Kimlik İstemem

Diyarbakır-Lis Publishing House has published the essays of a Diyarbakır Armenian who left his city at the age of two and set sail for distant exiles under the title of “I Don’t Want an Identity”. Born in Diyarbakır in 1962, Anjel Dikme left Diyarbakır with her family when she was two years old and settled in Istanbul. After completing Bezciyan Armenian Middle School and Bakırköy Girls’ High School, she completed various higher education stages in clothing and has been living in Paris since the early 2000s.
Şeyhmus Diken, who edited Identity Ideme, says in the foreword he wrote for the book; “A naive ‘dervish’ attitude that internalizes the ‘human’ treatment even of those who oppress and ‘insist’ on their oppression, is almost like the ‘Gibran’-like call of an ancient wisdom that is centuries old. When you read the texts, you become so internalized that this ‘tone’ is very much present in Anjel’s pen.”
In I Don't Want an Identity, a book of naive texts that ask for an account of the years, experiences and pains that have penetrated into the soul, Anjel Dikme says on the back cover; "While I am discovering 'ME' and experiencing living the 'NOW', while I am feeling lighter, I don't want to drown in the weight of superordinate identities again! I would be ashamed of all the murders, massacres and genocides on earth! It would hurt! If I remain silent; it would be a betrayal to those souls, if I speak; it would be a betrayal to myself, the deepest dilemma I experience... While I wake up with the screams of all the innocent souls in every denial... This is exactly where I cry out for help... What should I do, my fellow humans, tell me what should I do?" he asks his fellow humans open-ended questions.
There is an inner integrity in the texts. Sometimes an “Amira” reckoning with his own society. But while settling accounts, the proud and upright manner of the Mesopotamian Armenians gives lessons to the dominant pen. Sometimes the wisdom of giving a “humane” lesson to the othering dominant tribe…
Anjel Dikme's I Don't Want an Identity is a book of understanding and perception that frequently refers to our "human side" instead of "hatred", expressing our sorrows from the inside and with dignity...