“Hidden Armenians” documentary film presented by “Azatutyun-TV”, which is about the Armenian families who had forcedly converted their belief and nationality during the Genocide has passed to the final round in the Fest held in New York. “Aravot” was informed about it from the Director of “Radio Liberty” Armenian Service, Hrayr Tamrazyan, who back to his postgraduate study years when he was studying the press of the 19th century, namely “Mshak” has collected lots of information about non-Christian Armenians. “In those days, there was a debate: if you do not adhere to the Etchmiadzin Church then you are not an Armenian … I remember, it was published in the “Mshak” newspaper that according to non-official data, more than one million Muslim Armenians are living in Turkey,” says our interlocutor.
He brings facts that the Armenian Genocide has not happened only in 1915, it was an ongoing process resulting in people living in Western Armenia to forcedly be converted to save their life from death and persecution. “How severe is the crisis of identity. One the one hand, the man is an ethnic Armenian, on the other hand, a Muslim but he is not accepted by the Christians and Muslims. A great tragedy!” says Mr. Tamrazyan.
During our conversation, he cited Hrant Dink’s famous study and the non-official statistics, according to which there could be from 100 thousand up to 5 million Islamized Armenians in the territory of Turkey. Since the issue was not addressed fully, Hrayr Tamrazyan decided to shoot such a film, “Especially since we have very good opportunities, good journalists and good equipment.” He considers incognito Armenians also victims of genocide, in his words, survived victims. And the phrase told by one of the heroes of the film is not accidental that they are treated as a disappearing species. We found out that they had difficulties in working on the film because it is not easy, for example, to enter a mosque in Turkey with a camera and to shoot some places and people.
Read also
In the “Hidden Armenians” film, among others, a Turkish imam speaks, noting that the majority of the population in the town of Mush were Armenians, he also has good believers who are Armenians by origin. “I was thinking that it should also be shown and not only our destroyed churches. I think it turned out to be a good film … After collecting all the materials, the hardest thing was to make all of it a film and the correct choice of the music. Fortunately, once I used to sing in Hovhannes Chekijyan’s choir and I have the ability to choose music. I have learned this from the Maestro. The music is the mortar to connect the components to each other, as well as the breath, especially in documentaries. We carried out the shooting of the film in Armenia, western Turkey, some places in Europe, in the various cities and villages to be able to tell what we wanted to do for a long time. “Hidden Armenians” was created from the material shot over 50 hours, which is backed by talented and professional team,” said Hrayr Tamrazyan.
The author’s of the project is sure that not only Armenians will gain information from this film but also the foreigner will understand what it is about. “When the film was shown on our radio station, people were just astonished, many of them did not know anything about the issues, there are Muslim, Turkish, Turkic-speaking and Central Asian services, Pakistanis … They were surprised. Imagine, the film won the absolute first prize,” said our interlocutor happily.
There are messages in the “Hidden Armenians” film, for instance, the grandmothers for many of them are Armenians but not the grandfathers, and the remark why it is so is very “transparent”, or the concern of Dara Melike Günal who is working at the Dersim municipality that often the visit to their town is just an exotic tourism, after which they go and blame them from the distance for not remaining Armenian. Hrant Dink’s phrase in the film is very powerful, saying that we should not become the captive of our past, to make the past a prison, we should think about the future.
The documentary film presented by Azatutyun-TV depicts that there is a unique world of Armenians in the present-day Turkey. People are converted but the facial features of the Armenian have preserved. This is seen in their songs, costumes, sad eyes … in everything. These people live in Turkish, speak Kurdish and sing in Armenian. And in the case of mixed marriages, when the husband is Armenian and the wife is Zaza-Kurdish, they explain to the children and the truth is heard from their mouth that there are good Muslims and bad Muslims and thanks to the good Muslims, the ancestors have survived. Many of hidden Armenians are afraid of their identity, some just want to live in peace, what’s the different of what nation, they have a genetic fear. But there are also people, for instance, the 50-year-old man by the name Armen who is ready to voice his Armenian origin everywhere. He wants to come to Armenia and work even a driver and a garbage collection man although he has a sharp conflict in the family.
As we already mentioned, the “Hidden Armenians” film was recognized the best film of the year presented by Azatutyun-TV, has received a good resonance and was presented in several international competitions, screened in Armenia and outside the borders of our country.
Hrayr Tamrazyan considers the fact of passing to the final round of the prestigious New York Film Festival a great achievement for the whole journalistic community of Armenia. The Turkish version of the “Hidden Armenians” film is posted in the Youtube, with many comments underneath. Mr. Tamrazyan citing those comments said that the great part of Turks continue remaining of the opinion that 5 million Islamized Armenians are a bomb placed under Turkey, Armenians are enemies to Turks and so on. He adds that there are also progressive Turks, many of which mark the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on April 24 in a unique demonstration in Taksim Square, Istanbul, every year, also conduct conferences in different universities and believe that Turkey must face its history. Hrayr Tamrazyan believes that the theme of hidden Armenians must be continued and never oppose their identity and citizenship when talking about them. He is convinced that the “Hidden Armenians” film is a successful and impressive film where the continuation of the words is summarized in the music, and nowadays footages and archives are well-combined.
The working staff of the “Hidden Armenians” is: Hayk Margaryan, Hasmik Smbatyan, Heghine Buniatyan, Satenik Kagzvantsyan, Hovhannes Movsesyan, Stepan Partamyan, Levon Grigoryan, Garik Harutyunyan, and Garik Azibekian. Translation from Turkish by Tatevik Sargsyan, sounding by Arthur Karapetyan and Ruzanna Hakhnazaryan, and the archival materials were provided by the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute.
Gohar HAKOBYAN,
“Aravot” daily
