‘100 Years, 100 Facts Project’ Charges Ahead in Turkish

The 100 Years, 100 Facts Project (100years100facts.com) has launched the Turkish version of its website, “100 Yıl, 100 Gerçek” (100yil100gercek.com), raising the total number of languages to six.

The year-long online educational initiative was first translated into Portuguese (100anos100fatos.com.br), thanks to volunteers at the Brazilian-Armenian Portal Estação Armênia, who began to work on presenting the 100 entries on Armenian history and culture back when the website went live on April 24, 2014. More volunteering from a group of French-Armenian students led by Artem Asryan launched a French version online in early 2015 (100ans100faits.fr). Argentine Debora Babiszenko took on the task in late February of translating the site into Spanish (100anos100hechos.com). The website was also recently made available in Russian (100let100faktov.ru) thanks to the efforts of the Sevan community.

“We have been deeply gratified and, frankly, overwhelmed at how positive the responses have been to the 100 Years, 100 Facts Project,” Lena Adishian, project lead, said. “Just getting feedback or reader-submitted addenda to our entries is one thing. When you have whole groups willing to take the time to translate our work and expand our outreach in this Centennial year, well, that’s very moving for us and adds to our sense of responsibility. These kinds of efforts show that people all over the world are looking at the Centennial as an opportunity to celebrate our survival and the richness of our cultural heritage.”

“When we began 100 Years, 100 Facts, we always had in mind a multi-lingual approach, but the best we could do was to add automatic translation as a feature on the website,” Nareg Seferian, researcher and writer, added. “Reaching out to the Turkish-speaking world was a particular intention that we had, in fact. Now, thanks to a grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, it will be a possibility, that too, in the run-up to April 24, 2015. As for the other languages, we will always be grateful to the volunteer translators for their excellent work.”

Although Turkish society has seen immense change in recent years, the shifts have been slow. There is still much ignorance about Armenian heritage in Turkey, in general, and the Armenian Genocide, in particular. The 100 Years, 100 Facts Project hopes to act in a small way to raise awareness and offer objective, researched information to the people of the Turkish-speaking world, thereby also contributing to the struggle against denialism and the movement for human rights in Turkey.

The 100 Years, 100 Facts Project is currently seeking publishers and funding for a book version of the contents of the website as a commemorative volume during this Centennial year of the Armenian Genocide.

The 100 Year, 100 Facts Project is an online educational initiative leveraging the power of the internet and social media to celebrate Armenian history and culture as a unique commemoration of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide. The facts have steadily been published at 100years100facts.com, with the 100^th entry due on April 24, 2015. In addition, 100 Years, 100 Facts has carried out an active social media campaign through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, and Reddit. Since April, 24, 2014, the 100 Years, 100 Facts Project website has attracted over 45,000 visitors from more than 150 countries and territories.

For more information, e-mail 100years100facts@gmail.com.