‘‘A Century Lasting Genocide. Black January of Baku’’ dedicated to 25th anniversary of Armenian pogroms in Azerbaijan
As Marina Grigoryan the project manager of "Ordinary Genocide" told Panorama.am this film somewhat differs from the previous works.
"Firstly, the interviews with the refugees from Baku served a ground for shooting our sixth film. Those interviews have been carried out by the crew of our project in the United States in March of this year. We recorded evidence of more than 50 people. In the film a small portion of the evidence is used, the full version of those interviews will be published in the book, which will be released in the first half of next year.
Secondly, it’s the first time we use staged scenes that illustrate memories of Armenians in Baku. In addition, the witnesses and those who suffered tell about hitherto unknown details of the massacre of the Armenians in Azerbaijan - for example, about the hostages. Finally, archival footages about the events in Baku from 1988 to 1990 are used. We had found these footages recently. They were not publicized previously," Marina Grigoryan said.
According to her, the main conceptual idea of the film, which is reflected in its name - "A century lasting Genocide" – is a chain of events that started early in 20th century in the Ottoman Empire and continued in Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh in the late 90s up to now.
“We have tried to reflect the monstrous chain of crimes committed by Turkey against the Armenian people hundred years ago which continued Azerbaijan – starting from Chardakhlu and Sumgait up to the murder of the Armenian officer in Budapest and the latest killings of prisoners and hostages.
Most of the Armenians in Baku whom the filmmakers met, recalled their ancestors who suffered during the Armenian Genocide, and not only on the territory of Turkey, but also later, in 1918-1920 in Azerbaijan as well. They have not only preserved the memories of the stories of their grandparents, but have also kept the photos and documents proving that their ancestors had property in West Armenia. This idea of the continuity of genocide and Turkish genocidal policy carried out by Azerbaijan is one of the key ideas in the film. And from this point of view the film and the collection of evidence will be an integral part of the events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide," Marina Grigoryan said.
Premiere of the film, which is prepared in three languages, Armenian, Russian and English, is scheduled for January 20, 2015. The presentation is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of pogroms in Baku and will also be held in the United States. It is planned to translate the film into a number of other languages, such as Arabic, French and Turkish.
Project "An Ordinary Genocide" is implemented by the Public Relations and Information Center of the Armenian President's Administration. In the frameworks of the project a series of documentaries are produced. The documentaries are translated into five languages and present the events taken place in Sumgait, Baku, Maragha, as well as the events carried out during the "Ring" operation. Site Karabakhrecords has also been created, a number of books have been published, republished and translated too.