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The new documentary "Return to Soloz" by French-Armenian director Serge Avedikian will be premiered in Armenia on Friday. Avedikian will be present at the premiere. Ahead of the screening, French Ambassador to Armenia Jonathan Lacote gave a press conference in Yerevan, informing the initiative is organised within the frames of commemorative events in memory of Turkish-Armenian intellectual, editor-in-chief of Agos newspaper Hrant Dink. 

The film tells the story of actor and director Serzh Avedikian and his ancestral town Soloz, located 170km south to Istanbul. The town had Armenians population which were deported during the Armenian Gencoide. The film is based on the story of Avedikian's visits to his home town from 1987 to 2019, where he raises topics of identity and the historical truth in the context of Armenian-Turkish reconciliation.   

Representative  on cultural and cooperation issues at the French Embassy informed that the film was created after Avedikian's final visit to Soloz. "The film is about identity and analyzes how we can live with memory in nonconflicting  situations," he said. The film will be screened in Armenia in March again for wider audience. Serge Avedikian, present at the press conference, noted in turn, that the film depicts the modern Turkey. 

Asked whether issues of identity, historical truth and reconciliation are compatible with the rhetoric used by Turkey at present, Avedikian said: "I cannot draw parallels between the whole nation wand their leaders. The rulers know what people think about them. We have nothing to do with the government and the state. We point their mistakes to the country,  where no democracy exists. A famous Turkish figure Osman Kavala is in prison in Turkey not because of being a friend of mine but for doing something Erdogan does not want hims to do," said Avedikian. 

"Treating Turkish people in the way we treat their rulers is unacceptable for me. The people remains as they are," said the director. 

In his words, Turkish people do not know the truth. They know they are deceived but have not revealed the truth either. "My task is to tell them the truth. The issue of reconciliation arises from that," said Avedikian.