Levent Özata conducted an oral history interview with a young Armenian of his age about “being from Turkey”, “the assassination of Hrant Dink”, and “Armenian identity” while he was an undergraduate student at the Sabancı University Cultural Studies Program. He conducted an interview that strikingly responds to his initial question, “How could a young person have much to tell?”
Levent: “In the beginning, when I was thinking about with whom to do this project, I always thought of old people. I was asking people around me, looking for ‘interesting’ stories; soon enough I accomplished it. An 86-year-old Armenian woman; the mother of a cook book and memoir author that I previously interviewed. She had been through lots of experiences, and I was told that she was very enthusiastic about telling these stories. However, Professor Leyla told us that this project would be about a life story rather than a particular event, in addition to the effect of the family memory/narrative on young people, and the role of this effect on individuals’ memory (post-memory). Frankly, when I heard that, I thought “How could a young person have much to tell?”. Of course, a memory that is shaped by the mixture of family narratives and personal experiences is important; but when I compare the things that I can tell with what a 86-year-old woman could tell, mine is like a drop in the ocean. Now, at the end of the project, I must confess that I was wrong.”
From the interview: “On January 19th… that event happened, and from now on I will be more included in what Hrant Dink tried to do. This was the biggest event that our peers experienced, I mean, the first event that occurred in front of our eyes. For instance, we used to oppose our elders: for our generation, there is nothing to fear anymore. There are some, we say ‘mama’ for example. Do not call me ‘mama’ on the street, ‘put your cross inside’, things like these. It was such an incident that they turned out to be right, and as I said, that was the first time. Then the newspaper began. The concepts minority and majority changed there. Some of the people were not Armenian. People who are definitely with you and share the same things with you. After that, I met many different people. My life trajectory changed a lot.”
In this project, the interviewee asked that his/her name and photograph not be used.