Hunters of Armenian Treasures

The word ‘talan’ has the same meaning in both Turkish and Armenian. It means plunder, pillage or looting. It is a historic fact that the rise and success of the Ottoman Empire was directly linked to the ‘talan’ of the newly conquered territories until the 16th century. When the Empire could not conquer any more territories, the decline started. By the beginning of the 20th century, when almost all of the conquered territories were lost and the Empire was about to fall, the ‘talan’ became internal, going after the possessions and wealth of the two main minorities, the Armenians and the Greeks. In this article, I will try to highlight the still ongoing ‘talan’, today, of the houses and churches left behind by the Armenians, more than 100 years after the Armenian Genocide. In fact, the ‘talan’ has now become a real industry, equipped with tools of science, technology and social media.

If you Google in Turkish ‘treasure hunting in Armenian houses,’ you get more than 800,000 hits. If you Google in Turkish more specifically ‘what to look for when treasure hunting in Armenian houses,’ you get more than 400,000 hits. Similarly, searching for ‘treasure hunting in Armenian churches’ in Turkish would result in over 700,000 hits, with another 200,000 for ‘treasure signs in Armenian churches.’ There are hundreds of instructional YouTube videos or articles which demonstrate what to look for, where to look in Armenian houses and churches, as well as the significance of Armenian symbols, signs, letters and words which would be clues for hidden treasures left behind by the Armenians. These videos have hits of tens of thousands each. The instructors in the videos have various titles, ranging from professor to archaeologist to professional treasure hunter. They invariably state that the treasures are left behind by the Armenians who decided to leave the country during the First World War or shortly thereafter, but some hoped to return at a future date, and that is why they buried their treasures which they could not carry with them. This statement is always uttered in a very normal, matter of fact manner, as if it happens all the time ordinarily, naturally, like the changing of the seasons.