Armenian Heritage and Memory Beyond the Borders Armenian Heritage and Memory Beyond the Borders | Page 9

her prison memoir on Hay Gin. She was also General Secretary of
Armenian Women’s Association. She was an accomplished teacher
who advocated for co-education of girls and boys. In 1921, she left for
America. She published essays on Armenian pre-history in Armenian-
American periodicals from Washington. Although she collaborated with
her husband and published famous historical treaties, this work was just
attributed to her husband and her name wasn’t remembered.
Hayganush Mark (1885-1966 İstanbul) was
the editor of Hay Gin, Armenian women’s
journal in İstanbul from 1919 to 1932. Hay Gin
was the first journal which was interruptedly
published from soon after the genocide until
the era of the huge effect of Kemalism rule.
Hay Gin stimulated women to write and
express their thoughts and feelings; moreover,
Hayganush Mark stipulated men to write under
female pseudonym for encouraging women.
She advocated and demanded gender
equality but didn’t
reject domesticated roles assigned to women.
On the contrary, she advocated that men should
also be domesticated. Her feminism was the
representation of mixed modern and traditional
woman. She gave priority to construct an ideal
of Armenianness that was very much valued
among Armenian people and mentality after
genocide in order to survive and didn’t want
to contradict her feminism with Armenianness
so she tried to prove their harmony with one
another.
In her book called Recovering Armenia: The Limits of Belonging in
Post Genocide Turkey, Lerna Ekmekçioğlu mentioned that a possibility
to collaborate Armenian and Turkish feminists occured but afterward
it failed. As the book mentioned, Mark was invited to join the Turkish
Women’s Association. However, she was upset that she was not
invited directly by her fellow Turkish feminists but Ann Stis, a feminist
from Geneva and the secretary of the International Feminist Women’s
Association, who happened to be in town. Despite her feelings, Mark