Canadian Armenian
actress Arsine Khanjian, who was in Istanbul, Turkey participating
in the international independent film festival !f, shared her
impressions of the changes in Turkish and Armenian societies, and
the Armenian diaspora.
“An
episodic story focused on the Armenian Genocide is presented in Turkey,
with Turks getting entangled when it comes to confronting the fact. I
now see that it is very difficult,” she said, speaking to the
Turkish Armenian weekly Agos.
Speaking
of Turkish Armenians, the actress said she sees that they do not
seem to have very great expectations. “Those in the diaspora know that Armenians live in intimidation. The diaspora has lost touch with Armenians in Turkey. We have lost our heritage, our people, language
and culture, but we can maintain and continue the dialogue with the
people residing here,” she added.
Asked
about her expectations from the genocide centennial commemoration, the
actress replied, “The centennial events are for keeping history alive.
So we’ll keep doing the same on the 101st anniversary. We have finally
arrived at a point that makes our dialogue with the Turkish society
possible. As early as fifty years ago, nobody would talk about the
Genocide. But it isn’t so now. That is why I find the events important.”
As for the
films dedicated to the genocide topic, Khanjian said she doesn’t think
that it is possible at all to satisfy an Armenian audience’s
expectations from such a serious topic as that. “They observed such a
long silence over the genocide that they are now at a point where the
Armenian spectator does not know what he or she wishes to see in the
movie. They want the film to tell them about everything. The Holocaust
stories evolved after [the Second World] War, so the Jews did not need
such a film. But the things were not arranged the same way for the
Armenians. We weren’t able to address all the aspects of the genocide,
and now, gathering the stories in one place, we expect to have a movie
about the genocide. It isn’t feasible,” she noted.
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