A Curse that Turns Gold into Ladybugs delves into the world of rumors, conspiracies, and the fetishization of Armenian wealth in Turkey. It explores the practice of treasure hunting, focusing on cryptic maps, medieval spells, and the myth of buried Armenian gold. This myth possesses treasure hunters, conspiracy theorists, and pseudo-historians, and infiltrates broader political discourses, revealing how the legacy of dispossession remains deeply inscribed in the Turkish popular psyche.

Treasure maps lie at the center of this obsession. Every “X” marks not just a possible fortune, but something far more sinister, rendering it a document of desire, despair, and of continual denial. More than a century after the Armenian Genocide, the promise of gold, guarded by spells, curses, and the ghosts of Armenians, continues to haunt the Turkish national imagination.