Those Who Continued Living in Turkey

This volume is not about what happened but what happened after what happened – the interplay of historical memory and the political & psychological forces forging·· identity, the “lifelong compunction” for the compromise, the regret, the guilt, the “dialogue of the self with the collective past in the context of the present.” One’s exposure to post Genocide Turkic Armenian writers is a treat, especially to those who do not know much about the literary scene in Turkey after 1915. The parallels between documented fact and the written word, as well as their juxtapositions create art to life as in life to art relationships between the Diasporic and the Turkic. The information gap between Turks and Armenians continues to narrow. The author’s words: metamorphosis, continued living, identity are integral to this process.

It is apparent that both Armenians and Turks have metamorphosed monolithically because of the Genocide, both suffering from unhealthy intergenerational connections, fear, shame, repression, survival angst. They share a trauma, differently. This trauma, further heightened by erasing, repressing or insisting on a collective memory of choice, has molded identity in such manner as to redeem and safeguard the self and create homogeneity. To create homogeneity is to avoid risk, while risk is in the very essence of life. No memorable art or literature can follow. Culture is in the demise. The soul is weeping.

Shattered souls, distorted outlook. The answer is neither silence nor clinging to an “over-determined sense of Armenianness” or Turkicness for that matter. Ah, the shades of grey we must embrace in identity and life. Peroomian’s work makes us think twice, thrice, no – more times. Clarities and awareness come from such good read. One contemplates to realign. Yes, “The brigade of the sturdy” (p.136) is heart-sinking. And yes, the dehumanization described in this work reminds one of similar practices depicted in Naomi Klein’s recent publication, The Shock Doctrine. One may think that not much has changed since the Yeghem of almost a hundred years ago. Yet, the author successfully “loosens the knot” between the personal and the collective experiences of all post Genocide Armenians: Christian, Islamized, hidden, other, as well as all Turks. Towards the end (p.172), Peroomian asks two questions, we answer. Yes, we can go forward with a new mindset; and no, it is not possible to let go of the memory of what happened. Here’s metamorphosis indeed, and continued living with renewed identity, facilitating dialogue.

Exclusion is a disease that hinders renewal, and Armenians do not want to be called gavur or “rejects of the sword” anymore than the Turks want to be proclaimed “murderers.” We need to evolve to survive, and identity evolves through culture – the poetry of life – and the mutuality created thereof. A mutuality fostered through art, literature and music. Yes, Peroomian, “A new reality is in the making.”

And Those Who Continued Living in Turkey after 1915 is available at Abril Bookstore.