The Foundation launched the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant with a view to increase direct contacts and to promote cooperation between the peoples of the two neighbouring countries.

Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant aims to support the travels of at least 200 individuals from March 2014 to May 2015 thanks to the financial assistance of the European Union. Hrant Dink Foundation administers the Travel Grant in partnership with the Civilitas Foundation in Armenia and with the support of Community Volunteers Foundation (TOG) based in Turkey and the Youth Initiative Centre (YIC) based in Gyumri, Armenia.

Hrant Dink Foundation launched the first call for the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant on March 10^th, 2014. During the first three rounds, Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant has received over 520 applications, 125 individuals from Turkey and Armenia received the support of the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant and 85 of them have already realised their visits to the neighbouring country. We invite you to read, see and watch their personal accounts, impressions, stories and photos in the recently launched Beyond Borders Turkey-Armenia website.

For the entire list of the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant selection results in the first three rounds:

Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant First Round Selection Results
Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant Second Round Selection Results
Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant Third Round Selection Results

In the fourth round of the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant, we received a total of 171 applications from both countries. 95 applications, which were in full compliance with the technical requirements mentioned in the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant Regulations, were submitted to the independent Selection Committee. These applications were carefully assessed by the committee in accordance with the selection criteria and priorities mentioned in the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant Regulations.

We are delighted to announce that the Hrant Dink Foundation will be offering support in the form of a travel grant to a total of 64 individuals – 40 from Turkey, 24 from Armenia - for their visits to the neighbouring country with specific purpose and programme mentioned in their submitted application forms.
The number of approved applications is much higher than the initial targets announced, but after the end of 2014, taking into account the budget possibilities, the interest of the applicants and the quality of their applications, we decided to go beyond the initial quota. This decision will not affect the quota for the fifth round.

• Perouz Taslakian from Yerevan will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Istanbul to work on a project of creating a public online map that shows the Armenian heritage in Istanbul.
• Rafayel Manukyan from Sevan, member of OST-ARMENIA, Cultural Center of the East will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Istanbul to collect more information for his thesis on the topic of “The influence of Turkish army on the political processes in Turkey”.
• Knar Babayan from Yerevan will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Istanbul and Izmir to develop her photography project by taking photos of three mixed-couples (Armenian-Turkish) living in Turkey.
• Anzhela Hovakimyan, Serge Melik Hovsepian and Arthur Nazaryan from Yerevan, members of the Forum Theater NGO, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Istanbul to participate in a workshop on theater methods as a part of artists group from Turkey and Armenia.
• Meri Aghakhanyan from Yerevan will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Van to follow the path of the Armenians displaced a hundred years ago near the border, and to take photos of nature, ruins and multi-media as part of her “Hundred Years of Solitude” project.
• Armine Abrahamian, member of Hoshkee Film, and Hovhannes Tekgyozyan from Yerevan will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Istanbul to participate in Istanbul Tanpinar Literature Festival – ITEF since their books will be published in Turkey this year.
• Arman Kocharyan, Arik Grigoryan and Narek Barseghyan from Yerevan and Gyumri, members of the Bambir music band will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Istanbul to give several concerts and build collaboration with Turkish bands.
• Artak Kirakosyan, member of the Civil Society Insitute, and Zahuri Manoukyan, member of the Social Integration Center for Children and Youth with Limited Possibilities “Mayri” NGO, from Yerevan, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Istanbul to participate in workshops and seminars on entitled “A Common Future between Two Nations”.
• Lilit Paravyan from Yerevan, the founder of the “Meeting Point” Artist Residency in Armenia, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Istanbul to make connections and to collaborate with artist residencies in Turkey.
• Artur Sakunts and Armine Sadikyan from Vanadzor, members of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Istanbul to do research on human right issues in the armed forces in Turkey, collaborate with organizations in Turkey carrying out similar activities, and to analyse possibilities for decreasing militarisation level in both countries.
• Lusine Danielyan from Yerevan, lecturer at Yerevan State Medical University, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Istanbul to take part in the 41st Annual Meeting of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation and to present her scientific research.
• Hrachya Khanaghyan, Tatevik Aghajanyan and Levon Avagyan from Vanadzor, Ararat and Yerevan, members of the “We For Democracy” Humanitarian NGO, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Istanbul to organise intercultural activities (a photo exhibition and the “Taste of Peace” cultural event) and to establish contacts with the NGOs in Turkey.
• Levon Lachikyan from Yerevan will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Istanbul to make graphic drawings for a book project about Istanbul, and to make arrangements for the exhibition of those drawings in Istanbul.
• Tatevik Danielyan and Vergine Andrikyan from Yerevan, members of the International Center for Intercultural Research, Learning and Dialogue, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Istanbul to organize an experience-based training in order to raise awareness about volunteering opportunities abroad with their counterparts in Turkey.
• Gökçer Tahincioğlu and Ünal Çam from Ankara, journalists in the Milliyet Newspaper, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to interview descendants of the 1915 events, associations and institutions, in order to publish articles in the Milliyet Newspaper and later publish in an independent book.
• Bedran Tekin and Kadri Kurt from Diyarbakır, members of We Photos: The Eastern Photographers of the World, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to take pictures and make interviews as part of their “Neighbours by Destiny” project carried out in cooperation with the “Journalist for the Future” NGO.
• Mehmet Polatel from Istanbul will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to conduct research as part of his PhD project which analyses the role of economic and ideological motivations of different groups in their decisions to participate in acts of mass violence against Ottoman Armenians, and in particular in the field of the seizure of Armenian properties before 1915.
• Ari Sekeryan from Istanbul, a PhD student at the University of Oxford Faculty of Oriental Studies, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to conduct an archival research on the Armenian press during the post-genocide period as part of his PhD thesis.
• Jennifer Hattam from Istanbul will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan and Gyumri to report on environmental issues at the border, to meet environmental organisations in Yerevan, and talk to farmers from Shirak Region about the possibility of creating economic links with their counterparts from Kars.
• Özlem Galip from Istanbul, Faculty Associate in Kurdish and Armenian Studies of The Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan, to conduct research on novels produced by Kurdish novelists exiled to USSR and in independent Republic of Armenia as a part of the project “The Kurdish Novel in Armenia 1920-today: Literature, Politics, and Identity”.
• Engin Kılıç from Istanbul will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to conduct a comparative analysis of the images of non-Muslims, particularly Armenians, in the Ottoman-Turkish utopian works and the Armenian utopian literature.
• Feyzan Tuzkaya from İzmir, research assistant in Ege University Department of Psychology, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan and Gyumri to make arrangements for a future social psychological research on the perceptions and attitudes of the peoples of the two neighbouring countries towards one another.
• Sinem Kömürcü from Ankara, MA student in Ankara University will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to do research for her thesis on Female Image in Armenian Mythology.
• Miran Pirgiç Gültekin from Istanbul, president of the Dersim Armenians’ Association, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to plan the organisation of a documentary film festival about Dersim Armenians in collaboration with Modus Vivendi Center.
• Özgür Avşar and Fatma Gökçen Avşar from Istanbul and Ankara will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to contribute to a book project about a young girl who follows the footprints of her Armenian grandmother in Armenia and Turkey and to organise workshops with children at the Child Protection Centres.
• Bilal Bilgiç, Nursel Buğday, Erdal Çelik, Nalan Ünüş and Cumali Emre Çelik from Mardin, members of the ARDSI - Agriculture and Rural Development Support Institution, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to explore the possibility of potential cooperation, to make a presentation of their activities and learn about the Green Lane NGO in Armenia.
• Namık Kemal Dinç, Ayhan Işık and Pakrat Estukyan from Istanbul, members of the Zan Institute for Social, Political and Economic Studies (Zan Foundation) will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to conduct a research about Kurdish- Armenian Relations after the Armenian Genocide and to meet academicians at the Institute for Armenian Studies of Yerevan State University.
• Sezer Aksoy and Cem Ulucan from Eskişehir, students at Anadolu University Faculty of Communication Sciences, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to work on their short film “Postman” with the support of Media Initiatives Center.
• Yıldız Gümüştekin and Osman Yanık from Yalova, students at Yalova University Department of Social Work, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to conduct a research on social service practices and models, and to meet social work organisations to discuss potential common projects and cooperation.
• Hamza Algül from Ankara and Meryem Betül Taşdemir from Istanbul, the members of the DÖDEF (Federation of Democratic Student Societies), will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to exchange ideas on the issues of young people in Turkey and Armenia and to follow the commemoration events during the centenary of the Armenian Genocide.
• Üzeyir Kaplan from Istanbul, journalist at Bitlis News Agency, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to cover stories about Bitlis Armenians for the Bitlis News Agency and LÎLOZA Fanzine.
• Mehmet Salih Tatlı from Ankara, student at Ankara University Faculty of Political Science, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to conduct an oral history and documentary film project focusing on Yazidi community living in Armenia.
• Muhterem Semiz and Yılmaz Doğukan Özlü from Istanbul, members of the TKV - Turkish Cultural Foundation, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to meet civil society organisations for discussing possible exchange programmes and cooperation projects between the two neighbouring countries.
• Çetin Erol from Istanbul will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to conduct a preliminary research about the history of the Kurdish Theatre and its relation to the Armenian Theatre.
• Ömer Delikgöz from Istanbul will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to meet academics and study resources for his thesis on nation building in the Armenian literature in the Ottoman period.
• Ekrem Özden from Istanbul, journalist in Yeni Asya Newspaper, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to take interviews and cover stories that would contribute to building friendship and peace between two neighbouring countries.
• Ahmet Çeşme from Diyarbakır, member of the Nar Photos, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to meet and interview Dersim Armenians as part of his photography project “The Witnesses of Dersim 38 Massacre”.
• Gülsüm Depeli from Ankara, Assistant Professor at Hacettepe University, and Selda Tuncer from Van, Research Assistant at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to meet women’s organization to discuss about women struggles and strategies for ending violence against women and gender inequality and to collect material for their documentary film.
• Alp Aslan from Ankara, editor of the Gezenti Magazine, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan to write articles for the magazine on his impressions about neighbouring country, and to discuss about potential project ideas directed towards developing relations between the two countries.
• Hüseyin Öztürk from Istanbul, a brewer in the Bosphorus Brewing Company, will be supported with the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant to visit Yerevan, to meet brewing companies in Armenia for sharing his experiences and learning about brewery industry to explore the possibility of potential future cooperation.

After their visits, Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant beneficiaries’ experiences and impressions about the neighbouring country will be shared with public through the website of the Beyond Borders Turkey-Armenia.

Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant will continue to support more beneficiaries in the coming months. Interested individuals, groups and organisations can apply at any time. However, the Selection Committee will decide on the beneficiaries in line with the Selection Timeline, the coming deadline being March 1^st, 2015.

For the application form for the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant is click here. 

Before filling in and submitting your application, please read the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant Regulations, which includes the priorities and eligibility criteria.

For your questions, you can contact the project coordinators Müge Yamanyılmaz and Anna Yeghoyan at [email protected].

Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant Selection Committee Members
Anahit Minassian
Dikran Altun
Feray Salman
Gayane Mkrtchyan
Neslihan Özgüneş