In search of Hamshen Armenians

After climbing Mount Qajkar we went to Hamshen. This area is located on the slopes of Mount Qajkar facing the sea. Once, Armenians inhabited this area. Now representatives of different nations live here, along with ethnic Armenians who were forcibly converted to Islam in the 18th-19th centuries.

According to the Armenian historian Ghevond, in the 8^th century about 12000 people from Kotayk and Aragatsotn provinces of Greater Armenia were unable to withstand the pressure of the Arabs and left Armenia. Under the leadership of Abas Amatuni and his son Hamam they left their homeland and settled in Pontus, which was part of the Byzantine Empire.

The Byzantine emperor Constantine gladly welcomed Armenians and settled them in different lands. He also gave Armenian nakharars (nakharar is an Armenian noble title) the city of Tambour, which was soon completely destroyed due to wars. Hamam Amatuni restored the city and named it Hamamshen (Hamshen), which means “built by Hamam”.

The principality founded by Hamam Amatuni existed until 15^th century. It was a semi-independent region in the Byzantine Empire, and then in the Kingdom of Pontus.

Shortly after the establishment of the Ottoman Empire, the policy of intolerance was applied to Armenians and other Christian nations, which often led to hostilities.

The Ottoman Empire tried to convert the whole population to Islam. In the middle of the 19^th century Hamshen Armenians started to immigrate to the coastal regions of the Russian Empire.

Thus, the Armenian population of this region was divided into two parts:

1. Islamized Hamshen Armenians living on the Pontic coast of Turkey
2. Christian Hamshen Armenians living in the Abkhaz and Russian coastal regions of the Black Sea.

Hamshen Armenians

After exploring Zil Fortress we went in search of Hamshen Armenians. We asked the locals and found out that we need to go to the Chamlihemshin (Upper Hamshen) to meet Armenians. To get from the Zil Fortress to Chamlihemshin, we had to go around the whole mountain range, which means that we had to get to the seashore and drive to Chamlihemshin through another gorge. We preferred the mountain route, as it was shorter and more adventurous.

Hamshen songs

We got to Chamlihemshin. After talking to local people we still did not manage to meet Armenians. That’s when we decided to call for help from Hamshen songs. In our car, we played one of the songs of Vova band (musicians of this band are Hamshen Armenians) and started to ask people if they know this language or if they are familiar with this band. We were surprised that the people of Hamshen had absolutely no idea about this dialect. We Armenians were sure that everyone here knows the Hamshen dialect.

In the evening we went to the hotel and started looking on the Internet for information about the Armenian-populated villages. Under one of our Facebook posts we were advised to go to Bashoba. We headed there the next morning.

In the Bashoba village we came across the construction. Unfortunately there were no Armenians there. Construction workers turned out to be Laz people. In response to our questions, they pointed at the direction of the red house, which caught our eye with its color and appearance. The men said that Armenians live there.

On the way to this house we met a young couple. The guy turned out to be an ethnic Armenian, but didn’t speak Armenian. We tried to somehow explain why we are here in English, and he decided to take us to the red house.

We reached the red house, entered the gate, but didn’t see anyone. We knocked on the door, and still silence. We waited a few minutes and suddenly noticed a red truck approaching the house. It was obvious that they were the owners of the house. With our cameras ready we went to the car.

The driver was a man. There were three women with him.

While the man was parking, we talked a little bit to the women. They were very happy to find out that we are from Armenia. With the help of a young man, mixing English and Armenian languages, we tried to somehow understand each other. Probably, our meeting would have been very interesting, if the father of the family had not returned after parking his truck.

He rudely sent the women home and told us that they are not Armenians, but Muslims, that they do not speak Armenian and do not want to communicate with us at all.

The woman’s eyes were filled with regret. She probably didn’t expect the man to kick us out like that.

The search of Hamshen Armenians continued, but we decided to hide our cameras just in case. We also decided that we will not talk about why we are here and we will not photograph people. It’s not a secret that because of Turkey’s policies, national minorities often hide their ethnicity.

Hamshen dialect

We got into the car, drove a little bit along the main street of the village and reached the old bridge. Next to the bridge there was a two-storey house. In front of the house there were an elderly man and a woman. We saw a sink in front of the house and got out of the car to drink water. We asked them if it was a drinking water, and they asked us where we came from. We talked a little bit and they finally invited us to sit with them.

It was a married couple. The husband was an ethnic Armenian and the wife was Laz. As it turned out later, it was his third wife. We had a very sincere conversation in Armenian language. Although the meaning of many words was unclear to us, we were still able to understand each other.

The man said that he is not Armenian, but a Muslim. I tried to explain that one thing is not connected with the other, and that Islam is their religion, but he is Armenian by origin. I tried to convince him that since we speak the same language, it means that we both are Armenians.

However, the issue of nationality is not limited to ethnic origin. If a person defines himself as a Hamshen or a citizen of Turkey, this is his right. But let’s not talk about it here. Probably, we ourselves are to blame for this. Some representatives of the Armenian Apostolic Church claim that if you are not a Christian, then you are not an Armenian. But that’s a completely different story.

Finally, we managed to meet a Hamshen Armenian. This is itself is a very joyful event. We took pictures, said warm goodbyes and continued our journey. At the exit of the village, a guy stopped us and asked to give him a lift to Hopa city.

We asked him in Armenian: “Are you Armenian?”

He also answered in Armenian: “Yes, yes.”

He got into the car and after that we could not understand each other. We started to think that he pretended to be Armenian, just to get a lift.

However, when we played one of the most popular Hamshen songs, the guy started to sing along correctly.

Tigran Shahbazyan

 

Also read:

Mount Qajkar

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