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Today's Zaman, Turkey
Nov 17 2012
Turkish, Armenian students launch cultural project
18 November 2012 / FATMA DisLi ZiBAK, Istanbul: Putting aside all
their prejudices and what their course books taught them, a group of
students from a Turkish high school and an Armenian high school have
joined hands to get to know each other and develop bonds of
brotherhood among different religious and ethnic groups in the country
with a joint project, which has resulted in a prominent award from the
Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV).
Students from the Mumtaz Turhan Social Sciences School and the Private
Getronagan Armenian High School were last Sunday granted the Exemplary
Behaviour and/or initiatives in the Public Sphere Award by the GYV at
a spectacular award ceremony held at the Istanbul Congress Centre for
their outstanding project called "Asure/Anusabur."
The group of Turkish and Armenian students launched the project that
saw them travel across Turkey to meet other cultures and see if they
could help foster a more peaceful coexistence between different groups
in the country.
Hanne Betul Bolluk, an 11th grader at the Mumtaz Turhan Social
Sciences School, told Sunday's Zaman that she and her friends decided
to do something to better know Armenians who have been living in
Anatolia for years after Fethiye Cetin, a lawyer who is affiliated
with the Armenian community in Turkey, came to their school last year
for a talk to introduce her book.
She said they contacted the Agos newspaper, an Armenian daily
published in Turkey, to discuss what they can do and came up with the
idea of meeting a group of students from an Armenian school, which
ended up being the Private Getronagan Armenian High School in
Istanbul's Karakoy neighbourhood.
"Personally, I was like the living example of the official ideology
taught at schools. But my friends and I put everything aside because
we knew that counting the number of people [who died in the 1915
incidents - both Turks and Armenians] would not bring any good. We
just came together to understand each other's pain," Bolluk said.
Most Turks and Armenians are in disagreement over the definition of
the incidents that took place in 1915 when the Ottoman Empire was
about to collapse. Armenians claim that their ancestors were subjected
to genocide as they were deported from the country in severe winter
conditions, while Turkey categorically rejects the accusations, saying
that both Turks and Armenians were killed in the conflict. Turkey and
Armenia also have no diplomatic relations.
Bolluk said they launched the "Asure/Anusabur" project with their new
Armenian friends after doing a considerable amount of research on the
history and culture of Armenians and exchanging views with academics
and they presented their project at a conference held at their school
last May.
The conference, which attracted more than 200 people, included
everything about Armenians, introducing their music, folklore, cuisine
and history and was also attended by academics.
it was this conference which brought the students' efforts to promote
a peaceful coexistence to the attention of the GYV.
With regards to the name of the project, which means "Noah's Pudding"
in Turkish and Armenian, Bolluk said the name has a metaphoric meeting
as every ingredient in Noah's pudding keeps its taste but it mingles
with other ingredients to give a unique taste just like the people of
different backgrounds living peacefully in a country.
Linda Terziyan, one of the students at the Armenian school, said she
was very surprised about the amount of knowledge her Turkish friends
had about the Armenian community when she first met them.
She said she not only became very good friends with the students at
the Turkish school but got rid of her prejudices towards headscarved
women.
Most of the Turkish students in the project wear headscarves.
"I used to believe that women wearing headscarves were also covering
their minds, but after meeting these friends, I noticed that they are
very open-minded people," Terziyan told Sunday's Zaman.
Rumeysa sahbaz, another Turkish student in the project, said she also
learned some Armenian expressions and she is so good at pronouncing
them that even Armenians get surprised over how well she is able to
pronounce Armenian words.
Zeynep Yildiz, one of the other students in the project, noted that
she believes if only one person in a family gets in touch with people
from another culture and religion and develops a relationship with
them, this will lead to a domino effect and change the views or
prejudices towards a certain ethnic or religious community of the
people in that person's entire family.
"As we learn about certain things, we feel responsibility on our
shoulders to also let others know this," Yildiz said.
The students have established the coexistence platform at their school
under which they will carry out further work to bring the various
communities in the country together. Under the umbrella of the
platform, they have launched separate projects targeting different
religious and ethnic groups in the country such as the Syriacs,
Alevis, Kurds and Circassians, in addition to the Greeks and the
Armenians.
Talking about their future projects, Bolluk said they plan to organize
a modern arts gallery in December that will tell the stories of the
sufferings of Armenians and publish a book about the stories of the
mothers of members of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as
well as those of Turkish soldiers.
She said she, along with her two friends, sahbaz and Yildiz, travelled
to the southeastern province of Diyarbakir over the summer, stayed
there for 10 days and came out with very heartbreaking stories which
will be the topic of their book.
Nov 17 2012
Turkish, Armenian students launch cultural project
18 November 2012 / FATMA DisLi ZiBAK, Istanbul: Putting aside all
their prejudices and what their course books taught them, a group of
students from a Turkish high school and an Armenian high school have
joined hands to get to know each other and develop bonds of
brotherhood among different religious and ethnic groups in the country
with a joint project, which has resulted in a prominent award from the
Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV).
Students from the Mumtaz Turhan Social Sciences School and the Private
Getronagan Armenian High School were last Sunday granted the Exemplary
Behaviour and/or initiatives in the Public Sphere Award by the GYV at
a spectacular award ceremony held at the Istanbul Congress Centre for
their outstanding project called "Asure/Anusabur."
The group of Turkish and Armenian students launched the project that
saw them travel across Turkey to meet other cultures and see if they
could help foster a more peaceful coexistence between different groups
in the country.
Hanne Betul Bolluk, an 11th grader at the Mumtaz Turhan Social
Sciences School, told Sunday's Zaman that she and her friends decided
to do something to better know Armenians who have been living in
Anatolia for years after Fethiye Cetin, a lawyer who is affiliated
with the Armenian community in Turkey, came to their school last year
for a talk to introduce her book.
She said they contacted the Agos newspaper, an Armenian daily
published in Turkey, to discuss what they can do and came up with the
idea of meeting a group of students from an Armenian school, which
ended up being the Private Getronagan Armenian High School in
Istanbul's Karakoy neighbourhood.
"Personally, I was like the living example of the official ideology
taught at schools. But my friends and I put everything aside because
we knew that counting the number of people [who died in the 1915
incidents - both Turks and Armenians] would not bring any good. We
just came together to understand each other's pain," Bolluk said.
Most Turks and Armenians are in disagreement over the definition of
the incidents that took place in 1915 when the Ottoman Empire was
about to collapse. Armenians claim that their ancestors were subjected
to genocide as they were deported from the country in severe winter
conditions, while Turkey categorically rejects the accusations, saying
that both Turks and Armenians were killed in the conflict. Turkey and
Armenia also have no diplomatic relations.
Bolluk said they launched the "Asure/Anusabur" project with their new
Armenian friends after doing a considerable amount of research on the
history and culture of Armenians and exchanging views with academics
and they presented their project at a conference held at their school
last May.
The conference, which attracted more than 200 people, included
everything about Armenians, introducing their music, folklore, cuisine
and history and was also attended by academics.
it was this conference which brought the students' efforts to promote
a peaceful coexistence to the attention of the GYV.
With regards to the name of the project, which means "Noah's Pudding"
in Turkish and Armenian, Bolluk said the name has a metaphoric meeting
as every ingredient in Noah's pudding keeps its taste but it mingles
with other ingredients to give a unique taste just like the people of
different backgrounds living peacefully in a country.
Linda Terziyan, one of the students at the Armenian school, said she
was very surprised about the amount of knowledge her Turkish friends
had about the Armenian community when she first met them.
She said she not only became very good friends with the students at
the Turkish school but got rid of her prejudices towards headscarved
women.
Most of the Turkish students in the project wear headscarves.
"I used to believe that women wearing headscarves were also covering
their minds, but after meeting these friends, I noticed that they are
very open-minded people," Terziyan told Sunday's Zaman.
Rumeysa sahbaz, another Turkish student in the project, said she also
learned some Armenian expressions and she is so good at pronouncing
them that even Armenians get surprised over how well she is able to
pronounce Armenian words.
Zeynep Yildiz, one of the other students in the project, noted that
she believes if only one person in a family gets in touch with people
from another culture and religion and develops a relationship with
them, this will lead to a domino effect and change the views or
prejudices towards a certain ethnic or religious community of the
people in that person's entire family.
"As we learn about certain things, we feel responsibility on our
shoulders to also let others know this," Yildiz said.
The students have established the coexistence platform at their school
under which they will carry out further work to bring the various
communities in the country together. Under the umbrella of the
platform, they have launched separate projects targeting different
religious and ethnic groups in the country such as the Syriacs,
Alevis, Kurds and Circassians, in addition to the Greeks and the
Armenians.
Talking about their future projects, Bolluk said they plan to organize
a modern arts gallery in December that will tell the stories of the
sufferings of Armenians and publish a book about the stories of the
mothers of members of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as
well as those of Turkish soldiers.
She said she, along with her two friends, sahbaz and Yildiz, travelled
to the southeastern province of Diyarbakir over the summer, stayed
there for 10 days and came out with very heartbreaking stories which
will be the topic of their book.