NEW MAGAZINE TO REPRESENT ALL TURKEY’S MINORITIES

Hurriyet
May 31 2011
Turkey

Turkey’s minorities should try harder to break out of their shell,
according to the editor-in-chief of a new monthly magazine that aims
to lend a collective voice to Turkey’s Armenian, Greek, Bulgarian and
Syriac minorities. “Paros” (torch in Armenian) will be published in
Turkish to reach a broader audience.

“Turkey had no magazines aiming to shed light on minority communities.

At the moment, we are unique in this field. As Turkey is changing,
so the minorities’ world has begun to acquire new vigor. I believe
the timing for Paros’ launch is quite accurate, and precisely for
this reason, because Turkish society has grown more aware,” Mayda
Saris told Hurriyet Daily News.

The representatives of Turkey’s minorities gathered in a hall allocated
by Å~^iÅ~_li Mayor Mustafa Sarıgul at Ramada Hotel in the district
of Pangaltı to participate in the magazine’s publicity meeting on
Monday night. Mayor Sarıgul expressed his support for the enterprise
and added that minorities were an indispensable part of Turkey.

“Paros means torch; and let’s hope this torch never fades away and
keeps our paths alight. We wish for all cultures to live on and never
get lost,” Sarıgul told the Daily News.

The magazine contributes to a country’s culture when minorities knew
the language of their resident country well and launched publications
that addressed the general public, Saris said. Such publications show
people what they do not see and make them think about different things,
he added.

Agos magazine, an Armenian weekly whose editor-in-chief Hrant Dink
was assassinated in 2007, had managed to attract substantial interest
because it was published in Turkish, said Paros’ editor.

“Care needs to be taken to prevent Armenian, Greek, Syriac, Bulgarian
and all other languages from becoming obsolete, for languages are
our wealth. However, it is also a truism that our youngsters prefer
to read in Turkish,” Saris said.

The magazine will primarily cover social, cultural, educational,
economic and artistic subjects, according to Saris, who also added
that young writers showed considerable interest in the publication. A
publicity issue of Paros magazine has already been published with
its initial staff of 18.

“We are going to employ many writers from diverse ethnic backgrounds:
Turks, Armenians, Greeks, Bulgarians and Syriacs. While Turkey and
the world are changing, minorities should also break out of their
isolation,” Saris said.