La Zadig – Calea Mosilor

In perioada interbelica, si putin dupa, acesta era cel mai celebru magazin de « cafea, coloniale si delicatese »  de pe Calea Mosilor, strada unde la orice ora te duceai puteai auzi de la trecatori  vorba armeneasca, iar printre nu putinele pravalii  armenesti trona firma acestui magazin care-si castigase clientela prin produsele sale de calitate si servirea exemplara: “La Zadig”.

ENGLISH VERSION BELOW

 

Cafeaua se prepara pe loc, macinata fiind in fata clientului din diferte sorturi de cafea prajite diferit astfel incat oricine pleca cu amestecul sau preferat. La cerere se adauga si naut, prajit meserias si adaugat atat cat era necesar sa raspunda cererii. Rostul nautului era sa confere un gust aparte dar sa si slabeasca taria cafelei pentru cei care nu suportau un “svart” tare.

Recent am primit din Franta cateva pagini de amintiri din partea d-lui Zadig Mouradian, stranepotul fondatorului magazinului, care este un cunoscut astrofizician si director de cercetari   la Serviciul Solar al Observatorul   din Paris ,  membru al Academiei de Stiinta din Armenia , autor a numeroase lucrari stiintifice privind fizica solara. Vom avea insa ocazia sa vorbim pe acest subiect intr-unul din numerele viitoare ale revistei. Paginile pomenite mai sus incep cu o fraza definitorie: “ Un magazin este alcatuit din patru pereti, intre care sunt dispue marfurile oferite spre vanzare ; insa numai viata ce se desfasoara in jurul lui il anima si-i da personalitate. Si magazinul ZADIG a trait din plin, ceea ce i-a adus faima ce o binemerita”. Dar sa dam in continuare cuvantul domnului Zadig Mouradian.

Fondatorul acestui magazin a fost Zadig Muradian, de fel din satul Purk, locuit numai de armeni, si care se afla in imediata apropiere  a orasului Sabin-Karahisar, din vilayetul  Sivaz. Era locuit, in epoca, de 1700  locuitori, avea doua scoli si doua biserici.[1] Taranii se ocupau de cultura de cereale, mai cu seama grau.Venind vremuri grele,  in anii 1890, Zadig pleaca singur la Istambul unde deschide o brutarie pe care o tine timp de doi ani. Nemultumit de situatia de acolo, pleaca la Braila, unde se aflau deja cativa consateni. De data asta deschide o bacanie care merge mai bine incat poate ajuta familia ramasa acasa.  In anul 1895, un alt consatean, care avea un magazin la Bucuresti, se decide sa se intoarca in hayrenik,  si  cedeaza magazinul lui Zadig, strabunicul…. Si asa se deschide pe Calea Mosilor, la Nr. 211, magazinul « Zadig ».

Fiul lui Zadig,  Drtad, (bunicul meu) se casatorise  si avea un baiat, Hampartum ( tatal meu)  si o fata Haiganus. Se pare ca la cerinta bunicului, Drtad ( el se ocupa cu  comertul cu ridicata cu granele din sat)  vine la Bucuresti, in anul 1912, insotit de Hampartum, care era inca la varsta copilariei.  Pe cat se pare, in acele vremuri, familia se gandea sa paraseasca tara. Zadig se intoarce la Purk, dar dupa putin timp se imbolnaveste de holera, caci in anii 1912-1913 bantuia o epidemie in Orientul Mijlociu. Pe cand eram copil,  veneau acasa la noi prietenii bunicului si mai inchinau un paharel de oghi  si toastul invariabil era :  ays dari hos, kal dari hayrenik !  (anul acesta aici, la anul –in patrie). Sunt sigur ca erau sinceri. Toti visau la  Hayrenik.

A venit vara anului 1914. Trupele germane se indreptau spre Bucuresti. Germania fiind aliata Turciei, era periculos pentru armenii cu cetatenie turca sa ramana pe loc. Mai cu seama ca acum stim ca Enver Pasa trimisese o telegrama lui Falkenheim, comandantul trupelor germane care inaintau, sa ucida pe toti acesti armenii, deoarece erau chipurile tradatori. Asa incat Bunicul si tata s-au refugiat in Rusia, (care era in razboi cu Turcia) la Rostov pe Don ( Nor Nahicevan) unde era o straveche comunitate armeneasca. Bunicul a preluat un han, iar tata a urmat scoala armeana din localitate, a carui director era viitorul arhiepiscop Husig Zohrabian. Aceasta situatie a durat pana in 1919, cand ei au reusit sa se intoarca la Bucuresti.

In timp ce erau la Rostov, bunicul, impreuna cu Ervant Papazian (ruda cu Generalul Andranic), cumparau arme de la soldatii dezertori ai armetei tariste in deruta, si le trimeteau clandestin spre Armenia. Era vremea cand mica armata armeana  dimpreuna cu populatia faceau fata invaziei armatei turcesti.

Razboiul intrerupsese legaturile cu familia ramasa la Purk, intrerupere care din nefericire a ramas definitiva. Duminica, la 21 februarie 1915 [2]  un grup de cete  au navalit peste cateva sate armenesti si au masacrat intreaga populatie. Bunicul imi spunea ca numai cinci persoane din Purk au scapat, si anume aceia care nu se gaseau in sat in ziua carnagiului. Atacul intr-o Duminica, prin surprindere, nu avea alt scop decat punerea in aplicare a unei intentii precise de a ucide cat mai multa populatie. Probabil acest act era, de fapt, o razbunare a turcilor « curajosi » care au atacat o populatie neinarmata, ca urmare a infrangerii «  valoroasei lor armate »  in luptele purtate  cu armate rusa in ianuarie 1915. [3]

Dupa intoarcerea din Rusia, bunicul si-a reluat magazinul din Bucuresti, si si-a refacut familia casatorindu-se cu o vaduva a unui ofiter armean din armata otomana care isi pierduse cei doi copii in deportarile pe drumurile pe ruta Sivas—Deir-es-Zor. Noi am iubit si respectat aceasta noua bunica a noastra si care a devenit adevarata noastra bunica, asa cum mi s-a povestit.  Mai tarziu se casatoreste si tata si din aceasta casatorie am rezultat eu si cele doua surori ale mele.

Treptat, Hampartum (tata)  devine principalul ajutor a bunicului, contribuind la faima magazinului : cafea proaspat macinata pe loc. Pe toata intinderea Caii Mosilor, de la Sfantu Gheorghe la Obor, nu existau alte magazine care sa ofere cafea in afara de Zadig si  Julius Meinl, chiar langa Obor. Acesta din urma era o afacere  vieneza, si lantul lor de magazine vindea cafea occidentala. In Bucuresti magazinele de cafea erau de regula tinute de armeni. De exemplu, Danielian pe Academiei, Kellerian la Sfintu Gheorghe, sau Surian la Piata Mare, si altele. Produsele care se vindeau la  ZADIG erau « coloniale »  , «  delicatesuri » si cu o sectie de cafea. Magazinul este mentionat in almanahul « Araz » din anul 1933, editat de Siruni, printre alte adrese de comercianti armeni.

Partea cu cafea era compusa din mai multe rezervoare de boabe de cafea prajita, de diferite proveniente, care alimentau cele doua masini de macinat. La cererea clientilor se faceau diferite sorturi si amestecuri, ce se produceau pe loc. Cand clientii luau pungulita cu cafea in mana ea era calda inca si parfuma toata atmosfera magazinului. De partea de cafea se ocupa numai tata. In curtea din spatele magazinului se gasea magazia unde se prajeau boabele de cafea, desigur sub supravegherea lui tata, caci era o chestiune de dozarea si timpul de prajire dupa originea boabelor.Aroma cafelei prajite se raspandea departe si parfuma adesea acest colt al Bucurestiului.

In ani interbelici masinile de macinat cafeaua erau fabricate in Germania si tata obtinuse licenta de import a tuturor masinilor agricole produse de uzina producatoare a acestor masini de macinat cafea. Exista insa si o mica fabricatie locala de masini de macinat cafea a fratilor Suchiasian. Ei inlocuisera discurile de macinat din piatra cu discuri metalice. Nu stiu care erau caracteristicile fiecarei masini, dar in magazin era alaturate amandoua.

Magazinul “Zadig” devenise asa de cunoscut incat multa lume credea ca asta era numele nostru de familie. Lui bunicu si lui tata lumea le spunea “Domnu Zadig”. In schimb eu port intradevar numele strabunicului, asa cum fiul meu are numele strabunicului lui, Drtad.

Pe vremea aceia oameni isi faceau planuri de viitor, si tatal meu ma vedea inginer cu studii in Germania si apoi importator general de masini agricole.  Eu am inceput invatamantul la scoala primara armeana din Bucuresti. In clasa patra, am inceput sa iau lectii particulare de limba germana avand ca profesor pe Domnul Levon Balgian[4] profesor la scoala armeana si care fusese elev la Evangelische Schule din Bucuresti. Deci dupa scoala primara am inceput sa frecventez scoala germana ca si prietenul meu Garbis Surian, acum in Argentina. La inceput aveam dificultati mari nu numai de limba dar si programele care erau complect diferite, de la  toate materiile  in armeana trecusem la toate materile  in germana. Insa asta era, si am razbit. De abea facusem trei ani de scoala, cand trupele sovietice au “eliberat  Romania din mana romanilor”. Cand razboiul s-a terminat si trupele sovietice ocupau tara, conform armistitiului ele trebuiau sa se retraga dupa 5 ani de ocupatie. Lumea spunea ca va fi greu de suportat cei cinci ani dar nu aveau ce face. Apoi s-au obisnuit. Pe atunci nu stiam ca in politica provizoriu inseamna definitiv si nici uzina de masini agricole din Germania nu era mai breaza, caci cazuse in Germania de Est si desigur fushese nationalizata…. Asa a inceput sfarsitul magazinului “la Zadig”. In ultima lui faza devenise centru de distribuire de paine. Restul istoriei este banal.

Perioada cea mai “luminoasa ” a magazinului au fost anii ‘30. Atat bunicul cat si tata aveau multi prieteni si erau implicati in viata comunitati. Nu lipseau prieteni care intrau numai ca sa spuna buna ziua. In perioada aceia bunicul era presedintele asociatiei “Visap” a Sabin Karahisar-tiilor (vezi intr-unul din articole a lui Edy Jamgocian in Ararat) si presedinte asociatiei de Ajutor al Saracilor comunitati (Ahgada-hanam). Impreuna cu Ervant Papazian au organizat ridicarea  monumentului dedicat Generalului Antranic din curtea bisericii, iar bustul a fost sculptat dupa tabloul generalului de la noi de acasa, care acuma se gaseste in muzeul Dudian. Bunicul sau tata erau implicati la organizarea reprezentarii operei “Anush”.  Tata a fost un membru activ in actiunea de realizare a  constructiei scoli din strada Cotofeni din Colentina. Iar apoi s-a ocupat si cu scoala din curtea bisericii. Deseori adunarile  de organizare aveau loc in biroul magazinului sau vara in curtea din spate la o ceasca de cafea. In acele momente, magazinul devenea un punct de activitati culturale. Era un timp cand genocidul era prezent in memorie dar si viitorul parea deschis. Totul era mai simplu de realizat…

ZADIG    MOURADIAN

Prezentarea textului A.Sahaghian.

[1] Date furnizate de D-l Mouradian dupa: R.H.Kevorkian et P.H. Paboudjian; Les Arméniens dans l’empire Ottoman à la veille du génocide , Paris 1992, p.249.

[2] ARARAT  XVI-312 „Genocidul Pas cu Pas „

[3] ARARAT  XVI-312„Genocidul Pas cu Pas „

[4] Viitorul Catholicos , Vazken I-ul.

 

 

Poza 1 – Artin Tursugian

Poza 2 – Artin Tursugian, Drtad si Hampartum Muradian

Poza 3 – Drtad Mouradian în magazin (1939 )

Poza 4 – Drtad Muradian si Hampartum cu Agop Magardician

Poza 5 – Hampartum Mouradian

Poza 6 – Hampartum Mouradian

Poza 7 – Sedinta comitetului de ajutorare a saracilor din curtea din spatele magazinului LA ZADIG

Prezentarea textului A.Sahaghian.

[1] Date furnizate de D-l Mouradian după: R.H.Kevorkian et P.H. Paboudjian; Les Arméniens dans l’empire Ottoman à la veille du génocide , Paris 1992, p.249.

[2] ARARAT  XVI-312 „Genocidul Pas cu Pas „

[3] ARARAT  XVI-312„Genocidul Pas cu Pas „

[4] Viitorul Catholicos , Vazken I-ul.

Articol preluat de pe araratonline.com

 

ENGLISH VERSION

In the interwar period, and shortly after, this was the most famous “coffee, colonial and delicatessen” shop on Calea Mosilor, a street where at any time you went you could hear passers-by speaking Armenian, and among the many Armenian shops the company stood to this store that had won its clientele through its quality products and exemplary service: “La Zadig”. The coffee is prepared on the spot, being ground in front of the customer from different varieties of coffee roasted differently so that everyone leaves with their favorite blend. On request, chickpeas are also added, professionally fried and added as much as was necessary to meet the request. The purpose of the chickpea was to give a special taste but to weaken the strength of the coffee for those who could not stand a strong “svart”. I recently received from France a few pages of memories from Mr. Zadig Mouradian, the great-grandson of the store’s founder, who is a well-known astrophysicist and director of research at the Solar Service of the Paris Observatory, member of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, author of numerous works scientific regarding solar physics. However, we will have the opportunity to talk about this topic in one of the future issues of the magazine. The pages mentioned above begin with a defining phrase: “A store is made up of four walls, between which the goods offered for sale are available; but the life that unfolds around him animates him and gives him personality. And the ZADIG store lived to the full, which brought it the fame it deserves”. But let’s continue to give the floor to Mr. Zadig Mouradian.

The founder of this store was Zadig Muradian, from the village of Purk, inhabited only by Armenians, and located in the immediate vicinity of the city of Sabin-Karahisar, in the Sivaz vilayet. It was inhabited, at the time, by 1700 inhabitants, it had two schools and two churches.[1] The peasants took care of grain crops, especially wheat. Coming hard times, in the 1890s, Zadig left alone to Istanbul where he opened a bakery, which he ran for two years. Dissatisfied with the situation there, he left for Braila, where there were already some citizens. This time he opens a grocery store that is doing better so that he can help the family left at home. In 1895, another citizen, who had a store in Bucharest, decided to return to Hayrenik, and sold the store to Zadig, the great-grandfather…. And so it opens on Calea Mosilor, at No. 211, “Zadig” store. Zadig’s son, Drtad, (my grandfather) had married and had a son, Hampartum (my father) and a daughter, Haiganus. It seems that at the grandfather’s request, Drtad (he deals with the wholesale grain trade in the village) comes to Bucharest in 1912, accompanied by Hampartum, who was still a child. Apparently, in those days, the family was thinking of leaving the country. Zadig returns to Purk, but after a while he falls ill with cholera, because in the years 1912-1913 an epidemic was haunting the Middle East. When I was a child, my grandfather’s friends would come to our house and offer a glass of oghi and the toast was invariably: ays dari hos, kal dari hayrenik! (this year here, next year – in the homeland). I’m sure they were sincere. Everyone dreamed of Hayrenik.

The summer of 1914 came. The German troops were heading towards Bucharest. Germany being Turkey’s ally, it was dangerous for Armenians with Turkish citizenship to stay in place. Moreover, we now know that Enver Pasha had sent a telegram to Falkenheim, the commander of the advancing German troops, to kill all these Armenians, because they were the faces of traitors. So Grandfather and father took refuge in Russia, (which was at war with Turkey) in Rostov-on-Don (Nor Nakhichevan) where there was an ancient Armenian community. The grandfather took over an inn, and the father attended the local Armenian school, whose director was the future archbishop Husig Zohrabian. This situation lasted until 1919, when they managed to return to Bucharest. While they were in Rostov, the grandfather, together with Ervant Papazian (relative of General Andranic), bought weapons from deserting soldiers of the tsarist army in confusion, and sent them clandestinely to Armenia. It was the time when the small Armenian army together with the population faced the invasion of the Turkish army. The war had interrupted the ties with the family left at Purk, an interruption which unfortunately remained definitive. On Sunday, February 21, 1915 [2] a group of gangs invaded several Armenian villages and massacred the entire population. My grandfather told me that only five people from Purk escaped, namely those who were not in the village on the day of the carnage. The attack on a Sunday, by surprise, had no other purpose than the implementation of a precise intention to kill as many people as possible. Probably this act was, in fact, a revenge of the “brave” Turks who attacked an unarmed population, as a result of the defeat of their “valuable army” in the battles fought with Russian armies in January 1915. [3]

After returning from Russia, the grandfather resumed his shop in Bucharest, and rebuilt his family by marrying a widow of an Armenian officer in the Ottoman army who had lost her two children in deportations on the roads on the Sivas-Deir-es route -Dawn. We loved and respected this new grandmother of ours who became our real grandmother, as I was told. Later, my father also got married and from this marriage I and my two sisters were born. Gradually, Hampartum (father) becomes the main helper of the grandfather, contributing to the fame of the shop: freshly ground coffee on the spot. On the entire stretch of Caii Mosilor, from Sfantu Gheorghe to Obor, there were no other shops offering coffee except for Zadig and Julius Meinl, right next to Obor. The latter was a Viennese business, and their chain of stores sold Western coffee. In Bucharest, coffee shops were usually owned by Armenians. For example, Danielian on Academiei, Kellerian at Sfintu Gheorghe, or Surian at Piata Mare, and others. The products that were sold at ZADIG were “colonial”, “delicacies” and with a coffee section. The store is mentioned in the “Araz” almanac from 1933, edited by Siruni, among other addresses of Armenian merchants. The coffee part was composed of several tanks of roasted coffee beans, of different origins, which fed the two grinding machines. At the request of the customers, different sorts and mixtures were made, which were produced on the spot. When the customers took the bag of coffee in their hand, it was still hot and perfumed the whole atmosphere of the store. Only father was in charge of the coffee part. In the yard behind the store was the warehouse where the coffee beans were roasted, of course under my father’s supervision, because it was a matter of dosage and roasting time depending on the origin of the beans. The aroma of roasted coffee spread far and often perfumed this corner of Bucharest.

In the interwar years, coffee grinders were manufactured in Germany and my father had obtained the license to import all the agricultural machines produced by the factory producing these coffee grinders. There is also a small local manufacture of coffee grinding machines by the Suchiasian brothers. They had replaced the stone grinding discs with metal discs. I don’t know what the characteristics of each car were, but both were side by side in the store. The store “Zadig” had become so well known that many people thought that was our last name. People called grandfather and father “Mr. Zadig”. Instead, I really bear the name of my great-grandfather, just as my son has the name of his great-grandfather, Drtad. At that time, people were making plans for the future, and my father saw me as an engineer with studies in Germany and then a general importer of agricultural machines. I started my education at the Armenian primary school in Bucharest. In the fourth grade, I started taking private German language lessons with Mr. Levon Balgian[4], a teacher at the Armenian school and who had been a student at the Evangelische Schule in Bucharest. So after primary school I started attending German school like my friend Garbis Surian, now in Argentina. At the beginning I had great difficulties not only with the language but also with the programs which were completely different, from all the subjects in Armenian I had switched to all the subjects in German. But that was it, and I broke it. I had barely completed three years of school, when the Soviet troops “liberated Romania from the hands of the Romanians”. When the war ended and the Soviet troops occupied the country, according to the armistice they had to withdraw after 5 years of occupation. The world said that it would be hard to bear the five years, but they had nothing to do. Then they got used to it. Back then, I didn’t know that in politics, provisional means definitive, and the agricultural machinery factory in Germany was no better either, because it had fallen to East Germany and of course had been nationalized…. This is how the end of the “la Zadig” store began. In its last phase, it had become a bread distribution center. The rest of the story is trivial.

The most “bright” period of the store was the 1930s. Both grandfather and father had many friends and were involved in community life. There was no shortage of friends who came in just to say hello. During that period, the grandfather was the president of the “Visap” association of the Sabin Karahisartians (see in one of Edy Jamgocian’s articles in Ararat) and the president of the association of Aid to the Poor Communities (Ahgada-hanam). Together with Ervant Papazian, they organized the erection of the monument dedicated to General Antranic in the church yard, and the bust was sculpted after the painting of the general from our home, which is now in the Dudian museum. Grandfather or father were involved in organizing the performance of the opera “Anush”. Dad was an active member in the construction of the school in Cotofeni Street in Colentina. And then he also took care of the school in the churchyard. Organizational meetings often took place in the store’s office or in the summer in the backyard over a cup of coffee. In those moments, the store became a point of cultural activities. There was a time when the genocide was present in the memory, but the future also seemed open. Everything was easier to do… ZADIG MOURADIAN