The Hrant Dink Foundation The oral history and cultural heritage teams at the Hrant Dink Foundation started having new set of oral history workshops. Our call for volunteers in January 2017 had much more applicants than we have anticipated. More than 200 individuals applied, because of which we decided having more than one workshop in Istanbul. We will be also having workshops in Adana, Sivas and Kayseri. 30 volunteers are participating in the ongoing first Istanbul workshop.

On January 25 the first part of the workshop took place, during which history of Adana was discussed. Adana is one of the locations of Creative and Adaptive Reuse of Sites of Memory project, understanding its history is very important for the oral history interviews. Similar area history research was also conducted during Hrant Dink Foundation’s previous oral history studies on Turkey, Diyarbakir, Ankara and Izmit.

The second part of the workshop that took place on January 28 was directed by Boğaziçi University History Professor Dr. Arzu Öztürkmen. Dr. Öztürkmen talked to the participants on methodology of Oral History, its development in Turkey and her personal experience. What should be done before, during and after the interviews and the its ethics were discussed during the workshop, and the participants had the chance to create bonds with oral history by discussing their personal experiences.

On February 4, from the History Foundation of Turkey, Gülay Kayacan started by presenting examples of oral history projects from Turkey and the world. The workshop continued by the practice of oral history. A wide range of topics were discussed during the workshop, from using he audio and video recording equipment to the question that can and cannot be asked, from the talking approach to technical knowledge. Try out interviews were conducted illustrating the interviewing process.

The workshop will continue with experience sharing group works. The oral history records that will be collected by the help of the volunteers will be part of the Hrant Dink Foundation oral history archive. This archive will be used in Foundation’s publications and will be archived with standards that will make it available for research.