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Raffi's `Madman'
Saturday, March 3rd, 2012 | Posted by admin
http://massispost.com/?p=5778
By Odette Bazil
joined the Ararat Theatrical Club in Tehran when I was 12 years old
and for the following 6 years, I participated in the plays which were
produced in the Armenian Language to address and satisfy the Cultural
and National interest of the Armenian population in Iran. The plays -
always containing a historic and patriotic message - were aiming
mainly to preserve the Armenian Language, Traditions and Culture.
One day, it was decided that the Club would produce -as a play - the
book `the Madman' written by the famous Armenian author Raffi: a
tragedy happening in 1915, during the Armenian genocide in Western
Armenia where Vartan ( the man who looses his mind and becomes Raffi's
`Madman') lives happily with his young daughter Lala and his family.
As part of the Armenian genocide planned by the Turkish government of
the day and by order of the Turkish governor of the district, the
Turks rampage Vartan's village, kidnap his daughter, eventually kill
her and kill also his entire family. In the final scene, Vartan
returns and laments at his daughter's grave sobbing with shrieking
screams and crazy loud laughters, totally and desperately overwhelmed
by the pain which turns him to the `Madman ` described by the author.
I was - originally - playing the role of Lala, but often , I had to
become also Stepanik , Vartan's imaginary son for which my face would
be covered with dust and coal, my clothes tattied, wearing a short and
dirty wig , barefeet and looking haggard like an orphan. Being only
12, I could not understand the reasons for that transformation and
dual identity and when I insisted to know, I was told that Lala's
identity as a little girl had to be hidden and, during the day, she
had to become a little boy so that `the Turks would not take her away'
The argument convinced me and I did ask no more... until two years ago,
in 2010, when watching a programme on Armenian TV, I heard the
historian who was analysing the Armenian genocide, revealing a story
so horrid, so repellent and detestable that I had to switch off the
TV, struggling to hold back my tears and trying to overcome my
aversion and my anger. In a flash of memory, the play `Madman' came to
my mind! And after so many long years, at last, I understood what Mr
Vahan Aghamalian, the director of the play had meant by saying: `the
Turks would not take her away'!!!!!!
The historian was saying : `for the Turks, taking away the little
Armenian girls from their families was not a crime committed at random
by one or two individuals: the Ottoman government had created a law by
which the governor of every city and village had the right to take his
young sons to Armenian households where they would choose and take
away many little Armenian girls- even as young as eight years old- to
furnish their harems`
The presenter had tears in his eyes and pain in his voice while
showing the unbielevable document. But there, on the television
screen, in black and white, was the proof of the barbarism, the
inhumane crimes and the bestial violation of every human being's
rights which were legalised - with inpunity - by Turkish law.
Which parent could tolerate such violation? Which father could live
with such degradation, shame and dishonour? Which mother could ever
have peace or joy in her heart and whitstand such agony: knowing of
the crime committed against her daughter, day after day, night after
night?
No wonder that Vartan became `mad' with pain! No wonder that the
wounds created by such crimes - specially against their honour -
remain in the hearts of all Armenians forever and are buried so deep
that they will never forgive or forget.
Each one of us, Armenians, has in its ancestry a mother who has lost a
child in this horrific way, a relative whose entire family has been
butchered, a brother, a son or a father who has been hanged or shot,
friends who have been set to fire and hundreds of thousands fellow
Armenians whose properties, identities and lives have been taken away
by the Turks , cruelly and systematically, because they were Armenians
and because the Turkish government had a sinister genocidal agenda and
was wholeheartedly committed to execute that genocidal agenda.
We must remember these victims. Not only once every year on 24th
April; but everyday of our lives. Everyday. We must remember them. We
must tell our children, our friends, our neighbours, anyone and
everyone we meet, every day, about our people and their sad faith .
The world must know and we must remember. It is our sacred duty.
In Britain Remembrance Day is marked by the people wearing a red poppy
on their lapels. Maybe we Armenians - ALL OF US TOGETHER - should
adopt the wearing of a WHITE POPPY in Remembrance of the Victims of
the Armenian genocide. White: the colour of mourning. Six years ago,
at the 90th Anniversary of Remembrance, many of us in the UK wore such
White Poppies to which we also stuck a small label saying: `Remember
24th April 1915`.
Now, as time is of essence, there is the urgent - very urgent- need
for one of our Armenian composers to create a `Genocide Remembrance
Anthem`; a short, poignant and in the same time, strong and powerful
music, the notes of which can be sung without difficulty by everyone
and which can be easily and immediately recognised and adopted as
such; and by wearing the White Poppy by each and every Armenian during
the whole month of April of every year and by adopting the Remembrance
Anthem to inaugurate each and every event or function - even at
Church, after Mass, during Hogehankist - we can and must become the
doers, the presenters and the implementors of the fortcoming `Genocide
Remembrance Projects` and include them in the everyday actions and
lives of every Armenian National be it in the Diaspora or in our
Motherland.
From: A. Papazian
Saturday, March 3rd, 2012 | Posted by admin
http://massispost.com/?p=5778
By Odette Bazil
joined the Ararat Theatrical Club in Tehran when I was 12 years old
and for the following 6 years, I participated in the plays which were
produced in the Armenian Language to address and satisfy the Cultural
and National interest of the Armenian population in Iran. The plays -
always containing a historic and patriotic message - were aiming
mainly to preserve the Armenian Language, Traditions and Culture.
One day, it was decided that the Club would produce -as a play - the
book `the Madman' written by the famous Armenian author Raffi: a
tragedy happening in 1915, during the Armenian genocide in Western
Armenia where Vartan ( the man who looses his mind and becomes Raffi's
`Madman') lives happily with his young daughter Lala and his family.
As part of the Armenian genocide planned by the Turkish government of
the day and by order of the Turkish governor of the district, the
Turks rampage Vartan's village, kidnap his daughter, eventually kill
her and kill also his entire family. In the final scene, Vartan
returns and laments at his daughter's grave sobbing with shrieking
screams and crazy loud laughters, totally and desperately overwhelmed
by the pain which turns him to the `Madman ` described by the author.
I was - originally - playing the role of Lala, but often , I had to
become also Stepanik , Vartan's imaginary son for which my face would
be covered with dust and coal, my clothes tattied, wearing a short and
dirty wig , barefeet and looking haggard like an orphan. Being only
12, I could not understand the reasons for that transformation and
dual identity and when I insisted to know, I was told that Lala's
identity as a little girl had to be hidden and, during the day, she
had to become a little boy so that `the Turks would not take her away'
The argument convinced me and I did ask no more... until two years ago,
in 2010, when watching a programme on Armenian TV, I heard the
historian who was analysing the Armenian genocide, revealing a story
so horrid, so repellent and detestable that I had to switch off the
TV, struggling to hold back my tears and trying to overcome my
aversion and my anger. In a flash of memory, the play `Madman' came to
my mind! And after so many long years, at last, I understood what Mr
Vahan Aghamalian, the director of the play had meant by saying: `the
Turks would not take her away'!!!!!!
The historian was saying : `for the Turks, taking away the little
Armenian girls from their families was not a crime committed at random
by one or two individuals: the Ottoman government had created a law by
which the governor of every city and village had the right to take his
young sons to Armenian households where they would choose and take
away many little Armenian girls- even as young as eight years old- to
furnish their harems`
The presenter had tears in his eyes and pain in his voice while
showing the unbielevable document. But there, on the television
screen, in black and white, was the proof of the barbarism, the
inhumane crimes and the bestial violation of every human being's
rights which were legalised - with inpunity - by Turkish law.
Which parent could tolerate such violation? Which father could live
with such degradation, shame and dishonour? Which mother could ever
have peace or joy in her heart and whitstand such agony: knowing of
the crime committed against her daughter, day after day, night after
night?
No wonder that Vartan became `mad' with pain! No wonder that the
wounds created by such crimes - specially against their honour -
remain in the hearts of all Armenians forever and are buried so deep
that they will never forgive or forget.
Each one of us, Armenians, has in its ancestry a mother who has lost a
child in this horrific way, a relative whose entire family has been
butchered, a brother, a son or a father who has been hanged or shot,
friends who have been set to fire and hundreds of thousands fellow
Armenians whose properties, identities and lives have been taken away
by the Turks , cruelly and systematically, because they were Armenians
and because the Turkish government had a sinister genocidal agenda and
was wholeheartedly committed to execute that genocidal agenda.
We must remember these victims. Not only once every year on 24th
April; but everyday of our lives. Everyday. We must remember them. We
must tell our children, our friends, our neighbours, anyone and
everyone we meet, every day, about our people and their sad faith .
The world must know and we must remember. It is our sacred duty.
In Britain Remembrance Day is marked by the people wearing a red poppy
on their lapels. Maybe we Armenians - ALL OF US TOGETHER - should
adopt the wearing of a WHITE POPPY in Remembrance of the Victims of
the Armenian genocide. White: the colour of mourning. Six years ago,
at the 90th Anniversary of Remembrance, many of us in the UK wore such
White Poppies to which we also stuck a small label saying: `Remember
24th April 1915`.
Now, as time is of essence, there is the urgent - very urgent- need
for one of our Armenian composers to create a `Genocide Remembrance
Anthem`; a short, poignant and in the same time, strong and powerful
music, the notes of which can be sung without difficulty by everyone
and which can be easily and immediately recognised and adopted as
such; and by wearing the White Poppy by each and every Armenian during
the whole month of April of every year and by adopting the Remembrance
Anthem to inaugurate each and every event or function - even at
Church, after Mass, during Hogehankist - we can and must become the
doers, the presenters and the implementors of the fortcoming `Genocide
Remembrance Projects` and include them in the everyday actions and
lives of every Armenian National be it in the Diaspora or in our
Motherland.
From: A. Papazian