Slain Turk shown in documentary

By Christina Vance
The Fresno Bee
01/21/07

Knar Kahkejian braved chilly Saturday night weather to hand photographs of a
murdered man to Fresno moviegoers.

The Fresno teen never met Hrant Dink, but she didn’t need to know him to
care about his death. She is Armenian, and so was he.

Dink, a Turkish newspaper editor of Armenian descent who challenged his
nation’s version of the Armenian genocide of 1915, was shot to death Friday
as he left his Istanbul office. A teenage boy was arrested Saturday in
Turkey in connection with Dink’s slaying.

An interview with Dink was included in "Screamers," a documentary on
genocide playing at the Edwards Theater at River Park. The film combines
footage of mass killings of the last century with music from hard rock band
System of a Down, whose members are Armenian.

Carla Garapedian, the documentary’s director, also stood outside the Fresno
theater Saturday night. She was in Los Angeles earlier in the day with
others who were memorializing Dink. She described him as a charismatic bear
of a man who lived with constant threats against his life.

"Of all the dissidents in Turkey right now, he was the one who was preaching
peace and reconciliation," she said.

Garapedian chatted with people about to see the movie, many of them
Armenians. The documentary will open in New York, Boston and Chicago in
coming days, but she said it came to Fresno at the request of the city’s
Armenian community.

Fresnan Vik Sapatjian is close friends with one of the band members, but he
was going to the film first as an Armenian who is opposed to genocide.

He questioned how many deaths might have been prevented in the last century
had the world stopped what happened to his people.

"People are still killing each other in mass quantities," he said.

Vache Jierian, who attends Fresno City College, said his 95-year-old
great-grandmother survived the killings. To him, the images in the film are
personal. "We can all relate to that, since we have ancestors who were part
of that," he said.

But Jierian said he was handing out posters on Dink’s death to educate
non-Armenians.

He wanted people to understand genocides – past and ongoing.

Garapedian decided to make the documentary in 2004 when she was at a System
of a Down concert and realized how many of the fans already knew about the
Armenian genocide.

She hoped the concert footage would draw filmgoers who don’t know about such
killings.

"I think we should all be outraged, and we’re not," she said.

Knar, who attends Bullard High School, said she has been taught about
genocide since she was young.

She admitted it can get discouraging because so few people know what’s going
on in the world.

Said Knar: "A lot of people are so ignorant to it, and they don’t want to
learn."

The reporter can be reached at cvance@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6197.

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