On Vartan İhmalyan’s political autobiography, Bir Yaşam Öyküsü (A Life Story) (2)

The period in which İhmalyan wrote his political autobiography

When examining Vartan İhmalyan’s political autobiography Bir Yaşam Öyküsü (A Life Story), the obvious starting point is to establish the years in which it was written. Once that is clear, the political climate of the time when İhmalyan set down his memoirs will offer us valuable insights.

Unfortunately, I have found no sources on this matter other than the information contained in the book itself. Fortunately, however, in Bir Yaşam Öyküsü the author offers the reader unsystematic, yet highly useful, clues about the years in which he wrote it.

It seems that İhmalyan began writing his memoirs in 1968. We can infer this from the following remark on the opening pages of the book: “As I write these lines now, I am sixty-five” (p. 16).

Twenty-three pages later, he writes: “As I write these lines, I am sixty-seven” (p. 39). We can therefore infer that, over the course of nearly two years up to 1970, İhmalyan had completed just over ten per cent of the book.

Vartan İhmalyan in Warsaw with Nâzım Hikmet in 1958, that is, ten years before he began writing his memoirs

Forty pages later, while referring to the period when he was conscripted for the third time under the 20 Class Military Service (20 Kura Askerlik) [*] scheme -that is, in 1941- he writes: “Although thirty-seven years have passed since then” (p. 79). This points to the year 1978. It seems, therefore, that by 1978 the author had completed only a quarter of the book.

Towards the end of the book, while recounting the dissolution of the TKP Moscow Group in 1965 by the three-man core of the TKP Central Committee -synonymous with the External Bureau- consisting of Baştımar, Bilen and Pehlivanyan, he notes that from that point onwards he was no longer asked to pay party dues. In parentheses, he gives the date: “(As I write these lines, it is January 1979)” (p. 249). A further sixty-three pages on, he adds: “Today, 20 January 1979, I came across the 24 July issue of ‘Kitle’ magazine, published in Istanbul” (p. 312). These remarks show that he was still working on his memoirs in January 1979.

On the final page of the book, we find the following note: “These days (May 1979), Brezhnev and Carter are expected to conclude an agreement in Vienna on the limitation of strategic offensive weapons” (p. 336). In this way, we can determine with certainty when İhmalyan brought the book to a close.

The dates above show that İhmalyan completed his book over a period of roughly eleven years, and that three-quarters of it were written in the final year and a half. Yet although the writing progressed at an uneven pace, it should be remembered that this unevenness is not as great as it might at first seem. This is because the final third of the book includes a considerable number of documents in the form of correspondence and letters.

It is quite clear that İhmalyan began writing his memoirs several years after being completely excluded by the party’s Central Committee. In fact, his decision to confront those who had expelled him and his comrades by setting down his memoirs in 1968 was far from typical behaviour. At that time, writing memoirs was something firmly avoided among Turkish “communists” -even those living abroad- who had long been subjected to severe repression and torture.

I have found not the slightest hint, either in the book or in any other source, as to why İhmalyan -who was to die in 1987- brought Bir Yaşam Öyküsü to a close in 1979 and did not record his political experiences from the years that followed. A number of factors, including his health, may have played a part. Perhaps in time we may come across some information shedding light on the reasons for this.

[*] The 20 Class Military Service: “At the outbreak of the Second World War, a decision was taken to call up non-Muslims born between the Hijri years 1312 and 1332 (Gregorian 1895 to 1915) for military service. Within 48 hours, virtually all minority men aged between 26 and 45 were conscripted. The measures were carried out with such haste that the police would stop people in the street, check their papers, and take them away. Some of these men were issued with the brown labourers’ uniforms that had originally been sent as relief for the 1939 Erzincan Earthquake and were put to work in construction and road building. Among those conscripted were men serving for a second, or even a third time, and others who had only recently been discharged from the army.” (Yalçın Koçoğlu, Hatırlıyorum: Türkiye’de Gayrimüslim Hayatlar [I Remember: Non-Muslim Lives in Turkey], Metis, Second Edition, August 2008, Istanbul, p. 40.)

To be continued

See also:

Who was Vartan İhmalyan?

Vartan İhmalyan’s superficial impressionism

From Vartan İhmalyan’s pen: Aram Pehlivanyan (1)

From Vartan İhmalyan’s pen: Aram Pehlivanyan (2)

From Vartan İhmalyan’s pen: Aram Pehlivanyan (3)

From Vartan İhmalyan’s pen: İsmail Bilen (1)