P11: Male - Tr - Yavaş Gamats

10.08.05
Coming from Izmir and expectations...

As I said before, I’m from Izmir and I’m the only participant from Izmir. Therefore, I must fly lonely. It was the first time I fly. First, I flew to Istanbul, I was there at 12:00 but my next flight was at 14:15. I started waiting and at the time, I fly to Adana. And again waiting. When I see the bus that we came from Adana to here by it, I think that Antakya has the bus to Adana, but when I was in it, I didn’t want to believe it.
Now, I’m here and of course have so many expectations from this course. First, I have to say that I’m here to see the attitude of the Armenian youth to us. There is a meaningless confession between the states but I believe that there cannot be the problem between us as being youth of a new generation.

11.08.05
We started with the seminar of Sezin Oney yesterday. The issue which is held by Oney was about conflict and resolution. After that, we were with Murat Belge, and about Deconstructing History. It was hardly discussable. As a final, Sevan Nisanyan who is an Armenian living in Turkey, gave us a seminar about Antakya and demographic characteristics of this city. In the evening, I was going to have some drink with the Armenian and Turkish participants of the course. We returned back at midnight after that we were in Number 153.

15.08.05
We started Saturday with seminar of Ferhat Kentel, Nazan Maksudyan and Murat Belge. After that we were with Emel Kurma and she was telling about the civil society. We had dinner and wnt to Vakiflikoy which is the last Armenian village in Turkey.
On Sunday, we went to Vakiflikoy again. It was a special day for them. And now it was time to go to the beach. Sea was really so dirty. I miss my city! Therefore we went back to the swimming pool. Dinner was so funny. We sang songs in Turkish and Armenian. (badeerjan, hoy Nazan yare :) ) When we arrived to the hotel, we saw that there was a wedding, we joined it with our dances.

16.08.05
This is the last night and we are preparing a closing ceremony. Everyone is waiting for it. Yesterday was birthday of Isabella and Sinan. We had a secret party for them. Today we have a presentation which will include our group working. Therefore, when everyone went to the lunapark, I was working about my special presentation.

Support to the Armenia-Turkey Normalisation Process is a programme implemented by a Consortium of eight civil society organisations from both countries with the financial assistance of the European Union under the Instrument for Stability.

The overall objective of the programme is to promote civil society efforts towards the normalisation of relations between Turkey and Armenia and towards an open border by enhancing people-to-people contacts, expanding economic and business links, promoting cultural and educational activities and facilitating access to balanced information in both societies.

The Consortium partners include Civilitas Foundation (CF), Eurasia Partnership Foundation (EPF), Public Journalism Club (PJC), Regional Studies Center (RSC) from Armenia; and Anadolu Kültür, the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV), Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly (hCa), and Hrant Dink Foundation from Turkey. The programme will include a series of activities such as media support, TV talk shows and citizen reporting to contribute to better mutual understanding.

The programme will also include travelling discussions; workshops and trainings for youth and teachers; exchange of artists, architects, and entrepreneurs; fellowship opportunities and travel support to enhance encounters and cooperation across the border. Research on business and economic opportunities; celebrity discussions about the past; and opinion exchanges of high-level former officials will also be a part of the programme.

One of the main pillars of the Programme is inclusiveness – to engage and support new actors in the dialogue process. To this end, the Consortium created a Grant Scheme to invite individuals and civil society organisations from Armenia and Turkey - other than the Consortium members - to propose and implement their own project ideas, which will contribute to the overall objective of the Programme and multiply the shared outcomes.

The results of all activities will be shared with the public through the trilingual website, which will serve as a networking tool featuring the overall picture of the past, current, and future developments in Armenia-Turkey dialogue initiatives.

For further information, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.