‘Aghet’ Stirs Emotions at Kennedy School Showing

Hrant Dink was also a major focus of the film, with his daughter, Delal, speaking eloquently about his legacy and the meanings of his life and death.

Actors portraying, among others, Armin Wegner; Oscar Heizer, the American consul at Trebizond; Leslie Davis, US Consul to Harput; Swedish missionary Alma Johansson; US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau; German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Paul Wolff Metternich; missionaries Jakob Kunzler and Johannes Lepsius and survivor Hambartsum Sahakian described the horrors that they had witnessed or experienced, sometimes tearfully speaking about the empty homes, the arrests and forced marches, the rapes and mutilations, the dead children and dying, helpless mothers.

Metternich complained often to the Turkish authorities about the sustained decimation of the Armenian population, to the point that Enver and Talaat requested that he return to Germany. In various letters, he wrote with disgust that German money, armaments and soldiers were used to carry out the heinous crimes, all because the Germans needed the Turks strategically.

The film delved into the reasons that the Turkish government gave during the time of the Genocide for executing their plans for the full extermination of the Armenians. First, they complained that the Armenians had enriched themselves as a community at the expense of the ethnic Turks, that they had helped the Russian enemy during the war (World War I) and that they had agitated for independence. Each issue was dealt with during the film.

According to Morgenthau, the real reason for the Genocide was “robbery and destruction.” In the film he was quoted as saying he was disgusted when Talaat asked Morgenthau to contact New York Life, which had sold many insurance policies to Armenians in the empire, and ask them to direct the payouts to the government, as the policyholders were no more.

Some of the scenes, of Armenians loaded in trains meant to transport cattle between Constantinople and Baghdad, were especially heinous. Interestingly, it was pointed out that few films and photos were shot at the time because the government had a policy against taking pictures of Armenians.

Timing seems to have eluded Armenians in their quest to have the Genocide recognized, the film suggested. Again and again, Turkey has been able to suggest that it is needed and thus antagonizing it by adopting a resolution on the Armenian Genocide would be a wrong move.

After thunderous applause by the audience, Friedler coolly and deftly answered questions, including by two Turkish-Americans who wanted to know if Friedler was going to address the murder of Turks by Armenians, and also one who suggested sarcastically how one could suggest a wholesale genocide of the Armenians if the Armenians of Constantinople were not sent on forced marches. Friedler answered that because a few Jews were living in Poland at the end of World War II, one could not suggest that the Holocaust had not taken place.

Friedler said that German responsibility — documented in archives — is proof of Turkish intent and actions. “How can they say nothing happened to the Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians?”

Afram noted that currently, in Iraq, another mass disappearance of Christians is taking place. Friedler said that he is working on getting the film shown on PBS in the US. The Bundestag (Parliament) passed a resolution on the Armenian Genocide in 2005, calling upon Turkey to acknowledge its “historical responsibility,” and apologizing for its own role in the events.