Aghet (2010)

Aghet – Ein Völkermord (English: Aghet – A Genocide; Aghet being Armenian for "catastrophe") is a German 2010 documentary film on the Armenian Genocide by the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It is based on eyewitness reports by European and American personnel stationed in the Near East at the time, Armenian survivors and other contemporary witnesses which are recited by modern German actors. The visual material partly consists of secretly shot photographs of the death marches, Turkish atrocities and suffering of the Armenian deportees.

Aghet – Ein Völkermord was awarded the 2010 Deutscher Fernsehpreis and the 2011 Grimme Award, two of the most prestigious awards of German television. According to its director, German journalist Eric Friedler, the documentary was presented to many members of the US Congress and US Senate who have expressed astonishment on how well documented the genocide actually is. An official presentation at Capitol Hill took place in July 2010.

Aghet won the 2010 Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award in Los Angeles and received international recognition on the Montreal World Film Festival the same year. It was set to be shown before large audiences at Harvard and Columbia University. The documentary has been praised for introducing "Aghet", the Armenian term for the Turkish massacres, to an international audience.

The advocacy group of the Turkish community in Germany has protested against the film.

Synopsis

Aghet, se traduisant par « catastrophe » en arménien, est le mot utilisé pour désigner le massacre de plus d'un million d'Arméniens de l'Empire ottoman de 1915 à 1917. Le documentaire débute en évoquant le meurtre du journaliste Hrant Dink pour continuer sur le refus de la Turquie de reconnaître le génocide, les déclarations du premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan ou encore le refus d'intervention du gouvernement impérial de l'Allemagne à l'époque, préfiguration d'un autre génocide, celui de la Shoah.

Actors