The Hrant Dink Foundation continues its oral history study, initiated in 2011. The study aims to uncover the political and cultural memories of Armenians living in Turkey, reveal the continuity of their cultural existence, and explore how Armenians perceive themselves and the ‘others’; thus, it sheds light on the reality of the Armenians still residing in Turkey with its political, cultural, and historical dimensions.

Within the scope of the study, oral history interviews were conducted with Armenians living in Turkey and abroad. Among the persons interviewed are those who live by hiding their identities, or Muslims who discover their Armenian identities afterwards, as well as those who live on with their Armenian identities.

Since 2017, cultural heritage and oral history studies have been combined, and interviews have been conducted with the inhabitants of our field study sites, who have various other ethnic and religious backgrounds, to inquire into Armenian memory.

The Hrant Dink Foundation has published a series of books called ‘The Sounds of Silence’ as part of the Oral History Project. The series aims to make the stories of Armenians who have their roots in various regions of Turkey and live in Turkey or elsewhere heard and visible. The first book, published in 2011, included interviews with Armenians around Turkey, while subsequent books focused on specific provinces. Diyarbakir was chosen as the first province, and a selection of interviews with Armenians from Turkey and the Diaspora was published in Turkish and English as the second book in the series. In the subsequent years, the stories of the Armenians of Ankara, İzmit, Kayseri, Sivas, and Kınalıada were respectively published as books.