The Regional Network on Historical Dialogue and Dealing with the Past (RNHDP) organized a week-long Summer School for civil society professionals, held on June 8-16, 2015, in Istanbul’s Bogazici University.
The participants came from the MENA region and the Caucasus, working on areas like dealing with the past, minority rights, memory studies and oral history. The program was organized by Memory Center, in cooperation with Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability Program (AHDA) and Columbia University / Columbia Global Centers | Turkey.
Practitioners of historical dialogue, accountability, transitional justice, peace-building had the opportunity to engage in training, networking, and capacity building. The one-week program provided participants from Lebanon, Armenia, Turkey, Georgia, Israel, Palestine, Tunisia, Algeria with the opportunity to hone practical and conceptual skills to develop a deeper understanding of dealing with the past, and to foster mutually beneficial relationships with their peers and with international and non-profit organizations.
Program
| June 9 | Historical Dialogue | Elazar Barkan |
| June 9 | Contemporary Perceptions of Transitional Justice: Four Pillars or Cement Binding the Foundation? | Refik Hodzic |
| June 9 | Truth Commissions: Contributions and Challenges | Refik Hodzic |
| June 10 | Oral History, Truth Seeking and Gender | Özgür Sevgi Göral |
| June 10 | Archiving, Documentation and the case of Ex-Yugoslavia | Marijana Toma |
| June 11 | Historical Commissions | Elazar Barkan |
| June 11 | Designing Museums, Memorials, and Exhibits | Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett |
| June 12 | Capacity Building Workshop: AHDA and AHDA Fellows’ Projects | Ariella Lang |
| June 13 | Istanbul: Sites of Memory Walking Tour | Asena Günal |
| June 15 | Peace and Turkey’s Peace Process: Opportunities and Challenges | Evren Balta, Murat Çelikkan |
| June 15 | Comparative Issues for Civil Societies in MENA and Caucasus Region, and Possibilities of Joint Projects within the RNHDP | Lynn Maalouf |
Participants
| Participant name | Organisation name | Location | |
| 1 | Armine Zakaryan | Peace Dialogue | Armenia |
| 2 | Lara Aharonian | Women’s Resource Center Armenia | Armenia |
| 3 | Tamar Lobjanidze | International Committee of the Red Cross | Georgia |
| 4 | Lior Yavne | Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research | Israel |
| 5 | Yara Hawari | Al Manar | Israel/Palestine |
| 6 | Reem El Soussi | Act for the Disappeared | Lebanon |
| 7 | Hela Boujnah | Association of Defense Of Human Rights | Tunisia |
| 8 | Berivan Eliş Türkmen | Hafıza Kaydı | Turkey |
| 9 | Serkan Akbaş | Diyarbakır Bar Association | Turkey |
| 10 | Mukadder Ezel Yılmaz | Diyarbakır Arts Center | Turkey |
| 11 | Tahir Elçi | Diyarbakır Bar Association | Turkey |
| 12 | Hülya Üçpınar | Non-violence Training and Research Center | Turkey |
| 13 | Ebru Ergün | Tarlabaşı Community Center | Turkey |
| 14 | Fezile Osum | Initiative for Freedom of Expression | Turkey |
| 15 | Mariat Imaeve | European Human Rights Advocacy Centre | UK |
| 16 | Maryam Hosseinkhah | Justice for Iran | UK |
| 17 | Abdelghani Boutria | Mich’al Association of Families of the Disappeared |
Algeria |
