2 days ago
'Ges-ges', Half-Hidden, Half-Lost: Talking About Hamshen Armenians Without Labels
'Do you think this is cultural appropriation?' my friend asked as he watched the dancers.
The scene at Cascade was unexpected: on a warm Friday evening, hundreds had gathered to perform Armenian dances. The dancers and the crowd represented a rich diversity—both professional and amateur performers of various ages showcased traditional dances from Western and Eastern Armenia. While most participants were clearly locals, some had come from the diaspora to join in.
The highlight of the evening, for me, was the traditional Hamshen ring dance, accompanied by bagpipes. Non-Hamshen Armenians were visibly captivated by the distinctive ground-kicking movements and unique melodies—so unlike other Armenian traditions.
As perhaps the only Hamshen Armenian there that evening, I caught the curious glance of my anthropologist friend watching the dances beside me.
When other Armenians perform or adopt Hamshen dances and music, does it constitute cultural appropriation? Do Hamshen Armenians represent a minority within a larger Armenian 'majority' or 'dominant' group? When other Armenians embrace these traditions, are they simply perpetuating historical power imbalances or expressing solidarity with Hamshen Armenians?
But let's start with the basics: Who are Hamshen Armenians? And what makes their dance and music traditions distinctive?
Let's talk about history.
Hamshen Armenians have lived in the mountainous regions of the Black Sea coast, in cities like Rize and Artvin in contemporary Turkey—areas that were once part of the Pontus Empire. The Pontic culture shaped Hamshen Armenians for generations, influencing their traditional music, dances, and language, traces of which are still visible today.[1] Yet perhaps the most significant shift—or rupture?—occurred during the Ottoman Empire, at least from our modern perspective.
After the fall of the Pontus Empire and the rise of the Ottomans, the Christian subjects of Pontus—Hamshen Armenians and their neighbors and local competitors, including Laz, Georgians, and other ethnic groups—experienced gradual but significant political changes. Ottoman authorities alternately cooperated and clashed with local groups to assert control. During this transitional period, the region witnessed a wave of conversions to Islam. Christian Laz, Georgians, and Hamshen Armenians likely converted for several reasons: heavy taxation on non-Muslims, mob violence from Muslims, marginalization within the Ottoman legal and political system that favored Muslims, or the desire to maintain local status amid increasing competition.[2] However, not all converted—some Hamshen Armenians had the financial means to remain Christian, while others maintained their faith through strong ties to the Armenian Church and authorities, which provided them power and security.
In the Ottoman millet system, Muslim and Christian Armenians clearly operated under different conditions: they answered to different religious and legal authorities, were subject to different laws and social norms, and did not enjoy the same economic and political rights or security. They were subjects of the same empire, but under significantly different terms. However, the Ottoman system's strict religious hierarchy had an unexpected benefit—it also allowed many groups to maintain their language, culture, and some degree of autonomy and political power. The Hamshen Armenians, whether Christian or Muslim, continued speaking Armenian. Muslim Hamshen Armenians even preserved some of their Pagan/Christian customs or blended them into their Islamic practices. Until very recently, many Muslim Hamshen families celebrated the New Year on January 5, the date of Christian Armenian Christmas, whether or not they acknowledged its Armenian Christian origins.
In the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire became increasingly hostile toward Christians and Armenians. They were not equal citizens—in many places, they faced double taxation from both Ottoman and local Muslim authorities, and suffered attacks and massacres by local mobs. During the prolonged Russo-Ottoman wars, Ottoman authorities began deporting the local population from the Eastern Black Sea coast. While Muslim Hamshen Armenians could return to their homes after the clashes, Christian Hamshen Armenians were forced to migrate to the Russian Empire.[3] Some of their descendants still live in Krasnodar or Abkhazia, while others later migrated to Armenia.
Muslim Hamshen Armenians who remained in the Ottoman Empire witnessed the massacres and, ultimately, the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in the region. They experienced state violence and political pressure under both the Ottoman Empire and later the Turkish Republic. Through firsthand and secondhand experiences, generations learned that their Christian and Armenian heritage drew suspicion from both Ottoman and secular Turkish authorities, creating security concerns for their families. Despite these constant threats of state violence and marginalization, Muslim Hamshen Armenians preserved their language, customs, and local culture—though without explicitly identifying them as 'Armenian.' It could be argued that Armenian heritage and identity became a taboo, while their local identity of 'Hamshen' (or 'Hemshinli' in Turkish) strengthened.
This strategic distancing under the identity of 'Hamshen' did not fully protect them from the wrath of the authorities. The Turkish Republic was built on the vision of a homogeneous Turkish nation, where all ethnic groups were forced to 'forget' their differences and become Turkified. Due to geographical isolation and local political dynamics, Hamshen Armenians near the Georgian border managed to preserve their local Armenian dialect. In many families, including my own, people spoke this Armenian dialect without recognizing it as 'Armenian.'
Self-recognition is important, yet how others perceive you also matters. Even before the genocide and the establishment of the Turkish Republic, there are some significant historical accounts on how other Armenians viewed Muslim Hamshen Armenians. These accounts remain valuable for understanding how Hamshen Armenians are perceived today.
Christian-ruled European empires took great interest in the religious structure and minorities of the Ottoman Empire. They regularly sent priests, travelers, and scholars to study the social and religious fabric of the declining empire. These missions, which sometimes evolved into missionary activities, included both European-commissioned Armenian priests and Ottoman Armenian religious authorities. One of their tasks was to assess the number and the economic-political value of Christian Armenian subjects. Multiple reports mention 'ges-ges/kes-kes' Armenians—those who appeared Muslim outwardly while maintaining Christianity inwardly. Priests visiting the Hamshen regions reported that many Muslims asked them to perform baptisms, pray in inactive churches, or bless deceased relatives at cemeteries.[4]
While it is impossible to verify these accounts or fully understand how successive generations embraced Islam, one fact remains certain: much like the earlier conversion from paganism to Christianity, many Christian customs, beliefs, and rituals persisted among Muslim Hamshen Armenians, albeit in modified forms. Vartavar, for example, is still celebrated in the region without explicit pagan or Christian references.
The image of being 'ges-ges'—possessing 'lost' or 'forgotten' qualities and waiting to be found and made complete again—persists today. A review of literature and recent visual materials about Hamshen Armenians shows frequent use of words like 'mystery', 'forced', 'hidden' and 'identity crisis'.
The desire to determine how Armenian they really are persists as well. An Istanbul Armenian colleague once shared a telling incident: A group of Hamshen Armenian artists and civil society representatives, along with Istanbul Armenians, visited Armenia for what was planned as a rich cultural program. Their guide, an American-Armenian living in Armenia, insisted they spend the week visiting as many churches as possible and take photos lighting candles.
In another troubling incident, a diaspora Armenian scholar visiting Hamshen communities along Turkey's Eastern Black Sea coast, attempted to collect DNA samples from locals. In most cases, he did this without clearly explaining his intentions or getting permission, aiming to 'prove' their Armenian genetic heritage.
In contrast to these extreme examples of objectification, there are more inclusive ones. A 2018 survey showed that one-third of respondents from Boston, Cairo, Pasadena and Marseille saw no barrier to being both Armenian and Muslim.[5] Similarly, the 2022 Diaspora Survey found that only one-third of participants felt that being Christian was essential to being Armenian.[6] I increasingly meet Armenians—both in the diaspora and in Armenia—who maintain friendships with Hamshen Armenians from Turkey or engage with their cultural contributions in music, film, journalism and literature. This suggests that religious affiliation and background are becoming less central to Armenian identity.
The real difference between past and present encounters between Hamshen Armenians and other Armenians is that Hamshen Armenians are no longer merely subjects of others' narratives and definitions.
Today, Hamshen Armenians in Turkey are an incredibly diverse community, most having moved beyond their traditional Hamshen homeland. They hold a wide range of political, religious and social views and values, including varied opinions on what it means to be Hamshen or Hemshin. While some are eager to preserve their ancestral Armenian dialect, others maintain they have Turkic origins from Central Asia. Similarly, some individuals and organizations openly embrace their Hamshen and Armenian heritage, while others strongly reject Armenian connections—even the Armenian dialect they've inherited. Some are devout Muslims, while others are steadfast atheists, with many indifferent to religion as a whole.
However, even if they experience greater acceptance by other Armenians as they are, two supposedly secular states with closed borders—Turkey and Armenia—share a common perception of Hamshen Armenians: If they want to be recognized as Armenians, they must (re)convert to Christianity. In Turkey, Hamshen Armenian children cannot attend Armenian schools to learn Armenian without being baptized under the Armenian Church's authority. Similarly, Hamshen Armenians seeking Armenian citizenship must provide proof of baptism, even if they speak Armenian—and even then, citizenship is not guaranteed.
The complex experience of Hamshen Armenians challenges nation-states' vision of homogenous populations. The Hamshen dialect has survived through religious conversions, imperial rule, forced migrations, mass violence, and symbolic violence––yet it now stands as one of the 15 endangered languages in Turkey. Despite dedicated efforts by activists and families to preserve it, the dialect faces extinction without state policies supporting multilingualism and Turkish Republic's foundation rests not only on the cultural genocide of Ottoman Christians but also on the assimilation of all language and dialect groups into Turkishness. Under the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), only non-Muslim minorities—Armenians, Greeks and Jews—have limited rights to maintain bilingual schools.
Under brutal assimilation policies of the past century, the Hamshen Armenian dialect has relied heavily on oral tradition, lacking the canonized literature, historiography, and institutionalized cultural transmission that enabled diaspora Armenians to preserve Western Armenian language and culture(s) through Armenian Studies and history departments at universities. Most research on Hamshen Armenians—both Christian or Muslim—has been conducted by non-Hamshen Armenians, leaving contemporary Hamshen Armenian priorities and perspectives, particularly in Turkey, largely unrepresented.
The hierarchy between researcher and research 'object' is apparent in two ways: when Hamshen Armenians' bodily autonomy is violated through unsolicited DNA swabs, and when they are labeled and 'revealed' by others as 'Islamized,' 'forced,' 'hidden,' or 'true' Armenians—or reduced to mere folkloric elements frozen in time, stripped of contemporary value. Studies funded by Armenian universities or conducted by diaspora Armenian scholars rarely engage with Hamshen Armenian civil society or academic and cultural professionals. This approach leads to problematic research and biased results, as researchers filter Hamshen Armenian practices, behaviors, beliefs, and experiences in Turkey through their own cultural framework and Armenian identity.
But back to the original question: Is it really cultural appropriation when people dance to traditional Hamshen Armenian music at Cascade?
Historical and social scientific research on Hamshen Armenians raises questions about whether these communities gain genuine voice and agency through such studies. Greater self-reflection about power imbalances and the integration of Hamshen Armenians as equal research partners would help reduce hierarchies between researchers and the communities they are likely willing to support. Meanwhile, Hamshen Armenian artists and musicians have been visiting Armenia, sharing their music and dances both online and in person with other Armenians and engaging in cultural exchange. Despite limited institutional support and resources, they have preserved and reshaped their oral and cultural traditions amid ongoing political pressure in Turkey. Learning and sharing Hamshen Armenian music and dance represents one of the many ways to celebrate their complex history and support their cultural resilience. As long as they join the crowd at Cascade and beyond, more music and dance can be produced. The more the merrier.
Author's note: This text is based on a review of and reflections on a Hamshen Armenian language cafe event organized by Akebi e.V. (a network and association of activists with Turkish background in Berlin) and an Armenian Movies Day organized by Tamar Sarkissian and Mischa Badasyan. The event featured Hamshen Armenian filmmaker Özcan Alper and Hamshen Armenian writer Mahir Özkan, bringing together speakers of Hamshen Armenian, Western Armenian, Eastern Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish. I can only wish for more events that bring together people with shared histories and languages to talk about their differences. Footnotes :
[1] Kuznetsov, Igor 'Hemsin Ermenileri ile Hemsillerin Kültüründe Pontus Mirası' [Pontus Heritage in the Hamshen Culture], in Hemsin ve Hemsinli Ermeniler: Konferans Makaleleri [Hamshen and Hamshen Armenians: Conference Papers], ed. H. Alvrtsyan, A. Melkonyan, R. Hovhanisyan, E. Petrosyan, and S. Vardanyan (Yerevan: National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, 2007), 185–200.
[2] Mouradian, Claire, 'Islamization of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire: The Hamshentsi/Hemshinli Case,' in Armenian Pontus: The Trebizond–Black Sea Communities, ed. Richard G. Hovannisian (Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2009), 137–58.
[3] Hovannisian, Richard G., 'The Armenian Pontus,' in Armenian Pontus: The Trebizond–Black Sea Communities, ed. Richard G. Hovannisian (Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2009), 1–36.
[4] Simonian, Hovann H., 'Hemshin from Islamization to the End of the Nineteenth Century,' in The Hemshin: History, Society and Identity in the Highlands of Northeast Turkey, ed. Hovann H. Simonian (London: Routledge, 2007), 52-99.
[5] Tchilingirian, Hratch, ed., Armenian Diaspora Public Opinion (1): Armenian Diaspora Survey 2019 (Argentina, Lebanon, Montreal, Romania) (London: Armenian Institute, 2020).
[6] Tchilingirian, Hratch, ed., Armenian Diaspora Public Opinion (3): Armenian Diaspora Survey 2022 (United States of America / Ontario, Canada) (London: Armenian Institute, 2023).
