Turkish-Armenian concert canceled due to threats
4/9/07
The Brown Daily Herald
Campus News
By Debbie LehmannBelow it says: "The {Turkish Cultural Society} member went on to write that he finds it "illogical" that people in both the Turkish and Armenian communities asked the other side to change its views before considering dialogue.
A Turkish-Armenian concert scheduled for Friday was canceled on short notice after the Armenian musicians and the president of the Armenian Students Association received threats from members of the Armenian community.
ASA and the Turkish Cultural Society organized the concert, titled "The Armenian Composers of the Ottoman Period," to promote dialogue between their communities. The concert was dedicated to Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist who was assassinated in January outside his newspaper office by a Turkish nationalist who later confessed to the killing. Dink had been a target of nationalist anger for his articles about the mass killings of Armenians by Turks in 1915 that many have called a genocide.
A member of TCS, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the situation, told The Herald the groups started talking about co-sponsoring the event roughly six months ago after members of TCS wrote a column in The Herald that touched on historical relations between Turks and Armenians. The two groups then began discussing the need for joint events to encourage conversation, according to the TCS member.
The TCS member wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that the Armenian musicians and the president of the ASA did their best to resist the "warning messages" they received. However, he wrote that "the situation got serious," and the musicians, followed by the ASA, withdrew from the event. The musicians and the ASA are now "in a very difficult position against some parts of their community," he wrote.
Ruben Izmailyan '09, president of the ASA, said he was disappointed the event was canceled but declined to comment further.
TCS is also "very sorry the event did not happen," the member wrote in his e-mail.
"For people who had issues, I think that the appropriate response was not to attend, instead of forcing it to cancel," he wrote. "I think this was an honest effort on both sides aiming at nothing but to enjoy common music and food and make friends regardless of views on the past."
The member went on to write that he finds it "illogical" that people in both the Turkish and Armenian communities asked the other side to change its views before considering dialogue.
"I thought dialogue was about talking, negotiating and persuading each other," he wrote. "There is a clear contradiction."
Still, efforts to plan the event were not entirely useless, the member wrote. TCS received messages of support from both Armenians and Turks. One Armenian woman did not hear about the cancellation and still came from Cape Cod for the concert. In addition, TCS members went out to dinner and engaged in conversation with an Armenian medical student at Brown, who also came to the concert without knowing it had been canceled.
TCS members have a wide range of views about Armenian-Turkish relations, the member wrote, but they agree that "healthy, constructive dialogue is needed for a solution." TCS will continue to look into ways to create this dialogue, the member wrote.
"Now, I am convinced that bringing open-minded, reasonable people of both sides together is the solution," he wrote. "If not, those people would not be so afraid of it."
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
The Brown Daily Herald
Campus News
By Debbie Lehmann
Below it says: "The {Turkish Cultural Society} member went on to write that he finds it "illogical" that people in both the Turkish and Armenian communities asked the other side to change its views before considering dialogue.
"I thought dialogue was about talking, negotiating and persuading each other," he wrote. "There is a clear contradiction."" and I agree with him. Dialogue without precondition has always been the postition of Armenia in regards to Turkey. The latter insisting that the Armenian Diaspora should abandon its pursuit of the recognition of the genocide as a precondition for dialogue.
A Turkish-Armenian concert scheduled for Friday was canceled on short notice after the Armenian musicians and the president of the Armenian Students Association received threats from members of the Armenian community.ASA and the Turkish Cultural Society organized the concert, titled "The Armenian Composers of the Ottoman Period," to promote dialogue between their communities. The concert was dedicated to Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist who was assassinated in January outside his newspaper office by a Turkish nationalist who later confessed to the killing. Dink had been a target of nationalist anger for his articles about the mass killings of Armenians by Turks in 1915 that many have called a genocide.
A member of TCS, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the situation, told The Herald the groups started talking about co-sponsoring the event roughly six months ago after members of TCS wrote a column in The Herald that touched on historical relations between Turks and Armenians. The two groups then began discussing the need for joint events to encourage conversation, according to the TCS member.
The TCS member wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that the Armenian musicians and the president of the ASA did their best to resist the "warning messages" they received. However, he wrote that "the situation got serious," and the musicians, followed by the ASA, withdrew from the event. The musicians and the ASA are now "in a very difficult position against some parts of their community," he wrote.
Ruben Izmailyan '09, president of the ASA, said he was disappointed the event was canceled but declined to comment further.
TCS is also "very sorry the event did not happen," the member wrote in his e-mail.
"For people who had issues, I think that the appropriate response was not to attend, instead of forcing it to cancel," he wrote. "I think this was an honest effort on both sides aiming at nothing but to enjoy common music and food and make friends regardless of views on the past."
The member went on to write that he finds it "illogical" that people in both the Turkish and Armenian communities asked the other side to change its views before considering dialogue.
"I thought dialogue was about talking, negotiating and persuading each other," he wrote. "There is a clear contradiction."
Still, efforts to plan the event were not entirely useless, the member wrote. TCS received messages of support from both Armenians and Turks. One Armenian woman did not hear about the cancellation and still came from Cape Cod for the concert. In addition, TCS members went out to dinner and engaged in conversation with an Armenian medical student at Brown, who also came to the concert without knowing it had been canceled.
TCS members have a wide range of views about Armenian-Turkish relations, the member wrote, but they agree that "healthy, constructive dialogue is needed for a solution." TCS will continue to look into ways to create this dialogue, the member wrote.
"Now, I am convinced that bringing open-minded, reasonable people of both sides together is the solution," he wrote. "If not, those people would not be so afraid of it."
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
Labels: Dialogue Armenia-Turkey
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 6:52 PM
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