Turkish-Armenian Intermarriages in Bulgaria Svetlina Denova, Ph.D ...

Turkish-Armenian Intermarriages in BulgariaSvetlina Denova, Ph.D. student, Institute of folklore, Bulgarian Academy of SciencesThe following text focuses on a specific sphere of Turkish-Armenian relations, thatconcerning marriage. Intermarriages are reality in almost every ethnic group. And no matterof the traditional antagonistic feelings between Turks and Armenians there is enoughevidence for the researcher that such marriages presented both in the past and the present. Ofcourse there is not a tendency, neither in Turkish, nor in Armenian minority in Bulgaria thesemarriages to be many. They are just a few, scattered through the years. But their existence isimportant for the researcher, because marriage is one of the social spheres where the ethnicdifferences are simultaneously visible and invisible. “As a culture communication laboratory,the interethnic household can be a privileged place where tolerance is daily tested, but also amagnifying mirror reflecting misunderstandings and interethnic conflicts. In any case it bestreveals the relations between the groups to which the spouses belong”. (Streiff-Fenard 1989)Doing my research of intermarriages in Bulgaria in general, I encountered a couple ofcases of Turkish-Armenian marriages. But statistics is one thing, while doing a research inboth Turkish and Armenian community in attempt to study these cases is another. During ayear-and-a-half field research in Plovdiv, the second city in Bulgaria, I tried to makeinterviews, as many as I can, with people engaged in such marriages. I succeeded however infinding and interviewing just two couples presenting Turkish-Armenian marriages in the city.The text here can be viewed as consisting of two case studies - a perspective that can be seenin a larger quantitative context. Using thee two approaches – the qualitative and thequantitative one – the study of the Turkish-Armenian marriages in Plovdiv can be moreefficient.

Turkish and Armenian Communities in the CityPlovdiv has been a traditionally multiethnic and multi-religious city. For centuriesGreeks, Jews, Armenians and Gypsies have been some of its ever-present minorities.According to some authors (Генчев 1981; Колева 1965; Пеев 1941; Шишков 1926; Гяуров1899) Armenians had lived in the city long before coming of the Turks. Plovdiv was capturedby Lala Shahin Pasha in 1363/1364. In XVI century there appeared radical changes in thedemography of the city. From Bulgarian (with dominant Christian population) it turned into aTurkish city (with dominant Muslim population). Evliya Chelebi (1651-1654) found the citywith 23 Muslim neighbourhoods (mahalle) and 7 others. More precise data about Turkish andArmenian population in Plovdiv can be obtained from the official censuses after 1878.Year of the censusTotal population ofTurksArmeniansPlovdiv1882 - 4 146 8871883 24 053 5 558 8061884 33 442 7 144 1 0611888 33 032 5 615 9031892 36 033 6 381 1 0241900 43 033 4 706 1 9421905 45 707 4 852 2 0971910 47 981 2 946 1 8471920 63 115 5 605 2 4561926 84 655 4 748 6 0881934 99 883 6 102 6 200

1939 101 984 6 462 6 5911946 126 563 7 466 5 5581956 161 836 6 305 5 6431965 229 043 4 380 5 5061975 299 638 No ethnic affiliation No ethnic affiliation1985 342 050 No ethnic affiliation No ethnic affiliation1992 341 058 17 041 3 9032001 338 224 22 501 3 083Turkish-Armenian Relations in the Past and Present“History has been history of the past. It does not mean that if there was hate betweenpeople in the past, we should still live in this” – said and old Armenian woman when I askedher about the relations between Turks and Armenians in general.The case of intermarriage is a way this heavy past to be overcome. “The most horriblething in my family was when one of my husband’s cousins married a Turkish in the 50’s. Herfather was a colonel during the Bulgarian war against Turkey and just several decades latershe married her teacher in history, who was Turkish. Then my family said – the informercontinues – ‘We had seen many things, but never had a Turkish in our kin’. This marriagewas very painful for them. But I remember that this man was handsome and very charmingand for a couple of years the problem had been solved and for everyone he became thefavorite son-in-law.A Turkish informer tells another story: “When I was in the high-school I had agirlfriend who was an Armenian. She always wanted to speak with me. You know,Armenians usually speak Turkish. And I don’t know, there was not any difference betweenus, and I can even say that there was some attraction between Turks and Armenians”. An

Armenian continues in other story the same problem: “We differ in our normative values. It issomething that comes from our different civilizations – the Christian and the Muslim one –but at the same time there are common virtues, I can call them common Asian virtues. One ofthem is the virtue of family”. The same Armenian told me a funny story. “I’m working in amarket with Turks and Gypsies and because I know Turkish well some of them often come tospeak with me. On educational level we differ but on the level of human relations we do nothave any problems. At one of their Bayrams some of the little boys came to me and wanted tokiss my hand. I didn’t know at that time that it is usual for the Muslims to kiss the hand of anelder man during the Bayram. I asked them: ‘What are you doing?’ and they answered me –‘You’re our millet, aren’t you?’ They decided that I was Turkish just because I was speakingTurkish”.But not all informers’ stories are so optimistic. I’ve heard many stories about themassacres of Armenians in the end of XIX and the beginning of XX century. Some of themsound really ominous. “My grandfather in Turkey... they slaughtered his mother and hisfather before him, because he didn’t want to go soldier and fight against his brothers andsisters. Having seen all this my grandfather became a member of a revolutionary detachmentand afterwards chief of one of them. The deaths of 72 Turks and 1 Armenian, who could notbe an Armenian any more, are weighing on his conscience”. Another statement puts theArmenians and Bulgarians side by side against Turkey: “Armenian people has always beengrateful to the Bulgarians, because we never differ in our faiths. What united us in the pastwas our common enemy – Turkey”.I heard also stories of good friendships between Turks and Armenians in the past andalso in the years of the massacres. A Turkish friend of an Armenian understood that his fatheris defined to kill the Armenians in their neighbourhood. He told his friend the news inadvance and thus saved the life of his friend and his family. Another story is about an

adoption of an Armenian boy by a rich childless governor of a village. This happened duringthe hard time for the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. There are also stories of neighboursTurks who saved Armenian lives.The study of two casesThe first case is a marriage between an Armenian man and a Turkish woman. Theman was born in the city of Plovdiv, while the woman’s birthplace is a village in the districtof Kircali (a Bulgarian region with great number of Turkish population). They married in1981. The family lives in their own flat only with their daughter. The husband’s relatives livealso in the city and the relative links between them and the family has never been stopped.But now they are not so intensive as they were in the first years of the marriage when thefamily lived together with the parents of the husband and the daughter was little. The wife’srelatives live in their native village.The second case is a marriage between a Turkish, born in a village in the region ofPlovdiv, and an Armenian woman, born in Plovdiv. The couple married in 1996. The familylives in Plovdiv in their own flat together with their little daughter and two of wife’s relatives– her mother and her sister. Husband’s relatives live in their native village.I shall start with the similarities between the two cases. But because it is not alwayspossible to stick to them, I shall show the differences as well.How did the parents of both sides accept the decision of their children to marry? Inthe first case against the marriage were just the wife’s parents. The wedding was in Plovdivand no one of wife’s parents or relatives came for the celebration. The wife’s brother andsister were more opposed to it than their parents. The wife usually goes to visit her parents,while the relations with her brother and sister were re-established three or four years after thewedding. The warming of the relative links happened with the birth of the child. In the

second case again the wife’s parents were against the marriage. The connections between thewife and her family broke off and they were re-established in two or three months, when thenews of her pregnancy was told to the parents. After this critical period of disconnection withparents and relatives, in the first case for years, in the second for months, the connections arere-established. The appearance of the child in both cases is the strongest motive for this.It is typical for the two families to celebrate the festivals of the two communities.Easter, Christmas and Kurban Bayram and Ramadan Bayram are always celebrated. I wassurprised to see the unique balance between the Christian and Muslim celebrations. Commonfestival for the two families is New Year’s Eve. For the Turkish celebrations – the twoBayrams, the family usually goes to its Turkish relatives in the village.What happens with the name of the child? In the first case the daughter is named afterthe name of the mother-in-law (the husband’s mother). It is a tradition for both Armeniansand Turks to name the child after the husband’s parents. Such is also the case here. In thesecond case the daughter is named after the father-in-law (the wife’s father). This can beexplained with the fact that for the period of the pregnancy the family had lived together withwife’s parents.The language of the two families is Bulgarian. But in the two cases it is mentionedthat the older relatives of the Armenian husband or wife can speak Turkish. The child in thefirst case doesn’t know Turkish but she goes to Armenian school and can “read, write andtranslate Armenian”. It is interesting however that although the daughter has certainknowledge of Armenian, she actually cannot speak it. The language of the family isBulgarian. That’s the language of the husband’s parents, too. Turkish and Armenian speakonly the great-grandparents of the child. In the second case the child goes to a kindergartenwhere there are special hours once a week in Armenian. But the child knows just a few wordsin Armenian. The language of the family is again Bulgarian. The old husband’s relatives

however cannot speak Bulgarian, their only language is Turkish, so the Armenian wifestarted speaking Turkish, because once a month for a week her daughter stays with the greatgrandmothersof the husband in the village. The child already speaks Turkish but it isashamed if speaking the language with his father. Turkish is the language for communicationwith the grannies in the village and for watching cartoons from the Turkish TV channels.What is the religion of the child? In the first case the child is baptised in the ArmenianApostolic Church in Plovdiv. It is surprising however that mother forbids her daughter tomake a cross when she is watching her. The mother says that she is a Muslim, but goes tochurches, lights candles and prays there, she just doesn’t make cross. In the second case theparents decided to leave the child to make her own choice when she grows up. No baptismwas made.ConclusionThese two cases of Turkish-Armenian intermarriages are examples how prejudicescan be overcome and a new family life can be established in a sphere where the connectionbetween Turks and Armenians was absolutely impossible.

BibliographyGenchev, N. 1981. Plovdiv in the Renaissance. (In Bulgarian)Gyaurov, A. 1899. Short Notes about the Past and Present of Plovdiv. (In Bulgarian)Koleva, E. 1965. Changes in the Ethnic Population of Plovdiv. –In: Annual ofPlovdiv’s museums, 4, 63-77. (In Bulgarian)Peev, V. 1941. Plovdiv – Past and Present. (In Bulgarian)Shishkov, St. 1926. Plovdiv in the Past and Present. (in Bulgarian)Streiff-Fenard, J. 1989. Les couples franco-maghrebins en France, Paris:L’Harmattan.