Turkey Refuses to Name Street After Armenian Doctor

Güven Bayar

T24.com

For years, not only in Ordu, but also in the regions and villages, the patients treated free of charge by Armenian doctor Tigran Toraman, the medicines prepared by pharmacist Artem Toraman at a time when there were no ready-made medicines, and which cured everyone, their love for this country, their hard work and existence above all identities are not enough to name the street where their 150-year-old ancestral home is located.

October 27-28, 2022 marks the third anniversary of the deaths of doctor Tigran Toraman and his brother, pharmacist Artem Toraman, who died just one day apart. The honorable lives of doctor Tigran Toraman (born 1932) and pharmacist Artem Toraman (born 1936) in Ordu left an unforgettable mark on the memory of the city.

Despite all the difficulties, the Toraman brothers, who never refused to live in the country where they were born and raised, established strong ties with all strata of society and left an unforgettable mark on the city’s memory. Not only was the street where their house was located renamed after them as a testament to their loyalty during their lifetime, but over the course of three years, we have witnessed how social memory, through local institutions that promote the politics of denial and official historiography, acquires an identity structure and reaches the point of social disintegration.

The shame, human rights violations and century-old laments that spread throughout the city after the thousands of signatures collected within the framework of the petition launched after their funeral and dozens of articles and statements of support published in the press, deeply hurt us all.

Tigran and Artem Toraman’s grandmother, Elmon Hanym, during the 1915 deportation (Armenian Genocide), she went to Svas, while their grandfather, Adam Toraman, embarked on a death journey to Malatya. Elmon Hanum found refuge in the American Carpet Factory in Svas, where she stayed from 1915 to 1919, managing to survive. No one knows where or how her husband, Atam Toraman, and his siblings and their families died. My maternal grandparents also died during the deportation. In interviews with Uncle Tigran, he said: “My parents had seven siblings, and two of them survived the deportation, and I met them.” My maternal uncle, who died during the deportation, was the first pharmacist in Ordu. His other uncle, Poghos Olmezyan, lived and died in Istanbul as a coppersmith. They had no children. They lived in Uncle Tigran’s house in the Kurtuluş district of Şişli for years. More or less, things are unfounded.

After the funeral, we first turned to Ordu Mayor Hilmi Güler and Altınordu Mayor Ashkan Tören with a request to change the street name, but they immediately reminded us that there would be a fee for this, demanding Tigran Toraman’s father’s house. The mayor even demanded the land in front of the house to turn it into a playground.

Foundations, associations and unknown institutions and organizations that enjoyed the support of the governorate and the municipality, as if they had no heirs, wives or daughters, demanded that the building be given to them for 40 years in exchange for renovation.

The hunters, chanting “My dear brother Tigran,” were also searching for Uncle Artem’s pharmacy (Itimat Pharmacy) on Seripaşa Street (Fidangyor) and the building housing Uncle Tigran’s office.

If half the attention and interest shown to his property had been directed at the street where his house is located, that 100-meter-long street would now be named after him. Moreover, the Ordu Medical Association and the Ordu Pharmacists Association are still faking their deaths.

There is no press in Ordu. There are cunning, provincial newspaper owners in small towns, whose chain of connections is unknown, who publish wedding invitations in the same newspaper. They targeted the house even before the establishment of the archaeological and city museums in the city, and started spreading stories like “Let’s build a museum.” No one knows what kind of museum it is. All this was not enough, rumors are circulating that the “Toraman brothers” were fed, educated, and trained by the people of Ordu. I think these are the ones who looted the Toraman family’s wealth during the 1942 Property Tax and sent their children to school. Uncle Tigran described the irrational, illegal, and immoral experience the Toraman family had in Ordu during the 1942 Property Tax: Doctor Sefer Altan’s brother, Ismail Altan, was responsible for the collections. He was also the cashier of the Ordu Municipality. Ismail Altan was a close friend of my father. He would come to the shop every day after lunch and drink coffee with us. When the Property Tax was introduced during the war in 1942, the shop was empty of goods, property, and employees. One day, while I was drinking coffee, he came and started looking at the things behind the shelves. My father said, “Sir, what are you looking for?” He said, “I’m looking for a bathtub.” Then he got up and left. Fifteen days later, my father was fined 15,000 liras in wealth tax. Hacı Garegin Efendi, who was a clothes seller and was in the shop, received news that he had been assessed a wealth tax of 50,000 liras. Within 15 days, my father was assessed a tax of 15,000 liras. Since he could not pay, my father was fined 500 liras and Garegin Efendi was fined 5,000 liras. There were three shops on the corner opposite Nezirlar, in the Ordu grain market. My father sold them to a man named Sarı Hafiz for a price that was not worth it.