Manuelian/Tatarian/Iplikdjian Family Collection - Istanbul

Author: Aykun Budak 23/09/25 (Last modified 23/09/25)

I placed this collection at Houshamadyan’s disposal after exploring the family history preserved in my grandmother’s home, following her passing in 2024. The items belonged to the maternal and paternal ancestors of Ovsanna Silva Papazian (née Iplikdjian, better known as Silva Papazian), who was born in Istanbul in 1935.

My maternal grandmother, Silva Papazian, filled my sister's and my childhood with her joy, her cheerful laughter, and her unconditional love. It was during my high school years that she began sharing family photos and heirlooms with me, sensing I was finally old enough to understand the weight and wonder of the past. From that moment on, the story of her ancestors and their heritage became my wonderland.

Silva Papazian’s mother was Araksi Ankine Iplikdjian (née Tatarian), born in Istanbul in 1905. She was the second child of the Tatarian family. Her elder sister, Hayganoush, was born and died in 1904, and her younger brother, Yetvart Tateos, was born in 1910 but died suddenly at the age of 18. Araksi’s father, Partoghomios (Partig) Tatarian, was a well-known tailor on the Grande Rue de Pera (today’s İstiklal Caddesi). He also had a younger sister Verkine Kerestedjian (née Tatarian). Araksi’s paternal grandparents were Santoukhd and Tateos Tatarian. Born in Van in 1826, Tateos became a priest in the Armenian community of Istanbul, where he settled and married Santoukhd.

Araksi’s mother was Satenig Elmone Tatarian (née Manuelian), born in Istanbul in 1876 as the middle child of the Manuelian family. She had two brothers, Yervant and Nerses. Their father, Simon Manuelian, was a wealthy tradesman in Istanbul and a prominent member of the Kadıköy Armenian community. Moreover, he contributed financially to the renovation of some properties that belonged to St. Takavor Armenian Church Foundation after they got severe damages during the big fire that took place in Kadıköy in 1883. Simon was married to Aguline. Their first child, Yervant Manuelian, became a distinguished researcher at the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

Silva Papazian’s father was Haroutiun Iplikdjian, born in Kayseri/Gesaria in 1900 as the first child of the Iplikdjian family. He had a younger brother, Hagop Iplikdjian, born in Kayseri in 1903. Haroutiun’s mother was Ovsanna Iplikdjian (née Damlamian), born in Kayseri in 1870. His father was Hadji Djebrael Simon Iplikdjian, born in Kayseri in 1859. Haroutiun Iplikdjian’s family moved from Kayseri to Istanbul in 1910. The untimely loss of his father, Djebrael, in 1915 forced Haroutiun to forgo his youth and enter business immediately to support his family. Despite these responsibilities, he maintained a lifelong passion for antiques – a curiosity that would later evolve and draw him into the world of auctions in the years to come.

Yervant Manuelian was born in Istanbul on July 29, 1872, the first child of Simon and Aguline Manuelian. He completed his primary education at the Aramian School and later attended the Getronagan School in Galata, founded by Patriarch Nerses Varjabedian. In 1891, he became one of Getronagan’s first graduates, alongside Arshag Chobanian, Vagharshag Mesrobian, Dr. Tulian, Dr. Artinian, Dr. Der Khachadourian, and Krapos Bezazian.

In 1892, Yervant began his medical studies at the Faculty of Medicine in Montpellier and completed them at the Paris Faculty of Medicine in 1896. In 1900, he was awarded a prize from the university for young scientists. Shortly after graduation, he joined the laboratory of the renowned histologist Mathias Duval, publishing his first article in 1899.

Yervant entered the Pasteur Institute in 1902, where he would spend most of his career. Although he officially retired in 1941, he continued his research there until the end of his life. His scientific work focused primarily on rabies, syphilis, and sodoku (rat-bite fever). He published extensively on these diseases, contributing significantly to both theory and practice. He demonstrated that rabies was transmitted through animal bites, proved that sodoku was spread by mouse bites, and discovered that syphilitic lesions thought to be closed were in fact open and contagious – an insight that helped protect many healthcare workers from infection.

Yervant Manuelian passed away in Paris on May 9, 1948. At the time of his death, he was a member of the Soviet Armenian Academy of Sciences, as well as a member and honorary president of the Armenian Medical Association (L’Union des Médecins Arméniens) in France.

Manuelian’s life, devoted to science, also found expression in literature. Throughout his career he wrote widely, and after his death, his friend Pierre Séguin compiled his poems in the volume "Ombres et Clartés" (Shadows and Clarities).

The son of Simon Iplikdjian, beadle of the Sourp Sarkis Church in Kayseri, Djebrael became active in Armenian communal life after attaining financial prosperity in 1896. In 1902, he renovated the Sourp Sarkis Church and later rebuilt the adjacent St. Hagobian School, where he devoted considerable effort to improving the quality of education.

Djebrael Iplikdjian frequently traveled to Europe and America for his ready-made clothing business. In 1910, he settled in Istanbul, where his entrepreneurial skills allowed him to steadily expand his commercial activities. At the outbreak of World War I, he was operating in Istanbul. On April 18, 1915, he was arrested, taken to Kayseri, and imprisoned. He was sentenced to ten years in prison on the charge of traveling abroad once or twice a year and allegedly importing and distributing large quantities of weapons during these trips. In September 1915, Iplikdjian was exiled with ten companions, told he would serve his sentence in Diyarbekir. Instead, he was killed on the road to Ourfa. Shortly thereafter, the Ottoman government confiscated both his Istanbul store and his Kayseri branch.

In my grandmother Silva’s memories, her grandfather Djebrael was lost in 1915, and his family fled from Kayseri to Istanbul, where his wife Ovsanna’s family lived. Not long after, all the carpets from their home in Kayseri arrived anonymously in Istanbul. The family believed that their Turkish neighbors had sent them. After her parents passed away, my grandmother kept this ritual alive: each year she would unroll the carpets, clean them, roll them back, and keep them in the house as their guardians. Yet this family story did not match reality. After Silva’s death, I discovered documents in her home written in Ottoman Turkish, which I had translated. They revealed that, as noted in Djebrael’s biography, the Iplikdjian family had actually moved to Istanbul in 1910, well before 1915. The documents also showed that it was in 1916 that the family arranged to have their carpets and some household belongings brought to Istanbul.

Haroutiun Iplikdjian and Araksi Tatarian got married in Istanbul in 1933. Two years later, in 1935, my grandmother Silva was born – their only child. Of her grandparents, she knew only one: her maternal grandmother, Satenig Tatarian (née Manuelian), who passed away in 1940. Silva remembered her with deep longing, recalling her as compassionate and affectionate. Yet she was also marked by sorrow, always dressed in black and rarely smiling, as she grieved the loss of her son, Yetvart Tatarian, who had died at the age of 18.

Silva’s paternal grandmother, Ovsanna Iplikdjian (née Damlamian), had died in 1934, a year before Silva’s birth. For this reason, Silva was also given the second name ‘Ovsanna.’ Her maternal grandfather, Partig, passed away in 1929, and her paternal grandfather had been lost in 1915.

In 1947, Silva enrolled at the Notre Dame de Sion French School, an experience for which she would remain forever grateful. At that time, the school was in high demand among Istanbul’s minority communities. There Silva not only received an education steeped in French culture but also a strong moral grounding in Christianity. The French cultural influence was already present in her family, as both her paternal uncle and her maternal great-uncle had lived in Paris for many years. Furthermore, her beloved high school would become a family tradition; both my mother and I later graduated from Notre Dame de Sion.