Director Garapedian Discusses New Film Screamers With Enthusiastic Audience at Fresno State

Ara Nalbandian
Staff Writer

On January 21st 2007, Taner Akçam, the author of the newly published book A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility, was scheduled to speak at California State University, Fresno.

However, on January 19th, Hrant Dink, editor of the Turkish-Armenian Agos weekly newspaper, was brutally gunned down in front of the Agos offices in Istanbul, Turkey. Akçam, a friend of Dink’s, made the last minute decision to cancel his appearance in Fresno, so that he could attend Dink’s funeral service in Istanbul.

Documentary film director Carla Garapedian was invited to speak in Akçam’s place. Garapedian, had been busy promoting her new film Screamers, a documentary about the Armenian Genocide and its continued denial, when she accepted an invitation from Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian of the Armenian Studies Program to fill in for Akçam. Garapedian’s film Screamers, which just had its Fresno premiere two days earlier, features video clips of both Akçam and Dink.

Garapedian began her talk by paying tribute to Dink and fondly sharing her memories of him. She recalled that Dink was not only an intelligent man, but also a very charismatic figure. Dink had attended the premiere of Screamers in Hollywood at the American Film Institute’s Film Festival this past November.

Garapedian treated the captivated audience to a 19 minute preview of her highly acclaimed documentary, which combines the testimony of genocide survivors and historians with the music of the all Armenian, multi-platinum, heavy metal rock band System of a Down. The documentary centers around System of a Down’s lead singer, Serj Tankian’s, personal journey for recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the United States government.

Garapedian spoke about her recent visit to Washington, on January 17th, where she had the opportunity to screen her documentary for members of Congress. During the discussion that followed the screening there, Garapedian was asked by a Turkish woman, why the Turkish side of this issue was not portrayed in her film. Garapedian responded by stating that, “Genocide does not have two sides.”

During the question and answer period following her lecture in Fresno, two different Turkish men stood up and expressed their sorrow for what had been done to the Armenian people. One of the men emotionally stated that while fully understanding that his comments on the Armenian genocide would place him in direct violation of Turkey’s law against public denigration of Turkishness (Article 301), he expressed his embarrassment over the Turkish government’s continued denial. He added that Turkish people privately do understand and admit what was done to the Armenian people was genocide, but publicly the same people would deny it out of fear of punishment.

Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian of the Armenian Studies Program thanked Carla Garapedian for taking time out of her busy schedule to speak. Her schedule included a screening of her film the following day at Valley Beth Shalom Temple in the San Fernando Valley. The screening of her film at the Jewish temple was a ground-breaking event that showed the support of the Jewish community in recognizing the Armenian genocide.

Though Taner Akçam was missed that afternoon, Prof. Der Mugrdechian announced that his talk would be rescheduled.