Turkish-Armenian Peace Initiative: YoungTalks #5

– The fifth of the YoungTalks seminar series took place on September 24, 2014 with two speakers from civil society. Showing a selection of movies shot by the Armenia-Turkey Cinema Platform, Çiğdem Mater emphasized the significance of establishing dialogue between Armenian and Turkish societies and the crucial role cinema plays in it. The Platform aims at fostering peace between Turkey and Armenia by encouraging the production of movies by the movie-makers and artists from both countries. With this in mind, the Platform produced many movies such as I Left My Shoes In Istanbul, Galata, Do Not Get Lost Children, Master of Doves, Neighbors, and Puppet Theater. 

-Duygu Alpan from Global Political Trends (GPoT) Center discussed the findings of the research study by Ferhat Boratav entitled “A Survey on Turkish-Armenian Relations and Armenia in Turkish Media (2006-2009)”. Using quantitative methodology to analyze the content of five mainstream Turkish newspapers namely Hürriyet, Sabah, Radikal, Yenişafak and Zaman, the report puts forth significant findings manifesting the biases against Armenians in media language. GPoT Center is a non-government initiative established under Kültür University. The Center conducts projects focusing primarily on Turkish foreign policy towards many regions such as Armenia, Cyprus, Europe, Israel, Middle East and North Africa.