Armenians in Turkey react to documentary

At least don’t force our children to watch that DVD, pleaded the Armenian citizens of Turkey in a letter with nearly 500 signatories to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. They were complaining about a six-part documentary called, “Sari Gelin – Behind the scenes story of the Armenian question” that was sent to primary schools by the National Education Ministry to be shown to the students. “Sari Gelin” is, of course a folk tale shared for centuries by Armenians, Turks and other indigenous people of Anatolia. The folk song, Sari Gelin (Mountain Girl or Blond Girl) or Sari Gyalin in Armenian echoed in Istanbul streets when tens of thousands of people accompanied the coffin of Hrant Dink, the Armenian journalist slain under still obscure conditions, to his final resting place two years ago. Although the murderer of Dink, an 18-year-old lumpen kid from the Black Sea area, was captured, collusion of Turkey’s security authorities in the killing is being publicly debated today. Producers of the documentary probably gave this title to their work to create the impression that it was an attempt to erase animosities between Armenians and Turks. But the effect was the opposite. “Considering the way how the documentary in question deals with the issue, it is certain that it will fan the feelings of hatred and hostility through expressions of violence and discrimination rather than providing knowledge in historical subjects and thus increase the already existing animosities against the Armenians in the society,” the letter said. Since June 2008, the DVDs of the documentary were being distributed to the schools by the Education Ministry, including the Armenian minority schools. In January, the ministry asked the school administrations to report by February 27 how the documentary was received by the students. In the same circular letter the ministry revealed that […]



