DIASPORA

Known for his researches on Caucasus and his book on Karabakh conflict titled “Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War”, author and journalist Thomas de Waal's recent book “Great Catastrophe: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide” has been published in Turkish by Iletişim Publishing. By way of his book, we talked to de Waal about the current developments in Caucasus.

Hrant Dink Foundation's Turkey-Armenia fellowship program sponsored by the EU encourages the professionals from the neighboring country to form cross-border cooperation networks since 2014. Armen Ohanyan (Hayastantsi), Maria Yeghiazaryan and Artsrun Pivazyan, who came to neighboring Turkey for new experiences thanks to the fellowship program, shared their experiences.

According to Armenian Ministry of Diaspora, 18.000 Syrian Armenians have been given Armenian citizenship in 2016.

Issue of migration preoccupies many people in Turkey as the political atmosphere gets increasingly tenser. In a time like this, we wanted to get together with Armenians of Turkey who migrated to Armenia, the closest and most distant neighbor, during the hard periods of recent history and report their first-hand accounts. These people, who told about their lives with a great sincerity, revealed human's power and hope of starting over.

Last week, Armenian United National College is opened in Beirut. Prominent figures of Armenian society, religious leaders and Lebanese Minister of Education were present at the opening ceremony of the school, which is of major importance for Lebanese Armenians.

Businessman and philanthropist Ruben Vardanian declared that he will provide scholarship to 100 children who are Syria, Lebanon or Iraq citizens.

Richard Hovhannisian, who is a prominent figure in Armenian historiography, came to Istanbul for attending “The Social Cultural and Economic History of Van and the Region 1850-1930” conference organized by Hrant Dink Foundation. We talked to him about his recently-published book and his studies on the genocide.

Shamiram Chilingirian, daughter of the genocide victim Rupen Sevag, died at 102 on October 17 in Nice.

Taner Akçam’s book “Forced Islamization of Armenians: Silence, Denial and Assimilation”, which was published in Turkish in 2014, is translated to Eastern Armenian. We talked to Turcologist Meline Anumyan, the translator of the book, about Turcology studies in Armenia and the translation of Turkish books to Armenian.

Chair of Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society Megerdich Megerdichian was in Istanbul for “Critical Approaches to Armenian Identity in 21st Century” conference and we talked to him pursuant to the content of the conference. Megerdichian says, “Both diaspora and Armenia is aware of the change in Turkey and the awakening of the Armenians in Turkey.”