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I have attended the conference. It neither acknowledged nor denied the genocide. I have observed that it was balanced. Believe it or not, some speakers made statements close to Armenian allegations.

Raindrop also stated that it was NOT sponsored by the Turkish government.

Several Armenian activists' reaction showed that they are not even open to a call for dialogue. They misunderstood the purpose completely, and did not want to be part of any kind of civilized communication.

Yet, there were others listened all the speeches and probably left with similar feelings that I had.

Binali Kaya

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
John 8:32

No Armenian, and no human being in general is going to be open to any dialogue that has as a pre-condition the denial of the truth. The truth is one and that is that the Armenian Genocide has happened and that not the Turkish people but the Ottoman Turkish government was responsible for it.

It was very sad for me to see so many Turkish students in America, the land of freedom, still blindly following Turkish government's sponsored lies without questioning neither the sources nor the reasons for such revisionist propoganda

I did not attend the conference, but I wish I did. I worked with and talked to Armenians. Some constructed their identity upon my hate, they don`t even want to talk to me just because what I am. Some are more logical, they see I help them and treat me as it should be, like a mere human. In any case, in any society there are good people and less good people. It is a misfortune that most Armenians took the simple but wrong way of defining their identity upon the hate of the Turkish citizen. It is wrong. We should talk and communicate as person. It may sound weird, but these are actually the words of the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who sadly was killed. He insisted that Armenian diaspora should overcome this senseless hate to define her identity. We should see one thing, if you are dealing with a million people there are all kinds of people in it, the good, the bad , the ugly, and the beautiful too. One can not put all the people in the same basket just because of their nationality..Peace.

I'm very saddened to hear SMU pulled its support from this very eye opening, unbiased and realistic event. As a Turk living in USA, I'm unhappy not to be able to explain our side of story or at least to talk on this issue. Each time I'd like to make a comment or discussion, I have to lower my voice just like in EU. What's behind this support pull out is a very obvious example of censorship. As a part of 'free speech' in USA, education and research, I would expect SMU to make its own decision without putting Chief Bishop's ideas into it.

Armanian history took place side by side with Turks and we as people who shared same neighborhood for more then 200 years, we should be able to talk. This event was a very good start and it gave hope for future of two nations and two neighbour countries.

I'm still hoping SMU would revaluate this decision by considering 'free speech' not with a criticize of biased person.

I attended the conference. I think it was an honest attempt for a dialogue between turkish and armenian scholars, although it may not have been very successful as non of the invited armenian scholars showed up. I absolutely admire the idea of creating a dialogue between the two sides rather than focusing on a historical event, which will do nothing but disturb things even more. I think the TSA's attempt for a dialogue should be appreciated and taken as an example for a new strategy of solving the Turkish-Armenian problem.

I am an Armenian and spent some time in Istanbul, Turkey.I have many Turkish friends and they are really friendly and helped me always. I think conference was success and this kind of events must continue tobuild up dialoque between big Armenian and Turkish people. We can show the world the way conflict resolution can be handled. Again billion thanks. God Bless you all...

I have attended the conference and find the organizers very sincere about opening dialogue channels between two societies. There were some Armenian activists there and objected that there should be more Armenian scholars. The chairman explaind how he tried to convince the Armenian scholars to come and speak. How he even offered changing the timing of the conference just to make it easier them to attend. Even at the conference, he offered time spot for the ones who came as audience from Armenian society to speak, if they wished. I found it very sincere. Eveybody wanted to see more Armenian scholars to attend the event, of course but it is not easy.

I dont think it is fair to call the conference biased. SMU Daily should have had cover the conference and presents notes from there; not just soley Archbishop Barsamian requests (you can see he is referring to more of political aspects of the issue, then the acholary side of the issue... The resolution at US Congress etc...). If you would, then you would see: The conference ended with Hrant Dink's last interview; it was very touchy. Some spekers told things close to what Armenians say; things like some Turkish would be angry about.

I hope Archbishop Barsamian comes and presents his case next time, as he promises to SMU; instead of politically pressuring SMU or other organizations.

It is a very much polizitized issue already and hard to open dialogue channels because of hard positined extremisits on both sides and because of the political aspects of the issue. I see this conference as a beginning and we have to realize it will take time.

Once again, I realized the consequences of not having a proper dialog between these nations. In this sense, I am so grateful to organizers for this opportunity to overcome this communication and tolerance problem.

This conference did make people think about more on past and future issues.

Murat Cakar

I was there too and I dont agree with Archbishop Barsamian thougts about conference. I saw some Armenians in the audience was standing up and speaking freely. I believe that organization comitee invited armenian scholor too, but I guess they are not so free to come and attend the conference.

I am from Armenia. I haven't any idea of that meeting, but I just want to say, that truth is only one, and even after 92 or 1000 years it will be the same! TURKISH MADE GENOCIDE!!!! And it is the fact which can't be ignored or even approoved. And until 1 Armenian will live in this world, he will remember and remind all the world about it. SO, be so HUMAN, stand and say to all the world, YES WE DID IT, SORRY ARMENIA, ARMENIANS, WORLD and 1.500.000 million, who are now watching from the sky and waiting......

If SMU wants to be a world class institution where open minds discuss challenging issues of the world we are living in, SMU administration should be courageous enough to stand up and not be intimidated by anyone (even by an Archbishop). Only then we can be proud to be associated with this institution. These people were trying to organize a conference where dialog was the center piece of the discussion. Such activities should always be encouraged in all platforms and SMU should never be afraid to be part of such good activities.