A la memoire des 1 500 000 victimes armeniennes

TWITTER – AU FIL DU BOSPHORE

Twitter – Au fil du Bosphore – VI

Vous n’êtes pas un pro des ressources du web ? Le Collectif VAN vous propose de suivre ici régulièrement certaines infos postées sur Twitter par Guillaume Perrier (correspondant du journal Le Monde à Istanbul) et ses abonnés.

http://twitter.com/#!/Aufildubosphore


Accès à Twitter – Au fil du Bosphore

http://collectifvan.org/article.php?r=4&id=62603

10. RUBRIQUE EN ANGLAIS

As if the Ottoman Period Never Ended

By DAN BILEFSKY

Published: October 29, 2012

ISTANBUL — Since the lavish, feel-good Turkish epic “Conquest 1453” had its premiere this year, its tale of the taking of Constantinople by the 21-year-old Sultan Mehmet II has become the highest-grossing film in Turkey’s history, released in 12 countries across the Middle East and in Germany and the United States. But its biggest impact may be the cultural triumphalism it has magnified at home.

Visitors at the Panorama Museum in Istanbul. Large crowds are flocking to the institution, which features a 360-degree painting of the siege of Constantinople.

A tourist in Ottoman attire inside a Topkapi Palace photo booth.

The actress Aslihan Guner on the set of “Once Upon a Time Ottoman Empire Mutiny.”

A traditionally dressed military band on the streets of Istanbul.

A poster for “Fetih 1453.”

“Conquest 1453” (known as “Fetih 1453” in Turkish) has spawned a television show with the same title and has encouraged clubs of proud Turks to re-enact battles from the empire’s glory days and even dress up as sultans and Ottoman nobles. The producers of “Once Upon a Time Ottoman Empire Mutiny,” a television series about the 18th-century insurrection against Sultan Ahmet Khan III, said they planned to build a theme park where visitors will be able to wander through a reproduction of Ottoman-era Istanbul and watch sword fights by stuntmen. At least four new films portray the battle of Gallipoli, the bloody World War I face-off between the Ottomans and Allied forces over the straits of Dardanelles and one of the greatest victories of modern Turkey. The coming “In Gallipoli” even includes Mel Gibson starring as a British commander.

The Ottoman period, particularly during the 16th and 17th centuries, was marked by geopolitical dominance and cultural prowess, during which the sultans claimed the spiritual leadership of the Muslim world, before the empire’s slow decline culminated in World War I. For years the period was underplayed in the history taught to schoolchildren, as the new Turkish Republic created by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923 sought to break with a decadent past.

Now, as Turkey is emerging as a leader in the Middle East, buoyed by strong economic growth, a new fascination with history is being reflected in everything from foreign policy to facial hair. In the arts, framed examples of Ottoman-era designs, known as Ebru and associated with the geometric Islamic motifs adorning mosques, have gained in popularity among the country’s growing Islamic bourgeoisie, adorning walls of homes and offices, jewelry and even business cards.

The three-year-old Panorama Museum, which showcases an imposing 360-degree, 45-foot-tall painting of the siege of Constantinople, complete with deafening cannon fire blasts and museum security guards dressed as Janissary soldiers, is drawing huge crowds.

And in the past few years there has been a proliferation of Ottoman-themed soap operas, none more popular than “The Magnificent Century,” a sort of “Sex in the City” set during the 46-year reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. The Turkish show pulpishly chronicles the intrigues of the imperial household and harem, including the rise of Suleiman’s slave girl-turned-queen, Hurrem. Last year it was broadcast in 32 countries, including Morocco and Kosovo.

The empire’s rehabilitation has inspired mixed feelings among cultural critics. “The Ottoman revival is good for the national ego and has captured the psyche of the country at this moment, when Turkey wants to be a great power,” said Melis Behlil, a film studies professor at Kadir Has University here. But, she warned: “It terrifies me because too much national ego is not a good thing. Films like ‘Conquest 1453’ are engaging in cultural revisionism and glorifying the past without looking at history in a critical way.”

Faruk Aksoy, the 48-year-old director of “Conquest 1453,” said that he had dreamed of making a film about the conquering of Istanbul ever since he arrived there at the age of 10 from Urfa, in Turkey’s rugged southeast, and had been mesmerized by Istanbul’s imperial grandeur. But he had to wait 10 years to make a big-budget film because the financing and technology were not available.

The film’s budget of $18.2 million was a record in Turkey, but it has more than recouped that, grossing $40 million in Turkey and Europe, Mr. Aksoy said. So stirred was a crowd at a recent screening that it roared “God is Great!” as the sword-wielding Ottomans scaled Istanbul’s forbidden walls. Mr. Aksoy recalled that one cinema manager debated calling the police, fearing a real fight.

“We Turks are hot-blooded people,” he said. “The Turks are proud about the conquest because it not only changed our history but it also changed the world.”

But others warn of a dangerous cultural jingoism at work. Burak Bekdil, a columnist for Hurriyet Daily News, mused in a recent column that the time was ripe for a film called “Conquest 1974,” to celebrate the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, or “Extinction 1915,” to commemorate the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians during World War I. Death threats followed.

Critics have also faulted the film for inaccuracies and hyperbole, though Mr. Aksoy stressed that he had employed Ottoman scholars. Members of the court of the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI — portrayed as hedonistic boozers surrounded by nubile dancing girls — talk in Turkish rather than Greek or Latin. Even Mehmet II, the conquering Sultan famed for his prodigious nose, has been retooled as a heroic pretty boy.

Alper Turgut, a leading film critic, deplored this one-dimensional universe even as he lauded the film’s epic ambitions. “If they had exaggerated just a bit more, it would be an absurdist comedy,” he said in an interview.

Mr. Aksoy expressed annoyance that a film meant to entertain was being politicized. “Would you ask Ridley Scott if he was politically influenced?” he asked.

Cultural critics noted that the film’s religious underpinning — there’s even a cameo by the Prophet Muhammad predicting that Constantinople will be conquered by believers — had made it popular with the growing Islamic bourgeoisie in a country that has increasingly turned its back on the crisis-ridden Europe and instead looks increasingly eastward. (The movie has also been embraced by some members of the governing Islamic party as an alternative to Hollywood’s “crusader mentality.”)

Religious conservatives had been marginalized during the secular cultural revolution undertaken by Ataturk. “For the first time we are seeing this new Islamic bourgeoisie, its tastes and its mores, reflected on the small and big screens,” Mr. Turgut said.

Ms. Behlil noted that the advent of big-budget television shows and films depicting the Ottoman era owed something to the country’s popularity in the Arab world, which was bringing in new revenues for production companies. Last year Turkey was Europe’s largest exporter of soap operas, pocketing $70 million in revenues.

But it is at home that the series and films are having a profound impact, educating a new generation of Turks.

Burak Temir, 24, a German-Turkish actor who played a prince on “Once Upon a Time Ottoman Empire Mutiny,” said he had initially been intimidated about portraying an era he knew so little about.

To prepare for his part, the show gave him a four-month crash course in Ottoman manners that included learning how to ride horses, sword fight, use a bow and arrow and puff out his chest. Even when not filming the show, he sports a Sultan-like beard and skinny Ottoman-style pants. “It makes me proud to be Turkish,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/movies/in-turkey-ottoman-nostalgia-returns.html?pagewanted=all#h[]

Film on Armenian genocide will be challenging: Shekhar Kapur (Interview)

– November 2, 2012

By Rajat Ghai
IANS — http://www.newstrackindia.com
New Delhi,Cinema/Showbiz

New Delhi, Nov 1 (IANS) The man who gave us the sensitive “Masoom”, the hilariously thrilling “Mr. India”, the gripping “Bandit Queen” and the grand period drama “Elizabeth” has not lost any of his creative zeal. The latest topic to catch Shekhar Kapur’s fancy is the Armenian genocide, and he knows it’s going to be challenging.

The film deals with the systematic extermination of minority Armenians in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) by the Ottoman Empire during and after the Great War (1915-1923). (The Armenians had been settled in Anatolia for generations after their tiny country in the Caucusus region northeast of Turkey was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1514) The event, termed genocide by Armenians the world over, caused the deaths of 1 to 1.5 million ethnic Armenians in Anatolia.

Kapur had recently tweeted that he was going to Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, to collect material on the event. The idea, he said, came to him from a script sent by the man who wrote “Motorcyle Diaries”.

“It is a part of world history though a very shameful one,” Kapur told IANS during a candid conversation here.

“The idea came to me based on a script sent to me by the screenwriter of ‘Motorcycle Diaries’ (Puerto Rican Jose Rivera). I fell in love with the script. It is a challenging project though. It will require lots of money, lots of passion and organisation. But there are a lot of passionate people behind this project. So it will hopefully see the light of day,” he said.

However, filming of the movie will not start before another year, says Kapur, who is yet to begin work on his long-pending movie on water wars, “Paani”.

The Armenian genocide is a particularly touchy topic in the political state that succeeded the Ottoman Sultanate in 1923, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s Republic of Turkey.

So taboo is the topic for both – the Turkish government and ordinary Turks, that a Nobel laureate like Orhan Pamuk was prosecuted and found himself on the hit list of a far-right Turkish group for openly stating that Turkey had committed genocide against the Armenians.

Does Kapur fear inviting similar censure?

“I invited the wrath of upper castes, the government and the censor board with ‘Bandit Queen’. But I did not back down. I believe in fighting for what I believe in,” he said with a wry smile.

“Moreover,” he added, “there has been a shift in Turkish society. Nobody from that period is alive today. The new generation believes that their nation is great and has to move on. They say, ‘Why can’t we accept what happened’?”

Controversy is not new to Kapur. He had drawn flak from British tabloids in 2002, when he directed his own version of A.E.W. Mason’s novel “The Four Feathers”, starring the late Heath Ledger. The novel is centred on the Mahdist War in Sudan, sparked by the death of Charles Gordon (Gordon Pasha). Kapur was accused of being ‘anti-British’ when the film released.

“I was not anti-British. I was anti-colonisation. That is why I made the film. I made my own version because the novel and the previous film versions were heavily pro-colonial. It was colonial arrogance that led the British to intervene in Sudan. It was this that I wanted to show,” clarified Kapur.

The 66-year-old is the only Indian to have made a successful Hollywood film. “Elizabeth” (1998) won Cate Blanchett the Bafta and the Golden Globe for best actress though she lost out on the Oscar. The film, however, received an Oscar for best makeup. The sequel “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (2007) was also well received.

With the two period dramas behind him, is there anything special about history that attracts him?

“A society that does not learn from its past is condemned to repeat its mistakes. As a filmmaker, history for me is like sci-fi. I can create an entire world of my own,” said Kapur.

http://www.armenianlife.com/2012/11/02/film-on-armenian-genocide-will-be-challenging-shekhar-kapur-interview/

Obama vs Romney: Armenian American Community Pressures Candidates to Recognize 1915 Genocide by Ottoman Turkey

– November 2, 2012

policymic.com

Ninety-seven years ago, when the wholesale massacre of Armenians was taking place in Ottoman Turkey, the United States turned to be the most active supporter of suffering Armenians. Over 130,000 Armenian orphans were sheltered in American orphanages that were established in Armenia, Greece, Cyprus and elsewhere. President Woodrow Wilson and the U.S. Ambassador to Ottoman Turkey Henry Morgenthau were personally involved in coordinating the aid activities.

The New York Times alone published 145 articles in 1915, describing the horrors Armenians went through.

Ninety-seven years later, the U.S. Armenian community supported by the Congressional Armenian Caucus, its friends in various states are still struggling to finalize the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the U.S. government. Contemporary Turkey is a NATO ally, although some annalists like Daniel Pipes of Middle East Forum or Ariel Cohen of Heritage Foundation would often claim Turkey is not truly the same ally anymore. Ankara skillfully uses its geopolitical importance and various connections in order to resist any attempt of Genocide recognition by America, Europe or elsewhere. However, 21 countries, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Sweden, and others have adopted resolutions labeling the events of 1915 as Genocide and calling on Turkey to do the same.

Interestingly, the United States, a country that was extremely active in helping Armenians almost a century ago, today is somehow uncertain. Ankara and its lobby groups have consequently placed an incredible pressure on the Administration.

The paradox is that countries like Slovakia, which did not even exist in 1915, or like Venezuela, widely seen as much less democratic nowadays, were able to stand up to Turkish pressures and adopt relevant resolutions about these horrible events and gross violation of human rights.

A lesser-known fact is that America has in fact recognized the Armenian Genocide. Forty-three out of 50 states of America at various times adopted commemorative resolutions on this subject. The House of Representatives twice (1975 and 1984) adopted genocide resolutions and President Ronald Reagan qualified the events as genocide in April 1981. However, later on, U.S. policy on this issue became more evasive resulting in calling back the U.S. ambassador John Evans from Yerevan for calling the events as genocide in May of 2006. This harsh action was taken by the administration of Bush junior (although, Bush himself had promised to recognize the genocide while he was a presidential candidate in 2000).

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), an Armenian lobby group in Washington, DC, issued a statement calling on presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney to make their position clear on this and other issues.

Harut Sassounian, President of the United Armenian Fund and a newspaper publisher from California, a state which hosts the majority of over one million Armenian Americans, stated: “Pres. Obama has about 30 days to make good on his pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Otherwise, Armenian Americans will not vote for him for a second term.”

President Obama, as a senator, qualified the events of 1915 as genocide. As president, he stated, “he hadn’t changed his views.” “My interest remains the achievement of a full, frank and just acknowledgment of the facts”, Obama said. However, he did not use the G—-word while in the Oval room, but qualified the events of 1915 as “Medz Yeghern.” The president has skillful advisers: “Meds Yeghern” is the Armenian equivalent of genocide, the same way Shoah in Hebrew stands for the Jewish Holocaust. Barack Obama got pretty close to doing what in fact already another U.S. president had done about three decades ago.

However, the community is waiting for clarifications from the President. At the end of the day, “Meds Yeghern” is meaningless for most Americans, and does not have a judicial meaning.

http://www.armenianlife.com/2012/11/02/obama-vs-romney-armenian-american-community-pressures-candidates-to-recognize-1915-genocide-by-ottoman-turkey/

Turkey’s Syriacs

An outpost of Aramaic speakers

The battle for Mor Gabriel

Nov 3rd 2012 | MIDYAT | WHEN the Young Turks enlisted Kurdish tribesmen to take part in the mass slaughter of the Armenians in 1915, Muslim clerics spurred on their flocks: those who slew Christians would be blessed with wealth and beautiful girls and their places in heaven assured. Although the deaths of around 1m Ottoman Armenians are well documented, little is known about the tens of thousands of Syriacs, one the world’s oldest Christian communities, who fell with them.

From Stockholm to Sydney, an increasingly vocal Syriac diaspora is lobbying for international recognition of the killings as genocide. Home to a large population of Syriacs, Sweden already has. As the centenary of the 1915 tragedy looms Turkey is waging a counter campaign and an ancient monastery in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish south-east is feeling the heat. Perched on a barren hilltop near the town of Midyat, the monastery called Mor Gabriel, is at the centre of a land dispute pitting Kurdish villagers backed by Turkey’s mildly Islamist government against Timotheos Samuel Aktas, the combative crimson-robed bishop. His ever-shrinking flock speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ. Monks at the monastery are struggling to pass it down.

The Syriacs’ latest troubles started when Kurds from surrounding villages began claiming land in and around Mor Gabriel just as a steady trickle of Syriacs began returning from Europe. Many were encouraged by the ruling Justice and Development party’s embrace of minorities after it shot to single rule in 2002. But as the Syriacs began rebuilding their homes, the Kurds grew hostile. And in a stream of complaints to the local prosecutor they claimed that “strangers” gathered “secretly” for “illegal activities” at the monastery which itself had been erected on top of a mosque. “Never mind that Mor Gabriel existed 174 years before the birth of the prophet Mohammed,” huffed the bishop on a recent afternoon.

Until recently the bishop and his entourage viewed their travails as greed robed in Islamic piety. That was until the Treasury intervened in 2009 and began claiming the monastery’s land as well. At a recent hearing, a local court ruled in favour of the Treasury even though the monastery had presented documents proving its ownership of the contested properties and that it had been paying their taxes for decades. The prosecution claimed it had no record of these. As news of these legal tangles have spread, the Syriacs have stopped returning.

Separate audiences with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, and Abdullah Gul, the president, held last year failed to make a difference And both leaders appeared to allude to the Syriacs’ campaign for recognition of the 1915 massacres as a genocide. “Your community abroad is talking,” they complained to Mr Aktas. The monastery has appealed to a higher court. True justice, says the bishop, will be delivered by God.

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21565655-battle-mor-gabriel-outpost-aramaic-speakers

Armenians of Hungary preparing to appeal the decision on Sararov in the court

– November 2, 2012

The leaders of the Hungarian Armenian community are preparing to apply to the court to dispute the Hungarian government’s decision and prove that the extradition of the Azerbaijani murderer goes first and foremost against Hungarian legislation, President of the Armenian community of Hungary Sevan Sargsyan, Vice-President Alex Avanesyan and President of the “Armenia-Hungary” Friendship Group of AOKS Anahit Simonyan said during the meeting with RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan.

RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan welcomed the Hungarian-Armenian community’s activities, especially the active efforts made after the Hungarian government’s decision to extradite the Azerbaijani murderer.

The leader of the Hungarian-Armenian community informed that the Hungarian government no longer wishes to touch upon and discuss the Azerbaijani killer’s issue after the extradition and that the Armenian community faces difficulties in holding talks on this matter. Instead, the community is in collaboration with progressive Hungarian public figures and intellectuals and the oppositional presses.

During the meeting, importance was attached to all Armenians’ unified position on the matter and the need for collaboration with the Armenian communities of different countries around the world.

http://www.armenianlife.com/2012/11/02/armenians-of-hungary-preparing-to-appeal-the-decision-on-sararov-in-the-court/

French France 2 TV showed film on destruction of Armenian khachkars in Nakhigevan

– November 2, 2012

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 2, ARMENPRESS: French prestigious France 2 TV channel demonstrated half an hour lasting film on Armenian khachkars, art and tradition shot this year in the frame of its Chrétiens Orienteaux (Eastern Christians) program. Film is called ”Armenian khachkars: the spirit and belief of Armenian people”.

As Armenpress reports, ancient and rich tradition of creating khachkars, the essence of khachkars, their significance for Christian people are depicted in the film. Outsnading French scientists, historians and artists supported to the realization of the film by their professionalism .

There are episodes in the film calling for the protection of Armenian khachkars, destruction and annihilation of cemeteries perpetrated in Nakhigevan by Baku. The film will be available in France 2 TV website.

Film entitled “The roots of the Armenian Church and the history in the initial stages” will be shown by France 2 TV channel on December 30, at 9: 30 by local time. The film was shot in 2012 in Armenia.

http://www.armenianlife.com/2012/11/02/french-france-2-tv-showed-film-on-destruction-of-armenian-khachkars-in-nakhigevan/

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