Kayseri Governorship Prevents Conference by Hrant Dink Foundation

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Hrant Dink Foundation has announced that it will hold a conference entitled, "Kayseri and its Periphery: Conference of Social, Cultural and Economic History" in İstanbul after the Governorship of Kayseri did not permit the event.

The foundation said in a written statement that the Governorship said them it disapproves the conference after not responding to a request for a "face to face meeting" for weeks.

"Unfortunately, our later requests for a reason and reevaluation remained unanswered," the statement said.

It informed that the conference will be held on October 18-19 at Hrant Dink Foundation Anarad Hığutyun Building Havak Hall in İstanbul.

Officials at the Governorship of Kayseri made a one-sentence statement for bianet, saying that the ban on conference is "related to the Kayseri Security Directorate."

The conference will be about social, economic, cultural, urban and architectural changes in Kayseri and its periphery between 1850 and 1950.

Twenty-seven scholars from the US, France, Greece, Armenia and Turkey have been invited to the conference. (HA/VK)