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Rebel Land: Unraveling the Riddle of History in a Turkish Town |  | Author: Christopher de Bellaigue
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 322598
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1
ISBN: 1594202524
Dewey Decimal Number: 956
EAN: 9781594202520
ASIN: 1594202524
Publication Date: March 4, 2010
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Product Description
An esteemed journalist travels to Turkey to investigate the legacy of the Armenian genocide and the quest for Kurdish statehood.
In 2001, Christopher de Bellaigue, then the Economist's correspondent in Istanbul, wrote a piece about the history of Turkey for The New York Review of Books. In it, he briefly discussed the killing and deportation of half a million Armenians in 1915. These massacres, he suggested, were best understood as part of the struggles that attended the end of the Ottoman empire.
After the story was published, the magazine was besieged with letters. This wasn't war, the correspondents said; it was genocide. And the death toll was not half a million but three times that many. De Bellaigue was mortified. How had he gotten it so wrong? He went back to Turkey, but found that the national archives had sealed all documents pertaining to those times. Undeterred and armed with a stack of contraband histories, he set out to the conflicted southeastern Turkish city of Varto to discover what had really happened.
There, de Bellaigue found a place in which the centuries-old conflict among Turks, Armenians, and Kurds was still very much alive. His government escort began their association by marching with him arm in arm through the town's shopping district to show his presence; the local police chief, sent by the central office in Ankara to keep an eye on the Kurds, was sure he was a spy. He found houses built from the ruins of old Armenian churches, young boys playing soccer with old skulls, and a cast of villagers who all seemed unwilling to talk.
What emerges is both an intellectual detective story and a reckoning with memory and identity that brings to life the basic conflicts of the Middle East: between statehood and religion, imperial borders and ethnic identity. Combining a deeply informed view of the area's history with the testimonials of the townspeople who slowly come to trust him, de Bellaigue unravels the enigma of the Turkish twentieth century, a time that contains the death of an empire, the founding of a nation, and the near extinction of a people. Rebel Land exposes the historical and emotional fault lines that lie behind many of today's headlines: about Turkey and its faltering bid for membership into the EU, about the Kurds and their bid for nationhood, and the Armenians' campaign for genocide recognition.
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| Customer Reviews:
Change of heart for De Bellaigue May 25, 2010
Nazani
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book showed me, as an Armenian, how easily most of us are and were duped by Turkish sweet talk. Turkish is one of those languages, when spoken well, sounds like singing. De Bellaigue had once fallen in love with Turkey, until he started looking at things in a new way. But it is important to note that most of what is "Turkish" belongs either to Armenians, Greeks or Arabs. There is no such thing as "Turkish" coffee or "Turkish" basterma. These are all things that were created in that region. The Turks are not natives to that soil; the Armenians are. It is important to know that, and I'm glad De Bellaigue included the letter from Prof. James Russell stating that very fact. The Armenians were not "foreigners", the Turks were. The Turks are originaly from Mongolia. Most of our Armenian grandparents only spoke Turkish. My mother would tell me how she always would get upset at her grandfather, born in Kayseri, whenever he spoke Turkish in the house or listened to Turkish music. He would cry and answer that that was his childhood, and that it reminded him of his family. It is ridiculous to see some of the commentary online, clearly made by those who benefit from Turkish propaganda in some way or have fallen in love with that Turkish sweet talk. What on earth does "the alleged genocide" mean. "Alleged" states that someone somewhere says that it happened, and that it's not proven. The Armenian genocide is proven. There are historical letters, photos, etc. Americans, Germans and others witnessed this and wrote about it. We did not make the story up. Look up Ambassador Morgenthau, President Wilson, Armin T. Wegner, the Turkish Tribunals (1919), the trial of Soghomon Tehlirian, etc. The list goes on and on. The historical records are there. You cannot change history. I do not hate Turkish people, but I do hate the government and what it is doing to brainwash its public. Our grandparents were neighbours with the Turks, they shared coffee with them and laughed with them. We were like family. If the genocide never happened, Armenians and Turks would still be friends today. But this slow and calculated process of exterminating the Armenians came directly from the government, starting with Sultan Abdul Hamid (Hamidian massacres), and all the way to 1915 and Talat Pasha, Enver Pasha and Jemal Pasha. It continues today with the denials. It is important to note that the Turks opened their prisons in 1915 and released all of their criminals in order for them to serve in the Turkish army and be sent into the depths of Anatolia (to get rid of, in any way a criminal would, the peaceful Armenians). Does anything justify genocide? Armenians wanted equal rights with their Turkish neighbors. Equal right on their own ancestral lands! They wanted to vote, they wanted to be free to pray in their churches. I see our story as very similar to that of the Native Americans. We do not have the military might, but we have a rich culture and history. Most of our land were lost, but we still survive. As long as there is even one of us left, our history continues. I say to anyone who denies the Armenian genocide to speak to an Armenian directly. Ask any Armenian about his/her grandparents. Ask them how many were lost. You may wonder, why is the recognition of the genocide so important, after almost a hundred years? If someone hurt your mother, father, children, or grandparents, would you forget it? Or would you want others to hear of it? And what if someone hurt your neighbor, without reason, would you speak up? Pain is passed down through the generations. You cannot silence that. There are NO two sides to genocide. Only the truth prevails, and God is watching. De Bellaigue, thank you for the reference to the Armenian goddess Astghik and the connection to Mush. Thank you for the silver belt (at the end of the book), and especially that touching story from the Kurd (speaking of a brother and sister).
 Interesting but not as good as I had hoped April 6, 2010
A2900 (Chicago & Sarasota)
0 out of 9 found this review helpful
The book sounded a lot more interesting than it turns out to be. It is the story of two young Algerians (one dead, one alive) in France and their respective efforts to make sense of both their lives and that of their father. It references the Holocaust and and the cover states, "The first Arab novel to confront the Holocaust" but that is far from true in my opinion.
Armenia and Kurdistan: The Rebel Land March 23, 2010
David Hillstrom (Europe)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
After reading a review of Rebel Land in the International Herald Tribune, I was intrigued enough to buy the book. The author it seemed had moved to Turkey as a young journalist and had rather literally gone native. He had written an historical essay, which triggered a venomous response from an Armenian professor. Subsequently and somewhat remorsefully he undertook this investigative book to learn the sordid details of the region in Eastern Turkey where the `cleansings' took place and where today Kurds live under continuing pressure from the Turkish government. Given the subject and the desire of American and European parliaments to pass judgement on this history, the topic is obviously still relevant. The book is very well written; the author's perspective now clearly neutral and objective.
Parts of the narrative are, despite the tragic subject matter, quite poetic. Let me just note a few examples:
* The Great Monastery of Surp Karapet, the sum of fifteen centuries of labour, accretions, modification and repair, has been reduced to its separate parts. Black stone smoothed by the centuries, ...
* The fractures running through this society mean that dramatically different versions of history are being recounted in neighbouring villages... Vartolus use the past to acquit their ancestors and string up their enemies.
* I got a new impression of the past as a chaotic series of emotions, of outrage and guilt, scornful of chronology and often founded on gossip or hagiography.
* ...the mass graves are planted with trees, a pleasant park grows over the bones.
The author has recounted the history of this region from the late nineteenth century when the Ottoman Empire came unravelled until the present. As the empire tried to hold on against the historical trends and encroaching powers, they effectively `cleansed' the area of Christian Armenians through genocide and forced resettlements. The Kurds moved into the vacuum and became the majority of the population. Today the Kurds themselves are under cultural pressure to accept an identity as Turkish nationals and to give up any dream of a Kurdish nation. The history is presented, but it is depicted in the author's on-site research through discussions with current residents and later generations of Armenian refugees. In many ways the book reads as a non-fiction novel.
I have already commended the author for his objective neutrality. However, I wish to qualify that and to offer one brief critique. There is one very beautiful passage which introduces the chapter, "The Siege of Varto." That passage poignantly captures the tragedy of mass murder. But the passage also reveals the author's own belief system. He approaches a truly neutral perspective on the world, but then lapses into a romantic acceptance of ethnicity as though it were a substantive thing and not merely ephemeral. The modern world, just as the author relates, has followed a tragic path from a period of empires with broad regions of various subject peoples to today's `myths' of national identity, where minorities are eliminated, suppressed or acculturated and absorbed. While Turkey is in the news once again regarding the Armenian genocide, they are not the only nation to have employed such nation-building tactics. Americans `cleared' North America of its Indian tribes and Israel is presently suppressing Palestinians. No nation is free of guilt. And yet every group that chooses death for the sake of culture, language or religion has made a tragic choice. There is no reason to do so other than for the vain preservation of ancestral traditions. There must be a better path to the future.
Unfortunately the tragedy of contemporary politics is that there is no political process available to pursue an alternative path. Essentially the UN recognizes present national boundaries, while respecting minority rights and the sovereignty of national governments at the same time. The contradictions are evident but not addressed. The UN is powerless and resolution of minority problems reduces very simply to a question of which power, be it the USA, Russia or China, believes it has a right to intervene to defend its interests. For someone of the author's diverse background and obvious sensitivities I would have hoped that he might delve just that bit deeper.
David Hillstrom, Author
Fine Investigative Reporting March 13, 2010
James Barton Phelps (Menlo Park, CA United States)
16 out of 19 found this review helpful
Christopher de Belliague is a respected British journalist who lived for almost thirteen years as an expatriate foreign correspondent for The Economist and The New York Review Of Books and other papers in Iran and Turkey. He spoke the languages. He knew the customs He obviously loved the area. He appears to have been the ideal reporter- honest, articulate, knowledgeable skillful, observant and, above all, non-judgmental.
In 2001 he had written an article for the New York Review of Books in which he mentioned the alleged killings of Armenians in Anatolia (Eastern Turkey) in 1915 and was immediately besieged by letters saying he had missed the fact that it was more than that - it was Genocide with a capital G and it was carried out by the Turkish Government. So, being the investigative reporter that he is, he decided to look for himself; and over the course of a couple of years and in four extended visits to the village of Varto in the Province of Mus in Turkey he interviewed, lived with, got to know the people who were either there in 1915 or whose families were there or who knew by experience or tradition what had happened. This is the story of what he saw and heard; and it is particularly relevant because as this is written there is pending in the United States Congress a controversial Resolution condemning the Turkish Government for Genocide in the 1915 events.
Before you read this book, however - and I do recommend it to you if you are interested either in this history or this area - there are two things which need to be said.
First, get a map and see the area where the alleged Genocide took place. Varto is closer as the bird flies to Teheran and Baghdad than it is to Istanbul; it's 500 miles from Ankara, 125 miles from Yerevan the capital of he modern state of Armenia and in a somewhat lonely corner of the world that most of us in the West know nothing about - where a lot of killing could happen in 1915 and never be known to the historical record. Yes, the event could have been covered up.
Second, I will ask you to be the judge as you read this book. Was there a policy of killing the Armenians? Or was it just the fact that generational hatreds between Kurd and Turk and Armenian who had lived in the same inflammable territory for hundreds of years were suddenly put to the torch with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1914-15 and, out of control, the Turks wanted the Armenians out of the country they had called their home for generations. To this day the Turks deny having anything to do with what happened - and they contend that not much happened. (Parenthetically: Those of the generation of this writer - b. 4.27.17 - know that something happened. Every one of us was told as a child to "finish your cereal. Just think of the starving Armenians".) The Armenians contend that the pogrom killed 1,500,000 of their brothers and sisters and they want - what? And here is a question I found myself asking as I read the book. Just what do the Armenians want; and what good would it do today if they got it? Wouldn't it only serve to continue to irritate the festering wounds of the past?
The book has so much evidence of generational hatred, blood feud, historical anger, hate and violence over hundreds of years by so many people and so many tribes against so many other people and so many other tribes that, were I a Judge here hearing the evidence to determine whether or not there was the Genocide as claimed I would have interrupted counsel about half way through the case and after hearing witness after witness repeat his or her particularly slanted story of events and would have said "Counsel, I've heard enough. .I'm sure that further testimony along this line would only be repetitious. I'll take the case under submission and let you know my decision after I've thought about it for a while". Right or wrong that's what I did as the reader. I couldn't finish the book. It was just too much - the same story after story of hate and violence and blood. And the verdict? Apart from finding that thousands upon thousands of Armenians were killed fleeing out of the country in 1915 I don't think anyone can ever say with that certitude of decision which is so necessary in a matter like this that there was a Turkish policy of extermination. Nor does the author. But you should read the book and make your own judgment. It's a good book if for no other reason than, read as a travel book, it takes the 21st century reader back in time to a way of life that exists today the same as it did 200 years ago.
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