Istanbul's Armenian women mocked for victim shelter plan

Istanbul's Armenian women mocked for victim shelter plan

Saturday, April 16, 2011

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Female members of the Armenian community in Istanbul started plans to set up a women’s shelter for poor victims of domestic violence, but they claim officials from community foundations have denied them a venue for the project

Female members of Istanbul’s Armenian community started plans to set up a women’s shelter for poor victims of domestic violence, even though community foundations officials denied them a venue for the project. If the project grows it will reach out to women of other minority groups.

The Haygin Platform (Armenian Women’s Platform) is behind the new plan. One of the founders, Kayuş Çalıkman, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that their application for a building has been turned down by officials from various community foundations.

“They didn’t even take us seriously. They mocked us by asking, how will you allure our women? Some spiritual leaders in the community suggested we give up on the idea,” said Çalıkman. Her 12-year-old daughter was also bullied by friends who allegedly said, “Your mother is a feminist,” she said.

She said the group even went to Patriarch Mesrop II, but claimed the patriarch was not willing to support civilian initiatives. “He told us that we could gather under the patriarchate’s roof if necessary, but we wanted to do something totally different.”

Although there are feminists among the platform’s members, Çalıkman is not a feminist, and she said the reason why she is part of the project is to support vulnerable women and help them have a voice.

Harutyun Şanlı, from VADIP said, “If such an application had been made to the foundation, it could’ve been evaluated. We want projects with social content and with any kind of difficulties on the agenda. It is impossible for us, as foundations, to remain reluctant about the community’s problem.”

Şanlı also drew attention to the legal difficulties created by the deteriorating health of the partriarch since 2007.

“Let’s say he was in good health and that he received such an application. But let’s not forget that the patriarchate has no legal entity. It doesn’t even have ownership. How could it provide a building?” Şanlı said.

Patriarch Mesrop II has been diagnosed with frontal demans (dementia). His seat is still empty. President of the Surp Pırgiç Armenian Hospital Foundation, the community’s biggest foundation in Zeytinburnu, Melkon Karaköse said, “I’ve been the foundation’s president for years, but there has been no such application submitted to our foundation for a women’s shelter.” The Armenian community has a total of 30 foundations in Istanbul.

‘We want an empty building’

As to the question on why Armenian women subjected to domestic violence do not resort to any other women’s shelter in Istanbul and why they needed a new shelter home, Çalıkman said, “It is impossible for our women to seek services in an open shelter for various reasons,” without elaborating.

Çalıkman’s project foresees women in the shelter to cook and earn money by selling their food. “Their children will be with them after school. We will place expert psychologists in the shelter without disclosing their identity to the public. Therefore, we can help women more,” she said.

Çalıkman said the only thing they need for the project is an empty building. “Unfortunately, the foundation and boards are male-dominated. Very few women on the boards belong to powerful families who control the finances. Many buildings are being used as personal storage units by foundation boards and none of them are being given to help abused women,” she said.

‘The other of the other’

“We, as the women of a minority, are the ‘other of the other,’” said Çalıkman, “When you look from the outside, women in the community appear not to have problems. It is because they are the other of the other that they are afraid of revealing their problems, they accept what they are offered and don’t question,” she said.

Çalıkman brought up church wedding ceremonies and said, “During a matrimonial ceremony, women take an oath to obey their husbands. A woman starts a family by making a pledge of obedience.”

The Armenian community in Turkey started to shrink after World War I and is now around 50,000. There are also an estimated 20,000 Armenians who have come from neighboring Armenia and work illegally.