Armenia

With April 24th rapidly approaching, the day of recognition of the Armenian Genocide, I happened across this photo series, Memory of Trees.

The photos are by a New Mexico-born photographer, Kathryn Cook, and this is what she says about this series:

"A place that has become central to this project is Agacli, located in southeastern Turkey. In Turkish, Agacli means “with trees” or, “place of trees.” Over the last few years, the Kurdish inhabitants of this former, predominantly Armenian village revived an Armenian silk scarf-weaving tradition that cultivates silkworms in the same Mulberry trees used nearly a century ago. The trees, the silk, tell a subtle story of the Armenian’s existence here, symbolizing the enduring legacy on their ancient homeland, hence the title for this project. 

In the early 1900s, as the Ottoman Empire collapsed, a fiercely nationalistic "Young Turks" movement took power. With the Empire’s fall, the multi-cultural attitude that had made it one of the most diverse world powers became eclipsed by the fledgling government's dream of a "pan-Turkic" country. As with all ideologies, their taking hold and taking root meant the termination of what didn’t fit its new identity, its Armenian citizens.

Recognized as "genocide" today by more than a dozen countries, Turkey still vigorously rejects that claim. Memory of Trees follows the remains and traces of an ambiguous, dark history - the definition of which is still being fought over nearly a century later."

It took me a few minutes to realize that if you use the bottom series of thumbnail images to move through the series, when you click on each new thumbnail, it will give you the option (in the upper right hand corner) to click to see information about the image.

Comments

[Vicki Gottlieb]

Thank you for this illuminating story in pictures and words of the Armenian genocide of which I knew very little. My mother, who was born in 1917, often said at our dinner table that she remembers her father reminding his family of the starving Armenians and saying at their dinner table that if they didn't finish the food on their plates, "Mr. Hoover wouldn't like it." Of course the Hoover comment was apropos the U.S. depression; however, it's interesting to note how the suffering of others can inform everyday activities.