Dozens of organizations from Armenia, Turkey ready to host fellows

ANKARA

A placard commemorates journalist Hrant Dink, who gave the foundation its name, on the seventh anniversary of his murder. DHA Photo

The Hrant Dink Foundation has established a fellowship scheme with a view to promote cross-border affiliation and cooperation among professionals from the two neighboring countries within the framework of the Support to the Armenia-Turkey Normalization Process program financed by the European Union.

Executives from the foundation as well as the Delegation of the European Commission to Turkey gathered with representatives of civil society organizations, as well as individuals, at a meeting held in Ankara yesterday. During this meeting they briefed them on the 25 host organizations from Armenia and the programs that they offered as part of the Turkey-Armenia Fellowship Scheme.

In addition those 25 organizations in the estranged neighbor, some 63 organizations from Turkey are also ready to act as host organizations for fellows from Armenia.

Ankara University Faculty of Political Science; Boğaziçi University Department of History; Sabancı University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges Economic and Technology University (TOBB ETU) Department of International Relations; Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) Foreign Policy Program; Diyarbakır Institute for Political and Social Research (DİSA); daily BirGün; CNNTürk; Radikal.com.tr; Kalem Literary Agency; and Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality are some of those partners in Turkey.

During the meeting in Ankara, a member of the selection committee recalled how civil society from Greece and Turkey was in an interactive dialogue and cooperation in the late 1990s and in early 2000s and how this dialogue eventually paved the way for a rapprochement between the Aegean neighbors, who were also estranged until recently.

“Civil society is giving an impetus to politics,” she said, likening the ongoing efforts of dialogue between civil societies in Armenia and Turkey to what happened between Greece and Turkey at the time.

“In a way, civil society is actually also strengthening the hands of politicians for taking bolder steps towards each other,” she added.

Academics and independent researchers; human rights activists, feminists, LGBTI activists, environment activists; journalists, reporters, photojournalists; photographers, artists in residence, designers, architects; writers, translators; legal experts, public relations experts; and any individual willing to propose his/her own project ideas are all welcome to apply the scheme.

For further information and questions, contact fellowship@hrantdink.org.c