Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Art Opens Path Towards Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Art Opens Path Towards Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation

    ART OPENS PATH TOWARDS TURKISH-ARMENIAN RECONCILIATION
    By Mariam Sutidze

    Georgia Today
    http://www.georgiatoday.ge/article_details.php?id=9687
    Dec 1 2011
    Georgia

    The traveling exhibition entitled "Speaking to One Another: Personal
    Memories of the Past in Armenia and Turkey" is ongoing at the Georgian
    National Museum from November 28 to December 10. The exhibition aims
    to increase communication between the people of Armenia and Turkey and
    to facilitate positive steps towards Armenian/Turkish reconciliation.

    Almast Arutynian is both a writer and an ethnic Armenian. His mother
    was a victim of the hostile dealings between Turkey and Armenia during
    the First World War. There is a chilling passage in a book he wrote
    that documents the tragic history of the Turkish-Armenian relationship:

    "The Massacre was almost over... There was a Turkish leader on the bank
    of the river; he was looking for those Armenians who had survived. He
    noticed my mother and her sister. So he took them to the edge of the
    canyon to kill them along with 200 other Armenians..."

    The conflict, which saw the mass deportation and subsequent massacre
    of more than one-million Christian Armenians from Ottoman Turkey
    almost a century ago, is still fresh in the minds of many today. The
    exhibition certainly brings these memories to the forefront.

    The exhibition was organized by the Institute for International
    Cooperation of the German Adult Education Association (DVV) and is
    part of a project that was implemented in August 2009. Within the
    project, both Turks and Armenians worked together for several months
    to recount the mutual pasts the two nations share.

    "When the Turkish side ended the story-telling, we listened to quite a
    different [version] from the Armenians. Both have their interpretations
    over the same things," said Nazaret Nazaretyan, explaining the working
    process on the project. Nazaretyan is also a project coordinator and
    a representative of DVV international.

    Nazaretyan contends that despite some difficulties, the project met
    its aim. He says that all the information provided in the exhibition is
    "objective."

    Four displays served as canvases for displaying shared personal
    experiences from the past. Huge stands full of individual memories
    written in two languages (Georgian and Russian) and portraits of
    worn-out, old faces with deep wrinkles of torment sent viewers back
    in time.

    Giorgi Shaishmelashvili, who attended the exhibition, walked around
    the hall several times and listened to the history of the people of
    Armenia and Turkey. Then he stood in the center of the exhibition
    hall with his hands in his pockets staring at the floor.

    "I know how they feel. The problem is sensitive for me, even as a
    Georgian," he says. "A good relationship between those two countries
    is important for us also. But that project elevated hope for me,
    it`s already a positive event, as there was a possibility to carry
    it out despite the negative feelings from both sides."

    The exhibition turned out to be sad for a lady in her fifties who
    had a melancholy look on her face and dark watery eyes. Her name was
    Hranush Kharatyan, from the Yerevan State Linguistic University; she
    did all the oral history research for the exhibition. Kharatyan was
    standing with a young person in his thirties - Ragip Zik, from Turkey.

    "There were marriages, love, neighborhoods shared between the people
    of Armenia and Turkey, but it ended long ago," remembers Kharatyan.

    "This is the history that hasn`t been written down, but was experienced
    by the people themselves. We want to make a step towards a better
    relationship even if it won't be friendship; we should believe in
    each other."

    While she was speaking, Ragip Zik stood motionless nodding slightly
    now and then to show his sympathy. When the lady mentioned the word
    "believe" he decided to involve himself in the conversation to express
    his feelings.

    "Every story presented here is to read through and feel ourselves,"
    he explained. "Each of them is unique as they tell about the same
    experiences but with different pain and emotions. We want people to
    know more about that pain that is still so common for us in everyday
    life."

    The traveling exhibition "Speaking to One Another" aims to accomplish
    the same; to deliver the message from the people of Armenia and Turkey
    to other parts of the world and to achieve forgiveness between the
    two countries.

    "Today they are afraid of each other, as they don`t know much about
    one another," says Nazaret Nazaretyan. According to Nazaretyan, the
    project aims to familiarize Armenians with Turkish people. "It is an
    attempt to figure out the problem for today, to change attitudes and
    to make positive steps towards reconciliation."

    Until the exhibition moves on to Batumi, Nicosia, Berlin and Paris,
    those interested in looking through a century of tragic history have
    the opportunity to visit the Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts.

    The exhibition runs through December 10.



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Working...
X