Hrant and the Plight of Bantoukht

(remembering  Serop Yeretsian)

Vahe H. Apelian.

Melkon Gurdjian, who wrote under the pen name Hrant, is known among the Western Armenian writers as the author who brought to light the plight of the Armenian migrants from the interior of the country to Bolis, the Armenian word for Constantinople.

Recently I read a book titled “Complete Literary Works” of Melkon Gurdjian. It is subtitled “From Bantoukht's (Migrant’s) Life”. In Armenian it reads «ԱՄԲՈՂՋԱԿԱՆ ԵՐԿԵՐ», Ա. – “ՊԱՆԴՈՒԽՏԻ ԿԵԱՆՔԷՆ”. The book is a compilation of letters Hrant wrote at the urging of his friend Arpiar Arpiarian, who had these letters published in “Massis”, the journal he edited. “Friends of Martyred Writers” published the book and noted the following in their introduction of the author and his literary legacy noting that they are “glad that the second volume of their sequel is devoted to Hrant’s letters about the lives of migrants. These letters constitute one of the more memorable literary works about the  (Armenian) life in the late 19^th century.  According to Arpiar Arpiarian, Hrant is a bitter heart’s poet.  His literary work depicts the inner pain and distress of these souls that remained mostly unheard”.

The following are the milestones of Melkon Gurdjian’s life.

1859. He was born in the village of Havav in Palou, Western Armenia. He was brought to Constantinople in his early adolescent years to continue his education. He graduated from the Üsküdar Lyceum (Djemaran). After which he furthered his education. Henceforth devoted his life to teaching.

1888 – He started contributing to literary journals “Arevelk”,  “Massis” and “Hairenik”, where he had his acclaimed writings about the plight of the Armenian migrants posted under the header “letters from the lives of migrants” signed by his pen name Hrant.

1893 – He got engaged to the noted writer Krikor Odian’s niece. Not long after his engagement, he was imprisoned for a month for suspicions of his political affiliation. He, in fact, had become a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.

1896 – During the pogroms of Armenians in Bolis, government officials raided his house as well when he was not at home, looking for guns but finding nothing of that sort, confiscated and destroyed his writings. Fearing for his safety he fled for Varna, Bulgaria where he established a school for the children of Armenian refugees fleeing Turkey.

1898 – Contrary to the advice of his wife and his friends, he returned to Constantinople where he was apprehended and imprisoned for six months and later exiled to the interior of country where he remained for the next ten years reporting to the police of his daily whereabouts. During those years he gave private lessons for French to medical students and medical doctors. He also wrote and translated including “Life of Jesus” by the French philosopher and historian Joseph Ernest Renan. In spite of his conforming and abiding by the dictates, he was imprisoned again for two months and his writings were confiscated and destroyed once more.

1909 – He returned to Constantinople after the establishment of a constitutional government in Turkey, and resumed teaching of Armenian language and literature and classical Armenian of which he was regarded an expert. He continued to contribute to literary journals there, “Puzanteon” («Բիզանդիոն»), “Azadamard” («Ազատամարտ») և “Yergounk” («Երկունք»).

1910 – He was elected as a delegate and took part in the election of the Catholicos in Etchmiadzin. Upon his return he published his impressions in a series of articles in “Arevelk”.

1915 – He was also apprehended in April along with the other Armenian intellectuals and community leaders and was sent to the interior of the country where he was also killed.

Migration continues to be inherent to the very fabric of the Armenian social life. I doubt there is an Armenian who does not have a family history that does not include migration. That aspect of our collective social life is so much engrained in our psyche that we have coined a unique word for it in our lexicon,  Bantoukht, well above the common word used to describe migration and migrant in general. I know of no English word that can possibly convey the sentiments the word Bantoukht conveys. It embodies feelings the word migrant could not possibly express on its own. The word amasses sentiments of being a foreigner, or a stranger in a distant land, longing for the home and a way of life left behind and never contemplating making the newly reality a home. No wonder that Hrant titled his letters “Letters from Bantoukht” (Պանդուխտի Նամակներ).

Nowadays, we often sentimentalize the Armenian life in our historic homeland. The unfortunate and sad reality is that the conditions in the interior of the country were mostly brutal to the point that the oppressed, mostly illiterate and living in abject poverty, the Armenian subjects could not even eke out a hand to mouth living forcing many to venture to Constantinople in the hope of saving some money to send home. The migrants were overwhelmingly if not exclusively males, and some as young as fourteen. Displaced, they lived in communal housings, Khans. They mostly congregated based on the region they came from. It is their plight that had catapulted the newly elected Patriarch Khrimian Hairig to take a stand against the National Constitution as ratified because it deprived the interior of the country from adequate representation in the National Assembly to have their grievances heard.

The book I read is comprised of two parts. The first part is the collection of Melkon Gurdjian’s writings in the form of the letters mostly addressed to Arpiar Arpirian. These letters are masterfully written in an impeccable Western Armenian and are highly expressive and moving. They are twenty in number. Each letter depicts and describes mostly a heart-wrenching situation the migrants and the families and parents they left behind experienced. It also depicts the cherishable values the migrants harbored in spite of their harsh reality. Each letter varies in length. The first letter posted in “Massis” is dated 1888 and the 17^th and last letter there is dated 1890. The next three letters were posted in “Hairenik” and are dated 1891, 1892 and 1893 respectively.

The second part of the book is titled  “Figures and Stories” (Պատկերներ եւ Վիմակներ). This section constitutes 9 chapters. They are posted in “Hairenik” (1892(x3), 1893, 1895), “Massis” (1893) and in “Azadamard” (1909, 1912, 1913).

In these letters Hrant described the plight of these migrant workers noting that: “At least one hundred thousand have been cast away from their homes. Do you know who are they? They are those who would have worked, toiled in the fields, harvested the crop. After sacrificing all they can, they send home a meager saving.” He continued on noting that, “ It has been like this for centuries. The tragedy continues today much like a worm that nibbles the lungs of the sick” and alerts saying, “if the migration continues like this, our inner provinces will be depopulated today or tomorrow; know of this, it is a horrible truth”. A hundred and thirty years later, Hrant’s warning remains compelling and rings a bell.  

By assembling Hrant’s writings from these various journals the members of the association lived up to their names as true friends of martyred writers. Had they not done so Hrant’s writings would have remained scattered in literary journals long ceased from publication and would have been destined for oblivion. We also would have been deprived of the true picture of a historic reality that had plaqued the life of the Armenian subjects in the interior Turkey for generations. Assembling his letters in a book, the “Friends of Martyred Writers” safeguarded that historic reality and the literary legacy of this devoted martyred writer.

The book is 218 pages long and measures 15x20 cm. The late Serop Yeretsian had gifted this book to me. It is in soft cover but Serop had his copy bound in hard cover. I post this piece in his memory.