Turkish-Armenian Peace Initiative: YoungTalks #7

-The YoungTalks seminar series continued on October 30, 2014 with the contribution of two speakers engaged in different aspects of the Turkish-Armenian conflict. In the first part of the seminar, the civil society activist Agata Fortuna (YouthBank International) presented the project called “Regional Comic Book Marathon: Crossing Borders Through Graphic Storytelling”. For the Marathon, 60 artists from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Turkey gathered in the Armenian city of Gyumri and prepared caricatures in 24 hours on the theme of freedom of expression. After Fortuna’s presentation, Dr. Ohannes Kılıçdağı (Bilgi University) gave an insightful speech on the political inclinations of Ottoman Armenians in the aftermath of the 1908 revolution. Based on the research study for his Ph.D dissertation where he analyzed the publications in Armenian made within the boundaries of the Empire during this era, he demonstrated the variance of political ideas and agendas of Ottoman Armenians subsequent to the transition to the constitutional system which raised hopes for a better future among Armenians.