Armenians of Konya

Mevlana (Mawlana) Museum

Why Konya? Simply because I was there for a meeting yesterday. When our meeting finished at 16:00 the participants headed to Mawlana Museum. I crossed the street to visit the cemetery as my brother Kamil, who we lost on the sixth day of his birth due to a complicated delivery in the years I was going to primary school, rests there. Konya is one of the cities a part of my childhood belongs. Later we walked around, before I came back home by fast intercity rail. During this walk I have not come across anything particular about Armenians, although according to Servet Mutlu, 16,484 Armenians were living in Konya together with 31,349 Greeks and 935,763 Turks in 1914.

However, a quick search revealed some items on the web in the evening at home.

St Paul Church, Konya, 2006

Journalist Can Dündar's article titled "Last Armenian of Konya has gone too" dated June 13, 2006 is touching. Dündar reported that while some 15 Armenians from Canada, France and a number of other countries came, Kirkor Özararat's Muslim friends were about 70-80. He had always wanted to remain in Konya and now he is lying on the right side of his mother and with his elder brother on the left of his mother, in the small cemetery located in the center of the city. I understand a number of diaspora Armenians know their grandmother's tongue even if they don't like it. I would like to suggest that they read this article which tells how friendly the relations were until intermingling of politics with religion divided old friends as told by Samson Özararat, Kirkor's nephew.

Koyunoğlu Museum & Library

Konya Municipality's web site about Konya is more detailed on pages in Turkish than it is on pages in English. The page about museums of the city briefly mentions Koyunoğlu Museum and Library saying: "A.R. İzzet KOYUNOĞLU who is one of the old and well-known families in Konya has established a museum and a library for significant books and historical works which he had collected for years in his house in Topraklık subdistrict. Later he had donated library and museum which he had established to Metropolitan Municipality of Konya. ... Archeological and ethnographic works are displayed in the museum. ..." A search in the catalog for print collection revealed 66 entries for the keyword "Ermeni" , the Turkish word for Armenian, and one manuscript titled ŞURUTU'L İFTAİ. I will try to find out what this means.

A Plate on Display

Artefacts displayed at the Museum can be viewed at the digital archive as well. Registration is required to view and download images, and pages are in Turkish. However it should not be hard to guess that name, surname, user name, password, password repetition are required and there is a simple numeric captcha. My verification mail arrived in Spam folder. I discovered four copper items when searched for "Ermeni" again. Two of them were plates, there was one coffee tray and a shallow copper dish (lenger), dated from 1727 to 1824 and there are inscriptions in Armenian on them.

I also found an article by Hasan Yaşar and Ali Cahit Selvi titled "A Heart Harrowing Album in Koyunoğlu City Museum and Library Archive: An Armenian Document / Koyunoğlu Şehir Müze ve Kütüphanesi Arşivinde Yürek Burkan bir Albüm Ermeni Belgesi" which is about a document available in the archive section of this Museum & Library. The authors say "History has two faces one seen and the other unseen or not desired to be seen. History is written by the victorious countries. Therefore while some insist to get what they want without any evidence, some documents stay on shelves untouched. As a historian says, history consists of eulogies and diatribes. Facts are revealed either in the course of time or through documents on the shelves." The document which is subject to this article verifies atrocities perpetrated on Muslim people in Anatolia by Armenians and the article reflects how offended the authors feel about lack of sympathy around the world concerning Muslim peoples' sufferings and irrelevant accusations.

Aziziye Mosque

I passed by Karatay Madrasa which has become a museum of ceramics today. Something I didn't remember from my childhood was existence of a mosque in style of Turkish baroque with a very unusual minaret balcony. Aziziye Mosque was interesting for me. In every city of Turkey there are interesting places worth seeing. Konya, capital of Seljuk Sultanate of Rum (1077-1307) and home of Mevlana is definitely one of the places those interested in Sufism and history should not miss. Konya was capital of Selcuks from late 12th century for over a  hundred years. Selcuks built caravansaries, tombs, bridges, besides mosques and madrasas.

Sources

Dündar, Can. (Jun 13, 2006) Konya'daki son Ermeni de gitti [Last Armenian in Konya has gone too]. Milliyet. http://www.milliyet.com.tr/2006/06/13/yazar/dundar.html

Mutlu, Servet. “Late Ottoman Population And Its Ethnic Distribution,” Nüfusbilim Dergisi \ Turkish Journal of Population Studies, 2003, 25, 3-38 http://www.hips.hacettepe.edu.tr/nbd_cilt25/mutlu.pdf(Accessed: 22.04.2012)

Yaşar, H and Selvi, A. C. (n.d.) Koyunoğlu  Şehir Müze ve Kütüphanesi Arşivinde Yürek Burkan bir Albüm Ermeni Belgesi [A Heart Harrowing  Document in the Form of Album Relevant to Armenian Question in Koyunoğlu City Museum and Library Archive: ]. http://www.konya.bel.tr/sayfadetay.php?sayfaID=993