Pinar Selek
Parce qu'ils sont ArméniensBecause they are Armenians96 pages. 2015 (new edition in 2023). Sold in German (Orlanda); Italian (Fandango); Armenian (Actual Art); Spanish (Libelula verde)
NON-FICTION
HISTORY
Le génocide arménien a un siècle. Une page noire de l’histoire turque, toujours controversée, toujours taboue; un drame qui hante les esprits et les cœurs de génération en génération. Pinar Selek interroge son rapport à cet épisode et à la communauté victime. Au fil des souvenirs et des rencontres, elle raconte ce que signifie se construire en récitant des slogans qui proclament la supériorité nationale, en côtoyant des camarades craintifs et silencieux, en sillonnant Istanbul où les noms arméniens ont été effacés des enseignes, en militant dans des mouvements d’extrême gauche ayant intégré le déni.
Au-delà de la question arménienne, ce témoignage sensible, engagé, parfois autocritique, dénonce les impasses de la violence et sonde les mutations de l’engagement collectif.
Pinar Selek est née en 1971 à Istanbul. Sociologue, militante féministe et pacifiste, ses travaux et ses combats portent sur les droits des minorités et des exclus de la République turque. Sa vie bascule en juillet 1998 dans un invraisemblable imbroglio judiciaire lorsqu’elle est accusée à tort de terrorisme. Exilée en France depuis 2011, elle poursuit actuellement ses recherches à Lyon. Elle est l’auteur d’un roman, La Maison du Bosphore, paru en 2013 et d'un essai Parce qu'ils sont arméniens en 2015, tous les deux aux éditions Liana Levi. Le site de Pinar Selek ici
April 2015 will mark the centenary of the Armenian genocide—a dark chapter in Turkish history, still controversial, still taboo. What might a Turk born in the 70s make of this community and this period of history? Pinar Selek responds with this personal and engaged account woven from memories, observations, and encounters. We learn along with her, from the inside, what it means to be formed by reciting slogans at school proclaiming national superiority, studying from misleading textbooks surrounded by fearful and silent classmates, wandering through a city where Armenian names have been expunged from public signs, campaigning in extreme-left movements having accepted this denial. The sensitive and controversial testimony of a woman of conviction whose personality and writing continues to be influenced by the Armenian question.
Pinar Selek was born in 1972 in Istanbul to a left-wing family. A sociologist by training, her works deal with minorities oppressed by the Turkish Republic. An activist for the defense of rights and peace in Turkey, she founded an anti- militarist association and took part in the creation of the first Turkish feminist bookshop. An incredible judicial nightmare began for her in July 1998: an explosion in an Istanbul bazaar left seven dead; she was accused of abetting rebel Kurds in a terrorist attack. Arrested and tortured, she was jailed for two years until forensic reports concluded it was...a gas leak! Acquitted by several Turkish tribunals, in 2014 her sentence to life imprisonment was quashed by the court of appeal. A political refugee in France, Pinar Selek has taught at the University of Strasbourg and is currently carrying out research into the transformation of the militant Turkish sphere and its influence on movements of the Armenian diaspora, at the Collegium of the Lyons University ‘grande école’. Her first novel, The House on the Bosphorus, was published by Liana Levi in 2013. Visit the author’s website at www.pinarselek.fr.