in short distances by squares having architectural/visual elements, is capable with the notion of being a capital.
(this was my 2nd visit abroad, 1st was to italy. emphasizing in advance that i’m not a man who would tell a lot of stories about adventures abroad, i would like to note that my observation about the streets and squares explained above reminds me rome.)

especially older buildings were build with a stone named “tuf”, a stone that’s available only here around and having a sweet pinkish color. almost every building has a cellar/shelter type basement that can be climbed down by stairs at the side of the building. most of those classy café/bars are at these basements.
on main entrances of buildings, there’re code buttons instead of key locks.

transportation –including taxis- is pretty cheap. however, the prices at café/restaurants are close to those in turkey. tap water is drinkable, i heard no one talking about arsenic (unlike turkey).

an example of buildings made by tuf:

an official building in republic square.

..by the way, i wasn’t expecting this much of traffic; and, do not trust the green light if you are a pedestrian, “rival” driver would never decelerate but drive on you with same speed he was. well, i observed for a little while, apparently the guy who regulated the traffic signalization failed to manage it. i looked carefully to see if i’m mistaken: when it’s green for pedestrians, it’s not red for vehicles; good job. after seeing here, i concluded that the traffic problem in my country is more or less solved.
in my friend gohar ghandilyan’s brilliant words: “green is for cars, red is for people!”


language

after a long while that it was considered as a variant of persian, in 19th century, it was ‘discovered’ that it is “hayeren” (armenian language) branch of indo-european languages (their religion also, is a special category in christianity; they seem to be enjoying being exceptions). let it be my bad not to recognize a difference from any slavic language till the last days of my visit, but it sounds even like japanese sometimes.

"statue" of armenian alphabet close to yerevan

there’re 38 letters (some sounds are written by two characters). “kh” sound heard before you spit to your enemy-by-heart, is in actual use in this language. that one and a couple of more like that, make it sound as kind of an ‘eastern’ language for turkish ear. a’s are like o’s, etc.
not only those above but also: “ha can?” you hear suddenly. as you know, you can hear this expression within turkey borders, too; and what you think would be a snobbish “i wonder where this pal is from?” the meaning here is, however, a very passionate “yes dear?”

there’re two dialects as “eastern” and “western” hayeren. learn as: eastern one is hayastan, western one is diaspora hayeren.

let’s also have a short look at the names: armenians are a nation famous for their being artists, artisans and merchants. however, their creativity on those directions seems to contribute less to giving names: half of the men are tigran/dikran, or armen/arman (i couldn’t meet a single “agop”); likewise, half of the population have the sirnames sargisyan/sarkisyan or harutyunyan. you can find plenty of similar words within the sirames: nazar, minaz, mutaf, arzuman, nalbant…

politics


i can say that there’s a strong opposition. the polarization is similar to that in turkey: the government and the rest. but the similarity is limited with that.
republicans (and two other coalition partners) are in power . it’s a widely accepted fact that february ’08 presidential elections were corrupted by the governing party. unfortunately things got even worse: protestors were gunshot at march 1st, 10 died. as far as i could see, every single day, a small group gathers in blabla street and commits a silent protest (paranthesis for the street itself: it was built by destructing the old buildings and replacing them with huge ones that are monuments of ugliness. lots of people hated.) the protest is small-scale and silent, because people who were shot were also rewarded by being beaten by the police and were arrested upon the charge “resistance to the police”. my friend tevos, turned out to be the son of one of the prevailing figures of the opposition. davit matevossian will be in prison for more than 2 years. do join “freedom to m.d.” group in facebook.

with tevos

i thank tevos, for he told me about the karabagh problem, which i had limited knowledge about, even by drawing some map on a paper. i would suggest you not to learn about it, it’s freaking.

corrupted elections are, for sure, exclusively good reason to be opponents. however, my efforts towards learning by myself or from people keeping their distance to politics, about which governmental policies the opposition rejects and suggests as alternatives, simply failed. so i directly asked to those who define themselves as opposers: actully there were no major differences between declared policies of the counterparts within the constitutional framework, the problem is that the government do not comply with its words.
ok, so i’m proved to be wrong, there’s another similarity: also in today’s turkey, regardless of which mainstream party would come to power, the same macroeconomic policy (total entegration with global capitalism) would be held, and/or the same foreign policy (“let’s do nothing, if possible; let things as they are”) would be proceeded. political parties here also, appereantly, have marginal differences in between. for instance, like the case in turkey, no matter it’s government or opposition, there seems to be remaining no one talking about the social state, fair distribution of wealth, etc.
let’s talk about the famous daşnaks shortly here.. i’m someone who can understand/explain the society/world, by “social classes” approach. those “both nationalist and leftist” salads that you can see plenty of examples in turkey, are also here, that is, these daşnaks. i’m still troubled about understanding how these two concepts can get along in one’s mind.

i also heard about a rising impact of the church in political arena.

using dearest varduhi şahnazaryan as translator, i asked to an over mid-aged taxi driver if the soviet period was better or the current system is. apparently that was a vital point, he started giving like a dozen examples for how the previous regime was better: you could go to moscow and have a vacation for a week for 100 rubles, etc.etc. it’s known that socialist experience has solved some problems like education, health and employment in a way. on the other hand, one had almost no right to choose, and saying “i don’t like this” was already forbidden. eastern societies has little concern about democracy as you know (even form yourselves), the man misses the past.
there’s no nostalgic view of the youth, capitalism with all its institutions is what they’re looking for.

hearing the word “freedom”, the taxi man gets being able to make a holiday for so cheap, which i admit the most; and one another gets being free to say “i don’t like this one and that, bro”, which i also admit the most. we expect our high authorities to solve such issues.

-ngo’s: there are, even lots of them. there are those who try to operate with its scarce resources, and those who are funded abroad (they still seem not to have learned that it’s a shame to receive money from soros, or pretend they do not know).
i rushed into one, which I derived the conclusion that its aims are parallel to my motivation coming to hayastan, by looking at its name on the signboard. i talked to a lady coming out of the door instead of welcoming me in. i explained my reasons for coming to the country and asked for information about their activities. she told me that they gather a library. i asked if there are any other projects, and if i can be useful for them anyhow. she repeated that they gather a library. feeling ashamed about wasting her time for nothing, i ended my short visit.

economy and level of welfare


saying it’s a poor country won’t be wrong. i’m trying to figure out how this country affords itself: there are mining and food product exports. rich people became rich via trading, importing, and of course, not paying tax (in a way so reminding a neighboring country). i couldn’t catch a hint of industrialization.
however, i could see the funeral of it: in a one-day trip we made to state lori, i could find the chance to see the junk of ex-soviet factories for my own eyes. imagine: a river flowing in a vertical and narrow valley, a small city founded on both sides of the river, and a factory constructed on the slopes, so gigantic that you could hardly believe your eyes; god knows what was being produced here. from where the raw materials of this production came, transported to where using what infrastructure.. graced by god and donated by central planning. you face something totally different from capitalist productivity approach. remember i said “employment issue was solved some way”, that’s the way it was solved: it’s not surprising that the system became unable to reproduce itself within a relatively short period like 70 years.

in yerevan streets, serious number of luxury cars/jeeps roam around – some luxury models that you can rarely see even in turkey. and of course, plenty of old lada/moskviçs that you are surprised that they run. strange but true: most rarely you can see are “normal” models of cars.

there’re turkish products everywhere: key of my rented flat, shoe polisher i bought from the market, linen stacked up to the ceiling in the shop at the corner, white good stores with signboard at the top (interestingly, few people actually know that the brand is turkish). i saw a product of the factory I used to work myself, it’s that widespread.
you can see turkish trucks on intercity roads: 5.000 of them enters annually.
for hayastan citizens, using turkish products or going to turkey, is not as strange as the other way around (people coming from turkey to here are most commonly peace volunteers, academicians, tradesmen, and of course turkey hayer. there’re even yerevan-antalya charter flights in summer months, antalya has became a popular honeymoon voyage here).


the issue and museum and monument of genocide



it would be best to start with the notification below:

for sure, during my 11 days there, there had been many people asking the reason of my visit. someone from turkey going to hayastan for a touristic visit: something curious, no doubt (for people from turkey, it’s not even just curious, it’s strange with the word’s negative meaning). however, during all 11 days, no single person came up with the question “ok bro, what do you think about the genocide?”
i met my friends, met their friends; after a 2-3 days ‘observation’, i told everybody i talked that i was coming from turkey: no, i was the one who always started talking about the matter, no single person even implied anything.

you, of course, do understand that what i say above doesn’t mean a “no problem left anymore”. what i want to say is: you know that there’s a stereotype on ordinary turk’s mind about hayer, labelling them as people who think&talk about a genocide 24 hours a day, and dedicate their lives for that mission; it is not the case. the matter is no doubt a hot one, however, not a fiercely burning one, but an ember instead.

i asked to my hay friends whom i know to be far away from fanatism, about how the issue is held in school books: all said that it’s told in a relatively objective manner.
it was interesting to learn that the question “why didn’t all those people unite and resist”, has begun to be asked; it was also interesting to think why.
*
i’m not that pretentious to try fixing gangrenous problems in a travel report, i’ll just share my observations and feelings:

-least important detail: the museum was smaller than i imagined. it was built in 60’s in soviet period, they’re still surprised with soviets letting such a thing to be done. what i remember from my readings, is soviets giving up resisting to international pressure and recognitions at a point.
-about the museum.. i conclude with my strongest recommendation to see.
-as for the monument: if you aren’t already ruined in the museum, you surrender there. a fire at the centre that never burns out, an emotional melody coming from the speakers outside; i could just sit on the stairs ultimately.
i was with azniv, she heard i could –only- say: “hundreds of thousands of people who were gone, were my countries people. not hayastan citizens, not people of anybody else, they were my people.”
*
as i said, all people from hayastan i talked to, were kind enough to adopt an approach of not asking/implying anything to me about 1915. however, on the other hand, i found no hint of an atmosphere of “ok, we have the right to expect an apology; but nobody on earth is 100% innocent, and we should start thinking to put on our agendas, about apologizing for those people who commited certain crimes claiming to be committed on behalf of armenian nation.”
sharing other’s pains, is a must of being humans. however, a one-sided sensitivity should not be considered adequate.
*
this debate is kind of a dogfight: “recognize the genocide!”, “there’s no such thing!”
my very humble suggestion for everyone, regardless of nationalities, is as follows:

look at the nearest child to you. your daughter, your brother, one playing in the park; just some child: the nearest one.
then, as you’re looking,
think that an old person who is waiting for his time, tells you about the trauma that s/he suffered when s/he was that child’s age.

think with your “human” identitiy, before your turkish or hay identities.
*
i’ll conclude by turning back to the beginning: talking about these with a turk, is much more harder than talking about it with a hay. i won’t explain why in detail, i kindly ask you to think why.

look at the judes?

more than one person asked, so it has to be kind of a spread “information”: young turks including m.kemal “were jewish”. when it was first asked, i couldn’t see the essence and started telling about sabetayism (sabetay sevi was a jewish religious leader lived in 17th century): izmir and thessaloniki were two main cities of sabetay followers, and since the young turk movement emerged in thessaloniki, some people may have fabricated the idea that they were jewish.
later i realized about all: some people wanted to explain this catastrophe with a jewish conspiracy, and this “information” quickly spread. i mean, if my response would be “oh sure, that may be true”, we would be solving all the problem there between two individuals. sometimes one can hardly know what to think. let’s think again simply: in a nation which claims that “the first genocide in 20th century, was not what nazis did to judes, but was what we have suffered in Anatolia in ww1”, there’re people who wants to believe that their tragedy was all about a siyonist trick. i cannot decide weather to be surprised about the level anti-semitism reaches, or to curse an even further inclusive –and global- style of “nationalism”.
nationalism is such a thing: it cannot live without creating enemies.


“i would give it to you if it was mine”


ararat from yerevan. this close..

noone's left unlearned i suppose: “ararat”, they call mountain ağrı. greater ağrı is “masis”, smaller one is “sis”, and both as a mountain complex are “ararat”. whenever its name is voiced, you’ll hear a boast like “it seems prettier from this side of the border!”, and honestly they have a point, it seems marvelous from the other side of the frontier, even to a sea-child like me.
“one gains culture about mountains, by seeing ararat even only once.” cemal süreya

let me tell about the importance of ararat for their national culture in a different way/by an interesting case: all were surprised when i said i never saw it from our side.
the belief: the place where the ‘2nd civilization’ were built by those coming out of noah’s ark, is armenian plateau. and the ark, “as known”, is on ararat. in short, the passion for ararat is connected with the bible, and has strong roots in this religious nation’s identitiy. “it’s the symbol of national identity”, to express in cliché words.

other national symbols: apricot and pomegranate. even the scientific name for apricot is “prunus armeniaca”, and best “duduk”s, the national instrument, are said to be made of apricot tree. and pomegranate symbolizes the fact that hayer are spread all around the world.

let’s finish: about ararat, when i said “it has a huge spiritual importance for you, i would give it to you if it was mine” to azniv, “some other friend from turkey had said exactly the same thing before”, she replied.


“do you have that?!”


damn with that painful past in common, how it separated people living next doors for a thousand of years.


now i’ll write down in a row without explanation/translation: imambayıldı, karnıyarık, sucuk (both types, yes), baklava, şerbet, şeker, nargile, tarçın, zeytin, biber, patlıcan (they’ve just misunderstood “domat”, they’re using the word for tomato paste).
would you like some more: sus, hayvan, p..nk, s…r..
there’s this one-to-one version of the idiom “if you drop a needle it won’t reach the floor” also in hayeren. donkeys fail to enjoy: compote in turkey, sweet almond in hayastan.


i made fun of my young friends asking “do you have that?!”, by always replying with “well do YOU have it?”, because they were asking in a very surprised manner and about everything including imambayıldı etc. i translated imambayıldı and karnıyarık, they burst into laughter.

i adopted the mission of telling all those turkish coffee/armenian coffee/greek coffee are the same thing. and i won’t be surprised if the inventors are another 4th nation.



-how can you recognize an armenian in a crowd?
-wait, he’ll come and tell.


i do recognize them immediately thanks to those characteristic noses, but that’s not the point.

think: you’re in a country that gained de facto independence&removed stalin sculpture&erected “mother hayastan” statue, before the soviet union collapsed.

it can be seen that, the emotion called “national pride”, is very strong here. you can observe that even the most ordinary/apolitic person enjoy saying “i’m armenian” – most likely, they’ll add the adjective “pure” before. i dedicated myself, as far as i could, to tell about the fact that the last “pure” humanbeing on earth passed away centuries ago, and we’re all gene mixtures.
an indication: being reasonable or not, they have this –sometimes funny- tendency of adding the word “armenian” before everything. let those sentences like “armenian apricot raised under armenian sun” are marketing suggestions, but what’s that “armenian spring water” phrase on bottles of water for god’s sake..?
i failed to persuade my mates about why that was funny. i told them about my mailing with a diaspora boy via internet: his name was “toros polatyan”, and i asked him the meaning of his name if he knows about it, and received the reply “it’s an armenian mountain”. well no, what he meant was not simply “a mountain that was within historic armenian boundaries”; according to this logic, a mountain can be armenian, chinese etc. anyway, eventually, i could convince noone about why the saying “armenian mountain” is ridiculous.

this notion may be explained by the feeling of being ‘cramped’ in a territory that they perceive as very small and has no access to seas, whereas they were once spread in a large near-eastern territory in history. one of the works of creative painter/sculptor koçar, illustrates epic hero davit of sasun (sasun: a county of batman) on a horse, and the sculpture is on a very narrowly base, referring to that feeling of “being cramped in a small district”. one foot of the horse knocks a bowl with water, symbolizing “the nation’s patience is coming to an end”.

they would call eastern/southeastern anatolia as “western hayastan” with ease (they also feel free to use the same expression in official documents). i find it understandable as long as it implies their roots, or being driven out of it. however, i hope them to understand soon, that “drawing maps” –something i saw in numerous different places- is at least ‘inappropriate’.
“western Armenia map that you draw, is more or less the same with the one that separationist kurds draw” i scored, they thought on nationalism/expansionism/drawing maps for a second.

do not misunderstood: adopting serious claims of other countries' lands belong to a small minority. as far as i understood, a small group represented by daşnaks, claims not only turkish, but also georgian, azeri, and yes, iranian territories; a senseless logic free from intelligence, something like “all the land that hayer live on and had lived on”. we’d better say “may god forgive”, and not to take it seriously. even our 'grey wolves' had already left expressions like this behind.


religion


they love to tell that they are “the first nation to adopt christianity as a whole” - i checked that from various sources, it turned out to be true. “illuminator krikor” was the leader of this conversion.
they’re religious people. it’s widespread to think that they’re orthodox christians, but you hear the objection “we’re not orthodox, we’re apostolic”. apostles are the 12 followers of jesus. i don’t have deep knowledge about christianity, so unfortunately i won’t be able to tell about how apostolicism differentiates from orthodoxy, if not being extra fond of the apostles.

on my last sunday in hayastan, we went to eçmiadzin, a very close city to yerevan and the religious center, for the sunday ceremony in “main church”.

from the ceremony in "main church, eçmiadzin.

i was so lucky to witness “myron” (an oil used for baptizing) blessing ceremony, taking place in every 7 years. for it was an important event, there were clergymen from other country churches, mostly orthodox ones (two days before that, i saw the guys on tv visiting the genocide monument. if you are an official guest, you make that visit).
the church authority managing the ceremony, started with those standart words “welcome, it’s our pleasure” etc., and continued with talking about “the unity of all hayer on the world, as hayastan and diaspora hayer”. i’m not good with religion, i’m worse than that with nationalism, i was irritated immediately. first thing appeared on my mind: my country is this or that, and turks never step back from neither being religious nor being nationalists; but imams in cassocks are never let to talk like “muslim world/turan dream”. i have to be fair about that.
after i calmed down a bit, i thought again: this is the “armenian church”. when this fact is considered, it’s not that extreme/anti-laicist. after all, for centuries, being a member of the apostolic church used to be the main criteria of being a member of the armenian nation.

when the ceremony was over, dear religious fathers jumped into their super expensive and all black jeeps and went away. other christians took the minibuses.

another interesting incidence in the church: i noticed a young man standing before me, with an identity card attached on, illustrating a greek flag and his name. for i’m that naive to think like “vay, far away, in eçmiadzin of hayastan, i found a neighbor”, i gave my hand to him cheerfully and said “are you greek? hello, I’m from turkey, my name is tolga!” my hand waited in the space for a while, because neighbor needed to think about what the hell was happening there, some time later he tried hard to smile and said “nice to meet you”, finally shaking my hand. maybe his english was bad, maybe he was a bit too disappointed, i’m not sure. despite all, i won’t be talking loud here, like “he comes to hayastan, a country that he thinks he has common hostility against turks; and someone from turkey gives a friendly hand to him in a big sunday ceremony: of course he would be knocked out”. we shouldn’t be generalizing about greeks as a whole, deriving from one single bad representative. let’s summarize as: there was a greek boy at the ceremony, he was really an anthipathetic guy.

they have a cute tradition: for every first harvest of a fruit, they bring a basket of those and bless it. i was lucky to see that, too.




eating-drinking


there was this desire of ottoman men, formulated as: “turkish in the streets, hay in the kitchen, greek in bed”. although i stayed for a long time, i couldn’t taste about the traditional kitchen till the last evening: it’s almost impossible to find a traditional restaurant. i even blamed my young friends about it first, thinking “do i have a bit too young friends here, they just couldn’t take me to some place serving armenian food&music”. i won’t hide that i was disappointed. then i thought: also in izmir, for instance, you cannot frequently see some eating house with aegean food/olive oil dishes; but still, there are some. in yerevan, you can find cafes similar to ours, you can find italian/french kitchen, you can even find –plenty of- lahmacun/döner; but traditional food are cooked at home. (for lahmacun: was not bad, could be better. but we should start exporting tar immediately, they just couldn’t manage it.)

i was very surprised about the lack of (the culture of) 2 things. first, they have no habit for çay (tee). you ask for çay somewhere, the waiter who’s a member of a nation that was in close connection with anatolian and russian cultures for centuries ask back “green çay or normal çay”, you say you want normal, and he serves some bag-tea; it’s incredible. and: would you believe if i say they don’t have breakfast.. you can find some pastry on the streets, however such buffets are opened at 10:00 a.m. or so. i asked about it further more: they tend to cook omelet at home, if they decide to have a breakfast.
saying “we learned all the bad things from turks!”, is a joke they love to make. well, not learning to drink tea and having breakfast, despite living with turks for a thousand years; let that not be turks’ fault.

there’re alcoholic drinks, even in places looking like tea gardens. correction: these are alcohol gardens, actually. there’re guys next table, drinking beer at like 11.00 a.m.
toasting, is a ritual more important compared to it is for us: somebody would definitely stand up and talk.
*
you say “haşiv” for asking for the bill, your gesture would be: a straight or writing-like line in air with your forefinger; or more commonly, a small rectangle drawn by thumbs and forefingers.

by the way: do not expect for good service in places like restaurants, cafes, exchange offices etc. i don’t know why but that’s the way it is (perhaps it’s a negative effect of the soviet period). once i saw: the customer stood up, went to the table that the waiter was sitting and chatting with some people, kindly asked for the menu, and the waiter gave it saying “oh sure”.
further example: if you ask for yoğurt to have with french fries, they may not be able to bring some because there's none.
i really appreciate the rate of success of waiters, desk officials etc., about the consistency in not having an eye-contact with the customer. (low) service quality may get freaking. assume you asked for ‘haşiv’.. it being brought, plus waiting for the exchange, plus tipping like 10% even if it was also added in your bill.. may last a total of half an hour, so be prepared and calm.

there’s a beer brand named “kilikia”, which complies with our taste (and there’s a neighborhood named “malatya”, by the way).



in the streets – people’s appereances and the rest




a superb nostalgic surprise for someone from izmir: there're troleybuses! and no question, poor driver walking down and fixing things..!

i think it would be best to start with noting that 2/3 of population are women. if you ask about where men are: because employment shrinked tragically after the collapse of old regime and declaration of independence, hundreds and thousands of men are working abroad – 40 to 50 thousand in turkey (yes indeed, in turkey). direct consequences of this “society of women” situation are as follows:

-first of all, it became a heaven for the remaining men, naturally.
-due to the shortage of men to hold hands, you see girls hand in hand in streets.
-women labor is high. not only they consist the majority in some sectors like journalism, you can even see municipality worker women watering parks&gardens.

now.. i’m not sure how i’ll tell below without making your sister-in-law (my wife) angry, but let’s start.. including izmir which is a city famous for its beautiful girls, i guarantee that in nowhere else, you can see a mass of young girls this coquette. every one of them look like going to some fancy restaurant for dinner, at any time of the day.

one minute, gentlemen, don’t get excited: you can just look, don’t expect any further. we’re talking about people of anatolian and caucasian geography, this is quite a conservative society. “let’s have some fun without getting married”, just forget about it. moreover: except those richie bastards having an appearance like “i cannot have enough space to put my money”, there’re no guys flashing evil glances on girls.
about the young boys.. exceptions apart, but.. well I don’t want to break hearts, you understand don’t you.. welcome to a sharp contrast: next to those figurative model-like girls, there're eastern boys wearing black leather shoes, black pants, black belt, short or long sleeved folksy designed t-shirts that were slided under the pants. your eyes hardly can get used to what you see, you keep on saying “how”.
well, actually i cannot say that there’s a big difference, about young or older men’s style of wearing/appereance when compared to turkey. city boys prefer casual/sports wear. outside yerevan, there’s this tendency of wearing black from top to toe.

gayhood is a serious taboo. let’s put it like this: if this is the standart, we shouldn’t be calling the situation in turkey as a taboo.
(let’s have a paranthesis: a young and famous writer of us with whom i happened to be classmates for a year, had written that “in hayastan, men wearing blue means being gay”. i learnt all about it: “light blue” in russian also means “gay”. russian is the first foreign language here as you know, so they used to make jokes about who weared blue. that’s pretty much the case.)

about people’s appereances in general.. shortly: talking about 90% of the population, take anyone, put him/her on a street of any city in turkey you would like; no one would recognize until he/she starts talking in hayeren, the person would seem fully ‘local’.
this is not simply saying “oh god, how alike we are”: this territory that we also live on, is the “old world”, nations keep on mixing for thousands of years (right here i would like to take the advantage of reminding that “turkish gene” consists 10-15% of anatolian gene map). i myself, similar to the way i explained above, never drew attention as foreigner, almost everyone stated that i look like a hay.
*
-you’ll happen to meet beggars in the streets; i guess it’s not as high as here when considered in terms of ratios.
-you get happy when you find somebody speaking english. as an inheritance of the old regime, russian is still the most common foreign language. there’s a slight possibility that you can meet some mid-age and over mid-age people speaking some turkish, I could meet one only once.
-cellphones can be used in full performance even at top of mountains, i don’t know how they managed it. and you would have no problem about internet access, there’re plenty of internet cafes (but do not go to one and just sit before any computer on your own, they will tell you which number of desk you’re going to sit).
-in small hairdressers, men and women have haircut back to back. women coiffures cut men’s hair. we’re definitely not used to these as you know, i stopped and watched for a while.
-we waited for a lesson of “turkology” department to be visitors, the lesson didn’t start. i was so surprised to learn that it’s a routine for academicians to receive bribery.
-a total number equaling half of domestic population, comes as tourists annually, are their majority diaspora hayer? by the way: bear in mind that you can hardly build a dialogue with a diaspora member, unlike the case with a hay from hayastan. it’s almost the same negative approach with those in turkey using the word “so-called” before everything. you won’t be able to tell about something, because they just don’t want to listen; maybe you’d better not to tire yourself for free.
-at the evening of my first day, there was a show of national dance ensemble at the opera building. when we asked for tickets in morning hours, there were only two tickets left. at the evening hours, i saw buses of people coming. tourists buses they were, they might be visitors from diaspora, it was a crowd of mid-age and over mid-age people. and their appearances were no different from their peers you could see when you’re outdoors in turkey.
-short before i was there, there was “70th anniversary of jazz in yerevan” festival (seventy, yes). there’s also an annual “golden apricot film festival”. in short: almost everyday there’s an activity, cultural events jet from everywhere.
-buying bottles of water is unnecessary: there’re drinking fountains everywhere.
-i could rarely see children in the streets, probably just by chance.


places to see

-koçar museum: a place definitely to be seen. somebody even like me who has limited relation with fine arts, had real delight. he was a creative man who worked on creating volumes in painting art. don’t bother with the guide’s artistic murmur like “4th dimension”, just enjoy yourself.
-parajanov museum: it would be a shame if we call the person only as a film director. the museum is a visual fest, and consisted mainly of his collages that he defines as “short films”: broken glasses and ceramics (that he broke himself, apparently), sea shells, fibers, beads, pieces of jewelry… he also have paintings, and some other work that you cannot categorize easily: portraits in dimensions of some bigger stamps (he named them as ‘stamps’ anyway) that he created in prison, works he called “thalers” made by using aluminum covers of milk bottles (picture on the left)..
he attended istanbul international film festival in ’89, and died a year later. there’s a photo of him in the museum taken by ara güler. we figure out that he stayed in pullman hotel: there’s an istanbul drawing of him on a letterhead paper of the hotel, something worth to be seen (i was tolerated to take a cellphone photo of it. picture on the right).
don’t talk about his being gay like i did, just keep it to yourself; as i said before it’s a conservative society, they don’t like to talk about such things, they immediately get annoyed and reply: “that’s how the russians blamed him and put him in jail!”
-state art museum is highly recommended. for i went there with guiding crow varduhi, we couldn’t find the entrance and turned back. there’re two alcohol factories welcoming visitors, staying that long and not visiting any of them is my bad. i couldn’t also see the 2nd big city gümrü and lake sevan because of bad weather conditions. there’s another museum named “matenadaran” where old manuscript books are exhibited, i ask them to forgive me for i’ll say it’s really boring.
-old bazaar: there’re junks of electic devices and installments that I wondered who would buy for what, and some truly kitch paintings. but I recommend the place to buy gifts like ornaments, table-tops, etc. take the street on the right from the republic square, it’s on the right ahead.
-lori: it’s a state within hayastan at georgia border. having some rude courage, only in my 3rd day, i went to some mountains in a country that my country has no embassies. that was the only day of my 11 days there, when i felt i was in a “new” place, it was really a different geography compared to mine: high mountains, rivers flowing between them, everywhere green… and on the top of rocky mountains, deep down in the cliffs, there are small churches all being small masterpieces.
i couldn’t dare to climb down a cliff, and stayed where i was up there. people sometimes make clever choices without intention: 4 young women who are keen on their comfort like me, invited me to their meal with wine (their real motivation inviting me was to make me open the bottle, but still).
-che bar: maximum 40 m2 large. price for beer is the same with supermarket price i think, and import snobbish drinks (bailey’s etc.) are about 4 usd. i don’t think it would be too wrong if i state that “the owner had started here, not for profiting but to have a place he would enjoy himself”.
i did everything to make the lebanese man whom i couldn’t tell between if he was the barmen or the boss: mentioned him about my profile photo in facebook was a fidel&che picture, my che t-shirts and all. i’m not sure to what extent i succeeded, his face is always like a rock (lebanese hayer are among the first when it comes to ‘love' for turks, by the way). well of course, i have to take into consideration about my loudly fooling with two grafitties as soon as i set down, assuming that no one understands english.
after i paid for the bill in my first visit, i congratulated the man saying “this is the place i've always dreamed of”. in my last visit, when i said i was turning back to turkey the same evening, he said that i had an unpaid drink from my previous visit. i replied with paying what he wants and telling that i would love him whatever he does.
he doesn’t let people with sports suits in, he doesn’t let people to take photos inside, he doesn’t welcome customers after 24:00: he’s a man of principles. in one of our chats, after he asked me if turkey will open the border –which is a question you would hear from anyone-, he asked me about my opinions about russian-georgian relations; I felt myself honored. i later figured out the reason for his question: he argued that if georgia track for turkish exports was endangered due to security reasons, turkey would approach more symphatetic to opening the border. i like people thinking about stuff even if their deductions are unreasonable.
*
-you know about the latest irritating fashion in our country: they scratch pictures of the departed on his/her gravestone. same thing i saw there. you know that hayer are masters in engravings and all, and i’m suspicious about if this fashion was imported to turkey from there.


folklore


in an armenian restaurant at my last evening. strangest thing for turkish eyes could be me.

you can listen to that instrumental version of the song “sen gelmez oldun” in somewhere you sit – a song that you can hear around also in turkey. there’s also an awful style of pop music, parallel to that one in turkey called arabesk/fantasy/tavern (i can’t help being a smarty: do you know how that word “fantasy” began to be used… it’s derived from lyrics such as “i won’t give up, even if the world comes upside down”: it’s the “world coming upside down fantasy", got it? whatever, i don’t want to curse here.)

perfect statement of muammer ketencoğlu: “there’re no music of nations, but there’re music of geographical regions.” dear friend from edirne, izmir, muğla, think about it: are your regions’ traditional melodies similar to greek music, or erzurum folk songs?
due to the fact that historical armenian lebensraum is a region from caucasia to mediterranean, traditional folklore is on a scale from what we know as “circassian music/dances” to “kurdish music/dances” (you know the shallow approach “they’ve stolen that from us!”? the similarity is to that extent, to make those kind of people say it numerous times. even i, for a couple of times, couldn’t avoid saying “bro, this is -music&dance of- urfa region or what?”). by the way, armenian folk dance is really spectacular, with all those figures and costumes, do check for some in youtube.

when it comes to traditional armenian music, we’re talking about one that is remarkably slow and sad. i have the deepest respect, but i have to note that a civan gasparyan (to whose 70th birthday a number of famous artists attended including george michael) cd may create the same effect with the song “i’ll die tonight”, which led to 2 suicides in turkey.

before my visit, i promised myself to be the first person to go to hayastan from turkey and not singing “sarı gelin” there; i don’t know if i was the first but i swear i didn’t do it. and here’s the reason i trouble myself with writing to you for pages: i’ll really appreciate it if ordinary turk and ordinary hay discovers the fact that they have lots more in common other than sarı gelin.

football

no need to be too polite: it’s dead (hayastan is 90something or so, in fifa national ranking). i went to an upper league match (at the same day, there was also the only big derby of the country; but although both were yerevan teams, for a mysterious reason, the match was in some other city). the match i went to, was played in the largest stadium of the country (“hrazdan”). entrance was for free. till i entered, even after that, there were no signs of an upper league match would be played. in that largest stadium, we were a maximum of 150 people in total, including the guys on the pitch. during the pre-game ceremony seconds before the start, substitutes were still exercising by taking shots, etc.
i could stand the game equaling to turkish 3rd league only for the first half. my friends hearing that i’ll go to a match already smiled at me saying that i was enthusiastic for nothing. i learned that guys watches european leagues, if they ever watch football.
ok, it’s obvious that football has already become an industry and strongly connected to financial power. nevertheless, it’s both surprising and sad to see such a decadence in a former eastern block land. at least they can run a bit.. remember, that ukraine team which would inform the police about a bomb when they see a ball, have scored four times to beşiktaş by only running in discipline. whatever…

as finishing – concern for giving a message

i was going to the toilet in a bar. after a while i could understand the problem of one of those anatolian-looking guys who ran after me: his girlfriend was in, and he doesn’t want me to disturb her in there, got it?.. i turned to him –both of us were drunk enough-“ok” i said, “i’m turkish by the way!” he looked at me for a second, and “ok, and i’m armenian” he replied; and we shaked each other’s hands in a style unique to men.

that’s all i want to tell you.


finished


what i noted down early in the morning as i was waiting for my flight back:
“i’m waiting for istanbul flight at zvartnots airport. i never thought that leaving here would be this melancholic. i came here with some motivation of ‘finding old neighbors’; i got so used to people here, to the city, to streets, and most importantly to friends i gained here; i got so used to that i feel so sure about coming back, as i’m turning back now.”

they hugged me like i hug my brother, at the last day when we were saying goodbye. truly, it’s neither necessary nor possible, to tell about some moments…
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i strongly advice you to go to hayastan. quoting from writer amberin zaman: “a country that hasn’t been conquered by globalization yet, that has a high civilization, that has a developed cultural life, that has few but warm and hospitable people”; and i would say, a “beautiful inside” country hayastan is.
let’s put it in another way: if you’re a turkey citizen loving your country as a “country”, it’s almost impossible for you not to like hayastan. i never felt as if i was a stranger starting even from the first day; everything was so familiar, from the culture to people’s appereances.

hostility… would they care about opening of the border if they were deadly hostile? turkey border to be opened is a concern for everyone i met.

you can be friends with a hay. correction: you can be friends with almost every hay. you can mock with your friend on purpose to make her angry, and burst into laughter when you have the reply “tolga, i’ll genocide you now!” i tried, it works.
(for sure, you avoid making a joke with those words, by the way.)

asking for their tolerance, i quote from arto tunç boyacıyan and birgün newspaper. musician arto tunç boyacıyan, announcing whom as “onno tunç’s brother” would be a shame, has once said: “there are no great hayer or great turks. i don’t want it. we should be humanbeings first. ‘every turk is born as soldier’ they’ve written on the border. i went and wrote ‘every hay is born as humanbeing’ right opposed to it. they (turkish authorities) complained about us to russians. they (armenian authorities) came to me. ‘you’ll remove it’ they said. i didn’t… was it wrong? i want everyone to talk in brotherhood and live in a peaceful environment. all we should be proud of, must be our brotherhood.”

*

as my last words:

about me..

if i can get permission from family, i’ll go whenever i can. for i miss that country since the day i returned…

behind a closed border –for now-, hayastan is a place,
that close, that familiar, and that lovely.