The Istanbul Workshop of "Common Future for Turkey and Armenia Citizen's Diplomacy Project" had took place in the headquarters of Society and Democracy Association between 28-30 June 2010. Dr. Edward Kaufman from University of Maryland has facilitated the workshop that 20 university students from Armenia and Turkey had participated. The participants had the opportunity to have a consensus regarding to the Armenian-Turkish relations.
Armenian Participants:
Lilya Hovhannisyan, Yeva Aleksanyan, Jenya Gyukbangyan,
Ashot Avetisyan, Veronika Danielyants,
Hasmik Grigoryan, Karen Sirunyan, Hakob Nikoghosyan, Artak Khachatryan, Natalia Skvortsova
Ashot Avetisyan, Veronika Danielyants,
Hasmik Grigoryan, Karen Sirunyan, Hakob Nikoghosyan, Artak Khachatryan, Natalia Skvortsova
Turkish Participants:
Suzan Meryem Rosita Kalaycı, Merve Tabur, Özgür Dikmen, Pınar Akyasan, Ersin Taş, Sesil Gülkeser, Kerem Yıldırım, Nora Moldanoglu, Taha Deveci, Pelin Baş
You can find the remarks of the participants on the Istanbul workshop below
“I would like to write some comments and emotions about the Turkey step of the project. It was quite useful I think for building a bridge between Turkey and Armenia. The Armenian group members were very open minded and nice people. Also facilitator, Mr Kaufman was excellent. And of course, you had a very big effort, and also Can, Pelin and others whom can not remember names. Thank you all very much.
In three days, namely in a short period we built big ideals I think. I am looking forward the final declaration text. Although we could not get to a final decision in some points; it was evident that both friends from both parties declared their wills in favor of the opening, in each moment of three days. We are keeping in touch, we are keeping alive our ideals. As it can be seen in the final declaration, the problematic points are mostly ones that states intervene very much. Namely points about diplomatic issues are forming the conflictual points. However, when have a look at other decisions, it can be seen that all participators are in favor of giving a chance to cultural integration. And I think that that must give hope for opening the borders. That picture gives a sense that governments are tended to create problems even although they had signed two protocols and in that phase civil society must take a big responsibility, namely, rather than ''taking role'' it must fulfil its position and must put pressure on governors. When we look at our workshop in that frame, I am hopeful that it will create a consciousness at the individual, public and at the government level. We must keep alive our dialogue and also our hopeful ideals. We can do that.
Thank you all very much!”
In three days, namely in a short period we built big ideals I think. I am looking forward the final declaration text. Although we could not get to a final decision in some points; it was evident that both friends from both parties declared their wills in favor of the opening, in each moment of three days. We are keeping in touch, we are keeping alive our ideals. As it can be seen in the final declaration, the problematic points are mostly ones that states intervene very much. Namely points about diplomatic issues are forming the conflictual points. However, when have a look at other decisions, it can be seen that all participators are in favor of giving a chance to cultural integration. And I think that that must give hope for opening the borders. That picture gives a sense that governments are tended to create problems even although they had signed two protocols and in that phase civil society must take a big responsibility, namely, rather than ''taking role'' it must fulfil its position and must put pressure on governors. When we look at our workshop in that frame, I am hopeful that it will create a consciousness at the individual, public and at the government level. We must keep alive our dialogue and also our hopeful ideals. We can do that.
Thank you all very much!”
Özgür Dikmen
“We are under the influence of these days we spent there. We want to say that we spent one of our best days in Istanbul. It was very interesting and exciting.
That workshop was well organized and wasalso very important both of us, because we could recognize each other and find common language, which will make our friendship and cooperation more useful.
But there are some things about which we would like to inform you;
1.Eight hour work a day is more for such programm and very tiring. In our opinion It would be better and useful to spend 5 or 6 hours a day on working.
2.Such programms should include more participants , than there were. The more participants the more opinions, the more opinions the more results.
But it was very nice and we think that the next time we will try to do everything without missing anything .
We hope that such organizations will become more and more intensive and soon we will meet.
That workshop was well organized and wasalso very important both of us, because we could recognize each other and find common language, which will make our friendship and cooperation more useful.
But there are some things about which we would like to inform you;
1.Eight hour work a day is more for such programm and very tiring. In our opinion It would be better and useful to spend 5 or 6 hours a day on working.
2.Such programms should include more participants , than there were. The more participants the more opinions, the more opinions the more results.
But it was very nice and we think that the next time we will try to do everything without missing anything .
We hope that such organizations will become more and more intensive and soon we will meet.
Thank you very much.”
Artak Khachatryan - Karen Sirunyan
“This 3-day seminar made me realize that the issues Turkey and Armenia have been struggling to resolve are very fragile and both parties need to trust each other in this process. Interacting with the participants from Armenia enabled me to hear different voices within Armenia but I came to conclude that the opening of the borders between Turkey and Armenia is the common desire of the two sides.
The workshop was very useful for me in the sense that I learnt a lot of trust building and non-violent communication skills- skills that not only common Armenian and Turkish people but also the high-level officials and politicians should master. I believe without these skills, a healthy communication – the only mean to resolve the problems- cannot be established.
It was nice to meet people who are willing to spend their time and energy to create a “common future”. I hope the number of this type of activities will increase and will enable the youth of the two countries to come and work together.”
Nora Mildanoğlu
“Thank you very much for this wonderful time we spent in Istanbul.
Our conference and communication was unforgettable.
I believe that this meeting this is the beginning of the great future of the two countries. I am confident that our meeting is not held in vain. And the voices of youth will be presented on public display.I think that is one of the most important parts of our meeting was that in addition to our meetings at the conference , we spent a lot of time together.Our Turkish friends showed us their beautiful sights of the city, and during that time we managed to make friends.
A communication and mutual understanding is the first step to building a brighter future. At our conference we discussed many issues, a lot of opportunities opening up of borders and the establishment of friendly relations.I do believe that soon all this will become a reality.
Thanks again for all”
Natalia Skvortsova
“It is for the first time when Turkish and Armenian students met and discussed our common issue of opening the boarder. And of course it is very useful for both sides to have debates in public level. When we meet and learn about each other more it becomes more easily to break the stereotypes. It's very important to build trust between our countires. Thanks to our facilitator Dr. Edy Kaufman we had a real ice-breaking activity. We learned how to listen each other, and not to think he or she is telling a nonsense but to take into consideration the opinion. Also we learned how to speak in the proper way. We put oursleves into Turk's shoe and looked at the situation from Turkey's point of view as well. And the most important thing is that we shouldn't forget the human factor, even if we don't have the same opinion we stay friends.
On the other hand besides the workshops we had also social activities. All our emotions from spending time together helped to break the distance. I had a great impression from the trip by boat on the Bosphorus with two bridges over it conecting two parts –European and Asian. On board the ship we felt us free and danced with our Turkish friends and saw the great city Istanbul spreading on two sides of the Bosphorus, with its all historical and ancient places, mosques, palaces, buildings..”
Hasmik Grigoryan
I would like to share my opinion about our workshop to you .It was really a great experience for me as a future diplomat .I learned a lot during the workshop. Thank all of you for your opinions ,ideas. I hope our workshop will have its continue and we can do our best to have our little input in the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. I was very happy to meet all of you and I won't forget the days spent together. I'm sure we'll have many opportunities to meet again.
Jeny Gyulbangyan
Jeny Gyulbangyan
