In most parts of the world, Diaspora Armenians have had the right to preserve their language, culture, and history, allowing them to maintain strong ties to their heritage while integrating as responsible citizens of their host societies. This holds true for much of the Armenian Diaspora, yet not for the Armenians of Turkey.
As indigenous people of what is present-day Turkey, they have neither been defined as diasporans by the wider Diaspora nor accepted as natives by the republican Turkey. They may also feel estranged from neighboring Armenia. For this unique community, maintaining its ethnic identity has been a daily battle, even when it’s a genuine choice.
In such circumstances, Armenian schools should have served as the core for nurturing and maintaining Armenian identity in an otherwise unsupportive environment. Yet, once-thriving institutions estimated over 1,900 before WWI, Armenian schools were closed down after the war, with the exception of those in Istanbul. The latter have been subject to policies devised by the Turkish government to thwart and undermine any attempt to reinforce Armenian identity.
The state strategy has been forbidding the Armenian community to teach its own history by appointing exclusively Turks, at times nationalists, to be part of the school administration or to teach Turkish language and history with textbooks that have adhered to the state agenda. As the Hrant Dink Foundation (HDF) states, “In the past this reached tragicomic proportions. For example, an Education Ministry’s Board of Education circular dated July 1, 1983 ordered that the word “Armenia” be erased from historical maps.”
Despite amendments largely driven by Turkey’s bid for EU membership, these tactics continued to force the closure of many schools in Istanbul and, among other issues, support in pushing the Armenian community to the brink of assimilation.
The Effects of the Armenian Schools in Identity Formation by historian Dr. Linda Barış, who is of Armenian origin, thoroughly examines the reasons behind the mass decline of Armenian schools and the identity among Armenian children shaped in different environments. Her work helps draw a historical picture of Armenian identity shaped by republican Turkey’s state policies and public education. Additionally, interviews with principals and teachers from Getronagan and Esayan High Schools and Karagözyan Orphanage Elementary School conducted for this article in 2024 help clarify the current situation of the remaining Armenian schools in Istanbul.
Identity Erasure
“I am a Turk, I am honest, I am hardworking. My tenet is to protect the young, respect my elders, to love my country and my nation more than my own self. My goal is to improve and to advance. O great Atatürk! I swear to walk incessantly on the path that you have paved towards the goals you have set. May my existence be dedicated to Turkish existence. Happy is the one who says ‘I am a Turk.’”
From 1933 to 2013 Armenian children started off their mornings at schools by reciting the Turkish pledge and singing the Turkish anthem. As Dr. Barış states, while their identity was bound to that of the majority, upon starting to take history classes, Armenian students also learned that they were internal enemies and traitors to the Turkish nation. Generations interviewed by her who went through such tight schooling, recalled numerous instances that ignited not only identity clashes among Turkish and Armenian students, but even in regard to self identification.
A student who transferred to a Turkish school of his own choice explained, “There is a constant mode of humiliation of your people. There is this mode among religion and other Turkish teachers to provoke you because they are nationalists… Then, this grouping happens among friend circles, too. ‘You are different; you are not with us,’ as they don’t include you. All of these are forms of discrimination. Especially during that puberty phase, they have a great effect, causing injuries in a person and leaving irreparable damage.”
This impacted not only the children but also their parents, placing both in difficult situations. “I have two sons. Both of them attended Armenian middle school. One day, I faced the question: ‘Dad, why did we slaughter the Turks?’ I asked, ‘Why, what’s the matter? Someone messed with you?’ He said, ‘No, the history textbook says so.’ I had great difficulty figuring out what kind of explanation I should offer.”
Dr. Barış explains that prejudices ingrained in Turkish children from a very young age became evident when they met an Armenian for the first time and formed a positive impression or, even more, made friends with them. “They might say, ‘ Dude, you’re such a good person; you’re such a good Armenian, such a good Christian.’ In response, I would sometimes ask, ‘How many Christian Armenians have you seen?’ Such questions often led them to like me even more.”
Positive instances like this or a compassionate attitude from Turkish teachers also occurred. For instance, due to the marginalizing content in history textbooks, Armenian children in Armenian schools tended to refrain from discussing certain subjects. If teachers of Turkish origin were compassionate enough, they would skip chapters that belittled the students.
As part of its democratization process, Turkey was compelled to gradually loosen its tight policies and nationalist approaches against minorities, including removing the recital of pledge from school agenda in 2013 and improving the language of history textbooks. Yet, the distortion of the history regarding Armenians of the land and their negative depiction has not disappeared.
There is a constant mode of humiliation of your people. There is this mode among religion and other Turkish teachers to provoke you because they are nationalists.
In its 2023 “Tight Outfit: The Problems of the Armenian Institutions in Turkey” report, HDF states that “When describing the history of the territory that today constitutes the Republic of Turkey, Armenians, who are among the indigenous peoples of the lands, are hardly mentioned. Only when recent history is being covered do Armenians enter the scene, when they are categorically described with the terms traitor, terrorist, murderer, enemy, backstabbing, and infidel.”
HDF further highlights the deliberate exclusion of the term “Armenian” from textbooks, even when discussing the BCE period and concludes that this omission impacts all students, leaving them with an incomplete and inaccurate understanding of the land they inhabit. For Armenian children, however, the issue is even more profound, as they face the erasure or distortion of their identity.
One State, Two Schools
By all means, the remaining Armenian schools in Istanbul are striving to pass as much Armenianness as possible to generations who want to embrace their roots. Currently, there are 16 Armenian schools in Istanbul with about 2,800 Armenian children studying there. About the same amount is believed to attend Turkish schools.
Dr. Raffi Süzme, a board member of the Beyoğlu Surp Yerrortutyun Church Foundation, has mentioned several reasons that drive parents to send their children to Turkish schools, including demographic changes in Istanbul, where they don’t have easy access to Armenian schools, or the fact that the final exams for university entrance are in Turkish, and parents are afraid their children may fall behind in a highly competitive environment.
The principal of Karagözyan Armenian Elementary School, Narod Veronik Kuruğoğlu, believes that in any case, Armenian schools offer a unique advantage for the Armenian community. “It’s true that as our enrollment numbers are low, we should accept all children, while some Turkish public schools face intense competition due to entrance exams, resulting in better overall performance. However, our strength lies in our commitment to not only teaching the Armenian language and culture but also caring for our children to succeed individually.”
As a balanced solution for parents with varying preferences, Dr. Süzme suggests that even if parents opt for Turkish schools for specific reasons, children should still attend an Armenian elementary school to learn the language, forge friendships, and connect with their community to prevent further assimilation.
Additionally, the Board Chairperson of Şişli Sports Club in Istanbul Alen Tekbıçak believes that youth initiatives in the Diaspora and Armenia can enhance Armenian heritage among children attending Turkish schools. He noted that, in recent years, a growing number of parents are interested in sending their children to programs like Camp Nubar and Discover Armenia to connect with other Diasporans in the United States and in the homeland.
Our strength lies in our commitment to not only teaching the Armenian language and culture but also caring for our children to succeed individually.
Along with enrollment complexities, some administrative issues also exist. The hours dedicated to learning Armenian and Turkish are the same across all grades, and the subjects in elementary schools are all in Armenian. Yet, there are no official textbooks. Each of the 16 schools prepares its own material based on its teachers’ backgrounds, capabilities, and access to resources.
In the higher grades, all the subjects are taught in Turkish with state-prepared textbooks. Teacher of Armenian language and literature, Muraz Sarangil from Getronagan High School, established in 1886, says that the lyceum, with its quality, is still competitive with the best ones in Istanbul. “We teach all the subjects with Turkish textbooks in higher grades, but we also make sure that they know the Armenian versions of the terms too, to support them in becoming bilingual.”
Currently, a new discussion is underway with the Turkish Ministry of National Education to push for ratified Armenian-language textbooks. By the time of the interviews, the schools, in cooperation with the Patriarchate, had finalized the content of the religion textbook to be submitted to the Ministry. Next is the Armenian language.
However, the generation of Armenian-language teachers is also declining, as there are no universities where they can pursue academic studies in Armenian language and literature. They simply rely on their school knowledge and self-improvement, while Turkish language and literature are taught by university graduates with brand-new, alluring textbooks.
By all means, today Armenian schools in Istanbul seek to offer a unique cultural environment to the Armenian community. They celebrate Armenian culture within the school walls, from religious holidays like Easter and Christmas to other cultural events. Turkish holidays are also celebrated. Ironically, on April 23rd, they celebrate Children’s Day with joy and happiness; then comes April 24th, when everyone attends school as if it were a typical day, but in a tense and silent environment. Armenian teachers never discuss this day in schools, and students never ask questions, as they know they are still forbidden from exercising their inherent right to inquire about their history beyond Turkish textbooks.
