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A tulip by any other name
Ottawa Citizen
May 10, 2005 Tuesday Final Edition
A tulip by any other name: Turkey's attempts to
change politically
troublesome names should not extend to the beautiful
Tulipa armena
by Antoine S. Terjanian, Citizen Special
It is that time of year after the Winterlude season
is over, when
Ottawa starts attracting tourists again. It is the
time of the world
famous Canadian Tulip Festival.
The festival originated with the generosity of
Princess Juliana of
the Netherlands and the Dutch people. She expressed
her gratitude to
Ottawa, where her family found refuge during the
Second World War, by
sending us an annual gift of 20,000 tulip bulbs.
Ottawa photographer Malak Karsh, in love with the
beauty of the
tulip, conceived the idea of the Tulip Festival. He
founded it and
promoted it.
His Armenian family having moved from Mardin, after
the Armenian
genocide of 1915-1923, Malak was familiar with the
splendour of this
flower in his original homeland.
When it was decided that playing on the Tulipomania
of the 18th
century would bring an exotic flavour to the Tulip
Festival, Malak
worked on the idea and brought it to fruition. In
his typical spirit
of "peace and friendship," he involved the Turkish
embassy in the
project, and a Turkish pavilion has been part of the
Tulip Festival
for a few years now.
Some people now believe that tulips originated in
Turkey, and a few
are even aware that Sultan Ahmed III bankrupted the
Sublime Porte
(The Ottoman government) in 1730 because he
speculated on tulips as
the bubble burst at the height of Tulipomania.
In her recent book The Tulip, even famous
gardener-author Anna Pavord
forgets that when she went hunting for one
particularly beautiful
variety of "brilliant red tulips" in "Eastern
Turkey," she had
actually set foot in historic Armenia. Pavord
recounts her first
encounter with a truly indigenous variety of tulips
there: Tulipa
armena. She writes: "On the road between Askale and
Tercan [sic], we
came across an isolated group of tulips, with at
least two dozen
flowers in full bloom. ... We excavated one bulb and
... established
that it must be T. armena, for it did not have much
wool under its
tunic."
Then, on the same page, Pavord goes to describe a
strange encounter
with a wolf. She writes: "The ... T. armena
conundrum was rolling
around my head like a riddle. I opened my eyes to
find a wolf
silhouetted against the sun. ... Only inches from my
eyes, were the
tulips, brilliant red blazes in the foreground.
Behind them was the
wolf, stark against the sky. When I sat up, it
bolted away,
disappearing into a low cave under a neighbouring
rock crag. The
conjunction of the two was ... enigmatic ... I
thought still of these
tulips, slashes of brilliant blood welling from the
bare ... slopes
of the mountain. Wolves were nothing to them. ...
Millennia had
passed by on this slope, while the wild tulip
slowly, joyously had
evolved and regenerated itself. Even now ... the
tulips were plotting
new feats, re-inventing themselves in ways that we
could never dream
of."
I am as puzzled by this encounter with the wolf as
Pavord seems to
be. It brings to mind the very recent attempt by the
Turkish
government to change the scientific names of local
animals. In a
story aired last March by the BBC, a Turkish
official was quoted as
saying that many old names were contrary to Turkish
unity:
"Unfortunately there are many other species in
Turkey which were
named this way with ill intentions. This ill intent
is so obvious
that even species only found in our country were
given names against
Turkey's unity," a ministry statement quoted by
Reuters news agency
said.
Some Turkish officials say the names are being used
to argue that
Armenians or Kurds had lived in the areas where the
animals were
found. The name changes affect the following: Red
fox, known as
Vulpes Vulpes Kurdistanica, would become Vulpes
Vulpes. Wild sheep,
called Ovis Armeniana, would become Ovis Orientalis
Anatolicus. Roe
deer, known as Capreolus Capreolus Armenus, would
become Capreolus
Cuprelus Capreolus.
Will the Turkish government also attempt to rename
T. armena, the
brilliant red beautiful wild tulip? Will it try to
change the name of
the apricot from Prunus Armeniaca? How far will
Turkey go to try to
wipe out any evidence of Armenians from their
historic homeland? How
far will the genocide extend?
I sincerely hope that Turkish citizens of good will,
will on their
own put an end to these deceitful tactics of their
government.
Perhaps Pavord's vision was prophetic. Like the
Armenians, the
brilliant red tulips did regenerate themselves.
Gagach is the
Armenian name for tulips, and every year on April
24, mountains of
these gagachs, brought by individuals in memory of
their fallen
family members, accumulate in front of the eternal
flame at the
Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, Armenia.
So next time you visit beautiful Ottawa in May for
the Tulip
Festival, remember it might as well be named "Gagach
Festival."
Antoine S. Terjanian is an Ottawa resident who spent
a year working
for sustainable development in the Republic of
Armenia, as a
volunteer.
GRAPHIC: Photo: Julie Oliver, The Ottawa Citizen; Flower
Power: Malak Karsh
dreamed up the idea of the Ottawa Tulip Festival,
since his family
immigrated to Canada from Armenia, he wouldn't
appreciate the attempt
to remove Armenia's link to the flowers' historic
roots.
Ottawa Citizen
May 10, 2005 Tuesday Final Edition
A tulip by any other name: Turkey's attempts to
change politically
troublesome names should not extend to the beautiful
Tulipa armena
by Antoine S. Terjanian, Citizen Special
It is that time of year after the Winterlude season
is over, when
Ottawa starts attracting tourists again. It is the
time of the world
famous Canadian Tulip Festival.
The festival originated with the generosity of
Princess Juliana of
the Netherlands and the Dutch people. She expressed
her gratitude to
Ottawa, where her family found refuge during the
Second World War, by
sending us an annual gift of 20,000 tulip bulbs.
Ottawa photographer Malak Karsh, in love with the
beauty of the
tulip, conceived the idea of the Tulip Festival. He
founded it and
promoted it.
His Armenian family having moved from Mardin, after
the Armenian
genocide of 1915-1923, Malak was familiar with the
splendour of this
flower in his original homeland.
When it was decided that playing on the Tulipomania
of the 18th
century would bring an exotic flavour to the Tulip
Festival, Malak
worked on the idea and brought it to fruition. In
his typical spirit
of "peace and friendship," he involved the Turkish
embassy in the
project, and a Turkish pavilion has been part of the
Tulip Festival
for a few years now.
Some people now believe that tulips originated in
Turkey, and a few
are even aware that Sultan Ahmed III bankrupted the
Sublime Porte
(The Ottoman government) in 1730 because he
speculated on tulips as
the bubble burst at the height of Tulipomania.
In her recent book The Tulip, even famous
gardener-author Anna Pavord
forgets that when she went hunting for one
particularly beautiful
variety of "brilliant red tulips" in "Eastern
Turkey," she had
actually set foot in historic Armenia. Pavord
recounts her first
encounter with a truly indigenous variety of tulips
there: Tulipa
armena. She writes: "On the road between Askale and
Tercan [sic], we
came across an isolated group of tulips, with at
least two dozen
flowers in full bloom. ... We excavated one bulb and
... established
that it must be T. armena, for it did not have much
wool under its
tunic."
Then, on the same page, Pavord goes to describe a
strange encounter
with a wolf. She writes: "The ... T. armena
conundrum was rolling
around my head like a riddle. I opened my eyes to
find a wolf
silhouetted against the sun. ... Only inches from my
eyes, were the
tulips, brilliant red blazes in the foreground.
Behind them was the
wolf, stark against the sky. When I sat up, it
bolted away,
disappearing into a low cave under a neighbouring
rock crag. The
conjunction of the two was ... enigmatic ... I
thought still of these
tulips, slashes of brilliant blood welling from the
bare ... slopes
of the mountain. Wolves were nothing to them. ...
Millennia had
passed by on this slope, while the wild tulip
slowly, joyously had
evolved and regenerated itself. Even now ... the
tulips were plotting
new feats, re-inventing themselves in ways that we
could never dream
of."
I am as puzzled by this encounter with the wolf as
Pavord seems to
be. It brings to mind the very recent attempt by the
Turkish
government to change the scientific names of local
animals. In a
story aired last March by the BBC, a Turkish
official was quoted as
saying that many old names were contrary to Turkish
unity:
"Unfortunately there are many other species in
Turkey which were
named this way with ill intentions. This ill intent
is so obvious
that even species only found in our country were
given names against
Turkey's unity," a ministry statement quoted by
Reuters news agency
said.
Some Turkish officials say the names are being used
to argue that
Armenians or Kurds had lived in the areas where the
animals were
found. The name changes affect the following: Red
fox, known as
Vulpes Vulpes Kurdistanica, would become Vulpes
Vulpes. Wild sheep,
called Ovis Armeniana, would become Ovis Orientalis
Anatolicus. Roe
deer, known as Capreolus Capreolus Armenus, would
become Capreolus
Cuprelus Capreolus.
Will the Turkish government also attempt to rename
T. armena, the
brilliant red beautiful wild tulip? Will it try to
change the name of
the apricot from Prunus Armeniaca? How far will
Turkey go to try to
wipe out any evidence of Armenians from their
historic homeland? How
far will the genocide extend?
I sincerely hope that Turkish citizens of good will,
will on their
own put an end to these deceitful tactics of their
government.
Perhaps Pavord's vision was prophetic. Like the
Armenians, the
brilliant red tulips did regenerate themselves.
Gagach is the
Armenian name for tulips, and every year on April
24, mountains of
these gagachs, brought by individuals in memory of
their fallen
family members, accumulate in front of the eternal
flame at the
Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, Armenia.
So next time you visit beautiful Ottawa in May for
the Tulip
Festival, remember it might as well be named "Gagach
Festival."
Antoine S. Terjanian is an Ottawa resident who spent
a year working
for sustainable development in the Republic of
Armenia, as a
volunteer.
GRAPHIC: Photo: Julie Oliver, The Ottawa Citizen; Flower
Power: Malak Karsh
dreamed up the idea of the Ottawa Tulip Festival,
since his family
immigrated to Canada from Armenia, he wouldn't
appreciate the attempt
to remove Armenia's link to the flowers' historic
roots.