Paid by EU-funded ‘Turkish Propaganda’: Translator Shuns Organizations Dealing with Armenian-Turkish Relations

Turkologist Ruben Melkonyan translated Hasan Cemal’s, the grandson of Cemal Pasha who was one of the organizers of the Armenian Genocide, book called “1915: The Armenian Genocide” into Armenian with the financial support of the Istanbul based Hrant Dink Foundation, Regional Studies Center (RSC) expert Haykak Arshamyan told Epress.am in an interview. The RSC is one of the organizations accused by Melkonyan of implementing Turkish propaganda; those organizations include the Hrant Dink Foundation, Civilitas Foundation, Eurasian Partnership Foundation, Public Journalism Club, Anadolu Kultur, Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly (Vanadzor office), and the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV).

Melkonyan, in fact is criticizing those organizations and the project which paid him to translate Hasan Cemal’s book. Commenting on the turkologist's words, Haykak Arshamyan stated that their organization is part of the Support Armenia-Turkey Normalisation Process, which is funded by the European Union.

“Every organization in the consortium has their own projects in the larger one. Moreover, I want to note that the project does not end in April 2015 but in June, its not tied to the Armenian Genocide's 100th anniversary’s symbolic day which is wrongly stressed by those who criticize the project. One more thing; information about the EU financing the project has been released from the project’s onset and has been covered in the media, articles have been posted on the consortium members' websites about implementing certain projects, the consortium also has a joint online platform which is open for everyone, www.armenia-turkey.net. Basically, creating a scandal about the project’s implementation is inappropriate, when at least people dealing with Armenian-Turkish relations, were until now, informed about the realization of the project. While in regards to ‘grant-eating’ and implementing a Turkish project, I consider it unnecessary to comment on them,” noted Arshamyan.  

When Epress.am spoke to Ruben Melkonyan, he wished not to comment on his personal finances. “Even if I’ve received a sum, I haven’t signed under any grant document,” said Melkonyan.

He confirmed that he cooperated with the Hrant Dink Foundation when translating Hasan Cemal’s book. The turkologist, however, explained that during the translation a number of issues arose. According to Melkonyan, he asked to personally deal with the book and promised to find a sponsor for it.

The Foundation agreed, under the condition that the publication must not have a business purpose. According to Melkonyan, the foundation later changed their decision, saying that the book would be published in Istanbul, however, it was later published in Yerevan by the Antares publishing house. According to the turkologist, before the foundation changed their mind about the location, he had already made expenses and sent the book for publication.

The Hrant Dink Foundation responded to Melkonyan’s complaints regarding his translation and translator rights. For coverage on their press release, here.

Photograph ysu.am