di Rossella Battisti

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Si parla spesso - e giustamente - dell’Olocausto, anche a teatro (recentemente è stato allestito addirittura un musical ispirato al diario di Anna Frank, mentre al Valle di Roma in questi giorni è in scena Processo a Dio di Stefano Massini con Ottavia Piccolo). Meno, invece, si dice e si rappresenta di altri genocidi non meno drammatici ma più «silenziosi», oscurati da altre tragedie, altre risonanze. Come il massacro degli armeni intorno al 1915, il «grande male» che fece circa un milione e mezzo di morti nell’Impero Ottomano, «epurazione» di massa che la Turchia di oggi continua a non voler riconoscere.Persino Hitler commentava beffardo - in epoca più vicina ai fatti - che di quel massacro non se ne ricordava nessuno. Ci pensa ora una piccola, intensa pièce di Gianni Guardigli, Tutte le notti - in scena al romano Teatro Due Aldo Nicolaj - a versare luce su quelle ferite mai rimarginate, su quella fessura scura della Storia. Lo fa attraverso lo sguardo di tre donne armene, lungo tre generazioni: la più anziana (interpretata con calda emozione da Anna Maria Gherardi), che ha vissuto la realtà delle «carovane della morte», quelle formate da donne, vecchi e bambini che dopo il massacro degli uomini adulti, venivano spediti in un’interminabile e spesso fatale esilio nel deserto. La seconda (una riverberante Carla Cassola) di mezza età, che quei racconti ha assorbito nella sua coscienza. E infine la terza, giovane (e grintosa Barbara Chiesa), che cerca giustizia e riscatto da quel passato.

Tutte le notti le tre donne sono perseguitate dal ricordo, dall’incalzare di un dolore persistente, insistito quando sulla tragedia antica si innesta quella recente della perdita del nipote-figlio-fratello in un incidente auto. La regia di Marco Lucchesi condensa il racconto su una sorta di doppia scena imbiancata da centinaia di scarpe ricoperte di polvere di gesso e riflessa da un grande specchio in alto. Mentre le tre donne animano spazi diversi, Anna Maria Gherardi che si sorregge alla parete, stazione eterna di una tragedia mai tramontata. Carla Cassola inginocchiata al centro, sacerdotessa accorata di sacrifici che si ripetono e Barbara Chiesa che si scuote di lato, di una giovinezza inquieta e lacerata. Le punteggia Giovanni Carta, nel ruolo un po’ urlato e promiscuo dei vari personaggi maschili (il carnefice turco, il fratello, il giornalista armeno) e i cenni di pianoforte remoto di Simone Maggio.

Ma l’emozione sgorga dai flash della traversata del deserto e dai recitativi di Carla Cassola, che scivolano dentro lo spettatore impercettibili, acuminati o roventi. Ma dove è stata nascosta finora Carla Cassola? Perché non viene usata di più e più visibilmente? Al posto, magari, di tante presunte divette di televisiva provenienza…

Pubblicato il: 08.03.08
Modificato il: 09.03.08 alle ore 15.27

fonte: http://www.unita.it/view.asp?idContent=73589

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The Armenian genocide by Thanos Kalamidas 2006-10-13 10:50:22

For centuries, Armenians and Turks, among other ethnicities, lived in peace under the Ottoman Empire and the Armenians were known as the “loyal millet”. Despite other ethnic minorities and although Armenians were not equals putting up with certain special hardships, they were accepted and there was relatively little violent conflict.

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However, at the closer end of the 19th century things started changing, especially after many countries rebelled and took back their freedom; a new wave of nationalism had started, especially between the ethnic minorities with the Armenians as one of them. The Ottoman Empire was already splitting into pieces and the only thing that was holding together was the lack of agreement between the European powers on how to divide it, since everybody wanted a piece to control, including the Austro-Hungarian empire, the British and the French colonial powers of the area.

After Greece’s independence, the Armenians became the only major Christina minority inside the crippling Ottoman Empire and naturally the most isolated. Independence became the natural next step for the Armenians, but from the other side the Turks were not willing to let another minority escape. Furthermore, there was another issue for the Turkish nationalists - they were dreaming of the greater Turkey.

They wanted a Pan-Turkic empire to replace the falling Ottoman Empire, which would expand from the Aegean Sea to Central Asia with one common language and religion. Between these two pockets of Turkish speaking nationalists, there was one problem: the Armenians. They were the only ethnic and religion group that was different from them and the solution was elimination.

The European powers were worried about the future of the Armenian minority and started asking for better treatment of them, while the Ottoman government started to worsen and by 1890 a pogrom, ordered by sultan Abdul Hamid II, resulted in hundreds of thousands of Armenians to lose their lives.

In 1908, the sultan’s government was replaced by a new governmental style that symbolised the end of the Ottoman Empire; it came into power with a coup and with the support of the Armenians who hoped for a better future. Unfortunately, the promises the Armenians received from the ‘Young Turks’, the leaders of the coup, concerning reforms proved to be lies. It didn’t take long before the Turkish nationalists took over the Young Turk’s movement becoming dictators lead by Enver, Jemal and Talat. These three men were the ones who masterminded the plan to completely eliminate the Armenian race and make the dream of a Pan-Turkic empire a reality.

The chance to put their simple plan into action came with World War I. On April 24th 1915, hundreds of Armenian leaders were murdered in Istanbul followed by thousands of others all around the country, since they were without leadership there was no reaction. The massacre expanded to every side of the country, except Istanbul and Adana because a large number of foreigners lived there and they might have reacted.

Oddly, this is reminiscent of Hitler’s Germany and the Jewish victims, which is another similar example of modern day genocide. The Armenians completely cooperated with the massacre and followed instructions for relocation, which was “for their own good.” First, the Turkish government asked them to hand in all hunting weapons - something that the Turkish army later claimed as proof of the Armenians planning a revolution - and then asked all the able-bodied men to help the war effort. However, most of them were killed immediately or put to work like slaves till they died. The remaining residents were asked to prepare for relocation by bringing only what they could carry with them and they were led on death marches.

The death marches were led by the Turkish army and most of the Armenians were raped, starved, dehydrated, murdered or kidnapped. Of course, the army pretended that nothing was happening until they arrived at their ‘relocation’ destination, which was nothing other than the Syrian Desert, Der Zor, where they were shot dead. The very few that managed to escape and survive all this only did so thanks to the help of foreign missionaries, Arabs or very few good Turks.

After WWI, the Turkish government tried to hold some criminal trials and found the three men guilty in absence; that was it. Turkey let the USA draw a border with the newly born Armenian republic and included six former Ottoman providences and a long coastline on the Black Sea. However, soon Kemal’s forces pushed the newly returned Armenian refugees even further forcing them to sign a new treaty that was an insult to the millions of victims of the genocide. The treaty included that they will never return to Turkey and they will never ask or receive any kind of compensation.

The Turkish government deny that they committed genocide and have spent millions of dollars trying to hire professors to change this view. However, Turkey has to be forced to recognise this genocide and compensate otherwise this is a crime others will commit if it goes unpunished. After the Armenian genocide was the Jewish Holocaust by the Nazis and it was based on exactly the same plan.

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fonte: http://www.ovimagazine.com/art/899

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