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The Workshop
There is an impasse between the Armenians’ need for acknowledgement and acceptance of their historical trauma and the Turks’ feeling of insult, rage and defensiveness at the thought of their ancestors committing despicable crimes against humanity. For Turks it is an affront to their national identity that challenges their sense of positive cultural self-esteem. For Armenians, it is the ultimate hurt, humiliation and degradation to have one’s experience of genocide denied. The inability of both groups to move through these complex emotional stances towards mutual recognition and respect, prevents political reconciliation.
How do we navigate through this psychologically loaded minefield towards constructive dialogue and cooperation?
Healing the Wounds of History is based on the premise that there can be no political solutions to intercultural conflict until we understand and take into consideration the needs, emotions and unconscious drives of the human being. The Healing the Wounds of History Project, which takes a psychological approach to conflict, provides a map to help both groups traverse the emotional terrain to reconciliation. We invite Armenians and Turks who are willing to be emotional pioneers for their cultures to participate in this groundbreaking project:- Breaking the taboo against Turks and Armenians speaking to each other.
 - Humanizing each other through sharing our personal stories.
- Taking steps towards healing personal and collective wounds using creative, experiential methods.
- Transforming historical trauma into constructive action and service.
Healing the Wounds of History
Healing the Wounds of History is a process in which experiential techniques are used to work with a group of participants who share a common legacy of historical trauma. The process was developed by Armand Volkas, MFT, a psychotherapist and drama therapist from Berkeley, California. Volkas is the son of Auschwitz survivors and resistance fighters from World War II. He was moved by his personal struggle with this legacy of historical trauma to address the issues that arose from it: identity, victimization and perpetration, meaning and grief. Healing the Wounds of History helps participants work through the burden of such legacies by transforming their pain into constructive action. Armand Volkas’s work has received international recognition for bringing groups in conflict together: Germans and Jews; Palestinians and Israelis; Japanese, Chinese and Koreans; African-Americans and European-Americans, to name a few.
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