The oral history Project, which is run by Hrant Dink Foundation with the contribution of Olof Palme Center is completed. To follow the traces of political and cultural memory of Diyarbakir Armenians living in Turkey, Armenia and Diaspora, to reveal the existence of cultural continuity, to find out how people belonging to Armenian identity and identifying themselves as having Diyarbakir origin perceive themselves and the ‘others’, hereby reflecting the ‘‘reality’’ in which they live with its political, cultural and historical dimensions within the frames of an oral history project.
To fulfill this aim, the researchers, by going to their countries, conducted interviews with Diyarbakir Armenians: 16 in US, 11 in Canada, 9 in Lebanon and 4 in Armenia. In addition to the 22 Diyarbakir Armenians living in Istanbul, in Diyarbakir they also interviewed 16 Islamized Armenians who want to return to their Armenian Identity.
There was a seminar held on 17th March 2012 for the researchers, before the interviews began. Within the frames of seminar, Osman Koker and Mehmet Polatel made a presentation about The History of Diyarbakir and Diyarbakir Armenians, prof. Arzu Ozturkmen about The Method of Oral History, and Project coordinator Ferda Balancer about a study done in 2011.
By the coordination of Ferda Balancar and Emine Kolivar, 16 out of 81 interviews conducted by 14 researchers in 5 countries, were published under the title of "The Sounds of Silence II - Diyarbakir's Armenians Speak". In the book compiled by Ferda Balancar’s stories, project consultant Ali Bayramoğlu wrote the introduction, and Prof. Arzu Ozturkmen from Bogazici University History department, wrote the conclusion.
The introductory meeting of the book was held on 27th December, 2012 at Cezayir Restaurant. After the foundations history project coordinator Emine Kolivar’s and the book’s compiler Ferda Balancar’s presentation about the book and the project, Prof. Arzu Ozturkmen evaluated the book.
This project was the continuation of the book "The Sounds of Silence - Turkey's Armenians Speak" started and published in 2011.