Turkish carpets conquered world, leaving Armenia in shadow – historian

The Turkish expansionism to master the neighboring nations’ carpet-making art yielded its fruits in the past century and half, developing the concept of Seljuk or Muslim carpets, says an Armenian historian.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Ashkhunj Poghosyan, a PhD candidate in historical sciences specialized in the carpet arts, expressed regret that carpet-making in Armenia fell far behind Turkey which did not originally have such a culture.

“It was thoroughly planned. The Turkish tribes had to become a nation, after all; they did have that realization. And in order to be a nation, one needs a cultural haze. And the culture – ranging from architecture to carpet-making – of all the nations that lived in the region was chosen as an appropriate target,” the expert said, noting that the trend goes back to the second decade of the century when Turkish universities launched chairs in applied arts and founded corresponding research centers across the country.

Poghosyan said the idea was prompted by German orientalists whose plan received the nationalistic government’s approval.

“The network is very well organized in Turkey, and it is very good they have done such a thing for themselves. Of course, that’s too bad for us, but they were not supposed to think about us. We should have thought about that,” he said, adding that the same remarks also go for Azerbaijan which began developing the trend in the 1960s.

But instead of talking and criticizing the neighbors, the expert proposed taking specific steps, particularly opening carpet museums and research institutions in Armenia and launching university departments dealing with carpet-making culture.

“Most have no idea about Armenia or the Armenian carpets, as the USSR used to export them with the ‘Soyuz Export’ [Union export] labeling. But the recent couple of years’ struggle and advertising did finally produce a result. And the world community finally came to know about the Armenian carpet,” added Leonid Andreasyan, a marketing and manufacturing director at the Art Studio Mergelyan.

He said the company’s efforts have helped suppress the Turkish manufacturers on the international markets, adding that they managed to annually export 15,000 sq. meters of carpets until the 2009 global recession.