is a 74 minute documentary video tracing the ancient history of the city, located in present day Turkey, from the Hittite, Roman and Crusade periods through the series of massacres from the late 1800s to 1923 and the final expulsion and Genocide of the Armenian community.
The content consists of interviews with Armenian Genocide survivors as well as the participation of their children, and experts on the subject of Marash and Cilicia, on the southern coast of Turkey. It includes family and historical photographs, silent movies from post – World War I, video scenes from the homeland, computer generated maps, and some authentic Marashzi music provided by Professor Leon Janikian of Northeastern University.
This project was written and videotaped by Roger Hagopian. He edited the production at the Comcast cable television studio at Lexington, Massachusetts. The idea of a video documentary originated with the desire to tell the family story within the context of historical events, much like his previous work, The Journey of an Armenian Family, the Struggle of a Nation, the story of his father, Hurire, a Genocide survivor from Van, Turkey.
However, in the process of research, the theme of the story shifted from the plight of his grandmother, Eliza Nersesian, to the tale of the city of Marash, as remembered by Marashzis. While the intention of this work was to utilize the video medium as yet another way to remind the viewer that, in spite of the subversive efforts of historical revisionists, the Armenian Genocide was, in fact, committed by Ottoman Turkey, Hagopian discovered a lost, yet vibrant way of life that had existed prior to 1915. Listening to the survivors lament the vanished waters that rushed down from the Taurus Mountains, surely makes one realize that they never wanted to leave their vineyards in the country.
Marash was a cultural, religious and educational center with Armenians maintaining much of the economy. The unique and colorful style of Marash embroidery is a lost art as demonstrated in this video.
While the Turks, in conspiracy with the Germans, were the perpetrators, the documentary examines the more covert actions of the British and French in denying the Armenians a last chance to reclaim their homeland. Broken Treaties and revised agreements were the order of the day, with Turkey the prime beneficiary.
The infusion of Turkish culture with Armenian, especially the language, music and foods is irrefutable and, as the video shows a few Armenians avoided the deportations and were saved by “good Turks”.
Included are some images from the recent exhibit at the Armenian Library and Museum of America, Forgotten Heroes, The Armenian Legion and The Great War, including some images from the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. These patriots risked and sacrificed their lives for the opportunity to rebuild an Armenian nation. In between studying the people and events of Marash, Hagopian managed to trace the journey of his grandmother to the shores of America. One of the thousands of Marashzis, whose homeland became forever a memory.