Fondazione Giorgio Cini onlus Istituto Venezia e l Europa IN HISTORY AND BEYOND HISTORY Armenians and Turks: a thousand years of relations Venice Island of San Giorgio Maggiore 28 29 30 October 2004 The Institute for Venice and Europe of the Giorgio Cini Foundation has conceived and organised an international conference involving historians philosophers jurists psychoanalysts and experts on politics and human rights from Europe the United States Armenia Israel and Turkey. The conference will analyse the relations between Armenians and Turks from the Middle Ages to the tragedy of the Armenian genocide in the early 20th century and beyond. The analysis will focus on general aspects and theoretical issues (philosophical legal historiographical and psychoanalytical) but at the same time some specific historical cases will also be presented. The speakers include among others Taner Akcam Frank Chalk Israel W. Charny Raymond Kevorkian Pier Paolo Portinaro and Yves Ternon. The conference will be divided into five sessions examining various aspects of the relations between Armenians and Turks from the Seljuk Age through the Ottoman Empire to the Republican Period: interethnic relations in Anatolia from the Ottoman period on the concept of genocide the Armenian tragedy in the context of 20th-century genocides the problem of denialism in the contemporary age official recognition of the genocides committed the repercussions and psychological taboos of these tragedies and the legal and ethical aspects of the Armenian question. At the end of the conference there will be a round table chaired by two authoritative participants at the conference (an expert on politics and a jurist) as a way of summing up the proceedings and establishing a starting point for future studies. This conference begins from an awareness of the current stalemate due to denialism and the impossibility of dialogue. A new historical perspective viewing armenian-turkish relations in their centuries-long and multiufarious aspects combined with the tools provided by a long-term interdisciplinary approach invites us and may help to go beyond the separate analysis of specific cases to overcome the obstacles still hindering an effective approach to the topic.