The War of The Ball Point Pen and The Art Gum: An Unusual Encounter Between Two Students of the University of Chicago in 1959

Happy Mother's Day! I lost my mother in 2015. On the Mothers Day of 2016, which was my first Mother's Day without my mother, when I felt  sad and destitute, the first  person I thought of calling had been Professor Berin Yurdadoğ, since a very strong and enduring bond was formed between us during my university years when she was my lecturer. Yesterday I visited her to celebrate her Mother's Day and also to put a few final touches to some memories of her, she has kindly allowed me to publish on this blog as you will find below.

Berin Yurdadoğ went to Chicago in late 1958 to study for an MA degree in Librarianship at the University of Chicago and returned to Turkey in February 1960. There was a world map on a wall in the International House where she was staying at the University. One day Berin noticed that someone had written "Armenia" on Eastern Anatolia, which is within the borders of Turkey. She rushed for an art gum and cleaned up the map, erasing the word written with a ball point pen, spending a great deal of effort. But both parties were persistent. Soon after the erasing, the word "Armenia" would reappear on Eastern Anatolia, and Berin would  erase it again. She had limited means as she was there on a scholarship. Using an eraser for this purpose meant very frequent purchases of art gums, spending some of the money given to her to meet her basic needs. However, she never hesitated to buy a new art gum when one finished, to clean up the map. Perseverance of young Berin is easy to understand since she is from Adana, a Turkish city where Armenian separatists rebelled in 1909 and later fought against Turks joining French army during the First World War and Turkish War of Independence (1914-1923). When I conducted a questionnaire survey for a study in 2014, one of the respondents had commented that even today, relics of human fat left from Turks burnt by Armenians in the bakery ovens still remain in Adana. The Western World unfortunately  does not know what the Turks had been through in those perilous war years.

During the occupation of Adana by the French, December 18, 1918 - January 5, 1922, the Turkish flag was banned in the occupied territories. The decoration of the window of the cologne shop in the clock tower, included a badge with a flag on it. An Armenian citizen had informed the French officers that there was a flag in the shop window. When a French officer came to the shop to investigate, Berin Yurdadoğ's father was also there to buy some cologne. With his fluent French he was able to persuade the officer that it was a badge not a flag, and thus no punishment was executed thank God. However, the two men felt very affronted having French flags waving around their city, and not being allowed to have their own flag. The father vowed that he would acquire a very large size flag and hang it on the day the city would be liberated. The shop owner added, "and I will sprinkle cologne over every one passing by this shop on the day of liberation and on the anniversaries of the liberation thereafter. The father bought red and white good quality satin, they sewed a big size Turkish flag in a night together with his wife, and put it away waiting for the Liberation Day to come. After the establishment of the Republic of Turkey the standards for the Turkish flag were defined, and the flags had to be woolen. The father went to the Governor's Office and got special permission to hang this specially made satin flag on the Cihannuma* of the mansion where they were living, explaining how and when it was made. Berin knew this story of the family flag which used to be hung, on every national holiday and on the anniversaries of the liberation of Adana. On the anniversaries of the liberation day,  another very large flag used to be brought by a parade to the clock tower and to be hung between the Great Mosque and the tower. During this parade she used to see the owner of the cologne shop standing in front of the shop and sprinkling cologne over them generously as he had vowed.

She also remembers an anecdote which used to be told about the occupation days. In Ceyhan district the French flag hoisted to the flag pole in front of the Governor's Office where there were a number of old trees, was found ragged with holes every morning and needed to be changed. In the end it was decided to observe how this was happening, and who was the culprit. It was found out that the crows living in the trees in the square in front of the Office were pecking the flag. Apparently they hadn't liked the change in the flag. Soldiers intended to kill the crows, but the commander in charge was a sensible person and said, "leave them alone, we can't stay long in a country where even the crows are so patriotic anyway".

The memory of meeting Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who was the leader of the War of Independence and the founder of the new Turkish state,  during his last visit to Adana on May 24, 1938, is still very precious to Berin Yurdadoğ.  At the end of the visit, on his way to train station he was to pass by the girls' high school and only the high school students  were allowed to be present on the pavement forming a row to meet him. It was Berin's first year in the secondary school yet, and she was very tiny since she had started school early. However, she wanted to be there so much that a solution was found having her wearing a high school uniform no matter how large it was for her. She was at the end of the row under the flag. It was an afternoon and the sun was not in favor of the students. Since Berin was so small she was able to express her feelings freely. While applauding together with the other students, she burst into tears when the car came closer, and started crying out "I can't see him". Then, the young girl who was carrying the flag, patted her on the shoulder and said "The car stopped, Atatürk lowered down the car window and he is looking at you." Berin, with her blonde curly and puffy hairs with a large hair bow tie on top, stopped applauding and crying, with tears on her cheeks, looked at Atatürk with devotion, until she found herself satisfied and started to applaud again with a big smile. Atatürk smiled back, raised his hat to salute this small child, looking at her his eyes glowing with great affection. Then, with a graceful movement of his hand, he told his driver to go ahead. This encounter has remained as an unforgettable moment in her life.

The young girl of 1958, with such a background, and as one of the two Turkish students at the University of Chicago in that academic year, was naturally very sensitive about her country. The Armenian student should also have own good reasons to be so persistent.

Nejat Göyünç, who has contributed to the book titled The Armenians in the Late Ottoman Period, (2001, p. 41), with an article titled "Turkish-Armenian Cultural Relations" in which he remarks that there is no point in unilaterally exaggerating "sporadic violent events that occurred between two communities" and suggests that we dwell on centuries' mutual cultural influence, closeness and affection, has also mentioned the tragic events that took place in Haçin, a district of Adana, as follows:

In 1915, the Armenians, some of whom were engaged in activities against the state and living in areas near the battlefields and in neighbouring areas in Istanbul and in Anatolia, were exiled to more secure areas within the Ottoman boundaries of that time. It was not denied that some distasteful events took place then, but one must never overlook that the Turks themselves punished 1,397 people for their unprovable activities. While these events are used as pretexts today, it is a duty and responsibility to remind people of what some Armenians did against the Turks during the same period and the baseless accusations and mounting efforts against the Turks later. Following the ceasefire of Mondros (Mudros) on 30 October 1918, what the Armenian Legion that entered Adana and Saimbeyli (Hacin) did while wearing French uniforms caused the revolt even of the celebrated French man of letters Pierre Loti, who wrote that the claims of Armenian genocide "were in fact invented by the British (inventés par les anglais)". The archival documents have been published in English and Turkish as to how Armenians killed hundreds of thousands of Turks and Muslims between 1906 and 1922 in the Caucasus and in Anatolia and who were the killers, how and where. The barbaric and inhuman murders and activities that the Armenians carried out in Anatolia have even entered Turkish folk legends and laments. One of these is called the “Lament of Hacin:

They are the ones that mowed us down that day,

They impaled us on slaughterhouse hooks too.

Let all this be known to Doğan Bey:

They are the ones that raided Urumlu.

Go to sleep, sleep, my son Osman,

A well of blood is what was Hacin village;

...

There is also a documentary novel titled Haçin written by Zebercet Coşkun. The book was the 4th runner in Milliyet Daily Fiction Competition in 1975. 2005 edition of the book was titled Tarihe Düşürülen Dip Not: Haçin ve Çallıyan Efendi. It was based on the diary of  Çallıyan Efendi, an Armenian Ottoman, who was the last official appointed by the French to govern the district. The novel was well received by Turks and Armenians both. A review by Nesrin Tağızade Karaca titled "Haçin dedikleri… Veya bir bölge ve bir roman olarak Haçin" with an abstract in English is available on Internet. Karaca says that "The novel narrates the Armenians who were first exiled from Haçin to Halep during World War I and who later returned to Haçin after the French occupied Adana on December 24, 1918." Novel's digitized version is available on Hatti Thrust Collection with restricted access.

If everyone could be as impartial and open as Çallıyan Efendi and take the situation as it is, these two students of the University of Chicago could possibly be great friends and Berin could have a chance to eat  the food of her land she missed from the hands of the mother of this Armenian student from time to time.

As a matter of fact, years later she was able to establish a good relationship with an Armenian person in Russia. She had been to Moscow on a professional program as an academician in 70s. One representative from each  participating country was invited and each were given a personal companion. Dr. Yurdadoğ's companion was an Armenian woman guide. At the end of the first week, her companion said "I would like to ask a question to you, if you don't mind." She was responsive and said that she could certainly ask. The guide said, "You know I am Armenian, and I am married to a man whose family was deported in 1915. They hate Turks, and I used to hate Turks as well. When I was told that I would accompany the representative from Turkey, I thought, what sin I had that I was given that duty. But now, my colleagues envy me for having you to accompany. Are you an outstanding Turkish person, or are Turks good people in general, contrary to what we believe in?" Dr. Yurdadoğ explained to her that the Turks had to relocate Armenians to defend themselves during the war, and both parties had suffered heavily. Their relationship came to such a point during this three month program that, on return from a trip to the Lake Aral environs, on a very cold winter morning the only companion who had come to meet the representative she was responsible for was her Armenian companion at the Moscow train station. At the end of the program, again she was the only companion seeing off at the airport.

After her retirement from the Department of Librarianship, Ankara University, Professor Berin  Yurdadoğ taught Atatürk's Principles and History of Revolution at Başkent University and Communication and Society at Hacettepe University part time for a while. She was also a member of the Atatürk Cultural Center and gave lectures all around the country on the history of the Turkish Republic and leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk for long years.

Atatürk's motto was "Peace at home, peace in the World" cherishing the idea of good relations and friendship, not hate, which I believe we should continue to cherish.

Sources

Göyünç, N. (2001). Turkish-Armenian Cultural Relations in The Armenians in the Late Ottoman Period, edited by Professor Türkkaya Ataöv, pp. 23-42. Ankara: The Turkish Historical Society for The Council of Culture, Arts and Publications of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, 2001. Turkish version of the complete book is available at the institutional repository of the Parliament, this paper is also available in English as well at

http://web.itu.edu.tr/~altilar/tobi/e-library/TheArmenians/CulturalRelations.pdf. (Accessed on 31.01.2016)

Karaca, Nesrin Tağızade. “Haçin dedikleri… Veya bir bölge ve bir roman olarak . Accessed at

http://www.ayk.gov.tr/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/KARACA-Nesrin-Ta%C4%9F%C4%B1zade-%E2%80%9CHA%C3%87%C4%B0N-DED%C4%B0KLER%C4%B0%E2%80%A6-VEYA-B%C4%B0R-B%C3%96LGE-VE-B%C4%B0R-ROMAN-OLARAK-HA%C3%87%C4%B0N%E2%80%9D.pdf on 31.01.2016.

Prof. Dr. Berin U Yurdadoğ. Biyografi. Accessed at

http://library.bilkent.edu.tr/activities/librarianship-seminars/bilgi-belge-yonetimi on 31.01.2016.

* Cihannuma was a high large room with windows on all around, adjacent to the main building used as a bedroom in hot summer nights in Adana.