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A MOVIE REVIEW: AURORA’S SUNRISE
ANALYSIS NO : 2023 / 21
AUTHOR : HAZEL ÇAĞAN ELBİR
Armenian Claims
Armenian Diaspora
11 min read
07.12.2023
Propaganda
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The existence of films, books, exhibitions and a number of
other projects that interpret the 1915 events as “genocide” is
no longer surprising. A new one was added to these
productions a year ago, titled “Aurora’s Sunrise.” After its
premiere on November 24, 2023 in London, the film started
to draw attention quickly. It was made with the support of the
Zoryan Institute, EurImages, Lithuania, the USA, France,
Germany and Anadolu Kültür from Türkiye. It is not
possible to view the movie from Türkiye without a VPN.
When you want to watch the movie, you will see statements
that “it cannot be viewed in your geography”. The duration
of the movie is 1 hour and 36 minutes. Approximately 70
minutes of the movie consists of animation and almost 10
minutes of the movie consists of interviews given by
Arshaluys Mardiganian. The movie also includes some
scenes from the 1917 Hollywood silent movie “Auction of
Souls”, which is the subject of the movie.
Türk-Ermeni İlişkileri Üzerine Ömer Engin
Lütem Konferansları 2022
11.04.2023
RADİKAL
ERMENİ
UNSURLARCA
GERÇEKLEŞTİRİLEN MEZALİMLER VE
VANDALİZM
27.03.2023
PATRIOTISM PERVERTED
17.03.2023
MEN ARE LIKE THAT
23.02.2023
In the movie, eastern Türkiye is referred to as “Western
Armenia”, in line with the fanatical and antagonistic
Armenian discourse. One day, the door of an Armenian
family living in peace and happiness in Çemişgezek is
knocked on by their Kurdish neighbors. The Kurdish
shepherd (this part of the movie is in Turkish) tells them that
the war is imminent, that the city has become dangerous for
Armenians, that Armenians have started to gather around Istanbul, and that he has heard that a similar situation could
happen here. He warns that going to the mountains is now a safer alternative. Kirakos, the father of 14-year-old Arshaluys,
who narrates the story, says that he will not go anywhere and that only cowards would flee. Kirakos believes that running
away would justify the Turks “punishing” other Armenians. A few days later, Turkish soldiers came to take Arshaluys’
father and brother. After that day, his father and brother were never heard from again. Meanwhile, some frames from the
movie “Auction of Souls” are shown. These images show that people who are taken away from their families under the
pretext of being taken to war are shot and killed without question. However, it is not explained how the circumstances
changed from living in peace and happiness to this point in time. The film does not mention the Muslim community in
Anatolia experiencing a similar situation, nor the rebellions that took place between 1882 and 1909 in different important
regions of Anatolia, especially in Erzurum, Bitlis, Van, Elazığ. Of course, these will not be referred to as “rebellions” in
the following frames, but will be presented as “the just struggle of freedom fighters.” Nonetheless, gratitude to the
foreigners who supported them through missionary activities will be expressed in this way.
BAKÜ-TİFLİS-CEYHAN BORU HATTININ
YAŞANAN TARİHİ
03.02.2023
INTERNATIONAL
EVENTS OF 1915
SCHOLARS
ON
THE
16.12.2022
FAKE PHOTOS
PROPAGANDA
AND
THE
ARMENIAN
07.12.2022
ERMENİ PROPAGANDASI
RESİMLER
VE
SAHTE
07.12.2022
Türk-Ermeni İlişkileri Üzerine Ömer Engin
Lütem Konferansları 2021
The movie, in which Arshaluys Mardiganian tells the story of Armenians being forced to change their names and religion,
being subjected to inhumane treatment, and girls being raped, also includes quotes from the propaganda book “Ravished
Armenia”. There are also references to some articles that have nothing to do with reality and the statements of a supposed
eyewitness are used to make it seem as if they are true. The first article that comes to mind here is the article titled “Nearly
a century after the Armenian genocide these people are still being slaughtered in Syria” published in The Independent on
December 1, 2013[1]. In this article by R. Fisk, he writes: “[...] It was difficult to find these bones because the Khabur
River – north of the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zour – had changed. So many were the bodies heaped in its flow that the waters
moved to the east. The very river had altered its course[2].” It is difficult to find a more “creative” solution to explain the
failure to find the bodies. Fisk also comes up with another alternative explanation concerning the “failure” to find the
bodies. Despite the contradiction that no mass graves have been found in the areas where “genocide” was allegedly
committed and where no rivers were present nearby, Fisk makes the claim regarding the 5000 Armenians in this area,
“they stuffed them into a cave and then started a bonfire at the mouth and filled the cave with smoke. They all asphyxiated.
They all coughed until they died[3].”
30.03.2022
A Letter From Japan - Strategically Mum: The
Silence of the Armenians
01.01.2022
Japonya'dan Bir Mektup - Stratejik Suskunluk:
Ermenilerin Sessizliği
01.01.2022
Türk-Ermeni Uyuşmazlığı Üzerine Ömer Engin
Lütem Konferansları 2020
11.02.2021
In an article written by Jeremy Salt, it is stated that Fisk’s Armenian driver told him this story and it is not explained how
he knew all these details. However, Fisk’s unquestioning acceptance of this situation is striking. Fisk continues, “Up here
in the cold dry desert the Turks turned this crack in the earth’s crust into the twentieth century’s first gas chamber. The
principles of technological genocide began here in the Syrian desert, at the tiny mouth of this innocent cave in a natural
chamber in the rock.” Fisk returned to his accusations in 2014, stating as a fact that in the northern Syrian desert, “‘the
Turks’ ‘engineered the first primitive gas chambers, by driving thousands of Armenians into rock caves [not one cave any
longer] and asphyxiating them by lighting bonfires [sic.] at the entrance’[4].” There is no evidence for these allegations.
As it can be understood, the claim put forward in the movie is reinforced by another claim that cannot be supported by
documents.
Anastas Mikoyan: Confessions of an Armenian
Bolshevik
03.06.2020
Sovyet Sonrası Ukrayna’da Devlet, Toplum ve
Siyaset - Değişen Dinamikler, Dönüşen Kimlikler
08.04.2020
Returning to the issue of the changing of Armenian names, we can see that the film deals with the issue in a different way.
Arshaluys Mardiganian, with the help of a gang leader in Tbilisi, introduced as Antranik Pasha, first travels to Russia, then
to Norway and then to the USA. Here, her story attracted much attention from Americans. Henry Gates and his wife, who
wrote the book based on her and were her legal custodians asked Arshaluys to change her name. The reason was that it
was difficult for Americans to pronounce. Here we can see the first cracks of the American support that she relied on so
much. Later, the Gates couple, who had exploited Arshaluys, who fainted on stage, exhausted as a result of telling her
traumas over and over again while going from promotion to promotion, gave up on Arshaluys and abandoned her to the
convent. However, they would continue their “popular” tour by taking other girls they made look like Arshaluys to
promote the movie. The purpose of this propaganda was to gain the support of the US Senate for then US President
Woodrow Wilson’s plan to establish an Armenia in eastern Anatolia under American mandate. However, the Wilson Plan
was rejected by the senators. “The very people that said I was family had used me,” Arshaluys said. Of course, this is still
true today.
Türk-Ermeni Uyuşmazlığı Üzerine Ömer Engin
Lütem Konferansları 2019
18.03.2020
Türk-Ermeni Uyuşmazlığı Üzerine Ömer Engin
Lütem Konferansları 2018
08.03.2019
Ermeni Sorunuyla İlgili İngiliz Belgeleri (19121923) - British Documents on Armenian Question
(1912-1923)
12.06.2018
Turkish-Russian Academics: A Historical Study
on the Caucasus
02.12.2016
Gürcistan'daki Müslüman Topluluklar: Azınlık
Hakları, Kimlik, Siyaset
01.07.2016
Armenian Diaspora: Diaspora, State and the
Imagination of the Republic of Armenia
10.03.2016
Ermeni Sorunu Temel Bilgi ve Belgeler (2.
Baskı)
24.01.2016
JOURNALS
Ermeni Araştırmaları 74. Sayı
27.11.2023
Review Of Armenian Studies 47. Sayı
23.06.2023
Uluslararası Suçlar ve Tarih / International
Crimes and History 24. Sayı
21.09.2023
Avrasya Dünyası / Eurasian World 13. Sayı
06.11.2023
REPORTS - CONFERENCE BOOKS
ÇAĞDAŞ
BATI
AVRUPA
AKADEMİ
DÜNYASINDA IRKÇILIĞIN VE YABANCI
DÜŞMANLIĞININ
ARAŞTIRILMASININ
02.06.2023
YUNANİSTAN’DAKİ TÜRK VAKIFLARININ
HUKUKİ STATÜSÜ
08.05.2023
DIFFICULTY OF STUDYING RACISM AND
XENOPHOBIA IN MODERN WESTER
…
EUROPEAN ACADEMIA: THE CASE OF
28.04.2023
EVENTS
Even though the movie stands out as “only genocide propaganda,” it also makes references to the erosion of the
Armenians’ identities in the countries they visit. It is so obvious that the film was prepared with the focus being on
“genocide” that there are self-contradictions in the very brief mentions of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk towards the end. An
example would be the statement, “Meanwhile, different empires were forming opposing plans for what was left of my
homeland. Wilson was pushing the American mandate for Armenia; Lenin wanted to see us under his new socialist
empire; and under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Turkish soldiers were taking up arms again to build a new Turkish state in the
lands of Armenian suffering.” Additionally, the statement “Mustafa Kemal was building a new Türkiye by committing
massacres his way across Armenian lands.”, considering the fact that President Wilson’s plan was rejected by the Senate
by 52 votes to 23, is the blatant example of contradiction in the movie. In the statements, both the Ottoman Empire and the
Republic of Türkiye are accused separately. The film goes one step further and tries to extend the period defined as the
events of 1915 to 1923. Just as the Ottoman Empire is made to seem guilty for the Relocation and Resettlement Law, the
Republic of Türkiye is also held responsible.
At the end of the film, it is stated that “The United States was the 33rd country to recognize the Armenian genocide.
Türkiye still denies the genocide.” There is a point that needs to be clarified here; it does not matter how many countries’
parliaments recognize the 1915 events as “genocide.” The fact that the United States is among them is not enough to
legitimize this situation. The fact is that the concept of “genocide” is a legal concept, which can only be recognized by the
International Criminal Court. Another issue regarding the 1915 events that should not be ignored is the work on the Malta
Tribunals. At the end of the First World War, 144 Ottoman officials were arrested by the British on charges of “mass
murder” of Armenians and an investigation was conducted in Malta by the Britain’s highest legal prosecution authority,
the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in London[5]. Despite the efforts of the UK to try and convict the Turkish detainees
in Malta, the investigation conducted by the CPS concluded with a verdict of “lack of grounds for legal action – no
prosecution” without any charges being brought, on the grounds that “it was unlikely that such charges could be proven in
a British court of law[6].” This issue, which contains evidence that the 1915 Events were not “genocide,” is another aspect
that needs to be examined.
When considering “Aurora’s Sunrise” separately from its inaccurate content, it is possible to say that it is a technically
very labor-intensive production, lacking consistency as a documentary, but remarkable when evaluated as an animation. It
received 16 awards and 5 nominations.
We understand the pain and sentimentality of Armenians who were subjected to the Relocation and Resettlement Law.
However, turning this circumstance into hate speech and making a movie out of the hate does not lead to the sharing of
pain, but to a reaction against such projects. While sentimentality and suffering are understandable, it is neither
understandable nor tolerable to distort and exaggerate historical documents and create hate speech out of the inaccuracy
and feed off of it. This is how this movie is generally evaluated by Turkish audiences. However, this movie is essentially a
production planned by the Armenian lobby in the US. Today, it is understandable that it is supported by organizations such
as ANCA, etc. that feed off of anti-Turkish hatred. What is not understandable is this: This film was funded by the US
State Department and EurImages (European Cinema Support Fund) of the Council of Europe, of which Türkiye is a
member. In addition, Armenia, Lithuania, Germany and France also provided financial support.
CONFERENCE
TITLED
“HUNGARY’S
PERSPECTIVES ON THE TURKIC WORLD"
AVİM Conference Hall
24.01.2023
ANNOUNCEMENTS
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
REPARATIONS FOR HISTORICAL WRONGS:
FROM AD HOC MASS CLAIMS PROGRAMS TO
AN
INTERNATIONAL
FRAMEWORK
04.12.2023
It is even more difficult for a Turkish viewer to understand why the West, especially the US and the EU, which today
applies censorship and double standards even to the just cause of Palestine, would support a film that does not correspond
to the facts, distorts history, even contradicts itself in many points, and may stir up feelings of hatred against Turks.
[1] Jeremy Salt, "History, Journalism and Propaganda: Robert Fisk and The 'Armenian Question'", History Studies, 13/2,
April 2021, p. 341 - 370, https://www.historystudies.net/dergi/history-journalism-and-propaganda-robert-fisk-and-thearmenian-question2021037b22f80.pdf.
[2] Robert Fisk, "Nearly a century after the Armenian genocide, these people are still being slaughtered in Syria," The
Independent, December 1, 2013, https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/nearly-a-century-after-the-armeniangenocide-these-people-are-still-being-slaughtered-in-syria-8975976.html.
[3] Salt, p. 357.
[4] Salt, p. 358.
[5] Uluç Gürkan, “Malta Tribunals,” Review of Armenian Studies, no:31, 2015, p.
181, https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/777543.
[6] Uluç Gürkan, "Malta: Sürgün mü, Yargılama mı?", Türk - Ermeni Uyuşmazlığı Üzerine Ömer Engin Lütem
Konferansları 2020, Terazi Yayıncılık: Ankara, 2021, p. 13. https://avim.org.tr/tr/Kitap/10/pdf.
© 2009-2021 Center for Eurasian Studies (AVİM) All Rights Reserved
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