Gunaysu: A ‘Bolsetsi’ in Los Angeles

I was in Los Angeles from Nov. 23-27, a place I never imagined I would go! Long journeys to unknown lands have always frightened me. But this time I was invited by the ANC-Western Region to participate in their three-day conference at the Sheraton Universal.

Gunaysu: “There must be reparations. At least, the ones who work [...]

Gunaysu: Denial Is a Hate Crime and Denialist Discourse Is Hate Speech

“It is as if a general orphan-like spirit floats over the [Muslim] quarter. Laziness, an apathetic attitude toward life is the character that appears among the Muslims. In contrast, if you enter the quarter of the Christians, your heart feels happiness; you find superbly constructed houses, which testify to the proprietors’ interested in life, and [...]

Gunaysu: Snapshots from the Fragmented Landscape of Turkey

This time my column will have no structural integrity. It will be fragmented just like life itself and just like my thoughts wandering around, coming and going at unexpected times, intertwined to form strange, disconnected images in my mind, culminating in absurd dreams at night.

Sevag Sahin Balikci

Yesterday, on the 13th of May, a very young, [...]

Gunaysu: Kurds Challenge Turkish Nation-State

On Dec. 20, 2010, Turkish members of parliament, including the ultra-nationalist MHP, Islamist AKP, nationalist CHP, and others, were listening to the tall woman addressing the session during the budgetary discussions for the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. “Rafael Lemkin says genocide is not only about the extermination of the representatives of a nation but [...]

Gunaysu: Armenian, Turkish Publishers Launch Book on Akhtamar in Van

Sarafian (L) and Koker during the book event. (Photo by Ayse Gunaysu)

It’s Sept. 17, two days before church services will be held at the Holy Cross (Sourp Khatch) Church on Akhtamar Island. A multi-storey bookstore sits on one of the busiest streets of Van. At the top is a cafe, where mostly young people meet [...]

Gunaysu: Akhtamar: A Lost Paradise

My Akhtamar visit was a huge pile of mixed thoughts and feelings, mainly that of despair and indignation from being in physical contact with evidence of the painful truth.

A lost paradise (Photo by Ayse Gunaysu)

Images are engraved in my mind… Of the solemn and dignified faces of Armenians praying, some touching and caressing the age-old [...]

Gunaysu: Silenced but Resilient: A Groundbreaking Panel Discussion in Istanbul

It was an unusually hot and very exciting day. It would be the first time that critics of Turkish intellectuals’ discourse about the “Armenian issue” would voice their arguments at a public meeting in Turkey, that a face-to-face, open discussion would take place around topics hitherto hotly debated mainly in email groups and other social [...]