Turkish documentary tells 'human story' of Armenian diaspora

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Turkey's state-run television channel has produced a documentary on the life of diaspora Armenians in Argentina and France. The big-budget film, 'Dostluğu Hatırlamak' (Remembering Friendship) does not feature historical problems between Turks and Armenians. 'Outside of politics, I convey the longings of ordinary people,' says director Sevinç Yeşiltaş

Sevinç Yeşiltaş speaks about her documentary 'Dostluğu Hatırlamak.'

A new, big-budget documentary on the life of diaspora Armenians will debut this weekend on the state-run Turkish Radio and Television, or TRT, which provided funding for the film.

Shot over a year in Armenian communities in Buenos Aires and in Valance, France, “Dostluğu Hatırlamak” (Remembering Friendship) reflects director Sevinç Yeşiltaş’s desire to tell a different story about Armenians.

“Before making the film, I watched all documentaries featuring the historical problems in the TRT archive. I wanted my production to tell the human story, not the historical one,” Yeşiltaş told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

“In order to talk about historical problems, I need to be a historian and I am not. I wanted to tell the story of ordinary people, outside of politics,” she said.

Yeşiltaş was able to film scenes in Buenos Aires thanks to her personal connections, but found it too difficult to gain access to Armenian communities in Aleppo and Beirut. “I was told those [Armenians] in Aleppo and Beirut had harsher attitudes toward Turkey. I gave up trying to film there as I was not able to find necessary connections,” she said.

Ordinary people’s longing for their land

The wife of a priest the director met in Valance was from the Southeast Anatolian province of Şanlıurfa, Yeşiltaş said. “They wanted to give me a family heirloom needlepoint as a gift. I told them I couldn’t accept it but they insisted. They held me and cried,” she said.

During the filming process, Yeşiltaş said, she realized during how much Turks and Armenians resembled one another.

“As Turkish people, we see the diaspora as a whole, as different from us, but the worries of ordinary [Armenian] people are the same as ours,” she said. “These people living thousands of kilometers away from us speak Turkish and sing Turkish songs. They miss the land where they were born. I saw how much we resembled each other.”

Noting that the Anatolian traditions continued in both Buenos Aires and Valance, Yeşiltaş added: “As a professional documentary maker, I could not believe how [emotionally] affected I was while making this film.”

Following the filming, it took Yeşiltaş six months to complete the documentary, which she said was quickly approved by TRT.

“There was no reason [for them] to reject it. TRT asked me to make a documentary on Armenians. I would not have made it if there were restrictions on what I could film,” she said.

“I told a human story, not a political one. My friends sometimes asked me if I hesitated to make a documentary on such a political issue but I thought that there was no reason to hesitate. I filmed the longings of ordinary people with the opportunity TRT provided for me,” Yeşiltaş added.

“It is such a sensitive issue that you need to tell it in the most accurate and simplest way. This will remove hostility and open the way for dialogue,” she said.

The documentary is made up of two parts, each 70 minutes long. In addition to the showings on TRT, it will be screened at domestic and international festivals.