Tall trees, a peaceful stream and picturesque mountains in the province of Vanadzor, Armenia, present the perfect serenity for a religious leader to think and reflect, and that is what Bishop Sebouh Chuljyan does.
“Please help us be in contact with civil society organizations in Turkey — be they cultural, environmental or children’s — so we can have them over here either to do things together, maybe to plant trees or give concerts. I value civil initiatives more than the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border,” he said, looking sharply into the eyes of the curious Turkish journalists in his compound.
He was behind his busy desk filled not only with a variety of office documents, but also some Turkish history books, Turkish novels, Turkish television program scripts and a poem starting with the line, “A Human Being Should Be Aware”“(Fark“nda Olmal” “nsan) by Turkish poet Can Y”cel. On his windowsill, there was a framed photograph of Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian editor of the “stanbul-based Agos daily who was assassinated in 2007. The two had become close friends when Dink visited Chuljyan in Armenia. Bishop Chuljyan was speaking to the Turkish journalists who are in Armenia for the Turkey-Armenia Journalist Dialogue Project of the International Hrant Dink Foundation, funded by the Heinrich B”ll Stiftung Association. This tall, impressive and determined religious leader was direct in his statements.
“The important thing is to establish close ties between the Turkish and Armenian peoples. Once they get to know and love each other, political leaders would race to open the doors,” he said, referring to the closed border between Turkey and Armenia, which Turkey shut in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan after Armenia occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a part of Azerbaijani territory.
He runs a diocese of the Gougark region in the Armenian Apostolic Church. With this high qualification and having been born in Turkey, Bishop Chuljyan, 50, is also a natural patriarchal candidate for the post in “stanbul if there are elections for a new patriarch, if the frail Patriarch Mesrob II has to retire for health reasons. Asked if he would like to enter the elections in such a situation, he said he would if the Turkish-Armenian community supports him, even though he doesn’t like to live in big cities.
“I don’t like traffic and the hustle and bustle of the cities. I like to go and visit Anatolian towns and villages,” he said, adding that he has been to Turkey several times, but mostly to small towns.
When it comes to questions on the debate of whether Patriarch Mesrob II should be replaced due to his health problems, Chuljyan said he believes that the patriarch should be replaced. “This is the right thing to do,” he said.
“I am from Malatya”
“I am from central Malatya. I went to see the house we once lived in there, but the new owners of the house did not allow me to see it. They cursed at me,” he said, telling some other stories from his visits in which he sometimes had terrible experiences because he was being ousted since some villagers disliked Armenians. In some cases, he was warmly welcomed by people.
“I was able to see my grandparents’ house,” he said as his expression changed from a mix of angry and sad to a big smile. He showed the pictures he had taken in a person’s house in Malatya where he was sitting on the floor with a group of townspeople and having a friendly chat. In another picture, he was enjoying the fresh figs from a tree in a garden that once belonged to his grandfather.
Chuljyan moved to Armenia when he was 9. When asked why he and his family left the province of Malatya where he was born, he said that they were tired of being humiliated because they were Armenian.
“Sebouh is my religious name. The name my father gave me is Hayk. Because my name was not an ethnic Turkish name, my father had to go through a series of difficulties to obtain my identification card,” he said in reference to the difficulties that minority communities faced in Turkey.
As he pulled out the picture of the pink-painted house where Dink lived in the past, he said that he met Dink in Armenia and they are from the same district in Malatya.
“I shared his ideas about fake nationalism. Nationalism is good when it is patriotic and not extreme or fake. Hrant believed that extreme nationalism was hurting both Turkey and Armenia,” he said.
Like Dink did, Chuljyan also has had a great sense of giving back to the Armenian community that raised him.
“We are a big family, seven boys and two girls. I went to a boarding school in „stanbul in Hal“c„o“lu. The school is not there anymore because it was demolished during the construction of the bridge over the Golden Horn,” he said, adding that he established a summer camp in his compound for poor Armenian children who can enjoy themselves and nature.
“Please send me books from Turkey. I read a lot,” he said near the end of his meeting with the Turkish journalists. “I get so excited when Turks and Armenians talk to each other. Because if they don’t, others will be winners and we will be losers.” And thank you for being aware of me.“
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