‘THE SCORPION’ OF FAMOUS TURKISH PLAYWRIGHT, POLITICAL PRISONER ECBER YAGMURDERELI TO BE STAGE IN ARMENIA

Azg/arm
22 July 05

Eminent Turkish playwright and writer Ecber Yagmurdereli has arrived
in Yerevan.

Jailed in 1976, he spent 18 years in Turkish prisons never giving
up the fight for human rights, democracy and minority rights from
the pages of Jumhuriet. This brave intellectual and humanitarian,
who lost his eyesight in childhood, always wished to see his play
“The Scorpion”, which was translated into many languages and being
screened these days, staged in Armenia.

The play targets the “heroes” of bloody coup on September 22 of
1980 the head of military junta Kenan Evren and his adherents. The
revolution threw many Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian, Assyrian, Greek
and Arab freedom fighters into Turkish jails of this horrible tyranny.

Ecber Yagmurdereli and his companions met with the head of Gabriel
Sundikian State Academic Theatre, Vahe Shahverdian, who promised
to stage “The Scorpion” in near future. Asked whether the Turkish
government will not oppose staging this important political play in
Armenia, the Turkish playwright said, “The thaw in Armenian-Turkish
relations of recent times is obvious. Under the pressure of
international powers, Turkish opposition and Armenian authorities
the European Union will bring these relations to a desirable point.

The intelligentsia and art workers have a great role in improving
Armenian-Turkish relations and in establishing democracy. Days of
youth and dreams of those like me passed in the terrible prisons of
military junta of 1980. I have wonderful Armenian friends in Istanbul
where I live now. I know the invaluable contribution they made both
in the Ottoman Empire and nowadays in the spheres of art, literature,
theatre and economy. I am charmed with your capital, which I consider
truly European city in the Caucasus”.

The guests visited the Opera House and listened to Istanbul-born Arto
Tunj-Boyajian at the Jazz Club.

By Hamo Moskofian