Abstract
Cultural destruction is an integral component of genocide as first formulated by Raphael Lemkin. The erasure of cultural heritage during and after the Armenian Genocide is particularly pronounced. Since the beginning the last decade efforts have been made to redress this erasure both within and outside Turkey. Projects employing digital media to repair this loss are described and analyzed. The objectives, successes, and failures of a decade-long memory project employing Dildilian family memoirs, Ottoman-era photographs, glass negatives, drawings, and original documents are utilized to both personalize the trauma and highlight the resilience of Armenians. A richly illustrated narrative of the lives of this extended family has been digitally recreated and employed in many different settings in Turkey and beyond.
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Notes
- 1.
“The historic cemetery at Julfa
stood until 2006 on the banks of the Arax River between Iran and Nakhichevan, west of the ruined city of Jugha [Julfa]. Culturally and historically unique, Julfa was one of the oldest Christian cemeteries in the world. At its peak, it held more than 10,000 ornately carved khach‘k‘ars (stone crosses) dating from the fifteenth century and ancient ram-shaped stones, dragon stones, and tombstones. Until its destruction, Julfa was the most expansive Armenian cemetery and held the most significant collection of khach‘k‘ars anywhere in the world. Of these sacred artworks, once found on the banks of the Arax River, none now remain. From 1998 the cemetery was subjected to systematic willful destruction by [Azeri] military forces and, between 2005 and 2006, was definitively destroyed.” The Julfa Cemetery Digital Repatriation Project. www.julfaproject.wordpress.com. The Project is creating a virtual 3-D cemetery based upon extensive photographic and documentary research. - 2.
Matthew Engel, “Germany Reclaimed: Berlin’s Jewish Revival,” New Statesman America, May 28, 2018, https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2018/05/germany-reclaimed-berlin-s-jewish-revival; and David Crossland, “‘We Can Resume Our Common History’ New Paper Covers Revival of German Jewish Life,” Spiegel Online, January 04, 2012, https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/we-can-resume-our-common-history-new-paper-covers-revival-of-german-jewish-life-a-807118.html
- 3.
Lemkin, Acts Constituting a General (Transnational) Danger Considered as Offences Against the Law of Nations (1933), http://www.preventgenocide.org/lemkin/madrid1933-english.htm
- 4.
ibid.
- 5.
Raphael Lemkin, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress, Carnegie Endowment for Peace, 2nd ed., Clark, NJ: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., 2008. P. 79.
- 6.
With the exception of the noteworthy case of the Armin Wegner, the German military officer who took photographs of the death and deprivations of the deportation caravans, there exists little documentary photography of the slaughter itself. Wegner had hoped that photographic evidence would raise the alarm back in Germany and lead to a halt in the genocide.
- 7.
See David Low, “Photography and the Empty Landscape: Excavating the Ottoman Armenian Image World,” Études arméniennes contemporaines, Vol.6, December 2015, 31–69.
- 8.
“Introduction,” Houshamadyan website, https://www.houshamadyan.org/introduction/why-houshamadyan.html
- 9.
Ibid.
- 10.
“Open Digital Archive,” Houshamadyan website, https://www.houshamadyan.org/oda.html
- 11.
“Introduction,” Houshamadyan website, https://www.houshamadyan.org/introduction/why-houshamadyan.html
- 12.
It is interesting to note that Houshamadyan, while located in virtual space, was created by individuals living and working in Berlin, Germany. Blut und Boden (Blood and Soil) were central to the ideology of National Socialism (Nazism).
- 13.
Information can be found on their website: http://www.anadolukultur.org/en/about/3231
- 14.
Steve Kettmann, “A Photo Show on a Pogrom 50 Years Ago Is Itself Attacked by a Mob,” New York Times, September 24, 2005; and “The Violence of History, in Pictures,” New York Times, September 28, 2005.
- 15.
Their story is told in my book, Fragments of a Lost Homeland: Remembering Armenia, London: I. B. Tauris, 2015.
- 16.
Some of the following exhibition descriptions are based, in part, upon my illustrated chapter, “Collective Memory, Memorialization and Bearing Witness in the Aftermath of the Armenian Genocide,” published in my co-edited book, Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Genocide and Memory, Jutta Lindert & Armen T. Marsoobian, eds. New York: Springer, 2018, 305–320.
- 17.
An illustrated description of the exhibition along with links to press reports can be found on DEPO’s website: http://www.depoistanbul.net/en/event/exhibition-bearing-witness-to-the-lost-history-of-an-armenian-family-through-the-lens-of-the-dildilian-brothers-1872-1923/
- 18.
Turkish authorities have blocked YouTube on a number of occasions over the last dozen years, most recently in 2016.
- 19.
Müjgan Halis, “In the House of the Grandfather Who Was Forced to Become Muslim,” Taraf. May 2, 2013, front page. Taraf (which translates into “Side” in English) was a liberal-leaning newspaper in Turkey founded in 2007 but closed down on July 27, 2016, under a statutory decree during the state of emergency after the 2016 failed Turkish coup d’état attempt. Unsubstantiated claims that alleged their association with the Gulenist coup plotters were given for the closure. The government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has effectively closed down or silenced all independent media and newspapers since the failed coup.
- 20.
The end of the ceasefire between the Turkish government and the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) has resulted in calamitous destruction and violence in southeast Turkey, including Diyarbakir. Many historic buildings have been damaged or destroyed and the government has expropriated the Surp Giragos church. What had been the old quarter of the walled city, the neighborhood that had once been heavily Armenian, has been demolished and cleared as a security measure.
- 21.
- 22.
On Reporters Without Borders’ current World Press Freedom Index, Turkey is ranked 157 out of 180 countries. https://rsf.org/en/ranking. According to Freedom House, as of 2017, Turkey is labeled “Not Free” with regard to press freedoms with a score of 76 out of 100, with 100 the worst. https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2017/turkey
- 23.
Dani Rodrik, “A Good Citizen Jailed in Turkey,” New York Times, November 3, 2017.
stood until 2006 on the banks of the Arax River between Iran and Nakhichevan, west of the ruined city of Jugha [Julfa]. Culturally and historically unique, Julfa was one of the oldest Christian cemeteries in the world. At its peak, it held more than 10,000 ornately carved khach‘k‘ars (stone crosses) dating from the fifteenth century and ancient ram-shaped stones, dragon stones, and tombstones. Until its destruction, Julfa was the most expansive Armenian cemetery and held the most significant collection of khach‘k‘ars anywhere in the world. Of these sacred artworks, once found on the banks of the Arax River, none now remain. From 1998 the cemetery was subjected to systematic willful destruction by [Azeri] military forces and, between 2005 and 2006, was definitively destroyed.” The Julfa Cemetery Digital Repatriation Project. Bibliography
Crossland, David. 2012. ‘We Can Resume Our Common History’: New Paper Covers Revival of German Jewish Life. Spiegel Online, January 04. https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/we-can-resume-our-common-history-new-paper-covers-revival-of-german-jewish-life-a-807118.html. Accessed 8 Nov 2019.
DEPO Istanbul. Bearing Witness to the Lost History of an Armenian Family Through the Lens of the Dildilian Brothers 1872–1923. http://www.depoistanbul.net/en/event/exhibition-bearing-witness-to-the-lost-history-of-an-armenian-family-through-the-lens-of-the-dildilian-brothers-1872-1923/. Accessed 25 Oct 2019.
Engel, Matthew. 2018. Germany Reclaimed: Berlin’s Jewish Revival. New Statesman America, May 28. https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2018/05/germany-reclaimed-berlin-s-jewish-revival. Accessed 8 Nov 2019.
Freedom House. 2017. Turkey Profile. https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2017/turkey. Accessed 8 Nov 2019.
Halis, Müjgan. 2013. In the House of the Grandfather Who Was Forced to Become Muslim. Taraf, May 2.
Houshamadyan. Introduction: Why Houshmadyan? https://www.houshamadyan.org/introduction/why-houshamadyan.html. Accessed 8 Nov 2019.
Kettmann, Steve. 2005a. A Photo Show on a Pogrom 50 Years Ago Is Itself Attacked by a Mob. New York Times, September 24.
———. 2005b. The Violence of History, in Pictures. New York Times, September 28.
Lemkin, Raphael. 1933. Acts Constituting a General (Transnational) Danger Considered as Offences Against the Law of Nations. Madrid, October 14–20.
———. 2008. Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress, Carnegie Endowment for Peace. 2nd ed. Clark: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.
Lindert, Jutta, and Armen T. Marsoobian, eds. 2018. Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Genocide and Memory. Berlin: Springer.
Low, David. 2015. Photography and the Empty Landscape: Excavating the Ottoman Armenian Image World. Études arméniennes contemporaines 6: 31–69.
Maarsoobian, Armen T. 2017. Reimagining a Lost Armenian Homeland: The Dildilian Photography Collection. London: I. B. Tauris.
Marsoobian, Armen T. 2015a. Fragments of a Lost Homeland: Remembering Armenia. London: I. B. Tauris.
———. 2015b. Dildilian Brothers – Memories of a Lost Armenian Home: Photography and the Story of an Armenian Family in Anatolia, 1888–1923, [Dildilyan Kardeşler – Kayip Bir Ermeni Evin Hatıraları: Anadolu’da Ermeni Bir Ailenın Fotoğrafları ve Öyküsü, 1888–1923]. Istanbul: Birzamanlar Yayıncılık.
Reporters Without Borders. 2019. World Press Freedom Index. https://rsf.org/en/ranking. Accessed 8 Nov 2019.
Rodrik, Dani. 2017. A Good Citizen Jailed in Turkey. New York Times, November 3.
The Julfa Cemetery Digital Repatriation Project. www.julfaproject.wordpress.com, ND. Accessed 8 Nov 2019.
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Marsoobian, A.T. (2020). Breaking the Silence: Memorialization and Cultural Repair in the Aftermath of the Armenian Genocide. In: Zucker, E., Simon, D. (eds) Mass Violence and Memory in the Digital Age. Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39395-3_3
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