In my previous articles delving into photographs from the ARF Archives, we saw some familiar and unfamiliar visuals from our history and culture over the past century and more. One clear takeaway is that the Armenian people have never lived in a vacuum. Empires have passed over the lands where Armenians have lived. Large-scale conflicts have reverberated among the Armenian people, not least of which the Genocide during the First World War. Armenians themselves have also participated in and helped shape fashions and trends around them – including, not coincidentally, the spread of photography in the Middle East.
Unsurprisingly, then, there are subjects among the photographs in the archives outside of exclusively Armenian circles.
For example, here we have a group photo of Turkish military personnel. Below, more specifically, is one Mustafa Vefa Bey who, it says on the back of the photo, was a spy assassinated in Tiflis (Tbilisi).
The picture below is a bit more mysterious, as it is merely labelled “Տաճկական Հիւպատոս” in Armenian on the back – “Turkish Consul.”
This picture does not match the stereotypical visualizations of Turks in Armenian discourse (for which, see the images above). There is something domestic and avuncular about this man, his dog and a granddaughter, perhaps, on a trike.
There are also a number of photographs with Kurdish themes in the collection – many more than Turkish ones. The ARF photo archives reflect a turbulent time in the 1920s and 1930s after the Genocide and the establishment of the USSR and the Republic of Turkey, when Kurdish and Armenian groups collaborated in armed movements. The most significant such uprising was the Ararat Rebellion in the late 1920s, led by the Khoyboun (Xoybûn) party. Below are two of its members.
Ardashes Mouradian, in the picture below, was an ARF agent within that group. He went by Zeynal or Ziylan Bey, and was eventually abducted across the border into the USSR and probably killed on the orders of the Soviet leadership.
Sheikh Mahmoud Barzanji also features in a couple of photographs in the collection.
He was a Kurdish leader in uprisings against British rule in the north of newly-established Iraq in the 1920s. It is not clearly marked in the images, however, what the Armenian or specifically ARF connection might have been with his activities.
This series of brief articles is meant above all to invite you to visit arfarchives.org/photograph. Click around on the website. You might find a fascinating page from your family history or see directly the ups and downs of the Armenian nation in the last hundred-plus years.
Latest posts by Nareg Seferian (see all)
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- Glimpses into the ARF Photo Archives: The Gougounian Group - March 26, 2024
- Glimpses into the ARF Photo Archives: Armenian Legionnaires Immortalized - March 13, 2024
LOOKING AT THESE PHOTOGRAPHS OF ARMENIAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS AND THEN SEEING ARMENIAN POLITICIANS (DEMOCRATS LIKE ADRIN NAZARIAN AND ARDASHES KASSAKHIAN FROM GLENDALE/LOS ANGELES) WHO DO NOT SUPPORT THE SECOND AMENDMENT (RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS) MAKE ME VOMIT. THEY FERVENTLY WORK TO MAKE GUN OWNERSHIP IMPOSSIBLE, TAX THE HELL OUT OF LEGAL GUN OWNERS, SUPPORT ANTI-GUN LAWS WHICH DIRECTLY AFFECT LEGAL AND LAW ABIDING GUN OWNERS AND NOT CRIMINALS. GUNS ARE WHAT PROTECTED ARMENIAN VILLAGERS. GUNS ARE WHAT GAVE ARMENIAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS A CHANCE TO FIGHT AND WIN. GUNS ARE WHAT KHYRIMYAN HAYRIK SAID ARMENIANS SHOULD GIVE ONE ANOTHER. GUNS! GUNS! GUNS! ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS THE TURKS DID BEFORE MASSACRING 1.5 MILLION ARMENIANS IS DEMAND THAT ALL ARMENIANS TURN IN THEIR GUNS. ARMENIANS CAN NOT AND SHOULD NOT, EVER, SUPPORT DEMOCRATS, AND OUR ARMENIAN DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS ARE NOT REPRESENTING ARMENIAN VALUES AND BELIEFS OF THE RIGHT TO DEFEND ONE’S SELF. NAZARIAN, KASSAKHIAN, AND ANY OTHER ARMENIAN DEMOCRAT POLITICIAN NEED TO CHANGE THEIR POLITICAL PARTIES TO TRULY REPRESENT ARMENIAN BELIEFS AND VALUES OF FAMILY, CHURCH, MARRIAGE BETWEEN MAN AND WOMAN, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, LOW TAXES, LESS GOVERNMENT, STRONG MILITARY, PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY, AND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR ONE’S ACTIONS. INSTEAD, THEY BELIEVE IN AND SUPPORT THE OPPOSITE BECAUSE THEY ARE AFRAID THEY WILL BE UNELECTABLE. THEY ARE COWARDS AND PHONIES. ARMENIANS MUST PROTECT THE 2ND AMENDMENT. ARMENIANS MUST ALWAYS SUPPORT REPUBLICANS. THE BEST ARMENIAN POLITICIAN THAT EVER EXISTED WAS GEORGE DEUKMEJIAN, GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA. HE WAS A PROUD REPUBLICAN WHO SERVED FOR EIGHT YEARS. NAZARIAN AND KASSAKHIAN NEED TO SPEAK BOLDLY AND HONESTLY ABOUT WHAT ARMENIANS VALUE AND BELIEVE WHICH ARE REPUBLICAN VALUES AND BELIEFS. OUR ARMENIAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS AND ARMENIAN SOLDIERS, ALIVE AND WHO DIED DEFENDING ARMENIA AND ARTSAKH, DESERVE IT.
The chief perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide had very much in common with the Nazi perpetrators of the Holocaust. They were not some rough looking illiterate moustachioed mountain men and bandits, like the Kurds they employed to do their murderous work, but were polished, highly educated, multilingual, cosmopolitan people, who were part of the Ottoman nobility or the Ottoman bourgeoisie, hence why murderers like them are even more chilling.