turkish-greek civic dialogue - AEGEE Europe

outside and say what you want to say
outside!”) meant that we had to “end”
the sketch rather quickly in order to
prevent too much escalation. Most people
in the room just froze in horror without
knowing what to do (as though their worst
fears of a Greek-Turkish conflict were
finally coming true). A Greek girl sitting
next to Emrah (the Turkish boy criticising
the ‘lesbians’) moved a few seats away and
then sat at the other side of the theatre
until she found out that it was all play (but
all ‘reality’, of course). Another youth said
“see, this tension will never be solved”.
The second sketch was a discussion
about Cyprus. There was more
participation from the floor, perhaps
because the topic is a bit more
abstract and the discussion less
“personal”. The fear of conflict
in the members of staff and the
participants was evident; most
preferred to avoid conflict when it
happened, and some reacted with
a desire to suppress any sign of it
completely. In order not to ‘spoil
the atmosphere’ perhaps. The
fact is, such intercultural/Turkish-Greek
‘conflict resolution’ workshops, or conferences should serve not only to
see multiple perspectives on present/history, but also to provide skills for
dealing with conflict. So that when there is conflict person do not fall back
onto assumptions and escape, but ask questions, become curious and involved
and look for constructive ways of dealing with it. Conflict is not necessarily
bad. In fact it is often necessary. With the Theatre of the Oppressed workshop
we tried to provide some skills or understanding of ways in which one could
react to conflicts. Of course, this was just a tiny beginning (or end-since it was
the final conference).
Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de L’Europe
SUGGESTIONS FROM
NESLIHAN:
1. Have a clearly defined
objective/theme for the conferences/
workshops as well as for the longerterm
programme. Once the goals are
defined then the blanks can be filled in
more cohesively.
2. Provide the group with
conflict management skills to ensure
that all participants feel safe enough
to face conflict within the group and to
deal with it constructively.
3. Have the same group of
participants attend more than one
workshop, allowing them to acquire
increasing skills and to get to know one
another better.
Final Conference
167