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A Century Later, Private Sarkis Returns To The Streets Of Canakkale

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  • A Century Later, Private Sarkis Returns To The Streets Of Canakkale

    A CENTURY LATER, PRIVATE SARKIS RETURNS TO THE STREETS OF CANAKKALE

    Agos Armenian paper, Turkey
    Oct 14 2014

    Lebanese director Nigol Bezjian's work titled 'Canakayna' is on view
    at the 4th Canakkale Biennial, open from September 27 to November 2

    EVRÄ°M KAYA [email protected]

    Bezjian was inspired by his research on Canakkale to realize this
    project. Composed of a video and photographs, the name of the work,
    'Canakayna' is a pun on the city's name. Bezjian explains: "To return
    to look again is similar to looking at yourself in the mirror. I
    first went to Canakkale for the screening of my film 'I Left My Shoes
    in Istanbul. I returned for this project, and I created this work
    entirely by thinking about the history and streets of Canakkale."

    In the work, the 15-minute video to be shown as a loop from a screen
    mounted on a wall, contains the conversations made by an actor who
    wanders the streets of the city wearing the uniform worn by soldiers
    who fought at the Battle of Canakkale (also known as the Battle of
    Gallipoli, during the Dardanelles Campaign). The actor introduces
    himself as 'Sarkis' and asks the people he meets how they are. Bezjian
    continues: "Sarkis asks the people he comes across on the street,
    'How are you?' and tries to find out if they need anything. Because he
    is a soldier who fought for them a century ago; he wants to know if the
    people he went to war for are enjoying themselves, if they are happy.

    There were some warm dialogues. Only a single person reacted to the
    name Sarkis, and began to talk, saying 'Before us, Armenians and
    Greeks lived here.'"

    The other walls of the section allocated to Bezjian's work features
    photographs of Armenian soldiers that served in the army from the
    Ottoman period to the present day. There is also a photo of Sevag
    Balıkcı in the series, who was murdered on 24 April 2011, the
    remembrance day of the Armenian Genocide, whilst carrying out his
    military service in Batman. "The history of the army goes further
    back than the Republic. As I began to produce this work, I took
    into consideration a history of six centuries, because tradition is
    continuous," says Bezjian, and adds that his research has not ended:
    "I can't say the project has concluded. Two days ago, I found a
    photograph of an Armenian who served as a pharmacist in the Ottoman
    army. I read the diaries of Avedis Cebeciyan. He was a doctor in the
    army. In the diaries he kept during the years 1914-1918 he describes
    the Battle of Canakkale. This is a simple answer to the rhetoric that
    goes, 'The Armenians were traitors, they joined the Russian Army,'
    which is constantly repeated and used as a pretext for the Genocide.

    If there were Armenians on that side, there were Armenians on this
    side as well. They were at Canakkale together with the Turks."

    http://www.agos.com.tr/haber.php?seo=a-century-later-private-sarkis-returns-to-the-streets-of-canakkale&haberid=8369

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