This was one of the reasons why Raphael Lemkin, a legal jurist, created the term ‘genocide’. The history of the Armenian Genocide is quite intriguing and there are many films based on this horrific event. Here are some of them:

1. The Cut (2014)

The Cut is considered as one of the best fiction films based on the Armenian Genocide. It is a moving story that follows Nazaret Manoogian from the city of Mardin. He wants to track down his daughters and escape a certain death. The movie has been filmed in the Western Armenian language, which was an incredible feat. This is because the director, Fatih Akin, and most of the crew didn’t speak this language. 

The role of Nazaret is played by Tahar Rahim, an Algerian-French actor. The story is told in a graphic way, which makes it very disturbing and moving at the same time. Fatih has done an excellent job of lighting contemporary story parallels without heavy-handedness. Although the ending is a bit corny, it introduces the audience to the psychological realities faced by the genocide survivors.

2. Ararat (2002)

Atom Egoyan is among the finest directors of the Armenian descent in recent times. His film, Ararat, has become a classic. They way this film grapples with mourning and history is truly commendable. It tells the tale of a fictional director who wants to make a film on the Armenian Genocide. The film would also be about the survivor Arshile Gorky, and the Van Resistance. 

What follows is a curious reflection on history’s nature and its relationship with the present. Ararat shows how this event has inspired contemporary artists to explore different themes and styles to tell the story. This is despite the perpetrators constantly denying the truth. The film features Charles Aznavour, Arsinee Khanjian, Christopher Plummer, Eric Bogosian, and many others.

3. The Armenian Genocide (2006)

Filmed in a classic PBS style, this film is among the finest straightforward documentaries about the events of 1915. It has been directed by Andrew Goldberg, who had uncovered important footage of Raphael Lemkin. The film does a great job in telling the history and providing many important contexts for the genocide. 

It also includes interviews done with several leading figures, such as Vartan Gregorian, Samantha Power, and Peter Balakian. The film also has narrations by several Hollywood celebrities, including Ed Harris, Natalie Portman, Orlando Bloom, and Laura Linney.

4. Grandmother’s Tattoos (2011)

Suzanne Khardalian took the initiative of explaining the curious tattoos of her grandmother through this documentary. Her grandmother had these tattoos on her hands and face and she never talked about them throughout her life. They were a source of shame for many women who were survivors of the genocide. Those tattoos were symbols of sexual abuse and enslavement. 

Suzanne’s documentary uses these scars to explore the topic involving women in the process. This is one of the many projects that focused on female survivors. Most of these women were forced to endure the most horrific crimes. They happened after their husbands, fathers, sons, and other male relatives were forcibly evicted from their homes and killed.

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This was given when she was in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, for a public talk. She stated that no individual on the receiving end can deny or discredit what another’s grandparents had gone through. Here are some of the testimonies that were given by the survivors of the genocide:

1. Father Krikor “Kreiger” Guerguerian

In a brief clip, Father Krikor Guerguerian recalls what was told to him by the perpetrator. The Turk had confessed that he killed Father Guerguerian’s father and three brothers. He also confessed that he confiscated their house and garden and asked Guerguerian for forgiveness. Father Guerguerian was a Catholic Armenian priest who had survived that horrific event as a child. 

He took it upon himself in his later years to investigate the perpetrators. He became the first individual to research the topic methodologically. His interview includes some historical documents and his journey to find them. He had visited his birthplace, Gurun, years later.

2. Vahram Papazyan

He was among the first two athletes who represented the Ottoman empire in the Olympics. Papazyan and his teammate Mgrdich Migiryan were both Armenians. They had participated in the Stockholm Olympics in 1912. He discussed his relationship with the United States Olympian, Jim Thorpe, and his experience at the games. 

He talks about the political environment that prevailed in the Olympics from the perspective of an Armenian. He was later involved in the formation of the Armenian General Athletic Union and Scouts during 1918 in Istanbul. In 1962, his memoirs with the title ‘Ser, Ser, Ser’ was published.

3. The Greek experience

Interviews with Greeks from Turkey was conducted by J. Michael Hagopian, a filmmaker and co-founder of Armenian Film Foundation. He had traveled to Greece for conducting these interviews. Most of the Greeks interviewed were a part of the great population exchange that took place in 1922-23. This exchange had taken place between Greece and Turkey. 

About 1.5 million Greeks in Turkey were exchanged for 500 thousand Turks from Greece. Most of the interviewees narrated what they had witnessed during the Armenian genocide. They also shared their experiences during the Great Fire in Smyrna, which took place in 1922. 

4. Elsie Taft on the Great Fire of Smyrna

While recalling the Great Fire of Smyrna, Elsie Taft narrated how she was saved by the American sailors. The fire broke out after the last battle of the war between Greece and Turkey. The battle had ended in the defeat of the Greek army by the Turkish forces. Before the war, the Greek army controlled parts of Western Anatolia. The city was engulfed in flames after the Turkish victory. 

The Greek and Armenian residents of Smyrna were subjected to brutal treatment by the Turkish army. Some of the survivors had escaped death during the Armenian genocide. They were able to find refuge in the city of Smyrna, which is now called ‘Izmir’. Despite finding safe haven in the city, they were kicked out again by the Turkish soldiers.

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The massacres and deportations ended by the early 1920s, but it caused the death of over a million Armenians. Many of them were forcibly removed from Turkey. Many historians call this a premeditated and systematic campaign, which was intended to exterminate the entire Armenian population.

The first massacre of Armenians

Between the years 1894 and 1896, a state-sanctioned pogrom took place in turkey. The Turkish soldiers, military officials, and even common men sacked the villages and cities inhabited by the Armenians. This was the response to the large-scale protests from the Armenians at several places. The pogrom led to the murder of thousands of Armenians.

Young Turks

A new government came to power in Turkey during 1908. Sultan Abdul Hamid was overthrown by a group of reformers. They called themselves the ‘Young Turks’ and established a more constitutional and modern government. Initially, the Armenian population in the country was hopeful that this would give them equal rights in the country. 

However, they soon came to know that the nationalistic Young Turks wanted ‘Turkification’ of the empire. According to their way of thinking, the Christian non-Turks were a grave threat to their state. During 1914, the Turks sided with Germany and entered the First World War. 

Meanwhile, the religious authorities of the Ottoman empire declared a holy war against all Christians. The allies of Turks were excluded. Military leaders started arguing that the Armenians were traitors. According to their argument, if the Allies were victorious, the Armenians would be on the side of their enemies. 

Armenians soon began to form volunteer battalions for helping the Russian army in their fight against the Turks. Such events led the Turkish government to carry out their plans of removing the Armenians from the war zones.

The genocide

The Armenian genocide began on the 24th of April, 1915. On that day, the Turkish government arrested and executed hundreds of Armenian intellectuals. Later, the ordinary Armenians were evicted from their homes and sent on death marches. They were made to walk through the Mesopotamian desert without food or water. 

Often, these marchers were stripped and forced to walk under the scorching sun until the fell dead. Those who stopped were shot. The Young Turks formed a special unit, which organized killing squads. These squads were known as ‘butcher battalions’. They carried out the barbaric act of killing the Armenians.

Such killing squads comprised ex-convicts and murderers. They drowned the Armenian people in rivers, crucified them, burned them alive, and threw them off cliffs. Within a short span of time, the Turkish countryside was littered with corpses of the Armenians. 

According to some records, this state-sponsored campaign also involved kidnappings of children. They were converted to Islam and given to the Turkish families. In some areas, women were raped and forced to join the Turkish ‘harems’. 

Properties of the deported Armenians were seized and their homes were occupied by the Turkish Muslim families. The sources say that there were nearly two million Armenians in Turkey at the time of the genocide. By 1922, there were only about 388,000 of them left in the Ottoman empire.

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