Markar Esayan


BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Full Name: Markar Esayan
Born: February 4, 1969 in Istanbul, Turkey
Died: October 16, 2020 , Istanbul , Turkey
Education: Bomonti Mıhitaryan Armenian Catholic Primary School
Private Getronagan Armenian High School
Anadolu University’s Faculty of Business Administration (1995)
Master’s degree in cultural studies at Bilgi University in Istanbul, (2010)
Occupation: Intellectual, columnist, politician, novelist, writer
Career: Member of Parliament for Istanbul (2015-2020)
Chairperson of the European Union Compliance Committee in 2018, a member of the Turkey-European Union Joint Parliamentary Committee
Notable Works: Dünyayı 'Durduran' 60 Gün; Meydan, Darbe, Demokrasi (60 Days that Stopped the World: Square, Coup d'Etat, Democracy) (2013), Jerusalem (2011), İyi Şeyler (Good Things) (2011)
Awards: Turkey-Armenia Journalism Award from the Istanbul Kültür University Global Political Trends (GPoT) Center (2013)
Labels: One of the first Armenian members of Turkey's parliament, columnist, novelist

Markar Esayan (b. Feb. 4, 1969, Istanbul, Turkey; d. Oct. 16, 2020, Istanbul, Turkey) was a Turkish intellectual, columnist, politician, novelist and writer. He is was one of the first Turkish-Armenians to be elected to Turkey’s parliament in recent decades. His novels have been praised for their reflections on Turkish-Armenian relations.

EARLY LIFE

Markar Esayan was born on Feb. 4, 1969 in Beyoğlu, Istanbul, to a Christian Armenian father and a Muslim Circassian mother. Esayan attended Bomonti Mıhitaryan Armenian Catholic Primary School and then Private Getronagan Armenian High School. While pursuing his undergraduate studies, he started to engage in trade after moving to the Kurtuluş neighborhood—previously Tatavla—which was home to a large number of Armenians, Greeks and other minorities. His father, Aram Esayan, was also a merchant who, originally from Sivas, migrated to Istanbul with his family in 1929 after the violent events of 1915. Esayan described his father as a good Samaritan who would offer help to people regardless of religion and ethnicity.

Accounts of the violence of 1915 had a great impact on Esayan’s family life. He and his sister, Sima Esayan, didn’t know their paternal relatives for a long time. They disapproved of his father’s marriage to a Muslim woman and cut off contact with him and his mother for a long time. Their attitude changed as the years passed, along with the transformation of social and cultural perceptions, as well as values and norms in Turkish society. The official, all non-Muslim, minority groups in Turkey, as established by the Lausanne Treaty of 1923, have for years struggled for change.

Esayan completed his undergraduate degree at Anadolu University’s Faculty of Business Administration in 1995. His father passed away after suffering a stroke the same year. Having found his calling in writing, his career in newspapers began two years after he graduated and continued until the end of his life.

CAREER IN NEWSPAPERS

Esayan began writing intermittently for the Agos newspaper, dually published in Armenian and Turkish, in 1997. Four years later, he became a columnist, writing regularly under the heading “Dar Kapı” (Narrow Gate) on the invitation from then Editor-in-Chief Hrant Dink, a prominent member of the minority Armenian community. He left the newspaper one year after Dink’s assassination on January 19, 2007.

During these years, he published the first two of his novels. The first, Şimdinin Dar Odası (The Narrow Room of the Present), published in 2005, won the Inkilap Kitapevi’s 2004 Grand Prize. In 2007, he published his second novel, Karşılaşma (Encounter), a book about the memory of the violent 1915 incidents. Esayan dedicated the book to Hrant Dink and his memory. Both novels focus on the state and the circumstances of the Armenian community in Turkey.

After leaving Agos, Esayan started writing for Taraf newspaper in 2008, as both an editorial coordinator and a columnist, for nearly four years. Meanwhile, after a long break from academia, Esayan completed his master’s degree in cultural studies at Bilgi University in Istanbul, in 2010. His master’s thesis, “Modernity, the New Bourgeoisie and Class Struggles in Armenian Literature at the Turn of the 20th Century”, was a significant study in its field due to his knowledge of the Armenian language and writing.

In 2011, Esayan published his third novel, Jerusalem, and his first non-fiction book, İyi Şeyler (Good Things), which includes several essays and articles. The same year, a television discussion program hosted by Esayan, Hilal Kaplan and Bekir Berat Özipek on Hilal TV won the 2011 Media Ethics Award.

His temporary role as editor-in-chief at Taraf coincided with Turkey’s reconciliation process, a project introduced by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in 2012 to solve the problems of the country’s Kurdish community. During that time, Taraf was one of the most supportive newspapers for the peace process through its committee of “Wise Men” composed of writers, academics, columnists and actors. The same year, Esayan, together with some of his colleagues, was forced to resign from Taraf.

In 2013, he created his own website where he published articles during the Gezi Park protests. His non-fiction book, Dünyayı ‘Durduran’ 60 Gün; Meydan, Darbe, Demokrasi (60 Days that Stopped the World: Square, Coup d’Etat, Democracy), co-authored with Cemil Ertem, was published the same year. The book focuses on a comprehensive analysis of the Gezi Park protests. His article, “Ergenekon: An Illegitimate Form of Government”, was published in an academic journal. In the article, he provides a broad analysis of the Ergenekon coup plot trial, which was the first serious judicial inquiry into Turkey’s long tradition of military coups. He also started writing for Yeni Şafak newspaper and Akşam newspaper, as well as publishing his pieces in several online news sites, including Serbestiyet and Turkey Agenda. The same year, he won the Turkey-Armenia Journalism Award from the Istanbul Kültür University Global Political Trends (GPoT) Center.

ARMENIAN ISSUE

On the verge of the centennial of the 1915 events, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, then prime minister of Turkey, offered condolences in 2014 to the descendants of Armenians who were killed, which was seen as a cornerstone for building a bridge between Turks and Armenians. It was the first time a Turkish politician had offered condolences to the country’s Armenian community. Together with the Armenian Patriarchate of Turkey, Esayan welcomed Erdoğan’s remarks in which he termed the violence of 1915 as “inhumane”, and thanked him for acknowledging the continued pain of the Armenian community.

After decades of state-sanctioned ignorance, prejudice and intimidation of minorities, the Armenian community has finally found some ground to speak up. The AK Party has attempted to engineer a new society devoid of the previous social norms and prejudices toward minorities while designating a role to the traditionally closed and depoliticized Armenian community in the construction of its political agenda.

Esayan was elected as an AK Party member of Parliament for Istanbul’s second electoral district in the elections of June 7, 2015. In total, he served three terms in Parliament. He also continued to write for Yeni Şafak, Akşam and the English-language Daily Sabah newspaper.

During his time in Parliament, he was among the new figures included in the AK Party’s Central Decision-Making and Administrative Committee (MKYK), which went through a major revision during the party’s emergency convention in 2016. Before his illness disrupted his daily life, Esayan was served as the vice chairperson of the European Union Compliance Committee in 2018 and became a member of the Turkey-European Union Joint Parliamentary Committee.

In October 2019, Esayan was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He underwent surgery to remove his stomach. He then began to receive treatment at home after the cancer metastasized. Although in poor health, he continued to write for Akşam until September 2020.

He died on October 16, 2020, at the age of 51. A religious ceremony was held at the Armenian Church of the Virgin Mary in Kumkapı, Istanbul on October 22, 2020. The presence of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the funeral, accompanied by first lady Emine Erdoğan, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca and Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy was the first such participation by governing politicians in a ceremony for the Armenian community in Turkey, as Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople Sahak II Mashalian noted in his speech at the ceremony. Esayan is buried at the Şişli Armenian Cemetery.

FOR FURTHER READING

  1. Esayan, Markar, “Helalleşme…”, Yeni Şafak, April 27, 2014.
  2. Esayan, Markar, “Ergenekon: An Illegitimate Form of Government”, Insight Turkey, volume 15, no. 4, 2013.
  3. Karaosmanoglu, Kerem, “Reimagining Minorities in Turkey: Before and After the AKP”,  Insight Turkey, volume 12, no. 2, 2010.
  4. Onem, Murat Yusuf & Karatas Turan, “Mark Esayan’in Simdinin Dar Odasi ve Karsilasma romanlarinda Turk ve Ermeni Imaji”, IJEP, volume 1, issue 2, 2020.
  5. Ter-Matevosyan, Vahram, “The Armenian Community and the AK Party: Finding Trust under the Crescent,”  Insight Turkey, volume 12, no. 4, 2010.