2 - Kemah and the ‘Great Armenian Flight’

Summary

The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers are most famous for nourishing the great ancient Mesopotamian civilisations: the Sumerians, Assyrians and Babylonians. But long before the Euphrates River reaches the ruins of Babylon, long before it nourishes agriculture in the lands called the Fertile Crescent, the river arises from the confluence of the Karasu (Western Euphrates) and Murat Su (Eastern Euphrates) Rivers in the Anatolian province of Elazığ. The Karasu River has a long trajectory before it transforms into the Euphrates, arising on the Dumlu Mountain in Erzurum Province and flowing through the Erzincan Province, where it passes the small town of Kemah. Although the Karasu River receives less treatment in world history books than the Euphrates River that it helps to form, it too played a role all on its own in nourishing an ancient civilisation, for which Kemah (see Figure 2.2) was once an important military and religious centre.

This chapter will introduce one of the two key cities of this study: Kemah, currently in Erzincan Province, Turkey, explaining its historical and religious significance for Armenians of the early modern period. Then, after briefly discussing the Celali Revolts according to several Ottoman Turkish sources, it will describe the economic collapse, famine, war and rebellion that would plague Eastern Anatolia at the turn of the seventeenth century, as recounted by contemporary Armenian primary sources – including major histories, travelogues, colophons, short chronicles and poetry – most of which are new to research on Ottoman history. While Ottoman Turkish chroniclers did not focus on the plight of the Christian peasantry, instead centring their narratives on the state, Armenian sources document the rebellions’ affects on Armenian peasants and townspeople. This chapter will conclude by providing extensive literary evidence of a Great Armenian Flight – to adapt Mustafa Akdağ's term to the present study – of Ottoman Armenians from chaos in the East towards Western Anatolia, Istanbul and Thrace, and even as far afield as Egypt, Poland and the Crimea. Temporal focus will be on 1598 through to 1608, the peak years of the Celali Revolts.

The ‘Valley of Monasteries’ (Vâdî-i Vank): Kemah and its Environs

The origin of the name ‘Kemah’ (Kamakh, in Armenian) is debated, with some Armenian scholars suggesting that it is a variant of the name of the ancient city Kummakhan, which is mentioned in a Hittite inscription.