Ethnic Roots May Be at the Bottom of Hoteliers’ Woes; Turkey: Sudden
opposition surprises Armenian American and his wife.
AMBERIN ZAMAN, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
VAN, Turkey
Nestled beneath snowcapped mountains along the border with Iran, this area
wrapped around a vast lake and brimming with archeological treasures is
among Turkey’s best-kept secrets. So why not open a hotel here for
adventurous travelers, tour operator Victor Bedoian from Arizona wondered
during a visit in 1998.
After several years of meticulous planning and plenty of encouragement from
the Turkish government, Bedoian did just that in March 2001. Two months
later, police in Van told Bedoian and his wife, Kristy, that the couple
could not operate the hotel. “There’s only one reason,” said Bedoian during
a recent interview here. “It’s because I’m an ethnic Armenian.”
He’s probably right. Muslim Turks and Christian Armenians remain bitterly
divided, much of the anger traced back to the slaughter of hundreds of
thousands of Armenians in eastern Turkey around the time of World War I.
Turkey denies charges of genocide and says many of the dead fell victim to
starvation and exposure while fleeing wartime fighting.
The neighboring nation of Armenia’s refusal to recognize its existing
borders with Turkey also feeds the anger, as does Armenia’s occupation of
territory claimed by this nation’s closest regional ally, Azerbaijan.
Here in Van, where some of history’s bloodier clashes between Turks and
ethnic Armenians took place, some residents still fear that Armenians who
fled will one day return to reclaim their lost property.
The local branch of the Nationalist Action Party is at the forefront of a
campaign to portray Bedoian as an Armenian agent whose “sinister agenda,”
according to local party boss Coskun Tatar, is to sow the seeds of “a
greater Armenia” in Van by buying property in Van province.
Media reports have accused Kristy Bedoian of links with ethnic Kurdish
rebels who long fought Turkish troops in the region.
“We are not against foreign investment; that would be really stupid,” said
Feyat Erdemir, a spokesman for the ultranationalist party. “But this man
has different intentions, he is a mischief-maker.”
Yet, when Victor Bedoian first approached Turkish officials in 1999 about
the possibility of investing here–together with 10 American partners, none
of them ethnic Armenians–“they promised us the moon,” he said. Operating
licenses, work permits, all were swiftly issued amid smiles and piping hot
glasses of tea.
“Having an Armenian freely operating here would have been a great
propaganda tool for Turkey,” noted Kaan Soyak, co-chairman of the
Turkish-Armenian Business Development Council, which is seeking to promote
trade and cultural exchanges between the two ethnic groups. “They blew it.”
In May 2000, the couple opened a carpet showroom in Van to “test the
waters” and made national television headlines as the first foreigners to
invest in the largely Kurdish-populated region. “People were really
thrilled to have Americans here, they knew we would help the local
economy,” said Kristy Bedoian, 49.
Her husband said it was only after he bought the hotel, paying $700,000,
that his troubles began.
Police began to visit the premises repeatedly, demanding to see the
couple’s papers and grilling Victor Bedoian about his ancestry. Employees
were threatened and asked why they were “working for those Armenians.”
Pressures escalated last May when Bedoian was informed that his residency
application had been rejected and he was no longer authorized to do
business in Turkey. As a result, all of his other permits were rendered
invalid.
The couple could get no further explanation from officials. Rumors were
rife in Van that the provincial governor was opposed to their presence
because of Bedoian’s Armenian roots. Fearing official reprisal, friends
began to stay away from the hotel.
Last July, police entered the hotel and kicked out a group of foreign
tourists who were trying to check in. In November, while the Bedoians were
in the United States, police evicted employees and sealed the hotel’s
doors.
When pressed for an explanation, Gov. Durmus Koc declined to comment. A
senior Turkish official who requested anonymity said the Bedoians’ case did
not “reflect Turkey’s national policy” and was a “local problem.”
During an official visit to Turkey in December, Secretary of State Colin L.
Powell pressed national leaders to resolve the issue. A senior U.S.
official familiar with the case terms the treatment of the Bedoians
“outrageous.”
“All it does is scare away foreign investors and tarnish Turkey’s
reputation, which admittedly isn’t that great anyway,” said the official,
who asked not to be identified.
However, further prodding from the Bush administration has yielded no
results, and U.S. officials say there is little else they can do.
Bedoian disagrees.
“If America wanted to fix this problem, it could do so right now,” said
Bedoian, 48. “We are facing systematic persecution by the Turkish state,
and the American government, our local senators and representatives have
all abandoned us.”
Privately, many Turkish and U.S. officials argue that the hotel’s
name–Vartan, the Armenian word for victory–lies at the root of Bedoian’s
woes.
“It’s like waving a red rag at a bull,” said Haydar Celik, the hotel’s
26-year-old Turkish manager. “Local sensitivities have been inflamed.”
Bedoian said he named the hotel after his only son and had no political
agenda. “That stuff happened nearly a hundred years ago,” he said of the
widespread Armenian deaths. “It’s time to move on, the accusations are
insane.”
Born in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York, Bedoian is a
second-generation American. His grandmother was spirited out of central
Turkey during the wartime violence by Turkish neighbors after her family
“disappeared,” as he puts it.
Bedoian hardly fits the stereotype of the revenge-seeking nationalist.
Describing himself as “an ex-bum until I discovered Christianity,” he
defied family pressure to marry “a nice Armenian girl” and instead chose
Kristy, a Scottish American from Alaska. They opened a travel agency in
Wickenburg, Ariz.
When the couple first decided to set up a business here they had no inkling
of the troubles that lay ahead.
“It made perfect sense at the time,” Victor Bedoian recalled. “It was a
ground-level opportunity to bring in American tourists for cultural tours.”
Bedoian has launched four lawsuits against the governor and government
agencies over what the couple says is the illegal revocation of the hotel’s
licenses and denial of his residency. Hearing dates have not been set for
the cases. The couple has vowed to keep returning on tourist visas until
justice is done.
“The irony is that Armenians back home kept calling us traitors, warning us
that it would all go horribly wrong,” said Kristy Bedoian. “Sadly, they
proved to be right in the end.”
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Kristy and Victor Bedoian stand before their hotel in Van,
Turkey. Its name, meaning “victory” in Armenian, has irritated some locals.
PHOTOGRAPHER: AMBERIN ZAMAN / For The Times |