FRIENDSHIP TRIP TO MUS IN RENTED VAN

Hurriyet
June 1 2009
Turkey

ISTANBUL – Kevork Galosian, a 22-year-old from Armenia, studied Turkish
at Yerevan University as a reaction against his family and now has
founded a civil society organization to support the Turkish-Armenian
dialog process and promote relations between the two countries

Young Turks from all over the country met recently with young Armenians
who traveled to MuÅ~_ in a rented van as part of a series of cultural
activities aiming to bridge the gap between the two societies.The
event was co-hosted by the MuÅ~_ Youth Aggregation Society and the
Armenian Young Democrats’ National League, which organized events
and discussed between May 16 and 18.

Kevork Galosian, the 22-year-old founder of Young Democrats’ National
League, told the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review that his group’s
primary aims as a civil-society organization are creating dialogue
and producing solutions to the problems between Turkish and Armenian
people. The group, consisting of seven young people between the ages
of 18 and 23, traveled through Georgia for more than 30 hours before
reaching Turkey via Tbilisi, visiting Ardahan and Kars before coming
to MuÅ~_.

Prejudices prevent

"Many more of our friends wanted to come to Turkey with us, but
their prejudices prevented it," Galosian said. "My friends who did
come with me were also anxious that something would happen to them,
but all of their views have changed. They will visit Turkey again
when they get a chance."

Galosian’s family migrated to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia,
right after the 1980 military coup in Turkey. His siblings were
born in Istanbul, his father is from Malatya and his mother is from
Yozgat. Thus, he said, Turkey has a special importance for him and his
biggest desire as a child was to speak Turkish like his parents. "My
fathers’ friends of Turkish origin from Istanbul visited us every
summer on holidays," Galosian said. "They were speaking Turkish among
themselves, but not one word of Turkish was spoken in the house after
his friends left."

He chose Turkish Studies at university as a reaction against
his family, becoming an expert in Turkish at Yerevan State
University. Galosian will receive his master’s degree at Fatih
University in Istanbul. "I want to learn Turkish much better," he
said. "I will stay in Turkey during my master’s degree and develop
my language skills."

Galosian believes the recent efforts to establish diplomatic
relations between Turkey and Armenia are extremely important. "We
must remove the boundaries in our brains before the ones on land,"
he said, adding that the same level of nationalist stances exists in
Turkey and Armenia, which he described as an "extremely dangerous"
situation. "The nationalism on both sides are no good for anything
but adding fuel to the already burning fire," he said, adding that a
person who really loves his country and nation does not seek sanctuary
in nationalism. It is too late to found "Greater Armenia" or to realize
the dream of a Pan-Turkic "Great Turan." The maps are already drawn.

Turkish people as a whole cannot be blamed for tragic events in
the country’s history, Galosian said, concluding his remarks with a
message to the world: "We appreciate your encouragement of the dialogue
process between Turkey and Armenia, but we are against America, Russia
or Europe using the Armenian matter for political exploitation. As
Turks and Armenians, we should learn from the things foreign powers
did to us in the past."

A memory on ‘rakı’

During his visit to Turkey, Galosian visited the Ani excavation site,
the capital of the Pakraduni Armenian Kingdom that reigned between 961
and 1045, in the Arpacay District of Kars. He said he was surprised by
the historical information given there, noting that, "The Armenians
were not mentioned in a single word on the signs." At that moment,
a security guard came up to Galosian and asked for rakı. He said
he turned to the security guard and said, "There is no mention of
Armenians here and you are asking rakı from me?" The guard answered,
"How is that my fault? I did not write the signs."