There are no diplomatic relations between the two neighbouring countries, Armenia and Turkey, and their land border has been closed since 1993. The two countries signed protocols on the establishment of diplomatic relations and opening the border in 2009, but they were suspended before parliamentary ratification, stalling the normalisation process. Most recently, the government of Armenia declared the protocols null and void in March 2018 on the grounds of a lack of progress towards ratification or implementation. The lack of diplomatic relations continues to have an impact in all domains, including civil society efforts. There are no formal mechanisms for cooperation between the public and private institutions of the two countries, nor systematic exchange programmes in academia.

The Hrant Dink Foundation has been trying to encourage and foster relations between Turkey and Armenia in all fields, as one of its priority goals, since its establishment in 2007. Throughout these years, having observed the lack of dialogue due to physical and mental borders, we felt the need for support mechanisms that would help people of all ages, professions and backgrounds from both countries to cross the border, to visit their neighbouring country, meet one another, and build institutional partnerships. To this end, we established the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant and Fellowship Scheme in 2014 with a view to encourage and facilitate direct contact and cooperation.

These two programmes, first established in the period March 2014 - June 2015 in the framework of the European Union-supported programme Support to the Armenia-Turkey Normalisation Process, have been tools of learning for us in seeking a solution to the lack of relations between the two countries. During this period, which we consider the first stage of the two programmes, over a thousand people were reached and 210 people travelled to the neighbouring country with the Travel Grant, which aims to increase people-to-people contacts between the two countries. As part of the Fellowship Scheme, 90 institutions (25 from Armenia and 65 from Turkey) agreed to host a fellow from the neighbouring country in the same period and 18 professionals were selected as fellows in response to the open call made in June 2014.

The collaborations formed in the first stage facilitated new dialogues and these dialogues led to new collaborations. The interest shown in both programmes and the possible cooperation areas encouraged us to continue implementing them with an extended scope. The European Union supported the programme Support to the Armenia-Turkey Normalisation Process for a second stage, taking into account the positive impact of the direct contacts between the two societies. In response, we as the Hrant Dink Foundation designed the second stage of both programmes based on our experiences in the first stage, aiming to focus on new areas of cooperation and to reach different cities and new audiences.

With this publication, we aim to introduce the people and organisations who acted as catalysts between Turkey and Armenia, to convey the transformation they went through in their own words, to present collaborations that took place in various fields, and to share the Foundation’s experience throughout this process, while addressing bureaucratic procedures between the two neighbouring countries without diplomatic relations.