CBC Television and Radio Canada is doing a documentary on the 100th anniversary of Armenian Genocide. The documentary will include interviews with academicians, politicians, activists and victims of the genocide from Armenia, Turkey, United States and France.
The documentary aims to gather different points of views on the Armenian Genocide. Canada’s famous radio host and TV presenter Armenian originated Patrick Masbourian, the main character in the documentary, will be the one doing the interviews. The documentary will be released on April 24th, 2015.
bianet spoke with Ines Faro, owner of the idea and the journalist of the documentary, on the preparations of the documentary and the Armenian Genocide in the context of Turkey, Canada and Armenia.
You’re not a victim, a side nor a subject of Armenian Genocide, how and why did you come up with this idea?
One of my main interests and one of the things that I like to read and write more about is human rights, and especially women rights. Genocides and big catastrophes are things that really touch me deeply.
My first documentary was about a Portuguese Consul that saved 10 thousand Jews during the Second World War from the Holocaust. I found an interesting story in Montreal from a lady that discovered 3 years ago that she was the daughter of a man that was saved by this Portuguese Consul. Her story inspired us and we created the documentary. The idea of doing a documentary on Armenian Genocide came up with a conversation I was having with Sedat, my friend from Turkey living in Montreal, he asked me if I knew about the 1915 deportations. I heard a little bit about that, but it is something people don’t discuss about in their daily lives. If you’re not in an Armenian community or in a Turkish community you can grow up without noticing this situation.
I started doing research a little bit and I came up with this idea to the producer. I told him that it will be the 100th year of the Armenian Genocide in 2 years and it will be a good idea to release the documentary on that day. We had a meeting with Radio Canada and CBC and they thought it was a great idea.
What did you do in this past year about the documentary?
I started to do the basic research about what we are discussing, whether this was a genocide or not. I read many academic papers, books and watched all the documentaries about the subject, I did some preliminary interviews, I met with the Armenian Community in Montreal, and I also met with some people from Turkey living in Montreal and then the pieces of the puzzle started fitting together. After that, you reach a point where you have to build an argument. We decided on the people we wanted to interview and found some contacts both in Turkey and Armenia.
What is the content of the documentary and what kind of an argument do you have?
We thought that there must be a protagonist in the story and we decided on Armenian originated Patrick Masbourian, a very well-known radio host and a TV presenter in Montreal. It will be like a personal quest for Patrick and he is very open about this subject, he really wants to know what people are thinking about this situation.
The idea was to be in Turkey on the 24th. We wanted to know what is happening in Turkey and how does the Turkish people see this Armenian question. We went to the Armenian churches, interviewed some experts, activists, non-governmental organizations and the Agos newspaper.
We also interviewed Hrant Dink case’s lawyer Fethiye Çetin. She was born as an Armenian but raised as a Muslim Turkish person, and she learns this when she is 25. We thought this was an extremely touching story.
After Turkey, we will be leaving for Armenia to meet with locals, experts, Diaspora and young people. People from the Diaspora see the Armenian question in a different way so we would like to get their opinions. We want to have the different perspectives; in all the documentaries that we watched we felt the incompetence of the other side. That’s why we wanted to have the other version, the Turkish version. We met with Mehmet Perinçek and the ex-ambassador in Paris to learn about their perspectives on the issue.
You said that this documentary is a personal quest for Patrick Masbourian, how does he feel about the documentary and these interviews?
Patrick didn’t know a lot about his origins before we started to work on the documentary, and now his relatives are sending him documents about their family roots.
Patrick was showing the documents to Rober Koptaş from Agos newspaper and he was telling him who his grand grandmother was. Patrick’s grandparents were exiled during 1915, and his other grandparents were refugees from the genocide, and even one of them was an orphan. Patrick is not an activist but he is a public figure, and he is Armenian, that’s why people would like to know his story and what he thinks about this subject.
Canada recognized the Armenian Genocide in 2006, within consideration of the recent statements of United States, how does Canadians and the Armenian Community in Canada feel about this situation?
One thing that makes the difference between Canada and United States is that Canada is not afraid of doing this. United States always afraid of retaliation, and that’s why this is also a political issue. That’s the problem, when we mix historical facts with political issues suddenly everything becomes really complicated.
Obama used the word genocide before he was the president, and after winning the elections he uses the words “catastrophe, massacre.”
This is a very sensitive issue. In Canada, this issue was discussed and recognized. Canada has recognized many more minority issues before that. The Armenian Community in Quebec is very strong.
Any further comments?
We will be broadcasting the documentary on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. I was working on the holocaust before and now I’m working on the genocide. I believe these kinds of situations must be known by the whole world. (ENÜ/AS/BM)
Documentary crew:
Journalist: Ines Faro
Director: Yves Bernard
Main Character: Patrick Masbourian
Cameraman: Alberto Feio
Fixer: Anne Andlaver
Producer: Yves Bernard and Melanie Pelletier
* Click here to read the article in Turkish.
