ATOM BOMBING TURKEY's DENIAL
ATOM BOMBING DENIAL:
ARARAT FILM NOW PLAYING
by Dr. Khachuig Sarkis
November 19, 2002
(Schaumburg, IL.) As of November 27, Ararat, the movie from Atom Egoyan, is playing in Chicago at the Century Landmark Century Center Cinema at 2828 North Clark Street. Their phone number is (773) 248-7744. The neighbor-hood is brightly lit, full of college students from DePaul, and has affordable parking facilities just north of the theater. Parking is $5 with validation stamped at the box office. Tickets are available for purchase three hours before each showing, and no earlier. Tele-phone orders are not taken. The film is rated R and includes scenes such as nude Armenian girls doused with kerosene by torch carrying Turkish soldiers.
Promoting the Ararat Film in Chicago
Armenians in Chicago should reach out to friends who have any sort of ethnic interest in the film, namely Greeks, Assyrians, Persians, and Arabs, urging them to see the film. The film offers many interesting qualities that make it interesting: artist Arshile Gorky, a co-founder of abstract expressionism, is featured; an excellent musical score brings out the tears and moves the spirit. Ararat is a must see. For more information, visit www.Ararat-the-movie.com
A Forgotten Memoir Comes to Life
One of the most moving and vivid accounts of the last days of Armenia was written by a Physician and Missionary, Clarence Ussher, M.D. He lived in Van during 1915, and is mentioned as an honorable man in the Defense of Van book. The inner movie is based on his book, An American Physician in Turkey. The book is out of print and hard to find, but will likely go into reprint. It is chilling and exciting to think Ussher’s forgotten book was taken off the shelf and turned into an unforgettable, color motion picture using digital and computer technology.
What the Film is About
Ararat is really a movie about Turkish denial, and is a movie within a movie. For example, Bruce Greenwood portrays an American actor who is hired by the director of the “inner movie” to portray the role of missionary Clarence Ussher, M.D.
In many scenes Greenwood is actually portraying the missionary doctor, and in other scenes, is portraying the actor as he researches his part. The story centers around the transformation that takes place in a young “American” boy named Raffi (David Alpay) as he helps out in the making of a film by director Eduard Saroyan (Charles Aznavour). Raffi’s mother, Ani (played by Arsinee Khanjian, Atom Egoyan’s real life wife) is an art historian and expert on Arshile Gorky, an Armenian born in Van, Armenia just a few years before the 1915 genocide. As it turns out, Raffi’s long-dead father was actually a “terrorist” (or freedom fighter) who was shot as he tried to assassinate a Turkish diplomat. As Raffi watches the making of the film, and as he is questioned at the airport by security guards who find drugs smuggled from Turkey, the film weaves in and out of time and place, including seeming to go back to 1915. Raffi has to explain why he has drugs within canisters of film shot of Armenian monuments in Turkish-occupied Armenia.
FOUR STARS
Most Critics Love Film
Via telephone on November 13th, Michael Wilmington, film critic of the Chicago Tribune told this reporter that he did like the film and saw it twice. He accepted a gift copy of Clarence Ussher’s 1917 book, “An American Physician in Turkey,” and said the book would him in his upcoming review. The Toronto Star and Los Angeles Times movie critics both gave the film rave reviews. Several Jewish movie critics, mainly from New York, have blasted the film as going too far over the top, David Poland going so far as to say that Jews know how to make genocide films and Armenians have yet to learn.
Reportedly, Atom Egoyan was unable to find sufficient financing to do a raw “1915 genocide” film, so he chose a more artistic, less costly story structure. Such reports are misleading.
Egoyan has said that those who were disappointed with the film need to realize it was strictly not a genocide film but really a film about the effects of genocide denial on people today. It is a film about Turkish denial of the Armenian Genocide, and as such may open the door to more films that focus on the many and varied aspects of the genocide itself. Furthermore, the film is a masterwork of complexity, and is hailed by movie critics as a heavyweight. Egoyan refuses to “dumb down” his movies for “the masses.” The handful of movie critics who insult moviegoers by assuming audiences cannot handle complexity should retract their lukewarm reviews.
In Europe, the film has been classified as the best from North America in the year 2002, and it received a 20-minute standing ovation when it debuted in May 2002 in Cannes.
Academy Award Sweeper?
Fox News and several web sites have ranked the film as having several Oscar-quality performances, including Charles Aznavour and Christopher Plummer. Many Academy Awards – besides best supporting actor -- may be coming for the movie in the 2003 ceremony, including best screenplay, best musical score, and best costume. The costumes of the Ottoman Turkish army and the Armenian peasants was well-researched. David Alpay, an Armenan-American college student studying Biology at the University of Toronto portrayed “Raffi,” a central character in the film. Alpay is called a “scene stealer” in his stunning debut performance, but is a long shot for an Academy Award nomination as lead actor.
Did Turkey Influence Distribution?
MIRAMAX Films, the distributor of the film, should widen the distribution of the film if it succeeds in its initial run. MIRAMAX, brushed off pressure from Turkey to shelve the film, but un-substantiated rumors persist about a Turkey-Israel-Hollywood factor in limiting the release of the film. “Platform limited release” is quite common among the highbrow films released by MIRAMAX, and is a way for the studio to test the film’s success before investing even more in distribution fees. The actions of MIRAMAX, including producing a flyer for Armenians to distribute to promote the film, indicate that Turkish pressure does not work in the 21st Century – and in fact backfires. Harvey Wein-stein, Chairman of MIRAMAX, compared Turkish denial of the Armenian genocide to Neo-Nazi denial of the Holocaust, and is said to be passionate about the film.
Armenian Communities in Unprecedented Frenzy
The Armenian community is in a frenzy over Ararat. The film is sold out in Gelndale for its fist few days. Never has quite this type of energy swept through the Armenian community. The bombings and shootings of Turkish diplomats in the 1970’s and 1980’s, the Spitak earthquake in 1988 and the fight to free Artsakh were the three major news events that shook up many Armenian Americans over the past 25 years. Armenian community centers from New York to Los Angeles, Toronto to Fresno temporarily bustled with life, tension and excitement after each news headline. Within months, it all faded and life went back to normal.
Ararat is different. Ararat, the movie, is predicted to be the biggest event since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk caused the collapse of the first Armenian Republic. Ararat promises to fuel interest in and activity within the Armenian community to unprecedented levels while bringing the genocide issue back to life, sending people into the library and record store in search of more about Armenia and Armenians. It also promises to revitalize the economy of Armenia through tourism. The film is fully-loaded, boasting stars (Charles Aznavour – the Frank Sinatra / Sir Elton John of France), an Academy Award-nominated director, outstanding acting performances, and re-creations of scenes from the Armenian Genocide and the much-mischaracterized heroic defense of Van.
According to reliable sources in New York, Armenians there in early November bombarded theatres showing the film with phone calls (10 to 15 a day) asking to buy 10, 50 or even 100 tickets to ensure sold out showings. Non-Armenians should and will see the film: thousands of Jewish Americans – who number 2 million New York -- are expected to view the film as a window into the world of the first genocide of the 20th century. While select Israeli leaders have catered to Turkish political interests in brushing off the genocide as just “a tragedy—but not a genocide,” American Jews are fairly knowledgeable about the Armenian Genocide and accepting of it as genocide.
The Los Angeles community has a million “middle eastern people,” and its Armenian community has flexed its muscle to ensure jammed theatres as well, with incredible word-of-mouth and a multi-media publicity blitz fueling the frenzy. KROQ 106.7 FM radio station in Los Angeles arranged for a mid-November interview with the director of Ararat, Atom Egoyan and the lead singer of the immensely popular rock band System of a Down, Serj Tankian. Egoyan decided to incorporate System of a Down’s song called P.L.U.C.K, (Politically Lying Unholy Cowardly Killers) -- an abrasive punk-heavy metal song about genocide denial – into the Ararat soundtrack. This shrewd move will only add to the attention the film receives. System of a Down has been pivotal in promoting Armenian Genocide awareness among its millions of fans. The interview is available online at www.Ararat-the-movie.com
Armenian National Committee Got Involved
The Armenian National Committee of America has vigorously pro-moted its campaign called “Take a Friend to Ararat.” On October 8th, the ANCA honored Egoyan and System of a Down at a Washington screening of the film – attracting hundreds of Washington intellectuals and congressmen.
A new era in Armenian history has begun
Ararat is a complex movie, but its impact on is predictable. Assuming it is successfully distributed to a wider audience and delivers sustained numbers at the box office, it will probably will revitalize Armenian issues, bringing “forgotten” issues to life -- both locally, nationally and inter-nationally. Ararat will awaken two slumbering giants: the Armenian Question and the Armenian diaspora. Will these two return to sleep after Ararat? How many government leaders will see the film and take up the Armenian Cause? Will Ararat spawn more movies on the topic or will it be the only one this century? Is another movie needed? Will Turkey’s denial end? Read on!
Armenian Cause, Armenian Question
The Armenian Genocide issue and the Armenian Question are two separate but inter-related parts of the Armenian Cause. The Armenian Question existed before the Genocide, and became increasingly complex as more and more Armenians were slaughtered in the 1890’s. Successive Turkish governments answered the Armenian Question with race murder and abduction. Between 1893 and 1923, 5 million Christians were brutally, periodically and ultimately systematically removed from their ancestral homelands in Asia Minor, today’s Turkey, and European Turkey. Of those murdered, about 2 million were Armenian, 1 million were Greek and 750,000 were Assyrian. Nearly half of the survivors – mainly young women and children -- were farmed out to Muslim families, invisibly adding to the genocidal toll while increasing the numbers of the conqueror people: such forced conversion to another religion - regardless of the virtues of the religion - is genocide.
Armenian Question, Genocide Denial
The Armenian Question is pre-cisely the reason Turkey is unable to formally admit the Genocide. Turks are quietly proud of Ottoman conquests, and see admitting the Genocide as opening a door to unacceptable territorial reparations. Almost universally, Turks communicating on the internet say, “Just try to take even an inch of Turkish soil,” and “We took it [Armenian lands] with blood, and you’ll have to take it [Armenian lands] back with blood.” The denial has glued today’s Turks to the Turks of yesteryear, or has shown them to be one and the same: genocide denial is said to be the “last phase” genocide. The in-tensity of the denial has removed all doubt that they Turks know they are guilty, and have something big, something very big, to hide. It also shows the effectiveness of An-kara’s denial campaign, despite its pamphlet-level complexity.
ALL THE NEWS THAT IS FIT FOR ANKARA
Currently, no less than the New York Times has unofficially but unmistakably joined the Ankara-Shimon Peres-Political syndrome due to editors who delete the word “genocide” from any article about the Armenian GENOCIDE. The New York Times editors are unaware that the Armenian Genocide was a DENSER KILL than the Holocaust (5.2 million innocent Jews across a whopping 3 million square kilometers). Over 3 million Christians (Armenian, Chaldean Assyrians and Pontic and Ionian Greeks were murdered (and 5 million deported) across 800,000 square kilometers. It is fascinating that the New York Times does not hesitate to call the Holocaust of World War One a genocide, yet PURPOSEFULLY AVOIDS using the word Genocide when referring to the Armenian Holocaust. The New York Times also often makes the Armenian Genocide sound like an “ongoing debate,” using the “he said, she said,” tactic. Jewish-American Holocaust historians cringe when reading articles processed by the shameless, Ankara-Shimon Peres-syndrome influenced New York Times “GENOCIDE-word-avoiding” editors.
Carpet Bombing Turkey
Ararat can be taken as the green light for an all-out global assault on Turkey’s denial of genocide. The Armenian community needs to be as aggressive and pushy with promoting this film as is possible. At no time in recent memory has such a monumentally important juncture in our history been so collectively in front of our eyes. Indeed, just as carpet bombing can only take an assault so far, so this movie can only take the Armenian Cause so far: without the “ground troops,” the movie will quietly land on a video shelf at Blockbuster Video.
Armenian Americans must call newspapers, news departments, congressmen, senators and anyone and everyone in power whenever there is a free moment or an hour free on an available cell phone! See Ararat with a friend today!
*************************************************************
TURKEY CANNOT GET AWAY WITH ENJOYING THE FRUITS OF GENOCIDE.
ARMENIANS, CHALDEAN-ASSYRIANS and GREEKS DEMAND JUSTICE.
Armenian National Committee
Armenian Genocide Documents
ARARAT the MOVIE WEBSITE
Los Angeles Times
Turkish Denial GENOCIDE PICTURES
Armenian Cooking, Recipes
Send E-Mail to: turkishdenial@yahoo.com
Copyright © 2002 . All Rights Reserved