HOB Posted October 4, 2004 Report Share Posted October 4, 2004 THE ARMENIANS IN TURKEY Format: 52 min. documentary Stage of development: Pre-Production 10 min. pilot film available on request. There are still Armenians in Turkey today, despite the tragic past; 60.000 to be exact, mostly in Istanbul. They publish newspapers, perform plays in their own language. However, there are Turkish names on their doorbells. “Hear my plea, brothers, sisters!... They threw us out of the civilization we built.” Hrant Dink, is not talking about the 1915 Armenian genocide. He points to an arbitrary practice of the Turkish government in 1983. He and dozens of his buddies - orphans who spent their summer holidays in a recreation camp nearby Istanbul - were violently chucked out of the property which belonged to a Turkish Armenian church foundation; some were arrested for being so-called “Armenian militants”. In fact, the property was confiscated by the authorities, allegedly because minority institutions were not permitted to own real estate. A small detail: the whole complex had been built by the orphans of the Gedikpasa church themselves over the years. Today Hrant Dink is the chief editor of the Armenian newspaper “Agos”, published in Istanbul. He says: “I wouldn’t mind it, if this place had been continued to be used as a camp for the needy, the disabled, or whatever,” while visiting the devastated ruins of what once used to be the “Tuzla Camp”, for the first time in 20 years and spits on the ground, disgusted. Hrant Dink, one of the protagonists of this film, is by no means scornful and cramped in current politics. In contrast to the Armenian diaspora, he doesn’t want to “get stuck in a 1915 feet deep well.” Garo Nergisyan has not experienced any direct racial discrimination in daily life. Nevertheless, he prefers to buy from fellow Armenian wholesalers for his small fish restaurant in Yesilköy, a small shore-village near Istanbul. (Although Armenians are Turkish citizens, they are barred from public service, the army and the legal professions.) Garo guides us through a “Madagh” ceremony in the local church. The donations collected during the Madagh are the only financial ressource for survival of the few remaining Armenian preliminary schools in Istanbul. With its satirical repertoire, the Arto Berberyan Theatre Group strives to fight against the inevitable. The extinction of a language, which was once spoken by an estimated 2,5 million people throughout Anatolia.... A recent legislative reform now allows Armenian foundations to acquire property; Hrant and his colleagues will soon broadcast radio in Armenian language. Times are-a-changing? There are still Turkish names on Armenian doorbells in Istanbul. http://www.trojamedien.de/armenians.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
15levels Posted October 4, 2004 Report Share Posted October 4, 2004 I would love to see this film. I hope they will put a trailer up online, if you ever see it plz post a link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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