news.am, Armenia
May 7 2011

State-run Turkish Television to debut documentary on Diaspora Armenians

May 07, 2011 | 06:09

`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,’ Hurriyet Daily News
reports.

`Shot over a year in Armenian communities in Buenos Aires and in
Valance, France, `DostluÄ?u Hatırlamak’ (Remembering Friendship)
reflects director Sevinc Yesiltas’s desire to tell a different story
about Armenians,’ the daily reads.

`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,’ Yesiltas said.

`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.

`The wife of a priest the director met in Valance was from the
Southeast Anatolian province of Sanliurfa, Yesiltas 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, Yesiltas said, she realized during how
much Turks and Armenians resembled one another,’ the daily says.

From: A. Papazian