EAC 8 - december 2016 - p. 25-49 Between Exposure and Erasure: The Armenian Heritage of Arapgir in Present-Day Eastern Turkey Laurent Dissard Institute of Advanced Studies, University College London he key was not hard to locate. Mikail kneeled down and found it under a large stone. He unlocked the gate and let us inside. We entered what looked like an abandoned parcel of land covered with grass. We had reached the Armenian cemetery Tof Arapgir. * * * Arapgir is a small town of less than 20,000 today located near the Upper Euphrates in the Malatya Province of Eastern Turkey. It is divided into an old city (known as the eskişehir mahallesi) and a new town situated less than 5 km to its southeast. Arapgir became a busy trading town and industrial center in the 19th century. Wholesale goods such as iron, glass, soap, and olive oil transited through Arapgir from Antep, Aleppo, or Beirut to Europe, while cloth and other products from France and England made their way to the Middle East. Te city expanded as early as the 1830s thanks also to its textile 25 Études arméniennes contemporaines laurent dissard industry, up to 1,000 looms at the time weaving cotton goods from British yarns.1 During this period of industrial growth, Arapgir’s wealthiest families built large mansions away from the old town. As a new city emerged, Arapgir eventually became larger than Harput, the vilayet’s capital, and remained an important business center until the 20th century. At the turn of the century, Arapgir possessed a large and thriving Armenian community.2 Afer 1915, however, its population diminished from several thousand to a few hundred. By the 1950s, 1. T.A. Sinclair, 1989, p. 56. the last Armenian families had almost all migrated D. Quataert, 1993, p. 65-66, 99. F. Yücel, 1967. to Istanbul and other western cities in search of 3 2. According to the 1913- better economic opportunities. 1914 census by the Armenian Recently, Arapgir’s municipality has embarked Patriarchate, there were on an ambitious project to restore its architectural 10,880 Armenians, 9 chur- heritage and promote its diferent cultural and ches, and 14 schools in natural assets. Te town has reinvented its cultural Arapgir at that time. identity, transitioning from a typical Anatolian, See R.H. Kévorkian and P.B. Paboudjian, 1992, p. 59, rural town into what the mayor hopes will be a 375-376. tourist destination. Arapgir’s Armenian heritage has 3. H. Al-Rustom, 2015, been somewhat of a burden for the municipality as p. 454. it negotiates how exactly to include it in its broader 4. It thus follows the tourism strategy. Tis article examines the manner in footsteps of M. Girard, 2014, which cultural heritage is produced in Arapgir, and 2015 (and more particularly T. Ter Minassian, 2015 for explains the presence and absence of an Armenian Armenian cultural heritage past within this broader push to develop tourism. in Turkey), as well as Towards the end of the paper, I describe in L. Marchand and G. Perrier, more detail this absence-presence in the renovation 2013. of Arapgir by focusing on the town’s Armenian cemetery. I use this specifc example to discuss how the past of a contested “other” is included and excluded, remembered and forgotten, exposed and erased today in Turkey. As such, the paper is not a history of Arapgir per se, but rather a modest ethnographic inquiry into questions of approval and denial of the Armenian past in present-day Turke y. 4 I foreground my own voice throughout the paper to illustrate the manner in which I personally came across what I call the simultaneous exposure and erasure of Armenian heritage during my visit to this small Eastern Anatolian town once constitutive of Armenia Minor. 26 Between Exposure and Erasure: Te Armenian Heritage of Arapgir EAC 8 - december 2016 arapgir’s only “tourist” I had passed by Arapgir before but never stopped to visit. Over the years, I have spent much time at nearby Keban researching the construction of its dam fnished 5. Te Millet Hanı is an in 1974. I have also travelled extensively around old Ottoman, wooden inn the Keban Dam reservoir looking for what I call recently restored into an the region’s “submerged stories.” Not having been “authentic” butik otel by the municipality. According to directly afected by the construction of the dam, locals, the two-storied Arapgir had thus far been outside of my area of building with a central feldwork. I arrived to the small Upper Euphrates courtyard and fountain was town late one Friday afernoon. For once, I would built in the 1850s. For years, put my notebook and pen down. Just curious to the han was used as a ticaret learn more about a place I had never stopped to visit, merkezi or trading center, with 12 shops upstairs and I certainly had no intention of writing an article 13 downstairs. Te roof was about it. renewed in 1980 and covered It was the end of summer. My frst stop was the with metal plates, while belediye (municipality) building in the hope of the structure’s complete meeting someone who could tell me about Arapgir’s restoration was fnished in past. On their way out for the weekend, a few 2010. It was opened as a hotel members of staf told me I could stay at the recently shortly afer. 5 6. Te tandır kebab is a opened Millet Hanı, and that someone would pick specialty of Arapgir consist- me up the next morning at 8:00. As the only tourist ing of large lamb pieces baked in town, I checked in the newly renovated, but for hours in an oven. empty hotel. I then had dinner in the one restaurant 7. Responsible for the serving Arapgir’s specialty, the real tandır kebab.6 observance of municipal Early next morning, my host Mustafa (as I found rules and ordinances, the out later, the municipality’s 7) was waiting zabita is under the authority zabita of the local municipality and for me at the reception. Our frst destination that its mayor unlike the police Saturday was the eskişehir mahallesi. under the jurisdiction of Tis part of Arapgir, known as the “old city,” Turkey’s Ministry of Interior. seemed at frst entirely abandoned. Te few 8. T.A. Sinclair, 1989, p. 56 houses still visible were almost all deserted, slowly ofers a similar description of turning into piles of stones rolling down to the the “old city” he visited in the early 1980s. river.8 Mustafa told me that only a few gardens and orchards were still being looked afer in the summer. Te municipality had recently cleared a dirt road zigzagging through this 27 Études arméniennes contemporaines laurent dissard serene and green valley. Our frst stop that morning was at a fsh restaurant in a small cabin made of concrete hidden at the start of the road. Afer ordering two cups of tea, the conversation changed 9. Te Adalet ve Kalkınma tone as the owner complained about the risk of Partisi (Justice and Develop- losing his liquor license. A representative of the ment Party), better known by AKP-led municipality, Mustafa calmly explained to its acronym AKP, is Turkey’s largest political party. Led him that there were simply too many fghts at night by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, because of the alcohol. Turke y ’s current president, Restrictions on the sale and consumption of it has been in power since alcohol have been tightened recently in Turkey under 2002. For more on the AKP rule.9 Was the municipality simply following AKP’s alcohol restrictions, orders coming from Ankara? I wondered what the see Y. Arat, 2010, p. 876. real extent of problems linked to alcoholism and 10. Alevis in Turkey follow aspects of Shi’a Islam mixed violence was here. Later, I would understand that with many other religious the liquor license hid a deeper divide in the town components. Tey are between a majority Sunni Muslim population and Turkey’s largest religious its Alevi minority.10 For the time being, however, minority constituting more we fnished drinking our teas and lef the restaurant than 15 % of its population. without having resolved the issue. Aferwards, In Arapgir and its surround- Mustafa wanted to clear the air and explained that ing villages, Alevis constitute almost a third of the foreigners (later I understood he meant Christian population. Unlike many Armenian tourists) would still be able to drink wine religious Sunnis in Turkey, during lunch or dinner in the back of the restaurant Alevis do not ban the next to the waterfall. Why Mustafa needed to point consumption of alcohol. this out was unclear to me at this moment of my 11. A. Uluçam, 1988. trip. 12. Originally, the Ulu Camii included elements We continued our visit and passed many of a zaviye, a monastic ancient ruins in Arapgir’s old city, connecting institution for dervishes, and diferent points of historical interest lef and became a mosque perhaps right through the forest: from the recently only in the 16th century. See restored 19th century Mosque of Arapgir’s former T.A. Sinclair, 1989, p. 60. Customs Director Osman Pasha11 to the Molla Eyüp Mescidi, a much older school and library also refurbished. We later walked up a steep path covered with shrubs to the impressive 14th century Ulu Camii, once the center of Arapgir.12 I was told how this Grand Mosque would also be renovated by the mayor very soon. 28 Between Exposure and Erasure: Te Armenian Heritage of Arapgir EAC 8 - december 2016 1.