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Trust.org referred to `Memories without borders' unique
Turkish-Armenian- Azerbaijani documentary film
21:07, 16 November, 2012
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS: `Memories without borders' unique
Turkish-Armenian-Azerbaijani documentary film presents how the
conflicts between the nations influence the lives of individuals. The
joint work of Armenian, Turkish and Azerbaijani filmmakers starts from
the mass slaughter in Ottoman Turkey and ends up with the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. As reports Armenpress the Trust.org created
by Thomson Reuters has referred to the documentary film and to the
story of its creation. The author of the article is Alex Whiting.
`I used to film my friends' weddings, birthday parties and special
occasions. But then the world turned upside down ... I started to film
their funerals instead,' said Rudik Khojabaghyan, a former soldier
living in the town of Goris, southern Armenia.
His next door neighbor and childhood friend, Mihran Mirumyan, recalls
mending people's home-made guns when war came to Goris in the early
1990s. `It's a tragedy that we lost such good people. That's what
peace cost us, all those lives,' Mirumyan said.
Khojabaghyan and Mirumyan's recollections of the conflict are shared
in Memories without Borders, a moving film that portrays the impact of
closed borders and violent histories over the past century on people
living in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Turkey.
The Nagorno-Karabakh war displaced more than 1 million people across
Armenia and Azerbaijan. About 30,000 people died. Nearly 600,000
Azeris remain displaced - it is not known how many people are still
uprooted in Armenia.
The war deepened tensions between Armenia and Turkey, tensions that
have run deep since World War One. Armenia, backed by many historians
and parliaments, says about 1.5 million Christian Armenians were
killed in what is now eastern Turkey in a deliberate policy of
genocide ordered by the Ottoman government. Successive Turkish
governments and most Turks feel the charge of genocide is an insult.
Ankara argues there was heavy loss of life on both sides during
fighting in the area.
A small number of descendants of Armenians who fled Ottoman Turkey
during the World War One killings have moved to Nagorno-Karabakh since
the 1990s.
`I can't say whether what I've done is foolish or heroic. It's quite
egoistic,' says Armen, a young man who in 2004 moved to
Nagorno-Karabakh from his home in Marseilles, France. His father, who
lives in France, has refused to speak to him about his decision.
Armen's wife Christina is a quarter Armenian by blood, and she too has
chosen to make this the basis of her identity. `What do you do to feel
Armenian when you live in the diaspora?' asked Christina. `You can go
to events. You can sing Our Father in church. You can sing My Kilikia,
eat basturma and drink cognac. That's it.'
Armen and Christina live in Shushi, a town surrounded by mountains and
meadows, where they plan to raise their family. `In the Armenian
diaspora they dream of Shushi. I'm living the dream,' Armen said.
`Memories without Borders' was made by Conciliation Resources, an
international peace building non-governmental organization. It will be
screened in Western Europe in 2013. The first public screenings took
place in October 2012 in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia, Georgia,
Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Turkish-Armenian- Azerbaijani documentary film
21:07, 16 November, 2012
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS: `Memories without borders' unique
Turkish-Armenian-Azerbaijani documentary film presents how the
conflicts between the nations influence the lives of individuals. The
joint work of Armenian, Turkish and Azerbaijani filmmakers starts from
the mass slaughter in Ottoman Turkey and ends up with the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. As reports Armenpress the Trust.org created
by Thomson Reuters has referred to the documentary film and to the
story of its creation. The author of the article is Alex Whiting.
`I used to film my friends' weddings, birthday parties and special
occasions. But then the world turned upside down ... I started to film
their funerals instead,' said Rudik Khojabaghyan, a former soldier
living in the town of Goris, southern Armenia.
His next door neighbor and childhood friend, Mihran Mirumyan, recalls
mending people's home-made guns when war came to Goris in the early
1990s. `It's a tragedy that we lost such good people. That's what
peace cost us, all those lives,' Mirumyan said.
Khojabaghyan and Mirumyan's recollections of the conflict are shared
in Memories without Borders, a moving film that portrays the impact of
closed borders and violent histories over the past century on people
living in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Turkey.
The Nagorno-Karabakh war displaced more than 1 million people across
Armenia and Azerbaijan. About 30,000 people died. Nearly 600,000
Azeris remain displaced - it is not known how many people are still
uprooted in Armenia.
The war deepened tensions between Armenia and Turkey, tensions that
have run deep since World War One. Armenia, backed by many historians
and parliaments, says about 1.5 million Christian Armenians were
killed in what is now eastern Turkey in a deliberate policy of
genocide ordered by the Ottoman government. Successive Turkish
governments and most Turks feel the charge of genocide is an insult.
Ankara argues there was heavy loss of life on both sides during
fighting in the area.
A small number of descendants of Armenians who fled Ottoman Turkey
during the World War One killings have moved to Nagorno-Karabakh since
the 1990s.
`I can't say whether what I've done is foolish or heroic. It's quite
egoistic,' says Armen, a young man who in 2004 moved to
Nagorno-Karabakh from his home in Marseilles, France. His father, who
lives in France, has refused to speak to him about his decision.
Armen's wife Christina is a quarter Armenian by blood, and she too has
chosen to make this the basis of her identity. `What do you do to feel
Armenian when you live in the diaspora?' asked Christina. `You can go
to events. You can sing Our Father in church. You can sing My Kilikia,
eat basturma and drink cognac. That's it.'
Armen and Christina live in Shushi, a town surrounded by mountains and
meadows, where they plan to raise their family. `In the Armenian
diaspora they dream of Shushi. I'm living the dream,' Armen said.
`Memories without Borders' was made by Conciliation Resources, an
international peace building non-governmental organization. It will be
screened in Western Europe in 2013. The first public screenings took
place in October 2012 in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia, Georgia,
Azerbaijan and Turkey.