THE ARMENIAN MIRROR-SPECTATOR-
SAT U R
D AY, DE C EMB E R 22, 201
Muriel Mirak-Weissbac
Muriel Mirak-Weissbac
Her name is Sabiha, the same name as the favorite adopted daughter of Kemal
Mustafa (Atatürk), who as a female
pilot was a symbol for her nation. But this
Sabiha is German, and lives with her
immigrant mother, whom she calls Anne –
“mother” in Turkish. This Sabiha,
we learn from her best friend (actually soul
mate), also named Anne, is 150 per cent
German, and only learns Turkish when
she attends university. She soon feels
drawn to Turkish nationalist circles, and
even participates in nationalist
demonstrations, honoring Talaat Pasha, for
example.
But who is Sabiha really? Is she German? Is she Turkish? Or is she, perhaps,
something else? Could she be Armenian?
 |
| Dogan Akhanli |
This is the question posed by a new
play whose debut took place in Berlin at the
Theater unterm Dach (Theatre under the
Loft) in October. Composed by the
well-known German-Turkish author and
activist Doğan Akhanlı, the play,
entitled “Anne’s Silence,” is a
monologue, brilliantly performed by Bea Ehlers-
Kerbekian, of Armenian descent, and
directed with startlingly modern creative
insight by the German Jew Ron
Rosenberg. The play dramatizes the search for personal identity in
the context of a polemical confrontation with the official Turkish policy of genocide denial, a
policy which lies at the core of nationalist identity. As the program notes comment,
the production presents the
“speechlessness of the successor
generations to the nationalist criminals“ in this search, and
Sabiha, “by living and expressing her own conflict, can find
herself and overcome the cycle of violence and memory suppression,
identity loss and isolation.”
Sabiha herself condones nationalist
ideology, and agrees to translate a speech for a well-known
intellectual from Turkey who has come to Berlin to address a “day
of action” organized by nationalist Turks on March 15, to
commemorate the anniversary of the assassination of Talaat Pasha on
the Hardenbergstrasse. She cannot bring herself to translate certain
menacing phrases uttered by the speaker against Hrant Dink, the
editor of AGOS who had researched the Armenian heritage of Atatürk’s
daughter Sabiha, because she thinks the formulations would be offensive in Germany. However,
in her own short speech which follows, she too denounces the genocide
as a lie. She has decided to begin her
speech with a joke, which is to suggest
that she too is Armenian, since her name
is Sabiha. To her surprise, instead of
laughing, the people cry out, “God forbid!”
Sabiha’s mother has also come with
her to the rally, and when they return home
she asks her mother why she is called
Sabiha. It is then that she learns that,
indeed, she was named after that
adopted daughter of Atatürk.
Sabiha’s mother dies one day very
suddenly, collapsing on the floor in the
kitchen. When her panicked daughter
loosens the woman’s blouse in an attempt
to ease her breathing, Sabiha discovers
an Armenian cross tattooed between her
breasts and is profoundly shaken.
Later, she discovers a silver cross and a bible
in her dead mother’s hope chest, and
also finds a copy of AGOS. Her mother
had gotten it from the Turkish speaker
at the demo, who had held it up in
agitation while denouncing Dink. After
Sabiha reads the paper, she calls the
AGOS office and tells the editor she
thinks she, too, might be Armenian. His
answer, she tells us, was: “In this
country, no person can be sure of his or her
identity.”
 |
| Bea Ehlers-Kerbekian in "Annes Silence" |
When an assassin’s bullet kills Hrant
Dink, Sabiha follows events on Turkish
television, participating from afar in
the funeral proceedings as thousands of
Turks carry hand signs saying “We are
all Hrant. We are all Armenians!” and
witnesses his widow’s moving address.
Sabiha’s final vision is that of her
mother along with thousands of saddened
women like her, ascending and being
turned into cranes in flight. “Now is
the time,” she says, “to break Anne’s
silence.”
In this tightly composed monologue,
actress Bea Ehlers-Kerbekian plays all the
roles, thus giving artistic expression
to the different but related identities. First
she appears on stage as Sabiha’s
friend Anne, who says they were both born on
the same day, and are therefore like
“twin sisters”— Anne seems to embody the
German identity. Then the actress plays
Sabiha preparing to go to the demo with
her mother. The same woman appears as
the fiery speaker at the rally, and then
jumps into the role of Sabiha who tells
the rest of the story. In the exchanges
between mother and daughter, again
actress Ehlers-Kerbekian assumes both
parts, shifting deftly from the
reticent older woman to the vivacious,
multifaceted personality of Sabiha. By
presenting first her friend, then Sabiha,
then her mother, then the other
characters, and having them all portrayed by one
actress, the dramatist succeeds in
showing us the multiple aspects of his
heroine’s identity and the clash
between them. To compose such a piece is a
literary challenge, which the dramatist
has met by selecting single short episodes
and juxtaposing them thematically; for
example, he also weaves into his
narrative references to identity
traumas in the German historical experience.
Then to perform such a monologue,
maintaining the individuality of each
character while at the same time
respecting the thematic and artistic continuity,
requires extraordinary concentration
and acting skills. It comes as no surprise to
the audience to learn that
Ehlers-Kerbekian has won several prizes for acting in
monologues.
Author Akhanlı had explored the theme
of the Armenian genocide in an earlier
novel and has been active in Germany in
projects aimed at helping Germans,
Turks, and Armenians to work through
their common history in an effort to
acknowledge the reality and reach
reconciliation. His new theatre piece, whose
brevity and poetical structure enhance
its impact, constitutes a further
contribution to this social process of
dealing with the tormented past; for, after
each performance of the short play
(just over an hour in duration), viewers have
the opportunity to hear presentations
by historians, social scientists, persons
involved in conflict resolution and so
forth, and to discuss the broader issues
with them as well as with the author,
director and actress. Such cultural events
play a vital role in the discussion
process unfolding not only in Germany around
the Armenian genocide, but also in
Turkey itself, where the citizens’ search for
their true identity has given birth to
a vast array of literary works and generated
a broad social debate around the events
of 1915. This new dramatic work by
Dogan Akhanli will be featured in
January during events in Germany honoring
the memory of Hrant Dink, and there are
plans for performances in Istanbul and
Yerevan. It is to be hoped that an
English version will soon be available for an
American public.
http://www.mirrorspectator.com/pdf/122212.pdf
(s 14 und 16)
