WASHINGTON (A.W.)—“Grandma’s Tattoos,” a Swedish production directed by Suzanne Khardalian, will air on Al Jazeera English eight times over the week of Jan. 11-18, occupying a prime time slot in all the key time zones.
“This is an extraordinary achievement for the film,” Khardalian told the Armenian Weekly. “The film will have a huge exposure, and will reach countries that would have been difficult to reach.”
“Grandma’s Tattoos” (2011), a 58-minute-long documentary, chronicles Khardalian’s quest to uncover the atrocities that scarred her grandmother, a woman who bore “devilish marks”—tattoos on her face and hands—that were the persistent reminders of a time in captivity and rape during the Armenian Genocide. Much of her experiences remain a mystery to her progeny, but the few tidbits Khardalian discovered years after her grandmother’s death are but a faint yet terrifying echo of the hellish occurrences that haunted the survivors to the grave.
“Witness,” the Al Jazeera program that will feature “Grandma’s Tattoos,” screens award-winning documentaries that present realities often in conflict- or disaster-stricken regions, from Nairobi to Palestine, Japan to Somalia, Libya to Turkey.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqDLkAnZqcMAl Jazeera English is an international round-the-clock English language news and current affairs TV channel headquartered in Doha, Qatar. Launched in 2006, it reaches around a billion English speaking viewers.
| ‘Grandma’s Tattoos’- show times from Jan. 11, 2012Dates DC KL Doha GMT
Wednesday (Jan. 11) 15:00 04:00 23:00 20:00 |
| Kl: kuala lumpur |
Dear Armenian TV viewers,
Whenever you choose to watch Al Jazeera TV or any other TV channel assuming that it is a pro Armenia TV channel, think twice. CNN then Al Jazeera which are thought to be pro human rights are in fact vehicles to destabilize regions and countries around the world and bring harm to nations.
Al Jazeera is now totally exposed as a source of falsified media to drive people against their governments and destruct countries. Showing a documentary such as “Grandma’s Tattoos” is meant only to gain popularity among the Armenians’ ranks in order to use it against the interests of the Armenians in Diaspora and specially in the Middle East in the very near future.
You can believe the content of a documentary such as “Grandma’s Tattoos” which is a great work by an Armenian, but please NEVER believe Al Jazeera news stream, they are mostly fabricated and misleading.
Thanks.
Agree Gourgen. Well said.
Showing “Grandma’s Tatoos” is good, free publicity for our cause: so we’ll take it. But you are right about the rest.
Large segments of Armenians are particularly susceptible, because they hunger for crumbs of AG recognition – when it was denied for so long, even a little recognition is given out-of-all-proportion appreciation.
Somewhat similar to the sadistic method of mind control: when the victim is regularly beaten and humiliated, even a minor gesture, like throwing a few crumbs of food, is taken as a magnanimous act by the victim: victim eventually starts voluntarily doing the sadist’s bidding.
Dear Gourgen,
Most all “western media” is basically biased at best because its either corporate run or worse state run. In most cases media is just a point of view and at worst a means to some sort of ends. However, a true story about an Armenian girl, stolen during the Genocide,. tattooed and raped for money as property by the hands of Turks and Kurds is still the truth and needs to be told.
Dear Armenian shabihas who must have been told to come and comment on this page, you had no problem with Al-jazeera one year ago, if you prefer to watch Addounia who makes such ridiculous stories that the people on the streets are not protesting but simply thanking god for rain!? or that the christians protesting are salafists, then go watch addounia instead and lower your brain function
I think Al-jazeera is less biased than the American media. I encourage people to research stories through many sources and come to their own conclusions. I doubt CNN, NBC or CBS would ever air this film because it would offend the Turkish government.
I agree Cynthia.
Al Jazeera can be viewed 24/7 here: http://www.aljazeera.com/watch_now/
PS: I agree with Cynthia’s comment above 100%.
There are still many Arabs who have Armenian grandmothers, The Arabs Married and looked after them very well but the Turks raped and used them…Different cultures
The highest Beduin Tribe married to Armenians are:
Al- Anazi, Al-Shammari, Al-Dufayri … I tried to collect the photos…No body responded…
But they tell they were beautiful…clean…kind organized till they died at old age…
Even Saudi Royal Family have Armenian mothers…They brought them from Syria from Der-zor Desert…This is from my book I published in 2008, A Poetic Soul Shined from Genocide…
page 38
A genuine story from my patients: In the summer of 1988, a well dressed unveiled young woman entered to my clinic with her baby. After a short conversation, she became interested to know my origin. I said, I am Armenian, she said her granny was Armenian. At first, I could not believe it, but she started rhyming in Armenian. Then I felt the certainty. She was a princess from Saudi Arabia and gave the story of how her granny journeyed to reach Syria; later, she was taken to Arabia to become one of the wives of the prince. Unfortunately, at that time, I was young and busy, did not have time to take more details, which I enormously regret. Seem a great possibility that she was grand-daughter of the king Abdul-Aziz Al Saud.
page 66
The stories from my clinic on Armenian genocide
The Al Shammari tribe in north of Iraq saved many dying children. One of them was found in river Khabour, so they named him Khabour.* They describe him as a blonde-haired person with blue eyes. His grandchildren say he looked different from our granduncles. He married from the tribe.
There are many stories that people are still narrating from the Al Anazi and the Al Dhufayri tribes. They saved Armenian children in the Middle East, the Gulf, and Arabia, brought them up to become part of their families. They say they are proud to have Armenian origin. To understand the culture of Arabs and their dignity, they called the girls Merriam, which means Mary, as they were Christian and they believe in Merriam being mentioned in Qur’an; mother of Essa (Jesus). It was easier for them than Armenian names, which is difficult to pronounce and write. The name Merriam is heartily and holy in use among Muslim Arabs and Iranians, as frequent as Mary among Christians.
The story achieved after natural personal observation:
In spring of 1992, a Bedouin old woman brought her grandson to me, her face was covered as usual. Her petite white hands were holding her grandson in a delicate and artistic way that I was interested to see her face. She became friendly with me and, after detailed conversation, said my father was an Armenian orphan from the genocide, brought up by a Syrian family, and later married their daughter, who was my mother. She said at the end, “I am short like my father and have the same personality. He was a kind and intelligent man.” I do regret I did not collect more information; I never thought one day that I would be able write a book on genocide. I knew so much that I thought everyone knows about our untreatable pain.
If I can say, almost all people living in the Middle East, Iran, Egypt, and Arabia know about the genocide, even the recent generation, but in Europe and USA, only among some groups.
______________________________________
*Khabour River: A tributary of the Euphrates River. Rising from the mountains of Anatolia, it flows southeastward into Syrian territories to Al-Hasakah, then southward to join the Euphrates near Der Zor.
Sylva Portoian, MD
Thanks for sharing these fascinating stories!
To dear Sylva
Admirable is your poetry…and now your Topography,geography and demography.And on top of all that your personal experiences/contacts with the remnants of our people amongst the arabs. PARTICULARLY TOUCHING, the above narrative re that woman whose husband was Armenian the child that delicately was held out to you to see….no doubt you could describe it so well.
However, w/rgd tgo the overall issue of above ,¨My grandema´s tatoos¨,though i have not seen the movie,I have not only read about it in Hairenik weekly ,but also exchanged emails with the author ,Suzanne Khardalian.You see, I follow up the Armenian press and some other this like web pages.
Main point I´d like to point out here, is multi-faceted.
1.One deals with the showing of it by Al Jazeera,which some believe is biased.
2.others express contrary views as to its being relatively non-biased and more open.
Even if both have some truth to them,what is the outcome?
We do get like Avery writes, ¨free publicity¨which BTW is very expensive these days and we simply cannot afford it without any National invdest Trust Fund.
SO LET´S TAKE IT AND BE CONTENT WITH SOMETHING IS SOMETHING!
My idea of a real Mc Coy though is a feature film or even a Serial (like a 5/7 continually shown TV show ) of ,say Like Shicndler´s List,which we do have the story to it,not the3 Script written of i though …namely ¨¨ m a m i g o n¨ by Armenian American author, Jack Hashian-now deceased-an ex State Dept. functionary,a `patriot really that in his time dared expose the ottoam turlish attrocities in that Novel…and with one VERY IMPORTANT MESAGE!!!!
unlike the G.ma´s tattos,all sufferings therein contained.
This one Mamigon( at one point the author ,intentionally also spells it out -intentionally- MAMI GONE!!!!…anyhow,this is the story of an Armenian seargen in the ottoman army(German trained) fighting fiercely against the Aussis at Gallipoli,while his family ,later to be raped and massacred by his Turkish officer buddy…then the story really warms up in his pursuit of the (now)enemy all through Westgern armenia to Boston,where the tragedy ends..but there are such scenes of the massacres in it the Dath marches ,then tough counter attacks by mamigon and brother and a few inflicting losses to the turks…
Not all lamentations!!!! and suffering.And mamigon is presented as ..for instance , a figure like Liam Kneeson would be in his role…
We need that kind of movies NOW!!!!
Enough with showing ONLY sufferings!!!
I ´d like to close bidding you all best
Gourgen Mangassarian
I disagree with your statement above- “but please NEVER believe Al Jazeera news stream, they are mostly fabricated and misleading”.
If Al Jazeera bringing the truth out about AG, I certainly appreciate that. Also I encourage Al Jazeera to let the world now what we (Armenins) have being going through untill this day. Armenians scattered all over the world from their motherland under the constant treat of assimilation, while the criminal (Turkish government) yet remain unpunished by hidding the absolute truth.
RVDV
I disagree with your idea that so what if a colonizer infuses its own culture with cultural elements of the colonized. For Turks, it of course makes their culture richer, but how do you think the colonized and more culturally advanced people would feel, if a church is called a Seljuk mosque or the sacred Biblical mountain’s name Turkified? I think cultures must enrich each other not steal from each other. I’m afraid Turks are good at the latter…
Dear Sylva,
Thank you for sharing these pieces of heartbreaking stories. I wish I could have an access to and read your book. You definitely are doing a very grateful job, please keep on with great spirit to spread the word on our pain.
Just watched Grandmas Tattoos. It is stark and simple and poignant! A beautiful job telling an often untold story and a very important contribution to the body of evidence.
Sylva you will be especially interested in the scenes from Der Zor and the memories the locals share about the Genocide, about the girls being taken as wives by the Arabs, and about the mass graves in Markada. Have hankies ready. You will cry.
Dear Gohar,
Please contact me on my facebook I will send you all pdf, the pages of the book
And I would like to hear comments…Bad and Good,
or you can get my e-mail from AW.
serov
Sylva
Thanks for our great lady: Suzanne Khardalian
Who worked very hard to collect all the information…
Although her grandmother never spoke about the genocide…But she felt what she went through from the age 12-19…The most important age in girls life.
I think this film should be translated on Al-Jazera in Arabic as soon as you can…
I have already written about it in Al-qabas Newspaper
So many Arabs have Armenian grand-grandmothers …
They know their stories very well…
I have tried to collect their photos but they don’t have…One of grand child who is very old now ..his grand children told me…he keeps his mother’s photo under his pillow…He never allows any one to take from him…
They say that their grandmothers were beautiful, clean, kind, organized…
The highest Beduin tribes among Arabs…Who married Armenians:
Are the Al-Anzi… Mostly they were head of the tribe (Shaykhs)…They looked after them very well… Their name were mostly Merriam because they were Christian (Christ mother’s name like Mary) lived in Iraq now they live in Gulf countries…Some kept their names may be they were old and refue to change I heard Seranoosh …Manoshag …Arusiag …In a way I don’t blame them because Armenian names are difficult…
The second tribe are Al-Shammari, who lived in the north of Iraq and collected Armenian orphans and cared for them…Some let Armenians get married to each other …Recently i met a man who is from Shammar, he named his daughter Seta because there was an Armenian singer in Iraq Seta Hogapian…His mother liked her voice…I think he has Armenian blood…!
The third tribe are Al-Dufayri Tribe…
Some of their members …After i insisted to say, that your wife looks Armenian, he said we had an Armenian old man with us who lived with us and never got married, he said that his great-grandfather found him in the desert
and they use to call him, Muhammad Al-Nisrani, which means “The Christian Muhammad”; I do think may be he had a sister who is his wife’s great grand mother…But they don’t like to say…She looks definitely Armenian and not an Arab…
Also some Saudi Royal Family have Armenian blood…They never hide, they know them, and they are proud to say they were Armenian…
I heard many times telling me, “Dr.Sylva she looked like you…”
I heard from many who said, “They were beautiful, kind, clean, and very organized…till they died they never asked for help”…Although they had house keepers after they became rich In the Gulf states…but still their Armenian grandmothers did not allow any one to wash their cloths…They use to wash till old age…and they died standing, never got sick and mostly lived more than age 90 and over…
I have collected more than 15 stories…
Sylva
Der Zor: Where Our Bones Stay Uncanned
Under Sunny Desert Land
But Our Souls With them Will Always Unite …
Who can salvage
How can any one salvage
Can any inventor salvage
All the fragmented… smashed…
Crushed bones of the Der-Zor Land
All the DNA…s
To re-Seed …To re- Breathe…To re- Birth…to be a new human…
That could have help and serve humanity more than
Dr. Roger Altounyan…
More than Victor Hamparzoumian …
More than Dr. Raymond Damadian …
And don’t forget Gomidas…Khachaturian… Charles Aznavour
and many many others…
Those who kept treating our depressed souls
By eternal rhymes… music…tunes after tunes
Is there more clear evidence
That they genocided Us…!
Do we needs more courts
More costly Haiges
Do we need more witnesses
More than we saw in this short film…
Arranged from a real soul…
Who lived with her granny called her
‘A Walking Corpse’…
A Beauty without smile …
Breathing but without loving soul
She lost all…
She had scars of scimitars in her core
Bleed with her secrets without voice…
That her grand-daughter Susanne
Felt through her childhood and
Reached her epic to narrate with eyes full of tears…
Do we need more Angels…Evils
To arrive from hells… heavens
To narrate what they had
What they did…
How they slayed…!
It is not a tale…
All are real painful stories
Each Diaspora-ian can tell
Can’t even be played on films
Unbelievable
Horrible
Out of any dictionary
Out of any history
Who can imagine
How these people died
How much they suffered
How they prayed
How they cried…!
Where was god at that moment
Deaf and dumb
Praising slayers to kill all the innocents…!
I can’t understand
And I will never …
Till I sigh…
Sylva-MD-Poetry
@ Gourgen Mangassarian
I am in total agreement with you. I was very impressed by the documentary in question. But you are right, we need to be mindful of the fact that Al-Jazeera is one of the dangerous propaganda outlets of the Anglo-American-Zionist global order. While it superficially criticizes Western crimes in the region, it also works as a conduit to undermine nations that the West has targeted with destruction (e.g. Libya, Syria, Iran). Now that Al-Jazeera seems to have won the hearts and minds of our peasantry, Armenia may be on the chopping block next…