Kars welcomes Molokan and Doukhobor heritage tourists to Turkey
Books, videos, cultural center, museum, villages, cemetery, Russian house and more to seeUpdated 2009 September 29
A welcoming program is planned for Molokan and Doukhobor tourists visiting Kars, Turkey.
The first guests will be Florence Chernoff-Lymburner, a Doukhobor artist from Washington, and her husband who will be arriving in Kars on September 29. Flo hopes to photograph many Russian scenes and items to paint on canvas when she gets home. More about her trip when she returns.
The new Kars Malakans* World Friendship Association with the Municipality of Kars is planning to provide heritage guests with tours of local villages, a Molokan home, a cemetery, old water-powered flour mills, the Kars cultural center, books, films and a museum and photo display. [* Malakan is the Turkish spelling of Molokan.]
Historian,
photographer and film producer Vedat
Akçayöz (right,
pronounced: Ukchuyez) is
directing the project. He is Chairman of the Old World Friendship
Association of Molokans in Kars and President of the Kars
Culture and Art Association.In an e-mail sent to Florence and Molokane.org, Vedat offered to make arrangements for her and her husband when they arrived in Kars, though he is in Istanbul and will not be able to greet her.
Vedat writes:
My grantmother is Molokan. Her
name is Anna. She died in 1944.
For approximately 20 years, I have researched Molokan and
Doukhobor culture and art.
My purpose is to preserve and present how the Molokans [, Jumpers,] and Doukhobors lived in Kars in the past, their culture, their history, their homes, their cemeteries and graves, their agriculture, and items of dailty living — to save this before it disappears.
I want to open a small Russian sectarian museum in Kars, and I am trying to restore Molokan [, Jumper, ] and Doukhobor [vandalized] graves. I have proposed to the Ministry of Culture a restoration of a Molokan house in the Çakmak [Chakmak] villlage [formerly Blagodarnoe, 4 miles northwest of Kars city].
I am working to carry out this project. When a tourist comes to Kars, we want to take them to the Çakmak village and visit a Molokan home, visit of the Molokan graves, then back to the house. We will provide information about the history and culture of Molokans and Doukhobors, then they can return to their hotel.
I hope we can carry out this project. I also would very much like to visit Canada and the US to see Molokan and Doukhobor villages there, to collect memiors, photographs and produce more documentray films and books.
My purpose is to preserve and present how the Molokans [, Jumpers,] and Doukhobors lived in Kars in the past, their culture, their history, their homes, their cemeteries and graves, their agriculture, and items of dailty living — to save this before it disappears.
I want to open a small Russian sectarian museum in Kars, and I am trying to restore Molokan [, Jumper, ] and Doukhobor [vandalized] graves. I have proposed to the Ministry of Culture a restoration of a Molokan house in the Çakmak [Chakmak] villlage [formerly Blagodarnoe, 4 miles northwest of Kars city].
I am working to carry out this project. When a tourist comes to Kars, we want to take them to the Çakmak village and visit a Molokan home, visit of the Molokan graves, then back to the house. We will provide information about the history and culture of Molokans and Doukhobors, then they can return to their hotel.
I hope we can carry out this project. I also would very much like to visit Canada and the US to see Molokan and Doukhobor villages there, to collect memiors, photographs and produce more documentray films and books.
Vedat reports an impressive list of accomplishments regarding Doukhobors and Molokans in Kars:
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Vedat
and mother visit relatives in Stavropol' province, Russia 2008 |
Photo
exhibit poster |
Documentary
film won award |
Deli
Deli Olma movie poster |
- He founded the Old “Malakans World Friendship Association” [The name changed from the first announcement.]
- He and his mother visited Kars Molokans and Jumpers who resettled in Stavropol' Russia in 1962
- He recorded memories and interviewes in photos and video of
Doukhobors, Molokans and Jumpers in Armenia, Georgia and
Russia.
- In 2007 he visited the Doukhobor village Markovit in
Armenia.
[Ealier Vedat labled this a Molokan village, now he calls it Doukhobor. Doukhobors had no nearby village nor were they in Erevan Governate. Vedat may have been looking for Fioletovo nearby and got misdirected to Margahovit 1 kilometer west, which neighboring Jumpers and Molokans call Hamgach’iman.]
- In 2008 he visted the Doukhobor village Karelofka [Gorelovka] in the Republic of Georgia
- He presented his “Photo exhibit of Molokans and Doukhobors” in Kars and İstanbul
- The same “Photo exhibit of Molokans and Doukhobors” was presented in Ankara [capital of Turkey] at the Joint United Nations Program and MDG-F 1792, supported by the Anotolia Alliances for Culture in Eastern Tourizm
- He has done many documentary television programs about the culture of Doukhobors and Molokans.
- He was a technical consultant for the Molokan movie “Deli Deli Olma”, and he played in the film. His role was a teacher at the music conservatory [school].
- He has a book in production about Molokans and Doukhobors
I would be very glad to show my
photos, videos and books about Molokans and Doukhobors in the U.S. and
Canada. My next book will be about “Doukhobors in
Canada.” If I can go to Canada I will be able to see the daily
life of Doukhobors, their social
environment, and listen to them tell memories of their fathers and
grandmothers I am interested in their memories from 1921 to 2008.
If I could show my exhibit in Canada and the U.S., then I could collect information, recordings, photographs and videos for another exhibit to show in Turkey, Canada and the U.S.
We must cease this opportunity to work together intensely and quickly before the memory and knowledge of Doukhobor and Molokan culture in the Kars region is lost. We should enhance our dialogue.
If I could show my exhibit in Canada and the U.S., then I could collect information, recordings, photographs and videos for another exhibit to show in Turkey, Canada and the U.S.
We must cease this opportunity to work together intensely and quickly before the memory and knowledge of Doukhobor and Molokan culture in the Kars region is lost. We should enhance our dialogue.
Others have produced books about Molokans in Kars. The first was Dr. Turkdoghan who documented Molokans and Jumpers in his PhD thesis just before most moved to Russia in 1962. His thesis was published in 1970, and in the 1980s translated into English, edited and enhanced by the Highgate Road Social Science Research Station, but has not yet been published due to lack of support. His book was reissued in color in 2005. A few graduate students have recently done papers on Molokans in Turkey.
documenting Molokans in print and on the Internet. He produced three books in three years (above) which either feature or mention Molokans, and in 2009 translated Semionov's book, published in russian in Armenia, to Turkish.
Most important are the Molokans and Jumpers in Turkey who have been actively documenting and researching their own history.
- Stepan Agapov
(Suat Boyar, Turkish name) in Kars, submited many photos and
corresponds in Turkish among those in the U.S.
- Joyce Keosababian-Bivin, in Israel, is gathering the Armenian Jumper history.
- Ludmila Denisenko, in west Turkey, published an article in Social History Review, July 2009.
- Ivan
Denisenko in Istanbul, Ludmila's brother, posts his photos on
Facebook and really wants to publish a directory to connect the 1000
descendants scattered around Turkey. .
- Yalçın
Inam in Istanbul, created a Facebook page which serves as a
communication center with about 50 messages and 100 photos.