NEWS

Two new emergency decrees are published in the Official Journal of Turkey.

Mehmet Polatel, PhD candidate in Boğaziçi University, gave a presentation titled as “Demographic and Socioeconomic Outcomes of Hamidian Massacres in Van” in “The Social, Cultural and Economic History of Van and the Region” conference organized by Hrant Dink Foundation. We talked to Polatel focusing on his presentation.

“The Social, Cultural and Economic History of Van and the Region” conference organized by Hrant Dink Foundation was held in Anarad Hığutyun building on November 11 and 12. We talked to Dr. Yektan Türkyılmaz, who was the keynote speaker of the conference, about Van's importance in Armenian and Ottoman history.

Ali Yamaş and Bülent Erdem are engaged in caving. They have a cave research group called “Obruk” (sink-hole). We wanted to talk to two experienced cavers about the works in this field. However, we found ourselves talking about the underground cities in Turkey. They say that there are many underground cities that were built by Christian peoples especially between 6th and 11th centuries.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan spoke about Armenian-Turkish relations. Sargsyan stated that the preconditions propounded by Turkey halted the relations.

Raymond Kévorkian attended “The Social, Cultural and Economic History of Van and the Region” conference organized by Hrant Dink Foundation. We talked to him about the course of genocide studies and his recent works.

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini stated that they agreed on the continuation of the membership talks with Turkey and said that death penalty should be an absolute red line for the EU.

EU Foreign Ministers gathered together yesterday in Brussels for a 2-day summit. Today, the ministers will discuss the situation in Turkey.

Richard Hovhannisian, who is a prominent figure in Armenian historiography, came to Istanbul for attending “The Social Cultural and Economic History of Van and the Region 1850-1930” conference organized by Hrant Dink Foundation. We talked to him about his recently-published book and his studies on the genocide.