Armenian News...A Topalian - Subject: Aftermath of the 100th - still in the news

WANTED FOR NEW MOVIE ABOUT THE ARMENIAN 

GENOCIDE .
YEVA – an Armenian girl 9 yrs to small 14 yrs .
Bright, talkative, confident, good English. 
Filming: Selected dates between
September 15 th to November 25 th 2015
with some rehearsal prior.

The child will be licensed and tutored for this project which will film
in Spain and Malta.

The film also stars OSCAR ISAAC and CHRISTIAN BALE and many
Armenian actors and actresses.

Please call or e mail HUBBARD CASTING
020 7292 4975
sophie@hubbardcasting.com

HUBBARD CASTING
LORD OF THE RINGS, BOURNE ULTIMATUM, SPY, THE HOBB IT,
WAKING NED, HATFIELDS AND MCCOYS, BLOODY SUNDAY ,
EVITA, THE COMMITMENTS…


FILM DEPICTING ARMENIAN DEPORTATION READY TO BE 

SCREENED
Daily Sabah, Turkey
Aug 6 2015

Directed by Aren Perdeci and Ela Alyamac, "Yitik KuÅ~_lar" (Lost
Birds) is the first feature-length film on the Armenian diaspora
shot in Turkey with the support of the Culture Ministry's Cinema
General Directorate. Featuring the sorrowful story of two siblings who
lost their family in the 1915 incidents, the film's trailer has been
watched in 113 countries. Produced by Kara Kedi Film, "Yitik KuÅ~_lar"
portrays the quest of Bedo and Maryam to find their family they lost
one night. Dila Uluca and Heros Agopyan star in the title roles.

So far the film has received supportive messages from different
countries including the U.S. Uluca and Agopyan were chosen from among
520 children during test shots a year ago. The film costumes were
designed from period photographs found in a five-year search. Vahe
Tachjian from Berlin and Yetvart Tomasyan from Istanbul were the film's
history advisors. A ruined building from the 1890a was renovated for
the movie and a village square and a local coffee house were built
on an open-air film set in line with the period photos. The film's
production took five years and was shot over a course of 30 days and
pre-production took more than two years. Embracing the stories of
Armenian children who lost their families in 1915, "Yitik KuÅ~_lar"
will be released this autumn marking the 100th anniversary of the
1915 incidents.


news.am
Valérie Boyer: History must not recur after 1915
21:54, 08.08.2015

History must not recur after 1915, Valérie Boyer, MP of the National
Assembly of France wrote in her blog, which reads as follows:

`At my request, the message in support of the Eastern Christians was
placed on the façade of the 11-12 arrondissements of Marseille, near
the poster commemorating the Armenian Genocide.

I was the first MP to direct the issue on the Eastern Christians to
the government as early as one year ago, on 23 July 2014, using the
word `genocide.' And in September 2014, I organized an evening in
support of the Eastern Christians.

Let us not allow the history to recur after one hundred years. Almost
all the Christians have left the region during nearly two years in
order to avoid repercussions.

The Christian minority is struggling, and their struggle is the
universal struggle against oppression; it's the struggle of our
civilization.

It's high time to put an end to the universal ignorance!

I won't keep silent, and won't remain as a witness of the recurring history.'


ermenihaber.am
Turkish author: majority of people in Anatolia have Armenian 

grandmothers
August 8, 2015 
Correspondent at Turkish-based Armenian newspaper
Agos, Vercihan ZiflioÄ?lu authored a book about Turkey's hidden
Armenians, titled `Story of Armenians of Purgatory,' Ermenihaber.am
reports, citing demokrathaber.net

The author analyzes the struggle of Armenians who were forced to
conceal their identity and live in a Muslim society for already 100
years.

ZiflioÄ?lu presents the chronology of the most important developments
for Crypto-Armenians, including Hrant Dink's murder on January 19,
2007, the publishing of Fethiye Çetin's book `My grandmother,'
announcements in Agos newspaper by people who were looking for their
families, the restoration and reopening of the Armenian churches of
Van, Kayseri, Diyarbakir and other events.

ZiflioÄ?lu also reminds about the Armenian women, who were abducted at
the beginning of the last century. Emphasizing the fact that mainly
Kurds live in areas previously inhabited by Armenians, the author
writes: `Four out of five people we met in Anatolia had Armenian
grandmothers.'


armenpress.am
We are on the right side of historical reality of Armenian Genocide:
Canada National Defense Minister
8 August, 2015

YEREVAN, AUGUST 8. Jason T. Kenney, Canada's Minister of
National Defense and Minister for Multiculturalism and Conservative
Party member, reaffirmed his political parties' commitment to a fair
struggle referring the Armenian Genocide. Kenney said the
abovementioned during the evening in Toronto organized by the Armenian
Canadian Conservative Association.

`Our Conservative Party, despite political pressures, is determined to
stay on the right side of the historical reality of the Armenian
Genocide,' Armenpress informs, Kenney stated.

The executive director of the Armenian National Committee of Canada
(ANCC), Aris Babikian, thanked Canada's leading Conservative party for
its continuous support and attitude towards the Armenian nation and
the representatives of the Armenian community in Canada. He attached
special importance to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by
Canada and the adoption of the resolution reaffirming its recognition
in 2015.


armenpress.am
VATICAN AND ANKARA RELATIONS WILL ESCALATE WHEN 

POPE FRANCIS CANONIZES THE KILLED BISHOP: LA STAMPA
10 August, 2015

YEREVAN, AUGUST 10. Pope of the Catholic Church Francis
is going to canonize Mar Flavianus Michael Malke, the Syrian Catholic
bishop of Gazarta who was killed in Mardin, 1915.

Armenpress reports, referring to Italian newspaper "La Stampa", that
the abovesaid would escalate the already tense relations between
Vatican and Ankara.

During the Holy mass in the Papal Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican
which was served on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide, the Pope demanded from Turkey to recognize the
Genocide committed in the Ottoman Empire. After the crisis between
the 2 countries, Ankara recalled its ambassador to the Vatican.

Pope Francis considers Malke a genocide victim. Malke was arrested by
the Turkish authorities on August 29, 1915, and was executed together
with Armenian Catholic Jacques Abraham for not adopting Islam.

Pope Francis declared that executing a person for his/her religious
beliefs is an unacceptable crime, and asked the Canonization Commission
to prepare the necessary documents for Malke's Canonization.

According to the Italian newspaper, Malke's Canonization will most
probably take place in October.

Earlier in 2001 Pope John Paul canonized Armenian Catholic Archbishop
Ignazio Maloyan who was killed in the Ottoman Empire.


tert.am
ARMENIANS IN TURKEY'S MUSH LAUNCH ETHNIC UNION
10.08.15

The Armenians in Turkey's eastern town of Mush (historical Western
Armenia) have teamed up to create a compatriot's union in an effort
to preserve the national culture and identity.

The president of the newly-launched organization,Taron-Mush, on Monday
gave a press conference in Yerevan, to share their plans and vision
as an attempt to consolidate Islamized Armenians. He said that the
idea was difficult to realize in Mush, a town widely known for its
religious fanatics.

"Our apprentices are now Islamized Armenians who, despite having
changed their religion, recognize their ethnic background, which is
the most important thing. It is a very commendable fact. I heard from a
Kurd one day that Mush and the surrounding regions have around 40,000
Armenians, of whom 90% have Armenian mothers and 10% - [Armenian]
fathers. That's the situation in Mush," Gevorg Chalesh said.

He added that he has arrived in Armenia with a team of compatriots to
participate in the Pan-Armenian Games. "We immediately formed a team
to come and take part [in the games]. It's a pity though we suffered
a defeat," he added.

Speaking of the difficulties and challenges on the way of setting up
an organization of the kind in Turkey, Aslan Hayetsi, another leading
figure of the union, admitted that there are quite a lot of risks
in terms of angering the Turks. But he said the community should be
resolute and fight to ensure that their children learn Armenian.

"Everybody there knows we are an Armenians, and so we lead just an
ordinary life," he said.

Simon Taronyan, a representative of western Armenian organizations
also attending the news conference, said he thinks it is time for
the Armenians around the world to finally forget about all religious
issues to recognize compatriots based on ethnic origins.

"It doesn't matter at all if one is a Muslim, Christian or someone
with no belief; the important thing is that he or she is or considers
himself or herself an Armenian. There are Armenians everywhere -
hidden or non-hidden - so we must be able to organize our communities
and establish culture. The ethnic origins and the nation's issue should
be in the first place, not just the religion. Currently, we are trying
to keep the center in Mush to put an end to those cowardly times,"
he added.

All the speakers agreed that they now need school text-books in Western
Armenian - especially on history - and said a support by the Armenian
government would be to the point to assist in their efforts.


firstthings.com
REFLECTION ON ASCENDING LIGHT
First Things
Aug 10 2015
by Mary Hierholzer 

10 . 08 . 15

G-major, D-major. Amen. So be it.

It is week three of the Festspiele here in Salzburg, where Mozart,
Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms echo through the streets every day.

However, in a city filled with the world's greatest musicians
performing the stuff of musical legend, it is a relatively new piece
of music that floods my mind.

Michael Gandolfi's Ascending Light, which premiered this past
spring in Boston, is a tonal uttering of "amen," of "so be it." A
commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, the organ concerto 

is not a defeated surrender to tragedy, but rather a hopeful 

commentary on the vital force of Armenian life and culture.

Not necessarily written as a religious piece of music, Ascending Light
is profoundly spiritual, a triumph over death. In both thematic essence
and literal composition, the concerto rests absolute authority in God's
providence. It embodies a theology of accepting mortality by embracing
the hope of eternal life and everlasting riches that conquer death,
all the while declaring in its most elementary essence, "so be it."

The Boston Symphony Orchestra commissioned Gandolfi to 

write the piece in honor of both the centenary of the Armenian 

Genocide and the BSO's late Armenian-American organist, 

Berj Zamkochian (1929-2004). It was premiered by the BSO under 

the direction of Music Director and Conductor Andris Nelsons, 

accompanied by organ soloist Olivier Latry.

Although he was not asked to write a lament for the lost lives,
Gandolfi could not help but find inspiration in faces of those who died
one hundred years ago. His inspiration resulted in incorporating two
traditional Armenian tunes: a sacred choral work called Aravot Lousaber
(which translates to Ascending Light) and the lullaby of Tigranakert.

"The fact is with the Armenians, they're thriving," Gandolfi said in
an interview at his Cambridge, MA studio. "Their culture is thriving,
their people are thriving, they remain strong supporters of the arts,
and they're very religious people. Everything they had intact before
this happened, in terms of their spirituality and culture, it seems
to me to be thriving. They won."

It is now August; April has far passed, along with it the official
month remembering one hundred years since the Armenian Genocide. But
this musical memory of the Armenian Genocide does not vanish with the
turning of pages on a calendar. As the musical world celebrates its
history in Salzburg, Gandolfi's poignant message lives on: G-major,
D-major. Amen. So be it.

Mary Hierholzer is a Research Assistant at The Center for Faith and
Inquiry in Wenham, MA.


asbarez.com
2015 GOLDEN APRICOT FILMS TACKLE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE 

FROM VARYING PERSPECTIVES
10/08/15

A scene from the opening ceremonies of the 2015 Golden Apricot
International Film Festival (Photo by Armen T. Marsoobian)

BY ARMEN T. MARSOOBIAN

The 12th annual Golden Apricot International Film Festival concluded
last month in Yerevan. With commemorations of the centennial of
the Armenian Genocide taking place this year, it is understandable
that one of the themes of the festival would be the Genocide and
its consequences.

In the documentary category there were many films, both new and old,
exploring the theme. Two films stand out amongst those I was able to
view, Blood Brothers and Morgenthau. In the feature film category, I
saw two quite different films dealing with the long-term consequences
of the last century's violence in Anatolia. 1915 directly takes up
the trauma of the Genocide within individuals living in the diasporan
community of contemporary Los Angeles, while Snow Pirates, subtlety
echoes the continuing violence within a Turkey devoid of its former
Armenian inhabitants. Snow Pirates sets its drama in Kars in the winter
of 1981, the year following the violent and repressive military coup
of the year before.

Blood Brothers (original Dutch title, Bloedbroeders), unlike more
conventional film documentaries that combine historical footage
with interviews with experts and witnesses, is crafted around
two protagonists whose interactions and inner thoughts create a
dramatic tension that engrosses the audience till the film's final
climactic scene. The more conventionalMorgenthau examines the lives and
activities of three generations of the Morgenthau family beginning with
Henry Morgenthau, Sr. whose diplomatic efforts opposing the genocide
and his subsequent leadership in the relief efforts for its victims
are well known, at least among the Armenian community. Both films are
excellent within their very different approaches to documentary making.

Morgenthau, produced and directed by Max Lewkowicz, succeeds in
capturing the high moral standards and commitment to public service
exemplified by Henry Morgenthau, Sr., the U.S. ambassador to the
Ottoman Empire, 1915-1917, his son Henry Morgenthau, Jr., the Secretary
of the Treasury under President Roosevelt, and his grandson, Robert
Morgenthau, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District and long-serving
District Attorney for Manhattan. While Henry Sr. was a champion
of the Armenian cause, his son was a champion of the underclass who
suffered the most during the Great Depression. Henry Jr. was the chief
"doer and maker" in Roosevelt's New Deal. Yet, as the film makes
abundantly clear, his moment of truth came when he stood up against
the anti-Semitic elements in his own government, especially the State
Department, and convinced Roosevelt to implement a plan to provide
refuge to the Jews fleeing the Nazi terror in Europe. While seen in
retrospect by some as too little too late, many Jews were saved as
a result. Father and son were instrumental in saving lives during
two of the most horrific genocides the first half of the twentieth
century. Ironically it is no coincidence that an entrenched and bigoted
State Department played a major role in facilitating the government
of Turkey in its efforts to deny the Armenian Genocide. The film is
nicely bookended with the life of Robert Morgenthau, the grandson
and crusading attorney who set the highest standards of integrity
as he fought corruption in government, the Mafia, violent street
crime, and white collar crime that aided international criminality
and terrorism. As the film effectively argues, his moral compass had
been set by the models provided by his father and grandfather.

Blood Brothers, produced by Anja van Oostrom and directed by Kees
Schaap, takes a different approach, one that injects a dramatic element
into its storytelling. Turkish-Dutch investigative journalist Sinan
Can and the Armenian-Dutch musical theater actor Ara Halici set out to
research how their families were involved in the Turkish mass-murder
of the Armenians in 1915. This film was originally produced in six
parts for Dutch television. Normally films made for television are
not accepted into film festivals, but given its thematic relevance,
it was accepted into the non-competition documentary category of the
Golden Apricot.

Neither Sinan Can nor Ara Halici know much about the events of
1915 when this six-part documentary begins. Filmed in episodes
that leave you wondering how all this will turn out, the narrative
unfolds as a road-movie, both literally and psychologically. With high
production standards and a contemporary feel that should appeal to the
younger generation, this is a film that deserves a wide distribution,
especially within Turkey and Armenia. Sinan, who I met at the festival,
came up with the idea of confronting this past in partnership with
an Armenian descendent of the genocide, preferably one who would
be open-minded about what actually happened. 38-year-old Ara is the
perfect foil for this project because he has never self-identified
as Armenian but is willing to go on this journey of discovery
with Sinan. The positive chemistry between the two develops into
a friendship that bodes well for a positive outcome yet soon the
friendship is tested by what they discover. Ara quickly identifies
with his Armenian heritage, fully embracing his Armenian identity and
the burden the genocide entails. This will prove a stumbling block,
at least in the eyes of Sinan, as they try to reach the "truth"
of what happened back in 1915.

Some in the potential audience for this film, both Turk and Armenian,
might find it difficult to go on this journey with Sinan and Ara,
but this is clearly their loss. As one who has extensively studied
the events of 1915, I found the attempt to give a fair hearing to the
Turkish side of the story painfully discomforting, but the discomfort
is well worth enduring given the payoff the film provides, a payoff
that reinforces our belief in the basic goodness of humankind - a
belief that is challenged everyday when we read headlines about the
cruelties still being perpetrated on people due to their ethnicity
or religion. Ara and Sinan learn much about their family's pasts as
they journey through the former multicultural landscape of today's
Turkey from Istanbul to Kayseri, Erzincen and the borderlands of Mount
Ararat. Sinan and Ara's trip ends in Yerevan but hopefully for others
such journeys of a truthful and just reconciliation still lie ahead.

Snow Pirates, produced and directed by the Turkish filmmaker Faruk
Hacıhafızoglu, is an endearing coming of age movie with a dark
underside. This is made clear from an opening sequence in which
young students are harshly punished by their fanatical nationalist
teacher, especially when they transgress the boundaries set by the
state-enforced Turkish identity, an identity that forbids the speaking
in their native Kurdish tongue. Filmed with mostly local first-time
actors, the film has a heightened realism that is augmented by the
fact that it was shot in Kars during an actually harsh and snowy
winter. The local population is suffering through one of Turkey's
coldest winters and a scarcity of coal, a scarcity not experienced
by the state apparatus of torture and control. We see state violence
in the background but soon it touches the lives of the film's young
protagonists. The former Armenian church of Surp Arakelots (Apostles)
looms large in this landscape, a reminder of the extreme consequences
of a state policy of enforced ethnic identity. The cinematography
of Turksoy Gölebeyi stands out in this superbly crafted film that
should appeal to wide range of movie-goers.

The creators of 1915 have chosen an approach that has echoes of that
Atom Egoyan's ground-breaking film Ararat. Directed and written by
relative newcomers Garin Hovannisian and Alec Mouhibian, the film
takes the approach of a play-within-a-film (rather than Egoyan's
film-within-a-film) to tackle the traumatic memory of the genocide in
the current generation of Armenians. Simon (played by Simon Abkarian),
a director of a Los Angeles theater company that has long stopped
performing because of a tragic accident by one of its actors, is
determined to put on a play titled, "1915." The performance is to
be for one night only, April 24, 2015. The play revolves around
the decision of one Armenian character, Ani, to save herself by
agreeing to run off with a Turkish soldier. In doing so she must
abandon her family, her child and her nation, a scenario that evokes
strong objections from the Armenian community. With a staged dramatic
reenactment, the ghosts of memory, both personal and communal, will be
purged that night. This is an ambitious film whose interpretation may
provoke vastly different responses. The film's creators must be lauded
for their ambitions even when they do not always hit their mark. This
film also deserves a wider audience than it so far has garnered.

Armen T. Marsoobian is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at
Southern Connecticut State University and is editor of the journal
Metaphilosophy. He has lectured and published extensively on topics in
philosophy and genocide studies. He has edited many books, includingThe
Blackwell Guide to American Philosophy and Genocide's Aftermath:
Responsibility and Repair. His most recent book, Fragments of a Lost
Homeland: Remembering Armenia, is based upon extensive research about
his family, the Dildilians, who were accomplished photographers in the
late Ottoman period. Photography exhibitions of the collection have
been mounted in Istanbul, Merzifon, and Diyarbakir, and soon in London,
Ankara, Yerevan, and Watertown.Dildilian Brothers: Photography and
the Story of an Armenian Family in Anatolia, 1888-1923, a bilingual
English-Turkish photography book, will appear later this year. He has
received the Hrant Dink Foundation Prize for Historical Research for
his work on the Armenian Genocide.