Raffi Petrossian is a pianist, also a construction engineer. He lives in Toronto (Canada). He had sent the profit gained from released two CDs and concerts of recent years to Armenia and to some Karabakh projects, in which he also participated as a construction engineer. He had initiated and with his associates has implemented the reconstruction works of St. Giragos church in Tigranakert (Diyarbakir). In 2012, Raffi Petrossian played the piano at St. Giragos Church and was the first to voice the Armenian music since 1915. Thanks to the efforts of this Armenian, Armenian language classes are taught in St. Giragos Church, the course graduates are coming to Armenia. Raffi Petrossian was kind to give an interview to “Aravot”.
– How can we explain the fact that people with Armenian roots have recently begun to talk more about their roots and identity?
– Yes, in the last few years, hidden Armenians in Turkey gradually feel more brave to “come out” and search for their roots and talk about it. The construction of St. Giragos church in Diyarbakir played a great role in it, and pulled Armenians like a magnet hidden to come and meet together, be organized and give each other strength. Of course, the Turkeyish government, in the last several years, is giving a little more freedom to minorities, especially the Kurds self-determination. Apart from each other some historical searches have reached the conclusion that the number of hidden Armenians in Turkey is a few million, more than the population in Armenia. But no matter they are conscious and want to go back to their Armenian roots, all our work and encouragement depend on Turkey. Our Armenian language courses organized in Diyarbakir, and then bringing the graduates of these courses to a tour to Armenia as a prize and encouragement is one of the first steps on the way to it. I am planning to organize such encouragement in other places as well. For example, I have projects to work with Dersim, Mush and especially Hamshen hidden Armenians in the next years. We must confess that the Patriarchate of Constantinople and a few Diaspora people, still Islamized Armenians, are not accepted to be Armenians unless they become Christian Armenians. According to me, this is a myopia to be separated from the religion to feel an Armenian, an Armenian identity. These people did not wish to be converted to Islam, they were convert to Islam in 1915, forcedly. Now their grandchildren, if courageously dare to come out as Armenians, regardless of the danger to their work, family and life, are surrounded by Turkish and Kurdish Muslims, it is irrational to force them to immediately change their religion or bring an evidence-documents to be an Armenian prior to treating them as Armenians…
Raffi Petrossian in Diyarbakir St. Giragos church
– For a long time you have been dealing with Diyarbakir matters. How did the idea of reconstructing St. Giragos Church and the Armenian language classes, etc. occur to your mind?
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– With my close friend and my hero Hrant Dink, I also think that we should think a little of the “remaining ones”, i.e. the living victims instead of “those gone”, i.e. killed in 1915. When the reconstruction project of St. Giragos Church launched with the help of Tigranakert friends, at first, their goal was to reconstruct this Church in the bright memory of Tigranakert inhabitants and get the funding from Constantinople and Diaspora Tigranakert-descendants. I changed this approach, and the most important goal of this project was to bring hidden Armenians to the light, and I wanted to introduce Armenians to the whole world, and considering the funding also an important project for all interested Armenians throughout the world, I explained it in my dozens of articles and fundraising meetings. Of course, many Armenians were not convinced of why they should give funds to build a church in a place where there are no Armenians but Kurds living in Turkey. And, here, three years after reconstruction of the church, along with the Church, Armenians also emerge in Diyarbakir. The number of hidden Armenians only in Diyarbakir exceeds one hundred thousand. St. Giragos was not only a religious place, but also a center of culture about Armenian history, music and arts. I must say that right after the opening of the church, I as a pianist gave an Armenian concert in the Church on September 2012 (first time since 1915). Approximately 400 hidden Armenians and Diaspora guests attended the concert. An 11-year-old Kurdish girl participating in the Armenian language courses sang two Armenian songs. This concert also helped to take care of the bells in the bell-tower of the Church. In addition to religion, we must spread out the Armenian language and the culture. It is necessary to organize tours to Armenia for hidden Armenians, and also tours of song, dance, and cultural from Armenia to Diyarbakir and other Western Armenian settlement (Eastern Turkey) so that hidden Armenian could see, learn and think about their roots, be encouraged and bold to be expressed as Armenians. Many of them would like and should be willing to study in Armenia, to learn Armenian language, to study turkology or other materials and establish a dialogue between Turkey and Armenia, between Armenian, Turkish and Kurdish peoples.
– Soon the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide will be marked. In this context, what are the gaps of Armenia and the Diaspora, and how to overcome the complexity of the Genocide?
– The genocide and all horrible consequences took place in Turkey. I am confident that the solution should also take place in Turkey. I am convinced that with the help of the dialogue, the number of hidden Armenians increasingly growing in collaboration with liberal Kurdish and Turkish non-governmental organizations, even if the government continues denying, by the people’s pushing on, and with the help of opinion maker key personalities like us, the Armenians, we must be able to make changes and suppress Turkey, the Parliament and the media so that the realities of 1915 will be revealed in Turkey. I am confident that instead of begging to foreign countries’ governments to recognize the genocide, it would be more useful to organize hidden Armenians in Turkey about the past and the future.
– What responses do you get after your articles published in Armenian Weekly magazine?
– My articles generally produce good results, many are liked by Facebook, online media, Diaspora and Armenia readers. Of course, there are some critics also, especially “the Armenian should by all means be a Christian” likewise thinkers, or “Hidden Armenians are not reality, they are harmful by impoverishing our genocide trial, they have helped the Turks” likewise thinkers… I receive also threatening words by a couple of fanatics.
Interviewed by Gohar HAKOBYAN
