Documentary on Islamized Armenians of Dersim Screened at Columbia University

Excerpt

NEW YORK (A.W.)—In recent years, there has been a growing awareness of, and interest in, exhuming the stories of Islamized Armenians in Turkey. Though filmmaker Nezahat Gündoğan did not initially seek to portray the account of this “hidden” community, after researching the project for four years, she determined that it absolutely had to be told. Her documentary, The Children of Vank (“Vank’in Çocuklari”), weaves together the stories of an Islamized Armenian family who survived both the 1915 Armenian Genocide and the Dersim Massacre of 1938, unraveling the truth behind their lost Armenian identity.

Quotes

• My grandmother’s family came from Dersim. Her father was the head of a village. Yes, in 1915 the Kurds of Dersim were for the most part of Armenian ancestry. The name Dersim comes from the name of an Armenian priest Der Simon who lived and was buried in these mountains. The Kurds would actually go and pray at the St. Garabed Monastery on their knees. There was an elderly man in their village named Gakav. In 1915 they killed his grandsons right in front of his eyes. Gakav was loved and respected by the Kurds and Armenians. This triggered anger from the Kurdish Chieftans and in 1916 there was a rebellion by the Kurds. Many of the Kurds felt close to the Armenians. This is how my grandmother and siblings were saved. There was also an Armenian tribe or Ashiret in dersim the Mirakians.

  — Robert (Comment)

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