Renowned author discusses Armenian persecution in book, movie

10/23/08 - Author Antonia Arslan described the massacre of her extended family in Turkey to a crowded auditorium at the University of Rhode Island Monday as part of a two day event. Arslan's grandfather told her at a young age the story of his brother's family. In 1915, Turkish soldiers massacred the males of the family at the ancestral family farm. They sent the women and children on a forced march across the desert.

Two girls and a young boy, who survived because he had been dressed as a girl, were rescued and smuggled to Italy by friends. The children's mother died during the course of the march and their eldest sister was killed because they were of Armenian descent.

Arslan said she forgot about the story for many years, but continued to collect memories of the family and of Armenian culture. Eventually, Arslan felt compelled to convey the story through a book that was later made into a movie.

"At a certain point everything went together and I understood the story in the hearts of these souls," she said. "The bones abandoned in the desert of Syria were speaking to me, and I heard them."

From her grandfather's story, Arslan crafted a novel that has spread across the world and been translated into 16 languages. On Tuesday, she screened the Italian film "La Masseria Delle Allodole," based on her novel of the same name.

Shown through special permission, the 2007 movie, translated into English as "Skylark Farm," was produced by internationally-respected Italian directors Paolo and Vitorrio Tavianni.

Arslan said the film, which has not been released in the United States, closely follows the plot of the novel and is true to her intentions.

Called "an Armenian Schindler's List" by critics, Arslan's novel follows her family's struggles during the 1915 Armenian Genocide.

During World War I, Turkey's ruling ultra-nationalist Young Turks party sought to create an exclusively Turkish nation. The campaign against the civilian Armenian population, a Christian ethnic minority within the empire, ended in their virtual eradication within the country by 1923, according to the Armenian National Institute.

Arslan's lecture focused on her inspiration for the novel and the responsibility she felt to tell the story of the Armenian people. The prospect of the project was initially daunting, she said.

"It was like a duty to me, but I didn't dare to start," she said.

But with the first word of her novel, Arslan said her hesitation vanished.

"I found that I was able to very, very simply put together the story of my family and in this story of my family to tell the story of this tragedy of the Armenian people," she said.

Arslan was accompanied at the lecture by long-time friend Siobhan Nash-Marshall, an associate professor of Christian philosophy at Manhattanville College.

Nash-Marshall prefaced Tuesday's lecture with a brief examination of the Armenian Genocide and of the term "genocide."

The Turkish government continues to deny the episode today, and it has not been officially recognized as an act of genocide by many countries, including the United States. Some refuse to accept that the term is applicable to the event, despite the fact that the word "genocide" was created with the Armenians in mind, Nash-Marshall said.

"As world history has repeatedly shown some events are forgotten and simply erased from the collective memory," she said. "And one of these events is, of course, the Armenian Genocide."

Despite the divisiveness of the subject, Arslan said she does not wish her book to foster hate.

"Because I am of the third generation, I cannot put only hate in the book, I have to try to put light on memories, on truth, but not to transmit too much hate," Arslan said. "Hate is always poisonous for everyone."

The lecture opened the eyes of some students.

"I thought it was great for us as students to have a writer of her stature come talk to us, and the subject isn't very well taught in schools, so it was important for us to know," senior Stephen Hewitt said.

Junior Alice Donabedian attended the lecture with friends Elyse Berberian, a sophomore, and Ida Krikorian, a freshman.

"It was very informative, I mean we're Armenian and we grew up learning the history, but just some of the things they mentioned I've never heard of," Donabedian said.

Arslan hopes that her book and the movie adaptation will help to spread awareness of the tragedy beyond Armenian circles.

"It's very important to know the story of these unfortunate Armenians, also to avoid that such tragedies happen again," Arslan said in an interview. "I hope that in the book of history the tragedy of the Armenians will have a correct part."

The event was sponsored by the URI Center for the Humanities, the department of modern and classical languages and literatures, the Italian section, the English department, the Italian student organization CIAO and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research.