turkish-greek civic dialogue - AEGEE Europe

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Pekin and Sefer Güvenç– trying to do the same thing, and some other Greeks
–like Sophia Kompotiati– trying to establish a Greek–Turkish civic dialogue.
In recent years, the situation regarding Greek-Turkish relations has changed.
The reaction to the earthquakes, the European orientation of Turkey etc.,
brought Greece and Turkey closer together and facilitated the rapprochement
between Greeks and Turks. More and more tourists come and go, more and more
merchants do business on both sides of Aegean, there is co-operation between
Turk and Greek artists, scientists etc., various networks are established, such
as the “Trakyanet”, the network of municipalities in Greek and Turkish (and
Bulgarian) Thrace etc. And, of course, one of the most important networks
is the “Greek –Turkish civic dialogue project”, OUR network. I consider this
to be one of the most important ones because of the large number of NGOs,
and especially the large number of young people, participating. Because -and
we all have to keep that in mind- participation is the main characteristic of
citizenship, what’s more participation and diversity are the foundations of
democracy.
You know, in ancient Greece, in the Athenian democracy, it was self-evident for
every citizen to get involved in public affairs. Now, there were some citizens who
refrained from being involved, either because they did not want to or because
they could not, but mostly due to mental incapability. Ancient Athenians called
the individuals of both categories by the same name: “ιδιώτες” – and that’s
where the English word “idiot” comes from. For me, the fact that all these
youngsters gathered here, and many more who for various reasons could not
be here with us today, do not restrict themselves to their own micro-world,
dedicated only to the pursuit of individual well-being, but do get involved in
public affairs, is extremely important and promising. They don’t leave public
affairs to the elder, the “mature” ones, to specialists. They wonder and they
do care about which way things go and they wish to influence this course. The
participation of youngsters, of young citizens, and their involvement in public
affairs is proof of a clear political attitude; and I have every reason to be happy
about it.
I could not say many things about the “KayaFest Youth and Culture Festival” or
the “Rebuilding Communication” event, since I was not there, and I can only
judge based on what I read and heard. What struck me about the festival was
that nearly 50 NGOs and more than 3.000 youngsters participated. This proved
that art and fun are the best materials to built bridges in such a framework.
Regarding the “Rebuilding Communication” event, for me, the most important
thing was that the participants dealt with two very “difficult” issues: education
and stereotypes. Public education in modern nation-states aims, among other
things, at homogenising the population and shaping a single, accepted national
character, a key element of which is the opposition to the “enemy of the nation”.
Education is one of the most important areas where attitudes and perceptions
are formed; therefore, I say to all the participants in the workshops: well done
and keep on doing more!
Now, on the question of stereotypes. I could say a lot about the essential role
stereotypes play in the perception of “the Other” and how important it is in
a rapprochement process to work with stereotypes; about their contents and
the way they are formed. But, instead of elaborating on this issue, I would
rather give you an example. I come from Greek Thrace, I was born and raised
there and all my relatives are Thracians. As you probably know, Christians and
Muslims have been living together in Thrace for more than 500 years and Greek
and Turk Thracians know each other well. One afternoon, some 3 years ago,
a Turk friend of mine came home with his fiancée –a young, fresh, charming
creature, dressed in jeans. I introduced them to my mother saying this was my
friend İbrahim and his fiancée Nesrin. And my 80-year-old mother, with eyes
full of surprise, touched her here and there, and said: “Oh, how beautiful she
is; she doesn’t look like a Turk.”
Coming now to the Conference about the population exchange. I think this was
a very important conference, for many reasons. For me, the most important
ones were the following:
1 st ) It became clear from the presentations that the population exchange was
a traumatic experience, which caused a lot of pain, distress and sorrow to
both sides. This drives us to think deeper about defeat and victory in the war,
and understand the spirit of Haci Bektaş Veli, who, 700 year ago, said: “Do not
forget that even your worst enemy is a human being”.
2 nd ) There are significant differences in the way the two sides perceived,
recorded and handled the exchange and its results. And that was so because of
specific reasons, which need to be researched more.
3 rd ) All participants kept distances from the two nationalisms involved and from
the official national historical narrations. And that is very important, since we
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