Hurriyet, Turkey
May 5 2011
Turkish documentary tells ‘human story’ of Armenian diaspora
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
VERCÄ°HAN ZÄ°FLÄ°OÄ?LU
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, ‘DostluÄ?u 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
YeÅ?iltaÅ?
Sevinç YeÅ?iltaÅ? speaks about her documentary ‘DostluÄ?u 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, `DostluÄ?u Hatırlamak’ (Remembering Friendship)
reflects director Sevinç YeÅ?iltaÅ?’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,’ YeÅ?iltaÅ? 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.
YeÅ?iltaÅ? 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 Å?anlıurfa, YeÅ?iltaÅ? 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, YeÅ?iltaÅ? 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, YeÅ?iltaÅ? added: `As a professional documentary maker, I
could not believe how [emotionally] affected I was while making this
film.’
Following the filming, it took YeÅ?iltaÅ? 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,’ YeÅ?iltaÅ?
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.
From: A. Papazian