Join a discussion on genocide prevention & peacebuilding - 24 April

reconciliation

 

To commemorate the Armenian Genocide, we are bringing OYW Ambassadors together to reflect on their experiences with peace-building and prevention of future genocides, and to discuss cases of reconciliation and healing.

Date: Friday 24 April

Time: 5pm CET / 4pm BST / 11am EST

Location: Zoom

Register to attend

 

Background

April 24 marks the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, a mass atrocity committed against ethnic Armenians by the Young Turk government in 1915-1916 in the Ottoman Empire. By the early 1920s, after the massacres and deportations finally ended, around 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives.

Even after the centennial of the genocide the Turkish side still denies the allegations. That chapter of history is still kept in secret by the Turkish state. After more than 100 years, the borders are still closed. Two nations living so close to each other do not have a dialogue and are still perceived as victims and perpetrators. The current generations do not retain much hatred towards each other; however, this does not prevail in all the layers of Armenian and Turkish societies. Is this the right way to move forward, and would recognition of the Armenian Genocide help to revive the relations between the two nations?

The link to join the discussion will be sent to participants ahead of the call.

The format

OYW Peace Ambassador (Bogotá, 2017), Nvard Loryan, will lead the discussion by sharing her personal experience with reconciliation between Turks and Armenians.

We will have a special guest, Ayşenur Korkmaz, a Ph.D. researcher at the University of Amsterdam. Her main areas of interest are the Armenians of the late Ottoman and modern Turkish history. Ayşenur and Nvard maintain a very special friendship that is still not common to meet between a Turkish and Armenian.

They will tell their story of reconciliation and would open the floor for the participants to present their stories and insights, and subsequently discuss a number of questions related to prevention, healing, and reconciliation.