turkish-greek civic dialogue - AEGEE Europe

Of course, lots remain to be done. The road is open, one excellent activity is
not sufficient to change the world.
What it should be of major concern is the solid and lasting character of
these efforts. Let’s not forget that the confidence-building procedure is
under construction during the past few years. It happened in the context of
the European orientation of Turkey and the Greek positive stance on that.
Earthquakes gave a good opportunity for the bilateral approach through the
activation of the civil society: Nonetheless, I’m quite pessimistic for the
sustainability of these efforts. What we all are doing here could collapse in
a few moments of crisis: nationalistic ideas are very easy to fly and spread
around. In the single crisis, “we”, Turks, should have to prevail over “them”,
Greeks (and vice versa), language, religion or national feelings will became
again a high wall between the two sides. Then it will be again very difficult to
cover what we have gained in the last years. Cyprus, will be one of these fields
where chances for approach will be under a permanent test. The words of the
dean of the University of Istanbul two weeks ago about the human sacrifices
that Turkey should suffer in order to occupy Cyprus and Greece started the
dirty job. As far as I know, this professor had been honored with the İpekçi Prize
for the Greek-Turkish friendship!! The way that the Greek media presented
this declaration achieved the catastrophe: They insisted day and night proving
that the Turks are always ready for war, to occupy our land. So what implies is
that no trust can be shown to a Turk, who is in a permanent readiness to use
violence for his own interest against “us” Greeks.
After all I believe that the Greek-Turkish rapprochement goes through the
study of the common fields of contacts in our history: the Greek revolution,
the Balkan Wars, the expedition of Asia Minor, the consequent catastrophe for
the Greeks and national victory for the Turks, and the most difficult of all, the
mutual ethnicisation of the land and the people which are overlapped erasing
the past and creating the present national myth.
Proceeding in different fields of cooperation, is a very good idea which has to
be carried out further and further for long years. But I’m afraid is not enough.
We need to experience what happened in the 1960’s between France and
Germany: to overcome the past for good without forgetting it though. We
need to foster the new common interests we will have from cooperation
and to vanish the interest of those who perpetuate antagonism: military,
ideological and political. For that we need a solid ground of democracy which
Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de L’Europe
implies a deep respect for “the Other”. A common political culture developed
in equal terms in both countries for each other should comprise a human and
minority rights culture, democratic values and state of justice. For these goals
all we have to work hard, and this project of AEGEE, which is being achieved
in this conference represent a perfect practice of a fruitful dialogue coming
from the civil society.
Last but not least, our scope should be that, in the near future we will
not care about Greek-Turkish relations. That openness and normality will
govern the relations of high, medium and low level field of contact. That
democracy will permeate independence of all actors of civil society to
search, research, and speak out. That nationalistic feelings will not be able
anymore to turn into aggressive and blind behavior against “the Other”.
That one day, above Turks and Greeks, we will be all human beings.
THE AEGEE GREEK –TURKISH CIVIC
DIALOGUE PROJECT
............................................................................................... Giorgos Mavrommatis
“Being here in Ankara these days, and having all
of you around me, I cannot help but recall the
group my dear friend Prof. Alekos Georgopoulos,
in the early 90s, in the School of Education of
the University of Thessaloniki, and the attempts
we did to identify –or rather detect– counterparts
in Turkey in order to establish a dialogue. And
the disappointment we often felt, when, after a
lot of effort and numerous trips and discussions,
and sometimes after interesting meetings and
spectacular events, we realised that we had not
yet succeeded in making the first step on the path
towards a deeper communication and approach.
So you can imagine how I felt when, some 3 years
ago, I first met some Turks – and I refer to Müfide
Final Conference
173