Embattled Dreamlands by David Leupold

Author:David Leupold [Leupold, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Emigration & Immigration, Sociology
ISBN: 9781000059717
Google: eePcDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-04-13T03:50:28+00:00

4 Mnemonic Frontiers, Alien Homelands

The Greater Van Region, the Residing and the Expelled

At the Nexus of a Contested Geography: the Greater Van Region

While the previous chapters dealt in detail with the intertwined histories of Armenians, Turks and Kurds (Chapters 1 and 2) as well as their representations in contemporary national narratives (Chapter 3), this chapter, ultimately, embarks on a field study to the very nexus of this contested geography – the greater Van region in eastern Turkey. Set in a threefold-contested geography, the greater Van region forms the physical intersection point where the Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish national narratives collides. Historically located in the shatter zone of three empires – the Ottoman Empire, Tsarist Russia and Qajar Persia – by the beginning of the 20th century the greater Van region became a theater of war where competing imperial interests clashed violently.

Located along the Russo-Ottoman frontlines, the greater Van region reflects best the complex history of riots, retaliation, self-defense and, finally, genocide that tore asunder the fabric of late Ottoman society. Still, at the turn of the 20th century, the greater Van region as the site of the medieval Armenian principalities of Vaspurakan and Taron harbored the most compact and concentrated Armenian populations throughout the Ottoman Empire. Although the region was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire by the 16th century and administered as the Provinces of Bitlis and Van, the influence of the central authority remained weak as the region was governed through indirect rule.1

The region west of Lake Van – encompassed by the Bitlis Province – was governed by Ottoman district administrators who enjoyed, according to the historian Süavi Aydın, an almost perfect autonomy from the central authority.2 To the north of Lake Van, towards Ağrı, the Pashas of Bayezid ruled over the mountain pastures and lower plains where the Zilan tribal confederation practiced transhumance.3 To the east of Lake Van, Yezidi farmers populated the Abaga plain, also known as Mahmudî Sahrası, while further east large Kurdish tribes such as the Haydaranlı and Şikaki were kept in check by the Khans of Khoy, Maku and Urumiya.4 To the southeast of Lake Van, the Mîrs of Hakkari over an area that stretched from the plains of Başkale over the Zap Valley to the mountainous area formed by the convergence of the Toros and Zagros mountains. In the surrounding area, Kurdish tribal confederations such as the Ertuşi, the Pinyaniş, the Şemdinan, the Oramar and the Herki tribes coexisted with Syriac-speaking Christians of whom the majority was organized in tribal structures similar to those of the Kurds.5 To the south of Lake Van, the Mîrs of Müküs and Bitlis ruled over the high plateau of present-day Bahçesaray and Hizan while further to the south was located the sphere of influence of the Kurdish principality of Cizre-Botan.6 Finally, the fertile lands along the shores of Lake Van were largely populated by Armenians and to a lesser extent also by Syriac-speaking Christians and settled Kurds, who engaged likewise into farming and livestock breeding activities.7 However,

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