A group of 7 journalists from Armenia visited Turkey from November 12th to November 18th 2012 in the forth year of Turkey-Armenia Journalists’ Dialogue Programme - organized by the Hrant Dink Foundation in cooperation with Heinrich Böll Stiftung Turkey Office since 2009.

In the forth year of the programme, which aims at strengthening ties between journalists from Turkey and Armenia and helping to establish direct means of exchanging news sources, we wanted to bring together journalists, columnists, editors from internet news portals, bloggers with particular interest in social issues bearing in mind the growing importance of online media and social media in Armenia.

Following an open call, 7 participants were selected and invited to Turkey to take part in a one-week programme to gain a better understanding of the political, economic and human rights situation in Turkey.

Journalists from Civil Net, Internews, Journalists for the Future, Lragir, Radio Liberty, Tert, Yerkir Media paid their first ever visits to Turkey and found out about Turkey as well as the current situation of media and journalists in the country.

The journalists entered the newsrooms of news agencies and media outlets such as Bianet, CNN Türk, Hürriyet Daily News, NTV, Radikal, T24, Today’s Zaman and Yeni Şafak and had the chance to meet with their colleagues and discuss the bilateral relations and political atmosphere and problems in Turkey. They paid visits to Anadolu Kültür, Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Center for Truth Justice and Memory and Journalists and Writers Foundation and got informed about the civil society projects in Turkey. Within the one-week programme the group also visited the Agos newspaper, Hrant Dink Foundation, Aras Publishing, Nor Radio and Gedikpaşa Armenian Evangelical Church and received information about the Armenians in Turkey. To get a deeper insight into a political and human rights developments in Turkey participants met with representatives of Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), Republican People's Party (CHP), Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, Human Rights Association and 140 Journos. They met in person with Cengiz Çandar, Oral Çalışlar, Ahmet Şık, Pınar Öğünç, Çiğdem Mater and received in-depth information about various issues on Turkey’s agenda. The group also witnessed the demonstration of Cumartesi Anneleri, the mothers of thousands of disappeared persons in Turkey since 1990s.


From Press