Burcu Ege conducted an oral history interview with Selin, a graduate student like herself, while she was a student at Sabancı University Cultural Studies M.A. Program. Burcu's work reflects the transforming influence of the assassination of Hrant Dink in Selin's life, a young Armenian from Istanbul.
Burcu: “The oral history interview with Selin revealed something very striking: We are constituted not only by our own experiences, but also by the decisions, fears and frustrations within the stories told by the relatives we have never known. Thus, as I listened to Selin's narrative and saw how, in her words, ‘events waaayy back in the 1800s’ affected her, I realized the importance of trying to understand how complicated the relations between the past, present and future are, and how different generations interact with one another. The life-story based interview, which is the method of oral history, is very important in terms of talking about these ghosts, rethinking them and making sense of them. Selin grew up with an intense sense of guilt, by being protected by her family, not being taught the Armenian language, feeling embarrassed towards her grandfather and other Armenians, being told that she is ‘Turkish of Armenian origin’ when she asked her mother, ‘What am I?’ For the family, and especially for Selin, the assassination of Hrant Dink was the beginning of a period that was painful, but eventually she was able to talk more frankly with her family.”
From Burcu’s interview with Selin:
Selin: “When I first heard [what happened to] Hrant Dink, I had come home early from school, and I heard it on television. I told my mother; she was very unresponsive to his death. After that, I went to the demonstration in the evening. When I got back home, the whole atmosphere had changed. I was mad at my parents for not feeling sorry even when Hrant Dink died, I was mad because they left me without an identity. If they denied their Armenian identity, if they were disconnected from the community, if they did not feel Armenian, then it would be okay... But they have something that belongs to them, they do not give it to me, and they make me feel excluded, that is why I was very angry.”
You can listen to Selin:
