The seminar in Padua, Italy (Gariwo)

Seminar in Padua, Italy
November 29th 2001

Morning, 10am
University of Padua, Aula Magna

Opening Remarks
Padua Authorities
Giuseppe Zaccaria Pro-rector of Padua University
Gabriele Nissim President of the Gardens of the Righteous Worldwide Committee

Presentations

Antonia Arslan Gardens of the Righteous Worldwide Committee
The publication of the proceedings of the international conference "There is Always an Option to say 'Yes' or 'No'. The Righteous against the Genocides of the Armenians and the Jews"

Boghos Levon Zekiyan University of Venice
Pietro Kuciukian International Committee of the Righteous for the Armenians - Memory is the Future)
The figure and work of the Turkish publisher Ayse Nur Zarakolu, Istanbul

Svetlana Broz Committee for the Gardens of the Righteous Worldwide, Sarajevo
The figure and work of general Jovan Divjak, Sarajevo

Awards

Ayse Nur Zarakolu will receive the «Padova per i Giusti» award, assigned by the Padua City Council, and the Comitato Internazionale dei Giusti per gli Armeni award assigned by Ardavast Serapian, President of the Fondazione Stefano Serapian

Jovan Divjak will receive the «Padova per i Giusti» award assigned by the Padua City Council

Testimony

Ayse Nur Zarakolu
Jovan Divjak

Afternoon, 3pm
University of Padua, Aula Nievo

Lectures

Gabriele Nissim Historian, Milan
The reason for our search for the Righteous in all genocides

Stefano Levi della Torre Essayist, member of the Executive Council of the Jewish Community in Milan
The Righteous in the Jewish tradition

Julia Dobrovol'skaja University of Venice and Catholic University of Milan
Lev Razgon and his memories of seventeen years in the Gulags

Sergio Rapetti Translator and publishing consultant
Good and Evil in Varlam Shalamov

Discussion

Rationale behind the choice of general Jovan Divjak

For his part in the defence of Sarajevo, especially during the siege by the Serb army, for his firm stand against ethnic cleansing, and subsequently for his fight for justice and human rights in support of the victims of hate, the weak and the persecuted from whichever side of the ethnic and political divide; for his struggle to safeguard a multi-ethnic state in Bosnia-Herzegovina and lastly for his commitment to the creation of the Foundation to rebuild Bosnia-Hersegovina through education, which supports child victims and orphans of war, regardless of their ethnic or religious origins, providing them with economic aid, scholarships and training for the job market, right through into adulthood.


Rationale behind the choice of Ayse Nur Zarakolu

At the recommendation of the International Committee of the Righteous for the Armenians, and in the context of the projects promoted by the Department for Cultural Affairs of the Padua City Council and by the Committee for the Garden of the Righteous Worldwide, the Padua City Council and the Fondazione Stefano Searpian have awarded their prize to Ayse Nur Zarakolu.

This prize recognizes her commitment to human rights through her publishing work in Turkey, a commitment made along with her husband Ragip, at their own personal risk. It also recognizes her efforts, in her own country and abroad, to promote awareness of the historical, social and cultural plight of the ethnic minorities living within Turkey's borders and, specifically, that of the Armenian minority. Ayse Nur Zarakolu and her husband have dedicated numerous publications in Turkish to the subject of the 1915 genocide of the Armenian people perpetrated by the government of the Young Turks. In particular, the prize acknowledges Ayse Nur Zarakolu's active testimony of the Armenian genocide provided by the translation into Turkish, the publication and distribution of fundamental foreign texts on the subject.