Speaking to One Another - The International Raoul Wallenberg ...

Shame and blame: How come my granddaughterdoesn’t speak Armenian?Selin is a 24 year-old Armenian woman who is a graduate student in Istanbul. For Selin, her endlesssearch for a sense of belonging is tied up with her intimate relationship with her maternal grandfatherand her parents. Although she doesn’t know a great deal about her family history, she knows it affectsher own life: “My grandmother’s mother is from Van. My maternal great great grandfather wasn’t mentallystable because he was witness to terrible events. He found his own father’s corpse in a sack in thechurch. After that he lost his ability to speak. All family members have some kind of problem. All thesethings that have to do with their being Armenian affect me. My mother’s way of denying her own existenceis passed on to me.”52