AIM - Last Among Equals: Istanbul Armenians Experience Intolerance


Pan Armenian Games participants come speaking every language imaginable--English, Italian, French, Portuguese and Turkish. These are some of the most easily recognizable.

The hotel workers are pleased to see them. So are the young kids who try to speak with them and like them. Some in Yerevan, however, stare and make snide comments. Especially at the group from Istanbul.

A taxi driver who doesn't share his name tells a story about a fare he had picked up the night before. A young man from Istanbul who didn't speak Armenian. The cabby knew a little Turkish and understood that "He was trying to convince me he wasn't a Turk. Armeni, Armeni, he kept saying. He was afraid that I might do something to him, it was late at night and he was alone. He didn't look Armenian to me. He didn't speak one word of Armenian. I don't believe they are Armenian, they are more like Turks."

It's a telling story. There are more like it.

In 1999, when invitations were sent to potential participants, Turkey was not included. But the organizers of the Istanbul team speak of it without anger. "We read about the announcement in one of the Armenian newspapers and contacted the Pan Armenian Committee. It doesn't matter why we weren't part of the original invitees. We found out and we came. That’s the important thing," says Raffi Kasparian, Vice President of the Istanbul team.

Since then, Istanbul has participated with a large delegation each year. This year, 70 athletes and more than 150 coaches, friends and family flew to Yerevan. They looked elegant on the field in their classy orange and tan outfits--the guys gorgeous, the girls beautiful--European almost. Until they begin to speak. And a halting Western Armenian comes out, punctuated by lots of Turkish. And that's when the trouble begins.

During a Futsal game (mini-football) between Istanbul and Paris, the tension was obvious not only on the field between the sides but on the stands among the spectators. Even taking into consideration that all Football fans are somewhat fanatical about their sport, and that fights ensue in stadiums all over the world, still, what happened at the Kilikia Gym on August 19 was a sad moment for the Armenian psyche.

At half time, Istanbul was winning. That's when some of the arguments began. Paris thought that a player on the Istanbul team was making inappropriate gestures at the women cheering for the French.

After the game, the accusations shot back and forth. The team from Paris and their fans from London were full of righteous anger against anything Turkish on Armenian soil. The team from Istanbul equally angry at the notion that they were being dismissed as Turks.

This was anger that went beyond competitive sports. It was decades-old anger between the children of two struggling Diasporas--one fighting for Genocide recognition and the other fighting to move on. One of them not really even a Diaspora, since the Armenians were in Istanbul since before the Genocide.

That was in 1915. But in 2003, there was still lots of yelling and shouting among survivors. Raised tempers flared and the police reluctantly intervened by asking the respective teams to board their buses and leave.

An elderly gentleman accompanying the Istanbul team asked no one in particular, "I can get them on the bus now but what will happen when I'm not around and they find one another on the street?"

Istanbul won the game that day against Paris. But in more places they've encountered similar situations. In Football matches against Akhalkalaki (Georgia) and Moscow, Murat says, "They were both playing very dirty. In the game with Georgia, ever time the referees made a call for our team the players would provoke him, asking ‘Are you a Turk too? Is that why you're helping them?' They pushed and kicked for no reason other than that we are from Turkey. In almost every game we've played, there has been a fight."

Of course, everyone sees it differently. The Paris team's bus driver has a friend who spent a lot of time with the visitors. They pick fights wherever they go, he thinks. He adds that he doesn't trust them. "One cannot live among the Turks and not adopt their dirty ways," he says.

As if to concur, Murat says, "It's not only on the field we are treated like this. People look at us differently everywhere--in the clubs and stores, in the street. In Istanbul, I am Armenian. And we fight there all the time to prove that we are Armenian. I never imagined that we would have to fight here also. And when we are in Paris, the Armenians there don't fight with us. But somehow, here, the playing field is different."

The irony didn't stop there. Young men and women from all over the world, speaking very little (or no) Armenian were objecting to those who spoke Turkish around them. "I can't bear to hear that language. They need to stop speaking that language," said one girl from London speaking in English. "But that is the language of our enemies. English is not," she added.

Currently there are 60,000 Armenians in Istanbul. They have 13 schools, 33 churches, 2 athletic clubs, 2 hospitals, 1 orphanage and 3 newspapers. All maintained and kept running with the efforts of the community there. At one point before people began moving away because of the economic slump of the 1970's and 1980's, they numbered nearly 200,000.

"We don't really feel pressure from the Turks. Of course there are problems but we don't allow them to disturb our lives there. We are free to celebrate our holidays, go to our churches, have our clubs. The assistant to the mayor in Istanbul is Armenian. The mayor's office in a town called Sisli donated $1500 to our team. We are liked and respected there. On the other hand we realize that maybe the Turkish government is never going to recognize the Genocide. That's something we live with every day," said Karun Kovan, who is a dentist in Istanbul. His wife Meline Kovan is on the Pan Armenian Games Committee.

"These fights happen everywhere in sports. We don't think that they are directly pointed at us because of Turkey. One of our boys Armando met a girl here during the second Pan Armenian Games and now they are going to be married," added Gazaros Unan, President of the Istanbul team.

Perhaps it's a generational divide. Ashot Melik-Shahnazarian, Vice President of the Pan Armenian Games, agrees that the fights are isolated incidents which happen on all fields with all countries.

Arpi Galfayan who plays basketball for the San Fernando Valley team says, "It's a little more troublesome when we hear Turkish as opposed to Russian because of our past with Turkey."

Again the divide between the young who call it as it is and the old who want to smooth things over.

But it doesn't matter. Three times in a row. Each year with a bigger delegation, the Istanbul team has come to Armenia to participate in the games. They've come because as team member Hayko Panosian says, "This is our home too."