Diaries 2005

P1: Female - Arm

EXPECTATION
I think it’s a good chance to renew my knowledge about Turkey and Turkish people. The new generation must change the situation and find solutions to problems between our 2 countries, which is impossible without contacts. I hope we’ll get acquainted with young people from Turkey, we’ll discuss many interesting and important topics, we’ll understand their feelings and thoughts.
I also expect that this will be a good trip and holiday for me. I’ll see interesting places that were part of my homeland many years ago. I hope I’ll have many new friends by the end of the school. Thanks!

10.08.05
The first thing I saw from airplane window was the lights of the city with 12 million people.
It was impressive. In the morning I was woken up by the voice coming from the window: the azan (molla) was praying, I started to discover Turkey the Muslim world, Muslim culture from that moments. It’s still very strange and new for me. But it turned out that Istanbul is more European. We had a long journey with Turkish young people, they are so lovely.
The worst memories of the day are about bus trip from Adana to Antakya. It was too hot and we also didn’t manage to have a sleep. At the end of the day I couldn’t even speak. I was tired enough to lay and sleep for days but after the shower we went for a walk. I already know several Turkish words, I’ve heard Turkish songs. I thing we’ll be good friends.

11.08.05
Yesterday was the second day of the school. I was writing an article for our newspaper. It was the main story of the paper & it was about our journey to Antakya & about the school, our feelings in general. I’m a journalist so it was not very hard work for me in spite of it was my first English-language article.
We had a very romantic end of the day. At night we were singing Armenian-Turkish-English songs all together in a room.
It was very late when I went to sleep.
Love my new friends very much I’m happy to realize that they are very nice&kind&funny and we can be good friends.

12.08.05
It was very funny and interesting yesterday. We had so much fun. During the yesterday journey we were just joking all the time and we saw so many interesting places. I was shocked when I saw one of the first Christian churches were apostals were two thousand years ago. I couldn’t believe my eyes. We also visited a museum with very beautiful ancient exporates. I really didn’t like the food in the restaurant very much. But we did shopping we bought bags, silk etc.
I took lots of photos.
In general I liked the day very much.

13.08.05
The first thing I remember from this day is the visit to the Armenian village. We danced a lot and we also sang Armenian songs. There were over 200 Armenians from all over the world. And all this was taking place in Turkey… I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. It was really great. We had also very interesting lectures on globalization an civil society. And we met our new teacher Markar Esanyan and we had a language course at last. Now I know Turkish alphabet.

14.08.05
Oh it was Sunday and we didn’t have any classes. We were at a leturgy in Armenian church which was very important for me. They we ate harrisa. We have harissa in Armenia, in the village called Musaler. Then I made an interview with Avetis baba- the eldest man in the village. He told me about himself and about the only Armenian village left in Turkey.
Since we are in Turkey I’ve been waiting impatiently to swim in the sea. But when I saw the dirty beach I was a little bit disappointed. Anyway it was a sea… I had a very good time that day.

15.08.05
Yesterday’s lecture were the most interesting for me as I’m a journalist. Bella&Arman had ? as well. Then we went to bazaar and did some shopping. After that we went to Orthodox Church. It was a very beautiful church. It was very interesting to walk in the city. You know there so many restaurants everywhere in Turkey. I think Turks like to eat very much. :)
Late in the evening we went to lunapark. Though I’m coughing& I’ve caught a cold I think I’m ok cause I’m having a good time with my Turkish&Armenian friends. They are all very funny. I love them.

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.