VERC?HAN Z?FL?O?LU
ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily news

  A photographer and human rights advocate has conducted extensive research into an ancient Armenian settlement in the southeastern province of Diyarbak?r and is currently displaying her photographs in an exhibition in Istanbul. 

    Müjgan Arpat's research into the historic neighbourhood of Gavur, or Giaur, which means infidel, took five years, during which she also took hundreds of photographs.

  The exhibition, titled “The Gavur Neighborhood, Those Who Remain – Those Who Came,” opened last week at Kar?? Art Works on Taksim's Istiklal Street. As the photographs show, the Gavur neighborhood, where Armenians once lived before 1915, no longer has any Armenian residents today.

  “The Gavur neighborhood still carries the traces of the Armenian culture, despite all past plundering and destruction,” said Arpat. Explaining what the title refers to, she said, “In mansions and churches reflecting the thousands of years old Armenian culture, there live today many Kurdish families who migrated to Diyarbak?r from other southeastern provinces.”

  For Arpat, it is important to be able to speak freely about the iron curtain drawn over Turkish Armenian relations, and about the bitter events that took place over the history of the two cultures. “We, as Turks, should reconcile with our past and speak on some issues without any hesitation,” she said.

  Arpat will donate all the income she earns from the exhibit to a foundation established in the name of journalist Hrant Dink, the former editor in chief of the Turkish-Armenian bilingual weekly Agos, who was assassinated. The exhibit will run through June 14.

Hundreds of photos

  Arpat went to Diyarbak?r in 2003 to prepare a special report for a German television channel where she worked as a reporter. She said the novels of M?g?rdiç Margosyan, a Turkish writer of Armenian descent who was born in the Gavur neighborhood, inspired her and prompted her to conduct research in the historic Armenian neighborhood of Diyarbak?r. In Giaor neighborhood, many of the historic buildings that belonged to the Armenians are called “gavur buildings,” and have been damaged for that reason, she said. “All cultures existing in this country are assets for us. We have to protect these cultures,” she added.

  Arpat's study showed that only a few Armenian families live in Diyarbak?r today and do simply want to remain anonymous. The multicultural fabric of the province has faded away so quickly, said Arpat, adding that only in the Urfakap? district do about 20 Armenian families remain, as well as a small group of Assyrians and Chaldeans. Despite the fact that these people are members of different sects, they are forced to gather at a single spot, the Saint Mary Sur Church in Urfakap?, to hold mass every Sunday. 

From stock exchange to coffeehouse

  Meanwhile, the stock exchange building is the most interesting structure located in Gavur, said Arpat, adding the centuries-old building presently serves as a coffeehouse, while the inside is full of rubbish. “This building is where Armenians used to have commercial transactions with Assyrians and Arabs a century ago. You can grasp the architectural value of it only by looking its façade, but when you enter the inner yard, you encounter almost an outdoor museum despite all damage to the structure so far,” she said.

  Kar?? Art Works is located at Hanif Han in Gazeteci Erol Dernek Street in Beyo?lu.

  For further information, www.karsi.com