Follow us on Twitter Sunday, September 12, 6.30 – 8.30 pm
Auditorium, The Wheeler Centre
176 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
Fethiye Çetin discovered that her Turkish Muslim grandmother was born an Armenian Christian and was a child survivor of the Armenian genocide in 1915. She had been forcibly taken by the Turkish gendarme captain who went on to adopt her. Çetin will reflect on her grandmother’s story and what it means in her life and in her work as a writer and human rights lawyer in Turkey.
Fethiye will also talk about her work as lawyer for Hrant Dink during his life and after his murder. Dink was a Turkish-Armenian journalist, human rights campaigner and editor-in-chief of the bi-lingual Agos newspaper in Istanbul. He was assassinated on 19 January 2007 in Istanbul. Dink is one of the 50 emblematic cases in International PEN’s campaign ‘Because Writers Speak Their Mind’—acknowledging 50 years of advocacy of the Writers in Prison Committee.
What does Fethiye’s story mean to you?
How can her story inform our work for justice and dialogue?
Fethiye Çetin’s story will resonate with Armenian, Turkish, Kurdish Australians perhaps most
directly – but Melbourne PEN believes her story will resonate with all Australians concerned for human rights and committed to the power of telling and sharing stories as a basis for
understanding and justice.
You are warmly invited to attend and to participate in reflection and conversation in small groups with one another and with Fethiye Çetin.
Facilitated by Arnold Zable and Jackie Mansourian
For information and RSVP contact admin@melbournepen.com.au
The event is free and donations contributed will go to the Hrant Dink Foundation.
Our thanks to Spinifex Press, publisher of My Grandmother by Fethiye Çetin
