A Close-Up Look at the Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in The Promise

The discussion over what Armenians experienced in the Ottoman Empire after World War I, still maintains its violence since the day it has begun. Although most historians and academics believe that Armenians were the first victims of the 20th century’s first genocide, many Turkish people still assert the idea that Armenians died either in the clashes between two sides, or they lost their lives during the forced immigrations they were subjected to because of so-called security matters. Despite the fact that many historicians both in Turkey and Europe still question whether is it appropriate or not to define the happenings as a genocide, it is an irrefutable historical fact that Ottoman Empire intended to exterminate all Armenian people inside its boundaries between 1915-1916, which is enough to call this happening as a 'genocide', which is the word that was coined by Raphael Lemkin, who described the word 'genocide' as follows: 'By genocide, we mean the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group. Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation,except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.' (Lemkin, 79). ‘

The Promise (2016), which was directed by Oscar winning director Terry George, and produced by Kirk Kerkorian, is based on a love triangle between an American photojournalist Christ, and Ana who is charming, elite and beatiful, and an Armenian student named Michael who is studying medicine in Constantinople far away from his town. In the background of this love story, Armenian genocide is being reflected. (Imdb) Leading roles are played by famous actors like Christian Bale, Oscar Isaac, and Charlotte Le Bon (Imdb). The production of the movie continued Valletta, (Spain), Sintra (Portugal), Valletta (Malta) and Aguilas (Spain). (imdb). It is probable that, for example, the city Valletta, which has a lot of historical buildings and splendid structures, was intentionally chosen to reflect the unique beauty of Istanbul, as it was not possible for the movie makers to film the scenes in Istanbul, which made them looking for a place that can be close to it Istanbul itself. Besides, there are a lot of scenes in the movie that were filmed in the sea, which pushed the crew to shot the most important scenes, like the final scene where innocent Armenian people who are running away from Turkish army are saved by French navy in İskenderun, in port cities which are Valletta, Sintra and Aguilas. As it is Hollywood movie, the language is English, however; the fact that the English level and accent of every person in the movie differs, make it more life-like, in that, while Ana, who came to Istanbul from France, speaks English fluently, while Armenians, ordinary Ottoman soldiers and artisans are devoid of accent.

Every historical movie has a specific perspective, and The Promise was surely intented to shed a light on Armenian Genocide, and show the whole world what kinds of hardships Armenian people had to go through between the period 1915-1916. While doing this, director abstains from using allegorical narration, as movies that are about historical events, are prone to having direct narration to convey the context much better. Terry George, the director of the movie explained the reason why he wanted to direct the movie in an interview as ‘’ It’s one of the great forgotten catastrophes of the 20th century. The word genocide was coined to describe what happened to the Armenian community’’ (horizonweekly). Therefore, it is possible to say that the perspective of the movie definitely supports Armenia when it is considered that even the movie maker of the film is an Armenian businessman who financially supported the movie in big amounts and made it possible to film it.

In the beginning of the movie, the main charatacter Michael leaves his hometown where he and his family have been living in happiness and are free to conduct any kinds of tradition they wish, and comes to Constantinople where so many people from different nationalities live together. The medicine school he is studying harbors Turkish students as well as foreign pupils. However, when he goes to a bazaar where he supposed to meet his father’s old friend who has a shop inside the place, we get to see the first traces of the treatment of Armenians in Ottoman society. A Turkish artisan sees him walking to Armenian textile shop and calls the owner of that shop ‘’dog’’ telling Michael that man will robe him and he should come to his store, and at the same time the Armenian owner nods his head and tells him to get back to his tribe back. It is seen that there is a tension between them, especially because of Turkish’s artisan’s jealousy, as it is well-known fact that Armenians have always been successful in trade. ‘’Most Turks and Turkists explained the perceived Armenian superiority in the economy by attributing it to the vicious and cunning character of the Armenians, to their ‘’artificial’’ imitation of Western culture’’. (Hovannisian, 39) Even before the clashes break out, we can sense that there is a nonstop tension between two sides. After Ottoman Empire declares its entrance to the World War I, with the rising feelings of nationalism, Ottoman citizens began uprisings. ‘’Once the First World War began, however, and Russian Troops were poised to invade Turkey, the frightening possibility appeared that the Armenians would join the Russians, and Turkey would be destroyed.

Hence, the Armenian danger had to be eliminated.’’(Melson,11) In one scene, Michael and Anna bumps into a crowd that marching in the streets of Constantople, yelling, beating every foreign people they see and burning the places which are belonged to other people down. This kind of attitude of Ottoman society towards Armenians is continuing until the end of the movie, however; we also see some Ottoman people who are trying to help Armenians. There is a settlement founded on an isolated territory where orphan Armenian children are concealed, and tried to get out of the country with ships, Armenian children to get out of the country by ships. There, we see an Ottoman administrator who strives to help the chidren clandestinely from the government. The Emre, son of an Ottoman officer, and a close friend of Michael, also tries to help Michael all along the movie by bribing the officers who are trying to recruit Michael to the military. In addition, he also helps the American reporter, at the end of the movie by letting Ambassador know that Chris is in prison, which is the reversal of the fortune in the movie when Chris gets out of prison and sets out to İskenderun with French navy and save Armenians who are escaping from death. From this view of perspective, it is possible to say that there is no intention of showing Ottoman society as bad in whole, however, it would not be true to say there is a euphemism of the perpetrators.

The behaviours of senior officials and commanders are not different from the citizens in the movie. Just after Ottoman Empire joins the war, generals command the army to arrest every Armenian in the city without looking their positions and ranks, put them in prisons, slaughter them, and send the left ones to Aleppo, Syria, by making them walk hundreds of kilometers. We see Ismet Ogan, who is the father of Emre and a chief officer, discovers his son’s bribe to officers and he puts Michael in prison, and made his son recruited to the army by force. After his short prison experience, Michael and other male Armenians are taken to a construction area which is far away from Constantinople, as a work force. The exploitation of the Armenians in that scene is reflected very well, in that, Ottoman soldiers not only use civilians as a work force, they also do not even blink an eye when they are executing those Armenians arbitrarily. After Chris is entraped in the forest by Ottoman soldiers, and taken to main headquarters, Faruk Paşa, who is the commander of the Eastern front of the war, blames him with spying after he reads his daily of war reports and discovers Chris’s cooperation with a Turkish commander who helps orphan Armenian children to get out of the country, and pushes him to reveal the name of that commander. Upon Christ’s rejection, he sentences him to death.

Turkey has been harboring many nationalities and ethnitcies including Armenians since the Ottoman Empire. As it was in the past, still the treatment of Armenans differs person to person. However, when it comes to the current Turkish government, it still functions as the Ottoman government back in 1915-1916. The viewpoint of the government towards Armenians and Armenian Genocide has not changed, on the contrary, denials and growing hatred are on going, and there is strief by the government to conceal the happenings. ‘’The events of that time have subsequently slipped into shadows of world history, thus gaining the title ‘’the forgotten genocide’’ (Dadrian, xviii). In the movie, we see Ottoman commanders and officials who arrest and murder innocent Armenians. When we judge today’s Turkish government and security forces from this perspective, we will see that nothing actually has changed. In 2007, one of Turkey’s most famous journalist, Hrant Dink who was the chief editor of the newspaper Agon, was assasinated by Ogün Samast, a 17 year old Turkish nationalist, in day-light. (the guardian). Although there have been some charges againts the government’s involvency, the president put the blame on Fetullah Gülen who is the head of the Gülen movement which attempted a coup in 2016 by using his folllowers in the Turkish army.

After nine year over the happening, footage of Ogün Samast in a police headquarter just after the event has been leaked. In the video, police officers and gendarme make him hold a Turkish flag in front of the camera, hug him, and congratulate him and declaring him a hero. (bianet) Even after this leaked footage, Turkish authorities hinder the thorough investigation into the involvement of state officials in the conspiracy ( the national). We also see in the film that even though he is Ottoman and muslim but he has helped an Armenian, Emre was taken into the army by his father to fight in the war. A same kind of situation happened in Turkey when the famous writer and academic Orhan Pamuk was put on a trial after his statements about the Armenian Genocide on Swiss Magazine. ‘’Mr. Pamuk, 53, the author of 'My Name Is Red' and 'Snow,' is accused of insulting. 'Turkishness' with his comments to a Swiss magazine in February. In the interview, he referred to the Armenian genocide committed by the Ottoman government during World War I, and to the Turkish government's more recent clashes with Kurds. 'One million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares talk about it,' the magazine quoted him as saying.’’

Even before the movie was premiered,there were some reactions from nationalist Turkish people.The fact that it is the first Hollywood movie that reflecting the Armenian Genocide and starring movie stars like Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac made people angry as the movies which have movie stars are more likely to make people believe in the story, in that, even some Turkish internet users started a petition to protest Christian Bale, and they demanded a life-long ban on Bale’s entry permit to Turkey. There is another online petition started by nationalist to ban the movie from coming out. (changeorg) Despite only meeting three times with the spectator, the movie received more than 55.126 1-star ratings in IMDb (independent). The reason of this smear campaign is because of the sense of nationalism, especially deriving its power from the government and the president. Turkish government has also power over some central media organs, one of them is ‘’Hürriyet’’, which accepted their fake new about Armenian leader Serj Sarkisyan in 2011, by claiming that Sarkisyan gave a speech to Azerbeijani youth and told them ‘’We took Karabakh, and left Ağrı to you’’. (habersol) When it is considered that media functions as the fourth estate, this kind of fake news that are tolerated by the government have embittered the enmity towards Armenian in Turkish society day by day.

In conclusion, The Promise reflects very well how Ottoman Empire, with its citizens and army, treated Armenians back in 1915-1916, and when this treatment is compared to the actions and the mindsets of today’s Turkey including government and the citizens, one can understand how some things remain unaltered. However, in order to prevent any kind of similar happenings in the future, society must stop quarreling with each other and pave the way for a healthy future.