play Archives

Play featuring Armenian Genocide survivors goes on stage in Istanbul

April 14, 2017 By administrator

Istanbul’s Muhsin Ertugrul theatre has staged a peformance telling the story of Armenian Genocide survivors.
The Grief, written by Salih Elfioglu, Director of the Istanbul City Theatres’ Association, features a family whose members narrowly escaped the big horror to face tragedy and plights in other countries abroad.
But emigration was not the only trouble of the heroes who headed to Istanbul from Western Armenia to later settle in Paris. The journey into uncertainty begins in 2013, with the nostalgia for homeland haunting the family all the time, and the wars and political tensions in Europe keeping them in a state of permanent anxiety.

The performance will run through April 22.

Hacker Guccifer 2.0 Exposes Democrats’ Pay-to-Play Scheme “Ambassadorships for sale”

September 14, 2016 By administrator

pay-play After revealing that the Democratic National Committee actively conspired against presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, the hacker known as Guccifer 2.0 has now exposed the organization’s corrupt method of appointing vital US government positions.

On Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) released a statement, bracing for new revelations by — who else?— the Russians. “The DNC is the victim of a crime – an illegal cyber attack by Russian state-sponsored agents who seek to harm the Democratic Party and progressive groups in an effort to influence the presidential election,” the statement reads. “We would urge anyone attempting to access these documents to proceed with extreme caution given the potential malware risks.”

The DNC is bracing itself for the release of more documents pic.twitter.com/y1uVz8jUW9

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) September 13, 2016

Now that the documents have been released, the attempt to blame the “Russian boogeyman” for the hack has been revealed as a clear attempt to create a distraction from the damning information contained within the leaked documents.

According to the documents, top donors to the DNC have received various government positions. Most are ambassadorships, but several are departmental appointments.

Matthew Berzun, who reportedly raised $1,907,100 for the DNC, as well as $1,174,430 for President Barack Obama’s Organizing for Action (OFA), was appointed as Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Kirk Wagar appears to have raised $825,000 for the DNC and $1,300,000 for the OFA before being appointed Ambassador to Singapore. The documents show that Julius Genachowski raised $792,650 for the DNC and $2,628,169 for the OFA. Genachowski served as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair between 2009 and 2013. Frank Sanchez raised $3,415,000 for the DNC, OFA, and the Combined Federal Campaign and served as the US Under Secretary of Commerce.

“We have a political system which, unfortunately, encourages pay to play, and people who give big donations are often rewarded with positions in the government,” former Congressman Dennis Kucinich told Radio Sputnik’s By Any Means Necessary. “It really illustrates the defects in our system, where money trumps everything and everything’s for sale.”

“And don’t think for a moment that all of these corporate interests that are honeycombed now into positions in the government aren’t delivering to the corporate interests, from where they came, some form of benefit, in terms of reshaping government policy,” he adds.

As long as we have the kind of campaign finance system we have, the system is going to be vulnerable to pay to play, and that’s what we’re seeing right now, and it happens in both political parties, so it’s a rotten system.” Kucinich pointed out that the problem isn’t limited to the Democratic Party. “Both political parties are in trouble. There is an emerging force in America that doesn’t rely on political parties for legitimacy, and the political parties — both Democrat and Republican — have become totally self-serving, captives of corporate interest, and unable to be able to address the practical aspirations of the American people for healthcare, for education, for jobs, for a clean environment, for protecting the globe, for peace,” he said. “And so we, today, learn a little bit more about the Democratic Party being for sale. Well, that’s nothing new, nor is it new that the same goes for the Republican Party.”

Turkish author’s play to be staged in Armenia

October 13, 2015 By administrator

By Aida Avetisyan

“Vladimir Kocharyan” theatre group from New York will stage “You Rejoice my Heart” drama in Armenia from October 14 to 17. The play is based on German-Turkish writer Kemal Yalcin’s book. On this occasion the writer has arrived in Armenia.

After earning degrees in education and philosophy, Mr. Yalcin went on to become a journalist and was the editor of the Halkin Yolu (The way of the people) newspaper in Turkey until he was forced to flee to Germany in 1981 for political reasons.

Speaking to reporters in Yerevan Mr. Yalcin said he had never heard about the Armenian Cause during the years of his study in Turkey. It was only in 1990 that he learnt about the Armenian history from an Armenian teacher in Germany.

The writer has already published 5,000 pages about the Armenian-Turkish issue. “This is a drop in the sea of sufferings of the Armenian people. The pain of Armenians is mine. This is the reason why I called my book “You Rejoice my Heart.”

The book was translated into Western Armenian by Archbishop Garegin Bekchyan, leader of the German Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church and was later translated into Eastern Armenian by Larisa Gevorgyan.

Kemal Yalcin said it’s an honor to see his play staged in Armenia. “I’m looking forward to reactions,” he said.

The play is expected to be taken to Turkey in 2016. The writer has one wish – to contribute to the establishment of friendship between the Armenian and Turkish peoples.

Source: armradio.am

Montreal: State of Denial: New play links Armenian Genocide to that in Rwanda

October 5, 2015 By administrator

Montreal’s Teesri Duniya Theatre is presenting its offering directed by Liz Valdez and written by playwright Rahul Varma. The play is called State of Denial and explores a very painful and often forgotten part of the history in the 20th century, the Montreal Rampage reports.

The play links the Turkish-denied Armenian genocide of 1915 with the 1995 genocide in Rwanda, connecting them through the Canadian diaspora experience. When Odette, a Rwandan-born Canadian filmmaker, travels to Turkey to investigate stories of genocide and hidden identity, she interviews Sahana, an elderly and respected Muslim woman who has devoted her life to assisting Armenian survivors. On her deathbed, Sahana confesses a chilling secret that challenges a long-standing state of denial that Odette promises to make public at any personal cost.

In the words of the Director Liz Valdez, “This is incredibly important at a time when we all seem to be so aware and informed, and yet here are these moments in history that most people don’t know anything about. Moments that actually lead to other moments in history. The truth that I had no idea of the similarities between what happened in Turkey in 1915-18 and the holocaust. How? Why? How did we not see it happening again when Hitler came to power? And since then, happening over and over in different horrific ways and for different reasons.”

“History has been written by victors who have the power to exclude what they do not wish the public to know. So learning about history is important, but history constitutes the background – the research that goes on is about peoples’ lives. Learning what history did to people tells us more about history,” playwright Rahul Varma (founder of Teesri Duniya Theatre) said in an interview with Sinj Karan of the Montreal Rampage.

“If we had learned from the Armenian genocide, we may have prevented the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda and many other genocides,” he said.

“Today, the role of an artist is not to revisit history but to allow the public to learn important lessons from it, so horrible acts of history are not repeated. State of Denial is presented to draw attention to, and the elevation of, human misery and to create a world of diminished violence,” the playwright said.

The fictional State of Denial is derived from multiple true stories from the research project, Life Stories of Montrealers Displaced by War, Genocide and other Human Rights Violations housed at Concordia University. Varma affirms, “The stories of elsewhere are Canadian stories affecting all citizens. They go beyond biography and facts, revealing truth while instigating further inquiry. My aim is to address global issues locally.”

Great Neck South grad shares heritage, spreads awareness of Armenian genocide through debut play

December 21, 2014 By administrator

By AMY ONORATO

Anoush Baghdassarian, 19, of Great Neck, published her first play “Found,” focusing on the impact of the Armenian genocide when she was still a senior at Great Neck South High School. Baghdassarian, now a college freshman, hopes her play can be used as an educational tool in schools. (Credit: Anoush Baghdassarian) Reported by newsday.com

Growing up in Great Neck, Anoush Baghdassarian spent her Sundays in school at the Armenian Church of the Holy Martyrs in Bayside, reading stories of her country and learning how her heritage has been shaped over time.

“When I was young, in second, third grade, I was captivated by the stories of our past, what makes my culture,” Baghdassarian, 19, said. “I just wanted to learn more.”

Play on Armenian Genocide to be staged in Turkey: report

November 19, 2014 By administrator

On the threshold of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, actor and director Nihat Mürşitpınar is reportedly planning to stage a play about the massacres in the Ottoman Empire.

According to Tert.am, the play, authored by Ozgur Ozcan, will be staged in 2015.

“While writing this play, I wanted to find out what changed during the past 100 years, as those who keep silent about this crime carry the same blame as those who committed it,” the author said, adding that finding a stage for the performance is a problem as well.

“Theaters think that they could compromise their reputation if allow to stage a performance about Armenians and the events of 1915,” he said, according to Tert.am.

The play is also expected to be translated into Armenian.