Hrant Dink Foundation launched the first call for the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant on March 10th, 2014. During the first two rounds, Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant has received over 380 applications, 80 individuals from Turkey and Armenia received the support of the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant and 55 of them have already realised their visits to the neighbouring country. We invite you to read, see and watch their personal accounts, impressions, stories and photos in the recently launched Beyond Borders Turkey-Armenia website.

In the third round of the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant, we received a total of 142 applications from both countries. 64 applications, which were in full compliance with the technical requirements mentioned in the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant Regulations, were submitted to the independent Selection Committee. These applications were carefully assessed by the committee in accordance with the selection criteria and priorities mentioned in the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant Regulations.

We are delighted to announce that the Hrant Dink Foundation will be offering support in the form of a travel grant to a total of 45 individuals – 29 from Turkey, 16 from Armenia – for their visits to the neighbouring country with specific purpose and programme mentioned in their submitted application forms.

• Erdinç Alnıak from Çanakkale, member of the Troya Culture Association, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan, to hold creativity workshops with the children in Armenia as part his joint project ‘Art for My Neighbour’.
• Belgin Cengiz from Istanbul, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan, to work on her documentary film about the Orphans and Orphanages of 1915.
• Berkant Kılıçkap, Serhat Utku İnan, Duygu Güngör, Mihran Tomasyan and Ömer Öztüyen from Istanbul, members of Çıplak Ayaklar Kumpanyası, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan, to take part in the High Fest International Performing Arts Festival with their dance-theatre piece titled Family Trees.
• Ruşen Arslan, Kadir Süleyman Kaçan, İsmail Beşikçi and Hrant Kasparyan from Istanbul, representatives of the İsmail Beşikci Foundation, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan, to meet various institutions and share experience about their oral history project and to organize a panel in Armenia.
• Gamze Karadağ Koç from Istanbul, member of the Mavi Kalem Association, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan, to take part in the 7th International Conference of the Armenian International Women’s Association (AIWA) titled Armenian Women in Action: Building Communities across the Globe, and to further improve relations between civil society organisations in both countries.
• İlgi Karaaslan and Mert Ayaroğlu from Istanbul, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan, to take part in the Yerevan Architectural Biennale, to promote the biennale in Turkey and to build partnerships for cross-border cooperation projects.
• İrfan Güneş and Emin Demirpolat from Zonguldak, members of the Cyclists’ Association, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan, to meet and form coalitions with cyclists in Armenia and to encourage more frequent bicycle trips between the two countries.
• Ecem Baykuş from Ankara and Miray Özturan from Istanbul, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan, to produce visual pieces about LGBTI people’s daily life and later on to exhibit them in Yerevan and İstanbul along with similar visuals from Turkey.
• Özcan Gül and Mardin Ari Hergel from Istanbul, members of the music band Vomank based in Istanbul and performing in Armenian, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan, to introduce their music in a solo-concert, and to re-establish the relations between Armenians in Turkey and Armenians in Armenia through music.
• Mesut Dinler and Mehmet Çalhan from Istanbul, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to explore Modern architectural heritage and the urban fabric and to meet Urban Lab, an architectural firm specialized in urban design and architectural conservation.
• Sibel Talay, Fahri Aral, Kadri Emrah Özpirinçci, Celal Metin Zeynioğlu and Özgür Akın from Istanbul, members of the Publishers’ Union of Turkey, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan, to build relations between the publishers of the countries, to discuss possible permanent strategies for promoting Armenian publishers to their counterparts in Turkey.
• Mahmut Ömer Orhun from Istanbul, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan and other cities of Armenia, to document culture, history, spaces, and daily life in Armenia for his photography project titled ‘Yerevan Impressions’.
• Armine Hovhannisyan from Yerevan, from the National Centre of Aesthetics, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Çanakkale, hold creativity workshops with the children in Çanakkale as part her joint project ‘Art for My Neighbour’.
• Hasmik Martiryan from Masis, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Hatay, to work on the documentary ‘Alone Sceptre in Musadagh: Vakıflı’ – a project initiated by former Travel Grant beneficiaries.
• Suren Deheryan from Yerevan, member of the Journalists for the Future NGO, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Van, to prepare multimedia stories about people whose parents were witnesses of the atrocity against the humanity in the beginning of the 20th century for their project ‘Neighbours by Destiny’.
• Ashot Grigoryan from Yerevan, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Istanbul, to meet HAYCAR (Organisation of Armenian Architects and Engineers in Istanbul) and to carry out joint research on Armenian Architects and Civil Engineers of Istanbul.
• Karine Mkrtchyan from Gyumri, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Istanbul, to build partnership and links with organisations that work for women and learn about the support provided to the irregular migrant Armenian women in Turkey.
• Mariam Minasyan and Mariana Yeghiazaryan from Yerevan, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Istanbul, to take part in a workshop on forum theatre co-organised by the Forum Theater Armenia, Dynamic Development Association and Kulp Youth Initiative.
• Emma Yeritsyan from Yerevan, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Istanbul, to present her scientific research at the Istanbul congress of the World Stroke Organization and to establish academic cooperation.
• Vahagn Hambardzumyan, Gegham Ateyan and Ofelya Balyan from Sisian, Robert Matevosyan from Kapan and Larisa Tolbakyan from Goris, members of the Khariskh NGO, as well as Elinar Andreasyan from Agarak, Anahit Hayrapetyan and Satik Harutyunyan from Meghri, members of Meghri Women’s Resource Center, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Istanbul and Ankara, to create ties between civil society organisations that promote the involvement of disabled women in social-political and cultural life.

After their visits, Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant beneficiaries’ experiences and impressions about the neighbouring country will be shared with public through the website of the Beyond Borders Turkey-Armenia – www.armtr-beyondborders.org.

Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant will continue to support more beneficiaries in the coming months. Interested individuals, groups and organisations can apply at any time. However, the Selection Committee will decide on the beneficiaries in line with the Selection Timeline, the coming deadline being December 15, 2014.

For further questions, please contact us via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Selection Timeline

Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant Selection Committee Members

Anahit Minassian
Dikran Altun
Feray Salman
Gayane Mkrtchyan
Neslihan Özgüneş

Hrant Dink Foundation administers Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant in the period 2014-2015, in the partnership of Civilitas Foundation,
in collaboration of Gyumri Youth Initiative Center and Community Volunteers Foundation (TOG), with the financial assistance of the European Union,
within the framework of the programme Support to the Turkey-Armenia Normalisation Process.