The fact that Ararat, a 2002 film by Armenian-Canadian director Atom Egoyan is permitted to be screened in Turkey, is a productive step towards deep and perhaps painful cultural introspection. The film depicts the events of 1915 in which droves of Armenians were expelled from modern day eastern Turkey. Turkish and Armenian historians differ in their accounts of what happened in 1915. It is a fact that Armenians were driven out of eastern Anatolia, their ancestral homeland. It is also a fact that many Armenians died during this forced march out of Anatolia. The unresolved question is whether this incident — what amounted to a death march for the Armenians — was planned and orchestrated by the Ottoman government. The traditional Turkish answer to the Armenian accusations of state-sponsored massacre has been that the Armenians, with the backing of czarist Russia, rebelled against Ottoman rule. The deaths that resulted from the resultant conflict in 1915 must be placed in their appropriate historical context of World War I and the twilight years of the soon-to-be-abolished Ottoman Empire.

Erkan Mumcu, the minister of culture and tourism, is allowing what some consider to be a virulently anti-Turkish film to be screened in Turkey. This is no small feat, considering that while Turkey boasts many private TV and radio stations, there is still significant self- and government-
censorship in the media, and that a branch of the Nationalist Action Party has threatened violence against cinemas where Ararat is shown.

Ararat will hopefully pave the way not for more violence but instead for productive historical reconsideration.

Mimi Hanaoka