The Repetition of History

Dublin Core

Title

The Repetition of History

Subject

Genocide.
Anfal Campaign, Iraq, 1986-1989.

Description

Oral history video clip featuring Souren Aprahamian, survivor of the Armenian genocide. This video was originally produced by Media Entertainment, Inc., for the 2000 documentary The Genocide Factor.

Creator

Media Entertainment, Inc.

Source

Genocide Factor Collection, Oral History Program, Tampa Library, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida.

Publisher

Tampa, Fla. : University of South Florida Tampa Library.

Date

1999-11-19

Contributor

Aprahamian, Souren
MacFarlane, Joan

Rights

[no text]

Relation

G36-00002
Tape number: 4127F

Format

video / mp4

Language

English

Type

Oral History

Identifier

[no text]

Coverage

[no text]

Oral History Item Type Metadata

Original Format

Beta tape

Duration

00:03:05

Bit Rate/Frequency

[no text]

Transcription

Teach these people to be human beings, because even now in Turkey, the word "Armenian" is banned. You speak name "Armenian," you go to jail. A newspaperman writes about Armenians, he ends up in jail. Write something about the Kurds, he ends up in jail.

And the tragedy of history is this: During all these massacres, going back a hundred years or so, the Kurds were the tools in the hands of the Turks. It was the Kurds, with the blessing of the Turks, that killed, plundered, destroyed Armenian towns and villages. It's happening to them. They're experiencing the same thing that they practiced.

Several years ago, at an Amnesty International meeting in Ann Arbor, this Kurdish professor-doctor was supposed to talk. People called me; they thought I'd be over there, and finally somebody took me over there. Somebody spoke about the Armenian genocide, and then somebody spoke about the hardship the Kurds were going through at the hands of Iraqis. And then some American woman stands up and says, "That's all lies." She says, "The Kurds and the Turks are very friendly. I just came back from there. And as far as the Armenian genocide is concerned, that's absolutely false."

I couldn't take it, so I let her have it. And then I turned to the Kurdish and I said, "You did to us what they are doing to you!" I said, "If you had been with us instead of against us, your story and my story would be different." It goes like this. History repeats.

Interviewer

MacFarlane, Joan

Interviewee

Aprahamian, Souren

Location

[no text]

Time Summary

[no text]