Turkey’s First Holocaust Seminar

Next week, 15 Turkish university professors and lecturers will participate in Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies seminar, a first for visitors from the country.

As a part of the week-long program, the participants will receive a highly detailed tour of the Yad Vashem’s archives, and will engage in conversation with leading Holocaust history experts, reports the Algemeiner.

The majority of the Turkish participants hold PhD’s in history, political science and international relations, with this being the first visit to Israel for many.

Yad Vashem’s chairman, Avner Shalev, spoke highly of the visit. “We are very pleased to be hosting this impressive group of academics at our International School for Holocaust Studies. Given the significance of Turkish society in the Mulsim world this is an important step. At Yad Vashem we are witnessing interest in the Holocaust that traverses countries, religion and language and we are ready to meet the challenges ahead.”

Partners for the seminar include the Aladdin Project, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and ICHEIC Humanitarian Fund.

Aladdin Project president Anne Marie Revcolevschi commented that “I am pleased that academics from universities all across Turkey are participating in this program, and it’s a privilege to do this in partnership with Yad Vashem and Avner Shalev. We will continue our efforts to introduce Holocaust education in other parts of the Muslim worled with four more conferences planned in Baku, Astana, Dakar, and Rabat.”

The seminar is something of a “sister-event” to an educational conference held at Galatasaray University in Istanbul last October, that had also been organized by the Aladdin Project.

Furthermore, a follow-up session will be held in Turkey later in 2014.