Aintap :: ARMENIAN LOCATIONS

3 Monuments

Turkey (Country) / Cilicia (Area) / Aintap (District) / Aintap (City)

Historical Introduction

One of the pioneers of printing business in Aintap was Vahan (Movses) Kyurkchian, who saw a printing machine and letters when still a college student (1880) and succeeded in printing a small poem “...hardly [in] 3 to 4 copies as gaudy as the first printing attempts of Hakob Meghapart.”135 In 1886,136 when V. Kyurkchian edited the “Mentor” magazine and sent its handwritten copies to G. Paghtatlian (Aramian) Press, Constantinople, he started taking steps for the acquisition of permission to found a printing-office in Aintap. In 1886 he went to the Turkish capital taking with him the telegraph of the Minister of Education Myunif Pasha (he lived in Aintap) addressed to the Governorate of Aleppo: “One of the inhabitants of Aintap, Mr. Vahan Kyurkjian, has submitted a petition to us to learn whether or not we agree to the foundation of a Turkish- and Armenian-language press in the city.”137 His request was rejected: “...the place has never had a printing-house before and there is no need for it at present...”138 In 1889 V. Kyurkchian again attempted to raise the issue of the press (he intended to establish it in Aleppo and then move it to Aintap), but in vain.139 He writes the following about his fiasco: “Hasan Hagge Pasha, the former Governor of Van, said to me with a wide sneer: ‘If you want to establish an Armenian press, go to Ermenistan.’ ”

Պողարեան Գ., Այնթապականք, հ. Ա, Պէյրութ, 1974, էջ 12, 14-15: According to G. Pogharian, the “Mentor” saw the light in 1886 in the publishing house of Vardanian School (Պողարեան Գ., idem, pp. 7-8, note 4). Also see Քիւրքճեան Վ. Մ., Հայ մամուլը Կիլիկիոյ մէջ, «Կոչնակ Հայաստանի», 1919, N 39, էջ 1243.
Also see Քիւրքճեան Վ. Մ., Հայ մամուլը Կիլիկիոյ մէջ, «Կոչնակ Հայաստանի», 1919, N 39, էջ 1244.
Սարաֆեան Գ., Պատմութիւն Անթէպի Հայոց, հ. Բ, Լոս Անճէլըս, 1953, էջ 459:
Abrahamian Emma, Printing-Houses Throughout the Armenian Homeland, in: "Vardzk", 2012, N 6, pp. 13-14.

Eventually, it was only after 1908 that printing-houses were established in Aintap.