A MESSAGE BY ARMENIAN PATRIARCHATE OF TURKEY

Today, it is a book that brings people together for this event. Everyone who respects the word ‘book’ is a member of a family formed by this concept. Each published book is a newborn child under the roof of this family. People who value books hear the cry at each published work “Spoken words fly away, written ones remain,” and this cry renews people’s belief in the righteousness of this word.

Books have been a source of information throughout history, and have played an important role in passing on the wealth of experience from generation to generation. The gathering of distinguished people participating in this event today is a manifestation of the respect for the pen and labour.

If information, especially information based on documents and accurate data, is a gem in its own  arena, and books that compile the information and explain cause and effect relationships are jewels, then the book ‘Osmanlı Döneminde Mücevher ve Ermeni Kuyumcular’ (Jewelry and Armenian Goldsmiths under the Ottomans) is a true treasure. We are indebted to Mr. Arsen Yarman, one of the most respected intellectuals of our community, for this comprehensive work that describes the efforts that went into transforming jewels to jewellery, and the artisans who sweated on this path.

This valuable book published by Arsen Yarman gain importance not only by being about gems, but also for communicating our community’s contributions to the people of our country, by introducing the members of our community and their services to the people of our country, leading to a change in the notions of the prejudiced, and forming a healthy dialogue between people.

Like Arman’s other works the book ‘Osmanlı Döneminde Mücevher ve Ermeni Kuyumcular’ (Jewelry and Armenian Goldsmiths under the Ottomans), is the product of wide-ranging research. This research is a comprehensive and persistent endeavour with domestic and foreign links. To own this work, ‘the result of a painstaking process’ truly means to partake in the author’s enthusiasm.’

While congratulating Mr Arsen Yarman on his patient and persevering work, we also wish to express our appreciation and gratitude to the publisher, Yapı Kredi Culture Arts and Publishing. Being published in this way is reminiscent of the trust the Ottoman Palace placed in the Armenian goldsmiths. The Yapı Kredi Culture Arts and Publishing family trusted the content of this work, the quality of the author’s research, and felt comfortable with being the initiator of the publication of a truly valuable achievement.

In the pages of this book, we witness the marvels created by the descendents of an ancient nation who lived and still live in these lands, in a profession that has been passed down through the generations. These people have left remarkable traces in their own times, and these traces have been immortalised by the pen of a respected person who followed them and literally made them the building blocks in a monumental work.

People who are experts in their fields will without doubt voice their opinions and thoughts more competently about the contents of the book. While expressing our feelings about these two volumes’ weight of eight kilos, we only think of it as the weight of 1402 pages. Scales can weigh it. However, there is definitely no material scales that can weigh the information imparted in the lines of the 1402 pages, the efforts made to obtain it, and the sacrifices made for its publication. This bulk can only be weighed and lifted by the evaluation of people with value judgements. Earlier works published by Mr Arsen Yarman stand as guarantors for the support behind the abundance of information in this book. With these sentiments, I congratulate him once again and express my appreciation for his work on behalf of myself, the Patriarchal See, our Synod and my community.

My fatherly blessings and prayers.

SAHAK II
ARMENIAN PATRIARCH OF TURKEY