On May 22, the presentation of the documentary «Hamshen at Crossroads of Past and Present» took place at the Moscow Cinema directed by YSU associate professor of Turkish Studies, PhD in Philology, and the head of the Department of Armenian-Ottoman relations of YSU Institute for Armenian Studies Lusine Sahakyan.
«The film represents the current state of the Hamshen Armenians, who were forcibly Islamicized (Turkified) by the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century. Today they live primarily in the provinces of Rizeh and Artvin, as well as in Istanbul and other cities of Turkey. Shooting for «Hamshen at Crossroads of Past and Present» took place in the provinces of Rizeh and Artvin, Erzurum of Turkey in the residences of the Hamshen Armenians during the works in the fields in 2010, 2011 and 2012»,-said Lusine Sahakyan.
The documentary «Hamshen at Crossroads of Past and Present» was awarded the prize after German writer and publicist Armin Wegner, an eye-witnesses of the Armenian Genocide, in the 15th ARPA International Film Festival, hosted in Hollywood 2012 December for «Courage of seeing and telling the truth». This prize has been given to Armenian representative for the first time.
The editor of the screenplay and the translator of dialect is the chief-editor of «Voice of Hamshen» newspaper, NAS RA Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography research worker Sergey Vardanyan. The latter participated in the field works too. He is the author of various articles and books on the history, dialect and folklore of the Hamshen Armenians.
The film includes episodes on the Armenian powerful history of Hamshen, and forcibly Islamicized (Turkified) people. Based on material shot in Rizeh and Artvin the dances and songs, folklore, beliefs, occupation and kitchen, as well as conceptions of their own identity and demographic overview of Hamshentsis in Khopa, Chamlihemshin, Ardashen and Chayeli are represented.
Lusine Sahakyan is a professor in YSU Faculty of Oriental Studies. She is the author of various academic works on Armenian historical demography, as well as research on Islamicization, Turkification of the toponyms and tax politics in Eastern Armenia carried out by the Ottoman Empire.
She is the author of three books «The toponyms Baberd, Sper, Derjan of Upper Armenia and the demography in Ottoman general census of the population in the 16th century» (Yerevan, 2007, 307 pages, in Armenian), «The politics of Turkification of toponyms in Ottoman Empire and Republican Turkey» (Montreal, 2010, 2011, 70 pages, in English, Armenian and Russian), «Microtoponyms of Hamshen» (Yerevan, 2012, 175 pages, in Armenian, Turkish and Russian).
She delivered her lectures in Greece, USA, Iran and France too.
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