Zaven The Yeghiayan

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zaven The Yeghiayan (1920).

Zaven Der Yeghiayan ( Armenian Տ. Զաւէն Արքեպսկ. Տէր Եղիաեան ; * September 8, 1868 in Mosul ; † June 4, 1947 in Baghdad ; real name is Mikayel Der Yeghiayan ) was Archbishop and the 79th Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople 1913–16 and 1919– 22nd

Life

Education and Youth

Mikayel Der Yeghiayan was born on September 8, 1868 in Mosul as the son of the priest Avedis Der Yeghiayan and Marta Kharabian. Both parents were from Siirt . Mikayel received his basic education under Mihran Hratschia Swadschian at the United Cooperative School of Sghert and at the (Armenian) National School of Baghdad. From 1888 to 1890 he worked as a teacher in Baghdad. At the end of 1890 he entered the Armaş Theological Seminary, founded in 1889 .

Priest and bishop

In 1892 he was ordained a deacon, in 1895 a monk ( Apegha ) under the name Zaven and on May 26, 1896 he received his doctorate as a wardapet . Shortly thereafter, until 1898, he took over the Istanbul communities of Samatya and Hasköy. His role model and sponsor was Malachia Ormanian , who was then head of the Armaş Theological Seminary.

In 1898 he was elected Vicar of Karin (Erzurum). 1901-06 he was prelate of Karin. He then took over some parishes in Istanbul (Yeniköy and Bakirköy) again. In 1908 he was elected Vicar of Van. 1909-13 he was prelate of Tigranakert . In 1910 he was ordained bishop by Catholicos Matteos II.

1st term of office as Patriarch (1913–16)

On August 30, 1913, Zaven Der Yeghiayan was elected Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople. He moved into his residence in the Gedik Pascha district in the renovated patriarchate building that had not been inhabited since Malachia Ormanian's time. Patriarch Zaven was active in poor relief and founded a charity for refugees.

At the time of his election, Patriarch Zaven was little known in the capital. The upcoming Armenian reforms in the Ottoman Empire called for a clergyman who knew the Armenian provinces from personal experience.

The negotiations that were being held with the Young Turkish government on the Armenian reforms at the time turned out to be very difficult. The determination of the number of Armenian MPs in the Ottoman Parliament was also controversial. From the originally targeted 18-20 MPs, Patriarch Zaven, MP Stepan Karayan, Talât Pascha and Midhat Şükrü agreed on 16 Armenian MPs, more than half of whom were determined by the Ittihad leadership.

The Young Turkish government accepted two international inspectors for monitoring compliance with the Armenian reforms : the Dutchman Louis Constant Westenenk (based in Erzurum for the northern Armenian vilayets ) and the Norwegian Nicolai Hoff (based in Van for the southern Armenian vilayets). The outbreak of the First World War prevented the start of the tasks. And on December 16, 1914, after the Ottoman Empire entered the war, the government terminated the February 8, 1914 reform agreements.

After the arrest of the Armenian elite on April 24, 1915, the beginning of the genocide, and the subsequent arrest of MPs Krikor Zohrab and Vartkes , Patriarch Zaven was increasingly isolated.

Most of the remaining Armenians avoided contact with him for fear of persecution. With the support of US Ambassador Henry Morgenthau , he immediately campaigned for the prisoners to be released. His unsuccessful petitions ( takrir ) led the Interior Ministry to determine that political submissions were not permitted by the patriarch. Patriarch Zaven was received in his role as religious leader only by the Minister of Justice and Culture, Ibrahim Pirizâde. At a meeting with Vice Grand Vizier Said Halim on July 10, 1915, it became clear that, in the government's opinion, the Armenians themselves were to blame for their fate.

On October 2, 1915, there was a meeting with Talât Pasha, who reiterated the allegations that the Armenians represented a threat to the country. Only a few deputies of the Armenian National Assembly as from deportation in Çankırı freed Dr. Vahram Torkomian or Onnig Ihsan supported the patriarch in this hopeless situation. Together with the legal advisor to the US Embassy, ​​Arshak Schmavonian, the Patriarch managed to maintain an aid organization for the deportees and to mobilize the US Red Cross as well as to support existing covertly operating Armenian networks to rescue the deportees.

At the beginning of 1916, aid funds from charitable Armenian organizations such as Tbrotsasser , Oknenk Sasun , Fonds Zavarian and Askanver were deposited at the US embassy at the instigation of the Patriarch to protect against state confiscation.

Exile (1916-19)

On July 28, 1916, after the ethnic cleansing of Asia Minor and the beginning of the extermination of the survivors deported to Syria and Mesopotamia, the Young Turkish government changed the internal constitution of the Ottoman Armenians: the patriarchates of Constantinople and Jerusalem were dissolved and the Cilician Catholic was also repealed merged under the direction of the previous Cilician Catholicos Sahag II. Khabayan of Sis . The short-lived and newly created office of Catholicos-Patriarch of all Ottoman Armenians was assigned as his seat in Jerusalem. The Assembly of Deputies, the legal representative of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the Political Committee, which acted as the official contact point between the Ottoman Armenians and the government, were also abolished.

On August 10, 1916, the Patriarchate was closed. The Secretary of Justice, Halil Bey, gave assurances that the Council of Ministers would not kill him. The patriarchate's assets and thus the aid funds for the refugees still living in Aleppo have been frozen. On September 4, 1916, Archbishop Zaven Der Yeghiayan was deported to Baghdad via Konya, Aleppo and Der Zor. His memoirs contain important observations on the second phase of the Armenian genocide in Syria and Mesopotamia.

From October 9, 1916 to early March 1917, Zaven Der Yeghiayan remained in exile under guard in Baghdad. Because of the approaching British troops, the transfer of the Patriarch took place on March 2, 1917 to Mosul.

In November 1918 Archbishop Zaven was liberated when the British entered Mosul. He started helping refugees in Mosul and soon afterwards handed this task over to the Primate of Mesopotamia, Bishop Muschegh. On March 4, 1919, he returned to Constantinople after traveling via Baghdad and Port Said.

2nd term of office as Patriarch (1919-22)

On October 19, 1918, the national constitution of the Ottoman Armenians was reinstated.

One of the highest priorities of Patriarch Zaven, besides helping refugees, was the establishment of an information office under the leadership of Arshak Alboyadjian (1879–1962) and Gabriel Nourian. The information office was entrusted with the collection of documents relating to the persecution of Armenians and the confiscation of their property as well as the listing of criminals and deported Armenians. The documents were brought to safety in Manchester from the approaching Kemalist troops in 1922 and are now in Jerusalem.

The Patriarchate took the initiative in supporting the refugees in Constantinople and opened orphanages in Kuleli, Beylerbey, Yedikule, Beşiktaş, Üsküdar, Hasköy, Arnavutköy, Balat, Kuruçeşme, Makriköy, Pera and Armaş. For this purpose the Committee in Support of Orphans (Vorpachnam) and the Central Committee of Deportees (Darakrelots Getronagan Hantsnazhoghov) were established. In mid-May 1919, the National Aid Organization (Askayin Chnamadarutiun) emerged from the two organizations. The patriarchate levied a fatherland tax to finance the aid organizations .

Since the old administration was still in office and only the Young Turkish government members had fled, the state did nothing to return the refugees to their traditional places. Turkish public opinion also rose against the return of children who had converted to Islam during the genocide.

The patriarchate's contacts with the Istanbul government were kept to a minimum. The Patriarch awaited the outcome of the Paris peace negotiations . Under pressure from the patriarchate, the Istanbul government passed a law on the restitution of the Armenian owners on January 21, 1920, but this did not apply in the provinces, as these were meanwhile ruled by the Kemalist government of Ankara.

There was an unsuccessful meeting with the representative of the Kemalist government of Ankara in Constantinople, Hamid Bey. In the Kemalist sphere of influence there were again massacres in Marsovan and deportations in Amasya and Tokat.

In 1920 Patriarch Zaven went on a trip to Europe.

Resignation and death

On December 9, 1922, Patriarch Zaven resigned from his office. He fled to Bulgaria and tried to improve the situation of the Armenian refugees there while he waited for a favorable outcome to the Lausanne negotiations. With the signing of the Lausanne Treaty on July 24, 1923, there was no longer any reason for Patriarch Zaven to remain in Bulgaria. After traveling through the Armenian diaspora communities, he arrived in Baghdad on February 29, 1924. After traveling again to Cairo, Jerusalem and Cyprus, where Zaven Der Yeghiayan settled disputes over the Melkonian Foundation , he finally returned to Baghdad in 1927. He was twice elected prelate of Baghdad. In 1932 he lost his voice after having had cancer-related larynx surgery. Zaven Der Yeghiayan died on June 4, 1947 in Baghdad. His body was brought to Jerusalem on June 10, 1947 and buried there.

Merit

Zaven Der Yeghiayan recorded important observations on the second phase of the Armenian genocide in Syria and Mesopotamia in his memoirs. The collection of documents from 1918–22 (including those relating to the Turkish war crimes tribunals), which is now in the Jerusalem Patriarchate , is thanks to his initiative.

memoirs

  • Zaven Der Yeghiayan: My Patriarchal Memoirs. Mayreni Publishing, Barrington (RI) 2002 ISBN 1-931834-05-9 . [Published in 1947 in the Armenian original in Cairo]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kevork Pamukciyan: Biyografileriyle Ermeniler , Aras Yayıncılık, Istanbul 2003 ISBN 975-7265-54-5 p. 210.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Pars Tuğlacı : Tarih boyunca Batı Ermenileri tarihi. Cilt 3. (1891–1922) , Pars Yayın ve Tic., Istanbul and Ankara 2004 ISBN 975-7423-06-8 , p. 597
  3. ↑ a b c d Teotig ( Teotoros Lapçinciyan ): Գողգոթա հայ հոգեւորականութեան [The Golgotha ​​of the Armenian clergy] , H. Mateossian Druckerei, Konstantinopel 1921. P. 19 f.
  4. ^ Zaven Der Yeghiayan: My Patriarchal Memoirs , Mayreni Publishing, Barrington (RI) 2002 ISBN 1-931834-05-9 p. 8 f.
  5. ^ Raymond Kévorkian : Le Génocide des Arméniens , Odile Jacob, Paris 2006 ISBN 2-7381-1830-5 , pp. 207 ff.
  6. ^ Zaven Der Yeghiayan: My Patriarchal Memoirs , Mayreni Publishing, Barrington (RI) 2002 ISBN 1-931834-05-9 p. 28
  7. ^ Raymond Kévorkian: Le Génocide des Arméniens , Odile Jacob, Paris 2006 ISBN 2-7381-1830-5 , p. 216 ff.
  8. ^ Vahakn N. Dadrian : The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus Berghahn Books, Providence, Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-1-57181-666-5 . p. 212.
  9. ^ A b c Raymond Kévorkian: Le Génocide des Arméniens , Odile Jacob, Paris 2006 ISBN 2-7381-1830-5 , p. 668 ff.
  10. ^ A b Raymond Kévorkian: Le Génocide des Arméniens , Odile Jacob, Paris 2006 ISBN 2-7381-1830-5 , pp. 850 ff.
  11. ^ A b Raymond Kévorkian: Le Génocide des Arméniens , Odile Jacob, Paris 2006 ISBN 2-7381-1830-5 , p. 808
  12. ^ Zaven Der Yeghiayan: My Patriarchal Memoirs , Mayreni Publishing, Barrington (RI) 2002 ISBN 1-931834-05-9 p. 175.
  13. ^ A b Raymond Kévorkian: Le Génocide des Arméniens , Odile Jacob, Paris 2006 ISBN 2-7381-1830-5 , p. 929.
  14. ↑ Usually the Eastern Churches have no church taxes.
  15. ↑ a b Zaven Der Yeghiayan: My Patriarchal Memoirs , Mayreni Publishing, Barrington (RI) 2002 ISBN 1-931834-05-9 p. 190 ff.
  16. ^ Yves Ternon : Enquête sur la négation d'un génocide
personal data
SURNAME Zaven The Yeghiayan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Yeghiayan of Baghdad, Zaven; Yeghiayan Bagdadtsi, Zaven; Patriarch Zaven
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Armenian clergyman
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Mosul
DATE OF DEATH June 4, 1947
Place of death Baghdad