Vanessa Kachadurian Jerusalem Armenian story finally being told

Writer Haig Krikorian

Jerusalem Armenian story finally being told
by Arthur Hagopian

Published: Saturday May 14, 2011

Jerusalem - It is a crying shame that a truly comprehensive and scholarly gratifying history of the annals of the Armenians of Jerusalem has yet to be penned.

Armenians have been living in Jerusalem continuously for over two thousand years, even before their conversion to Christianity.

That's a lot of history, by any reckoning.

Not that this demonstrably vital colony of artists, craftsmen, and other creative spirits - the list is endless but runs the whole gamut of human experience - lacks the necessary skill or expertise to do it, scattered though most of its members may be around the four corners of the world.

The reasons behind this omission are not mere inertia on the part of Armenian scribes. The lamentable fact is that the ancestors of Jerusalem's Armenians gave record-keeping a pedestrian glance, leaving their progeny with precious little reliable records or resources to tap.

And let us not forget that the whole Middle East region has been so enmeshed in periodic patches of political upheaval over the centuries, the foremost preoccupation of the city's Armenian denizens has always been to win the struggle for survival.

But all is not lost.

As we look through the glass of history, darkly, though we perceive dark clouds of unknowing, we can also sporadically discern some bright lights of promise, personified in a minuscule pride of historians, like Ormanian and Savalaniantz.

Their books have almost become objects of veneration, preserving for posterity as they do segments of the story of the Armenians of Jerusalem.

Several years ago, Jerusalem-born scholar Kevork Hintlian attempted to fill part of the gap in the history of his people with a well-researched, slim but titillating volume, "The History of the Armenians in the Holy Land."

It is unfortunate that this book remains generally undervalued and unappreciated - it deserves better. Hintlian has been urged repeatedly to expand it, extend its range. Hopefully, he will get around to it sometime soon.

In sharp contrast to Hintlian's 80-page tome, US-based Haig Krikorian has just celebrated the culmination of a ten-year labor of love with a massive 800-page endeavor, entitled "Lives and Times of the Armenian Patriarchs of Jerusalem."

Krikorian's book is a timely treasure, foraging into the profound, almost inaccessible niches and caves of disparate archives to encapsulate for perpetuity the vicissitudes of the Armenian church in Jerusalem.

The Armenian nation owns this patient plodder an incalculable debt of gratitude for rescuing from obscurity the epic tale of the panoply of Armenian church leaders, with a detailed chronicle that covers over a millennium and a half of the lives of the Armenian patriarchs of Jerusalem.

Krikorian has the good fortune of being a close friend of the current incumbent, Patriarch Torkom Manoogian, and that, coupled with his unflinching support for the Armenian Patriarchate, opened several doors for him and accorded him unprecedented access to existing records and private papers.

Despite the heavy lifting, I could not put the book down. Krikorian's fluid writing style, his meticulous choice of diction and paraphrase and the lack of any literary mannerism of ostentation makes reading his book a delight.

And there is plenty to tell his readers. Some of the facts he has uncovered have probably never been revealed before. How many Armenians are aware that Abraham (638-669), regarded by many as the first Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem, had trekked all the way to Mecca, to plead with the Prophet Mohammed for protection for his flock?

[While it is almost impossible to determine the exact number of Armenian Patriarchs in Jerusalem, various sources place the number between 75 to 100].

Krikorian has taken great pains to trace the origins of the Armenian presence in the Holy Land, and in particular in Jerusalem, and as you read you come to realize that the story of the Armenians of Jerusalem is actually the story of their church, embodied in the Patriarchate of St James, with its grand cathedral, and that their history is linked inevitably to their entity as Christians.

While recapping his chronicle, with a great eye for detail, the writer also delves into the deeds and misdeeds of priestly members of the Brotherhood of St James, an interlude that no doubt is bound to raise eyebrows: not many Armenians will be happy to see the dirty wash of their spiritual leaders aired in public.

Krikorian is not interested in a whitewash. He emphasizes that the Armenian church survived the ravages of time despite the relentless threat of internal strife and corruption at the hands of unconscionable clergymen who pitted their ambitions ahead that of the good of the church.

Inevitably, there is the sorry episode of the 25 manuscripts purloined in the late 1940's and the battle to get them back. Not all 25 were retrieved. Three still remain unaccounted for, languishing perhaps in the safe of some millionaire collector. Whether he or she would know or appreciate half the value of so precious a possession, nobody will know.

Nor does Krikorian shy away from pointing the finger at the attempts by other Christian denominations, particularly the Greeks and Latins, to expropriate Armenian properties and subjugate the Armenian church.

At some point down the timeline of history, Armenians are said to have built over 500 monasteries in and around Jerusalem. Many of these have been lost now - either destroyed or taken over, either through wars or subterfuge, and sometimes by sheer chicanery or incompetence.

Ironically, while fellow Christians persecuted the Armenians, their non-Christian overlords, particularly the Moslems, seem to have viewed them with special favor, granting them rights and privileges they enjoy to this day. Krikorian points out that this was no doubt politically motivated, as a counter to their enemies with their Byzantine sympathies and loyalties.

Krikorian, a former student at the theological seminary of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, takes us through a travelogue that spans the Byzantine, Arab, Crusader, Maneluke, Turk, British and Jordanian administrations, and down to the present era of the Israeli and Palestinian conflict.

Throughout this epoch, pockmarked by frequent violence and endemic corruption, the Armenians continued to survive and thrive, honing their skills at diplomatic and politician maneuvering, alongside the arts and crafts.

It is their presence that gives Jerusalem its unique flavor and contributes to the city's claim to be the center of the world.





(c) 2011 Armenian Reporter
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Vanessa Kachadurian- Armenians of Jerusalem

Armenians of Jerusalem circa 1940

Reconstructing Armenian Jerusalem
by Arthur Hagopian

Published: Tuesday March 08, 2011

Jerusalem - When the great historians, particularly Ormanian and Savalaniantz, set out to wrest from the obscure pages of the past the history of the Armenians of Jerusalem, one of the main objective they achieved was the establishment of chronologically ascertained points of reference.

But despite the exhaustive tenor of their approach and perspective, their quills inevitably left some gaps in the narratives that have come down to us.

We know when Armenians first trod the dust-blown roads of Jerusalem, back in the days of empire, when Tigranes II led a conquering army to Syria and the borders of Judea (circa 1st-2nd BCE). We know how many Armenians were living in the Old City at the peak of their presence (over 15,000 circa 1945 CE). We have a list of their Patriarchs, bundles of documents embodying 'firman's' establishing their rights and privileges, Daguerreotypes of the first photos they developed and copies of the first books they printed.

But we know nothing about what drove these people, this flotsam of humanity washed ashore at the Holy Land, a tribe afire with the perpetual flame of ingenuity and artistic abandon. We know next to nothing about their ancient culture, their traditions, their dreams and aspirations.

Some of the edifices and institutions they set up, among them the city's first printing press, are still standing. Others, like the first photographic studio and the refectory that fed thousands of refugees during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, have been raked over.

A couple of years ago, an attempt was launched to close this unfortunate gap in the saga of the Armenians of Jerusalem, with the creation of a website family tree project targeting the native Armenians, the Kaghakatzis, a clan that boasts a unique distinction: every single member of the clan is related, either closely or at a distance, to every other Kaghakatzi.

The web site has so far succeeded in creating a database listing genealogical details of past Kaghakatzis, dating back a little less than two centuries, in an intriguing mosaic of interviewing lines that show the unbroken connection that binds all Kaghakatzis to their Jerusalem sojourn.

At the same time, the website has become a repository of the stories and legends of this clan, and a menu of whatever has been salvaged of their traditions and customs.

But despite the participation and contribution of Kaghakatzis all over the world, parts of the mosaic lie in tatters, glaring gaps in its fabric.

But that is not the only anomaly - until now, the project, dubbed the Kaghakatzi Armenians of Jerusalem Family Tree, has shied away from cataloguing the saga of the rest of the Armenians of the city, particularly the Vanketzis, survivors of the Armenian genocide or their descendants who had sought refuge in the Convent of St James.

The reasoning behind this obvious oversight is that there is no common genealogical link binding the Vanketzis together. They belong to various families and hail from different parts of the motherland, Armenia. They have been in Jerusalem for less than a century, unlike the Kaghakatzis who can lay claim to a presence of over two millennia.

However, the organizers feel it is time to remedy the anomaly.

"We plan to expand our horizons and tell the story of all the Armenians of Jerusalem, irrespective, " the organizers say.

The Vanketzis also have a story to tell, though it is mostly a tale of survival, of fighting to stay alive while others perished by the roadside, as they sought to evade the marauding Turkish hordes bent on their annihilation.

In more than one case, these miserable dregs of humanity had to face the utmost horror of having to abandon other members of their families to fates worse than death. They survived on the peels of oranges they picked off the ground, and hid in cemeteries where the Jinn, whom the Moslem marauders feared, protected them against the assassins.

The Kaghakatzis in Jerusalem received their refugee cousins with open arms, guarding and protecting them, and offering them a safe haven. During the first Arab-Israeli confrontation of 1948 it was the Kaghakatzis with their home-made Sten and Bren guns who defended the whole of the Armenian compound in the Old City.

While the Vanketzis would have set up the first printing press and photographic studio, establishing a tradition for innovation and modernity, the Kaghakatzis would have concentrated on the more practical aspects of civil administration, trade and government.

They infiltrated the topmost echelons of politics and government, a cadre of top professionals who passed their skills and expertise to successive generations.

Alas, despite their ponderous accomplishments, neither the Kaghakatzis nor the Vanketzis seem to have given any consideration to chronicling their deeds for posterity. They kept no records, or if they did, it has all perished.

Aside from three official ledgers in the possession of the Armenian Patriarchate that catalogue details of births, marriages and deaths of Armenians in Jerusalem. But these go back only to 1840. There might conceivably be older records buried somewhere in the Patriarchate archives: but trying to locate and exhume them is an option too far away.

No doubt there are also bits of memorabilia scattered here and there, gathering dust in forgotten or unheard-of locations.

Waiting for their day of discovery or deliverance from obscurity.

Which is what happened to the scrap of paper Hagop Terzibashian, erstwhile catering supervisor at the Patriarchate, had secreted in his house inside the convent. The paper was unearthed by his son, Abraham, an internationally renowned expert on Armenian theology and theological literature.

The document Hagop so painstakingly compiled, is a list of leading Kaghakatzi figures who plied their trades in the city, from the early 19th century onwards. It covers almost every aspect of life: there seems to have been no trade or occupation in which the Kaghakatzis were not apprenticed. Barbers rubbed shoulders with blacksmiths, carpenters, builders, shoemakers, goldsmiths, tailors, and bankers, among others.

Perhaps the most noteworthy revelation is the fact that the Kaghakatzis also controlled much of the seat of power in the city: Boghos Effendi Zakarian had risen to the lofty position of deputy to the Mutasarrif (Governor), while Sahag Nercessian became chief of police and Hovhannes Khatchadourian the tax collector.

Because of their diligence and trustworthiness, the Kaghakatzis were also singled out for special honors by power representatives of the foreign powers in the land.

Hagop Pascal was appointed vice-consul for Austria-Hungary, while Prussia singled out Haroutioun Torossian for the post.

Hagop Srabion Mouradian was a US consular officer in Jaffa, and a close relative, Onnig, became the US vice-consul in Jerusalem.

And among the builders, lurks the shadow and memory of Hovsep Hovsepian. Could this have been the vaunted Yousef el Banna (Hovsep the builder), whose name reverberates in the modern annals of Kaghakatzi Armenians?

Is this Hovsep the one from whose loins descended my own family line, along the way, the Hovsepian patronymic morphing into Hagopian?

Alas, there is no one to tell. One of the handful of the remaining elders of the Kaghakatzis, former teacher Arshalooys Zakarian, who might have known, passed away recently, taking her story with her.

Someday, we may yet stumble on another slip of parchment or paper telling us more.

Until such time, or when the time comes to write the remarkable history of the Armenians of Jerusalem, as it should be written, we only have the memories, or what we can salvage of them.