Deep Mountain: An Interview with Ece Temelkuran
Ece Temelkuran’s latest book Deep Mountain: Across the Turkish-Armenian Divide explores the history and continuing discussion surrounding the Armenian Genocide in Armenia, Turkey, France, and the United States. The project, which was borne from conversations the author had with Hrant Dink, the late editor of Agos newspaper, probes deeper into this situation by interviewing a wide range of Armenian writers, thinkers, and activists including Armenian poet Silva Gaboudikian, musician Arto Tuncboyajian, and filmmaker Serge Avedikian.
A well-known journalist and political commentator in Turkey, Temelkuran writes regularly for the Turkish newspaper Haberturk and has won numerous awards for her work, including the Pen for Peace Award and Turkish Journalist of the Year.
Temelkuran sat down with Taleen Babayan for an interview about Deep Mountain, which was recently translated into English by Verso Books.
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I am from Turkey and this is one of the two books (the other one is Fethiye Çetin’s Annneannem-My Grandmother) that i recommend people around me who started to grow an interest in the Armenian issue -or at least have the potential to do so. I read it a couple of times. As Ece stated, Turks usually stops thinking and feeling when it comes to Armenians. This book provides a good analysis of this state of apathy. I have never really been a hater of Armenians despite all the brainwash we are subjected to spanning from the early childhood to the history classes at high schools. but this book truly helps getting to know and understand the Armenian diaspora enough to make a fresh start in your mind.
I have been following Armenian weekly quite some time and never really felt ready to post a comment until now. To be honest, this is because I didn’t think i could handle the reactions i was to face here for just being a Turk. I thought it was time, because this is a special book.
Thanks for sharing Burak.
“The book is defending that we should share our stories before labeling the story,”
Guys, this ‘sharing of stories’ will consist of: “You suffered, we suffered. Let’s call it even.” Rubbish. Yellow journalism by Temelkuran.
Burak ,
It is good to know you have reading habit.
How many books did you read about the period 1900-1918 ?
“As Ece stated, Turks usually stops thinking and feeling when it comes to Armenians”
Who gave the right to you to speak on behalf of a nation ?Please talk for yourself.
It is so suprisingly that you understood the mentality of Hays after reading only a book ..Looks like you are ready for “human right activist”, or “nobel prize” …
Ha ha ..you are so late..There are many already out there ..Old fashion…
We need more intellectuals and consciously sensitive, bright writers like Ace Temelkuran.
I recently read Deep Mountain. I am appreciative of Temelkuran’s relatively sensitive approach, as well as the mere fact that Turkish authors are willing to explore Armenian perspectives, which are new to Turkish audiences, and very important to the Armenian people. However despite the book’s acclaim and my appreciation to the author for being willing to explore this difficult socio-geopolitical issue, it ultimately falls short of progress in two key areas.
For one, the term, genocide, never appears outside of quotes, opting to use ‘1915’ in its place. Perhaps this is a requirement of any book on the subject matter to be published in Turkey, in which case represents capitulation to the autocratic government party line, despite the author’s criticisms of the Turkish government more generally throughout her career. This is fundamentally flawed and ironic given that the book highlights a key Turkish-Armenian relationship in Boston (as a symbol of progress for both communities) where genocide recognition is the key tenet to growth and reconciliation! By failing to use the work genocide outside of quote marks, the author has undermined her own position by either consciously or unconsciously accepting Turkish authority on the matter. The author’s regular use of the term ‘Armenian Issue’ follows the same line, where the global effort of diaspora Armenians and silenced Turkish-Armenians is not a struggle for recognition of our pain and need for factual documentation of recent history, but rather something which is bothersome to the Turkish state in advancing political goals like EU acceptance or domestic minority population control.
The second key flaw is that the author asks of each Armenian interviewee “don’t you ever get tired of the ‘genocide issue'”, to which there are two main general answers of, “of course, but we will never give up” and “no, we will never give up until XYZ…”. To reduce the needs of the Armenian community to a chore, is to ask a person if they are tired of “washing themselves”. While the author learns to view Armenian psychological trauma over genocide recognition and discussion as critical to the identity of Armenians and ultimately finds a source of Turkish psychological trauma stemming from the same root, we are left with a question for the author, “dont you ever get tired of suppressing guilt passed down over generations?”. Hopefully in the author’s journey their questions to themselves may change.
While I dont see it as a fatal flaw to the book, perhaps a great deal more can be learned from publication of the dialogue between the author and Zaven Manikjian, in which only the line “Journalists are for sale. And Turkish journalists come cheapest of all!” is produced. While not to allow the poor behavior on anyone’s part, an aggrieved Armenian raised in fear of Turkish people (as the book explores in many interviews) is an obvious source of spite and rage. It is not surprising to find ‘bad eggs’ in the Armenian community, but what is surprising is that the author did not allow the audience a view at what words or concepts can upset a Turkish intellectual. The author finally expresses a strong emotional reaction despite years of work confronting the ‘unfeeling’ nature of the Turkish perspective on the matter, and instead complains about the shallowness of Los Angeles or its ‘maze-like’ geography.
Perhaps as an Armenian, I am particularly critical of any Turkish writing on this topic. However, when speaking with Turkish people in my community, mostly secular, engineers, artisans, and journalists, the term ‘genocide’ is not a controversial term, so long as the term can be applied to Jews, Rwandans, Rohingya, etc, and is not unique to the Armenians, thereby effectively absolving the millennial and youth generations of Turks of the crimes of previous generations, merely by accepting a historical fact. I greatly appreciate insight and the willingness of Turkish people everywhere for discussing this fork in the road where our cultures and histories divide.