(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
"Who today remembers the extermination of the Armenians?" The quote is attributed to Adolf Hitler, from the time the Nazis prepared the total annihilation of European Jews. However, a web search quickly reveals that many websites either deny that Hitler ever said this, or claim that the Armenian genocide never took place.
The legitimacy of Turkey. It is now a hundred years since 1,5 millions of Armenians were murdered by the Turkish Ottoman Empire. In the documentary Intent to Destroy the bitter truth about modern Turkey's continuous denial of genocide is revealed, and it is Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger.
The current authoritarian Turkish regime, under President Recep Erdogan, routinely spends millions on PR denying that the Armenian genocide ever took place. This carefully planned mass murder raises the question of the very existence of modern Turkey. Berling Intent to Destroy talks about the systematic annihilation of the Christian Armenians, and how this heavily burdened story has been portrayed – the few times the story is actually told – especially on film.
The first third of the film provides a comprehensive and detailed picture of the planned deportations and death marches that were about to wipe out the Armenian population of Turkey between 1915 and 1923. This was the first time the 20th century funds were used to exterminate a people group. Berlinger's many historians believe that the related seizure of Armenian property and wealth paved the way for a Turkish upper and middle class.
Seized Armenian property and fortune paved the way for a Turkish middle and upper class.
Armenian Schindlers liste. This complex narrative is effectively structured here by placing it within the context of a big-budget Hollywood fictionalization of the Armenian genocide. Joe Berlinger managed to get a seat on the film set for the upcoming big film The Promise, a dramatic $ 100 million epic, ambitiously referred to as the Armenian Schindlers liste. It was all directed by Oscar winner Terry George (Hotel Rwanda, In The Name Of The Father), and has stars like Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac in the roles.
Due to Turkey's powerful denial machinery, the recordings came into being The Promise made in Spain, Portugal and Malta, where the landscapes were allowed to play the role of the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the 20th century. Although Terry George tried to keep a low profile on production during the filming, the Turkish authorities did everything they could to make his threatening presence known. One of those who noticed this was the Spanish actor Daniel Giménez Cacho. When he accidentally announced that he was going to play an Armenian priest in The Promise, the Turkish Ambassador to Spain summoned him to a meeting to present him with a handy collection of denial propaganda.
Diplomatic pressure. Intent to Destroy unfolds the early attempts of the newly crowned Turkish state to erase any trace of the Armenian genocide. This story of denial began in the 1920s, when Turkey used its geostrategic position in the Middle East to gain American acceptance for its version of history. Berlinger cuts from early footage of the idealistic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who during his first election campaign uses the term genocide, to later news broadcasts in which President Obama pats his ally Erdogan on the shoulder.
The Armenian genocide raises questions about the very existence of modern Turkey.
The documentary also presents a fascinating series of telegrams between the US State Department and Turkey's former US Ambassador Munir Ertegun, in connection with another and much earlier filming. In 1935, the Hollywood studio MGM was in the process of pre-producing The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, based on a popular novel of the same name, was to star Clark Gable himself. The film included a scene in which a group of Armenians withstood Turkish attackers on a mountain fortress, until they were rescued by a French warship. But Ertegun's persistent diplomatic pressure, combined with the threat of a Turkish boycott of all American films, eventually forced MGM to cancel the entire production. Berlinger's camera captures Terry George's feelings about these events, 80 years after the original MGM movie was scrapped and long before he himself was born.
Elie Wiesel called Turkey's denial of the Armenian extermination "a double killing."
Cacophony of diplomas. Intent to Destroy allows for more academics who deny the genocide, but who still feel bad about fashion by being categorized as genocide deniers. For many years, Turkey's main line has been to claim that the massacres were reciprocal because it was a civil war, and that the term genocide can not be used – as it was not used until 1948. Berlinger's film-inside-a-film concept seems most striking when the filmmaker cuts between a cacophony of deniers (a Turkish professor accuses Armenians of "Holocaust envy") and Terry George's fictional representation of the Ottoman attack on Musa Dagh. However, Berlinger's incessant cascades of diplomas and information in interviews can sometimes be perceived as tiring. This is the documentary's only weak point.
The Promise is funded by the late Armenian-American film mogul Kirk Kerkorian, and is the most expensive independent film ever made. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2016 – and even before that, not surprisingly, Turkey's sophisticated denial system had begun to take off. After only a few views with a modest 900 seats, 50 votes were cast on Imdb.com which gave The Promise a star. It was pretty obvious that negative voices came from people who could not have seen the film. In other words, the denial of the Armenian genocide has reached social media.
Modern denial tactics. At the time of writing, a controversial referendum has given Recep Erdogan more power, which could allow him to remain in power until 2029. Many Turkish immigrants in France were photographed casting their votes in 1500th-century Ottoman costumes. , an imperialist era that Erdogan often recalls. A hugely popular TV series that idealizes the founding of the empire, Resurrection: Ertugrul, rolls across screens not only in Turkey, but in most of the former Ottoman territory – from Bulgaria to Bosnia. Two very popular films sponsored by Turkey were released in the time before the dramatic vote: Rice ("The Boss"), an admirable film biography of Erdogan's early life, and The Ottoman Lieutenant, a glossy melodrama from the First World War that launders the Armenian genocide. There seems to be little doubt that denial will only grow stronger.
Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel often called Turkey's attempt to erase the Armenian extermination a "double killing"; the eighth and final stage of genocide. Joe Berlingers Intent to Destroy is significant and necessary, and aims to overthrow this equation.
