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Blog
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| A space for dialogue and reconciliation |
14 Sep 2010 |
| Melbourne PEN secretary Jackie Mansourian reflects on Fethiye Çetin's recent visit.
Fethiye's Çetin's last public appearance during her 12 day visit to Australia was an event organised by Melbourne PEN with the theme 'Towards dialogue, justice and reconciliation'.
Melbourne PEN has long been committed to promoting dialogue between diverse
communities. This was especially significant as people from Armenian, Turkish, Kurdish, Assyrian linguistic and cultural backgrounds have been deeply divided through history because of horror and genocide - and most importantly because of the ongoing denial of these horrors.
We were committed to initiating this process in Fethiye's presence, in the spirit with which she had shared her stories with us during her visit. Her courage, her warmth, her generosity, her humanity, her love of her grandmother, Heranush-Sehar, her lack of fear (or perhaps her ability to have overcome her fear), her commitment to justice for her grandmother and for Hrant Dink - all of this has touched us all very profoundly – and I believe has opened up the space for us all.
Over 100 people sat together on Sunday 12 September at the Wheeler Centre; Australians from Armenian, Turkish, Kurdish, Assyrian, Pontian backgrounds – all of whom Heranush-Sehar’s story touches directly. Our histories are directly connected with her history. And there were many others in the audience who found connections with what Fethiye has said for many other reasons: because we too love our grandmothers, or because we too have a history that has been affected by denial and injustice, or because we have a strong identity based on our own mixed ancestry and proud of that ‘mixedness’ or because we know the healing power of storytelling both as writers and as readers...
Sitting together, whether we knew each other or not, whether we were Armenian or Turkish Australians, or whether we were Australians from all the rich diversity of cultural and personal histories that we carry ... we sat sat together and listened and talked with one another.
For Melbourne PEN, this is part of our ongoing work; for communities from Turkish and Armenian backgrounds, it is hoped this is the beginning of reaching out and building dialogue and trust for mutual recognition and reconciliation.
We thank Fethiye Çetin for her courage in speaking out and her generosity in bringing us together. |
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