A Review of Dr. Hovannisian’s “Armenian Smyrna/Izmir The Aegean Communities” (Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers, 2012)
BY GARY A. KULHANJIAN
The “Armenian Smyrna/Izmir The Aegean Communities” volume was the outcome in a series of research topics explored in international conferences pertaining to Armenian cities and provinces presented by many scholars from UCLA and other institutions from 1997 to the first two decades of 21st century. The conferences were orchestrated by Richard G. Hovannisian, who was the first Holder of the Armenian Educational Chair in Modern Armenian History. He authored the Preface, Chapter I, and edited all the essays of each presenter’s contribution.
The conference series touched on the historical, geographical, political, religious, cultural, and economic saga of the Armenian people traced back to the Anatolian plateau for over three-thousand years. The research explained that the unique aspect of the city of Smyrna was located on the western most fringe of the plateau. Dr. Hovannisian known for his monumental research and his teaching modern Armenian history, perhaps as the most travelled Armenian scholar in the diaspora.
Hovannisian crystallized each subject in the essays presented by various scholars in the volume. In his Preface, he included the explanation of the transliteration and orthography of Armenian words. Research scholars were also credited for their individual research along with technicians who helped with the format of the volume since there were small maps, and photos of Smyrna. Prof. Hovannisian also thanked his publisher Dr. Kamron A. Jabbari for the series. He also thanked his wife Dr. Vartiter Kotcholosian Hovannisian for her commitment to each phase of the publication and others.
The scope of the volume covered 14 chapters. Since the subjects covered were a broad spectrum of essays pertaining to Smyrna, the chapter titles mentioned and authors deserve credit. Here the chapters were listed in consecutive order:
- Chapter 1, titled “Armenian Smyrna,” was authored by Richard G. Hovannisian;
- Chapter 2 was authored by Robert H. Hewsen, titled “Armenians on the Aegean: The City of Smyrna”;
- Chapter 3 was authored by Albert Kharatyan, titled “The Armenian Communities of Smyrna and the Aegean Region from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth-Century Tanzimat”;
- Chapter 4 was authored by Christina Maranci, titled “Armenian Monuments and Textile Arts”;
- Chapter 5 was authored by Bert Vaux, titled “The Armenian Dialect of Smyrna/Izmir”;
- Chapter 6 was authored by Barbara J. Merguerian, titled “The Missionary Armenian -Language Press of Smyrna, 1833-1853”;
- Chapter 7 was authored by Sona Seferian, titled “Translator – Enlighteners of Smyrna”;
- Chapter 8 was authored by Robert H. Hewsen, titled “Matteous Mamourian: A Smyrnean Contributor to the Western Armenian Renaissance”;
- Chapter 9 was authored by Herve Georgelin, titled “The Armenian Inter-Community Relations in Late Ottoman Smyrna”;
- Chapter 10 was authored by Rubina Peroomian, titled “The Demise of Armenian Smyrna: An Oral History Perspective”;
- Chapter 11 was authored by Jack Der-Sarkissian, titled “Two Armenian Physicians in Smyrna: Case Studies in Survival”;
- Chapter 12 was authored by David Stephen Calonne titled “Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller, and Smyrna, 1922”;
- Chapter 13 was authored by Nelida Boulgourdjian-Toufeksian, titled “The Armenian Elite of Smyrna in the Formation of Associative Networks in Buenos Aires”;
- Chapter 14 was authored by Vartan Matiossian, titled “From Asia Minor to the Rio de la Plata: Smyrna and South American Armenian Origins.”
I selected five of my favorite chapters to inculcate and encourage readers to read this eclectic volume. In addition, my mother arrived to America as a small child with her mother in 1920 and before the burning of Smyrna in 1922 by the Kemalist regime. The broad range of topics contributed to the knowledge about the vibrance of Smyrna. In the First Chapter “Armenian Smyrna,” Richard G. Hovannisian expounded on the importance of Smyrna which was the second largest city in the Ottoman Empire. The Armenians contributed their artisan skills to the exports. The demographic aspects of the city were quite diverse also since it had Armenian, Greek, and Jewish quarters. The Armenian community represented the western most outpost for progress. He gave a broad overview of each of the scholarly essays without going into too much detail. The author also explained the importance of Armenian mercantile houses in the city of Smyrna which promoted connections to major commercial locations in the world. Hovannisian conveyed to his readers a broad panorama of the research completed by each scholar’s knowledge in a very comprehensive and succinct style.
Robert H. Hewsen, whose expertise was on Armenian history and geography, completed the Second and Eighth Chapter. He was Prof. Emeritus of History at Rowan University in New Jersey and taught in many universities as a visiting professor. In the Second Chapter titled “Armenians on the Aegean: The City of Smyrna,” the scholar expounded on the origins of Smyrna. He included a brief view of demographic history of Armenians and Greeks in Smyrna from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. The economic success of Smyrna gave the milieu the character of a southern European city. An important note to his essay was many Armenians of Smyrna eluded the Genocide of 1915 but did not escape the burning of Smyrna in 1922. He cited Prof. Marjorie Housepian Dobkin who had completed a widely referred to book titled Smyrna Affair.
In the Eighth Chapter, titled “Matteos Mamourian: A Smyrnean Contributor to the Western Armenian Renaissance,” Hewsen expressed his personal connection to Mamourian. He stated that his great-grandmother was related to the Mamourian family and that his father and uncles had grown up in schools where the scholar’s translations were taught. Smyrna was the center of the Western Armenian Renaissance where Mamourian was one of the leading advocates of “modern Western Armenian vernacular.” His writings and translations were highly revered over many decades. The author was a highly noted journalist in circa, 1871 when he published Arevelian Mamul (Oriental Press) for thirty years. In the essay, Hewsen aptly cites The English Influence On West Armenian Literature in the Nineteenth Century by scholar Vahe Oshagan about Mamourian’s accomplishments; however, he stated Oshagan explained that Mamourian was “Cambridge educated” while not a graduate of the institution but had “attended some classes … as a scholarship student.” The chapter was filled with the precious highlights and analysis conveyed by the author of Mamourian’s contributions. The Hamidean and Ottoman regimes in between the mid-1890s and 1915 carried out the deracination of the Armenian people and their intellectuals. If Mamourian and his compatriot Smyrneans were targeted like those in the interior, the literati would not have been able to augment the Western Armenian Renaissance into the late nineteenth and earlier part of the twentieth centuries.
Scholar Christina Maranci is the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University. She contributed Chapter Four titled “Armenian Monuments and Textile Arts of Smyrna.” The author wanted to portray “art historical” evidence of the Armenians of Smyrna. She expounded on the presence of various monuments in the Armenian Quarter long ago which went back before the modern era to the fourteenth century. The chapter was unique and readers not familiar with the subject will gain a glimpse of the wide variety of architectural contributions made in Smyrna. For example, she highlighted the Armenian Saint Stephen (Stepanos) Cathedral along with other churches of the Greek Orthodox community. Her inclusion of various Armenian leaders gave impetus to the progressive projects that favored including textile fabrics, embroidery, and fashions. These innovations affected women in the Ottoman Empire and not just the Armenian inhabitants of Smyrna.
The demise of the Armenian and Greek presence after the inferno of Smyrna in 1922 by the Kemalists forces and the denial by the Turkish government today in recognizing the inhabitants of the Armenian and Greek communities of the past continues to be a fiasco of the historicide by sweeping history under the rug and the denial of the Arminian Genocide. The two minority groups have no longer been mentioned in Turkish textbooks or to tourists when they travel to that nation, not only in Smyrna but within the interior where their edifices stood. The Armenians and Greeks were hidden long ago. Today, shadows of the Armenians only exist by those who pursue the truth in historical and architectural research. Photography has manifested the community, architecture, and designs that once existed in Smyrna created by its population. In the text, the author and editor provided photos of the once glorious accomplishments of progressive people who are no longer remembered or known by its contemporary Turkish inhabitants. The architectural edifices created by Armenians and Greeks were fully or partially destroyed where they stood. Some of the sites where they were used by the dominance of the Turkish regimes that followed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Readers will be impressed by Dr. Maranci’s essay which covered great details of art history of the monuments and textiles.
The contents of Chapter Fourteen authored by Dr. Vartan Matiossian, who is a scholar, author, editor, and currently the Executive Director of the Armenian National Education Committee of the Prelacy in New York. The title of his essay was “From Asia Minor to the Rio De La Plata: Smyrna and South American Armenian Origins.” The substance of the research revealed a broader dimension of history for those unfamiliar with the Armenian diaspora of South America. The essay focused on the small number of immigrants who were prosperous from Smyrna within the larger Armenian settlements of Argentina and Uruguay. The emphasis about the immigration of large business enterprises of two families the Bergamali and Nikotian led to the establishment and building of the Cathedral of Saint Gregory the Illuminator and other institutions. Some Armenian immigrants dispersed to Brazil and Chile. The inclusion of the Bakirgian enterprise in textiles was their influence in Manchester, England and in South America.
The statehood of Armenia was in the balance when American leaders were in debate over different issues between 1918 and 1919. The Allied nations, who were victors against the Triple Alliance powers, manifested the least enthusiasm for the independent state. The United States Senate rejected the goal of Armenians and their nationalist leaders around the world. The Senate was adamantly opposed by the Republican leadership against the ability to support troops in the region and also their opposition to President Woodrow Wilson. The Allies eventually recognized the Armenian Republic without the United States support. Meanwhile, the Treaty of Sevres favored the Turkish Kemalist regime. The instability of the Armenian state and with the issue of its borders, the Soviet Union stepped into Armenia.
The approximate number of Armenians in the United States, circa 1920, was about one hundred thousand, but their entering the United States became less promising with the advent of Quota Laws. Some refugees, who were rejected admission from Smyrna, decided to expatriate to parts of the Middle East, Europe, and South America. The immigration quotes made it difficult for all refugees particularly from southern and eastern Europe including the Near East (Middle East) after 1921 to settle in the United States. Therefore, many Europeans and some Armenians flocked to nations of South America; immigration laws were less stringent.
The research compiled for the chapter manifested various aspects of immigration to Brazil since some Armenians were influenced by the press in Smyrna had made it known that the government of Brazil would sponsor passage and settlement. Other Armenians disagreed with immigration to the country based on climate and the danger of unsanitary conditions for the asylum seekers. Prof. Matiossian dwelled on “Church Affairs” and an important array of events pertaining to community life with the influence of the ARF and its leaders. In addition, the author discerned in his research that by 1937 how police in Argentina would no longer identify Armenians as Turks. The contents of the research illuminated and gave impetus for more study of the Armenian immigrants who settled in South America. The research was certainly a window for those not able to read Armenian or Spanish. The author amassed a great deal of noteworthy research pertaining to the Armenians, who emigrated from Smyrna to South America and other locations. Perhaps, Dr. Matiossian will undertake a volume on his outstanding research in English pertaining to the vast topic of the Armenians who settled in South America.
The book like many other volumes was the outcome of a series of international conferences spearheaded by the leadership, writing, and editorship of Prof. Hovannisian to bring readers of all ethnic background information about the Armenian people and their legacy. Without his vision, future generations would not know nor remember the history of the Armenian people and the word Armenian would only remain in a footnote of textbooks. The broader attention he has promulgated about Armenian history through his writing, lecturers, teaching, and dedication has received worldwide acclaim in the last half of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Gary A. Kulhanjian is a social historian, former educator and member of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education and served of three governors. He represented the Armenian community. The author resides in California.
