Organised in collaboration with Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality, the Trauma Studies Association and the Social Peace and Freedom Forum, the symposium Speaking Out: Symposium on Social Memory, Testimony and Trauma will take place on 7–8 November at the Ali Emiri Conference Hall of Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality. Bringing together experts and academics from different disciplines, as well as members of the local community, the symposium will explore social memory, testimony and trauma from multiple perspectives.

Individual and collective healing

The event has been organised in recognition of the fact that when social traumas are viewed solely as individual experiences, the conditions that give rise to them remain invisible. Against this backdrop, the symposium aims to provide a platform for developing a shared language and understanding.

Highlighting Diyarbakır’s historical experience, which bears the traces of numerous events ranging from 1915 to the enforced disappearances of the 1990s and the destruction and displacement experienced in Sur in 2015–2016, the symposium will examine the perception of impunity, unresolved processes of mourning, and the conditions for individual and collective healing in the city’s own spaces of memory, adopting a holistic perspective.

A space for dialogue enriched by personal testimonies

Going beyond the conventional presentation format, the event has been designed as a space for dialogue enriched by the testimonies of participants and members of the public attending the sessions. Simultaneous interpretation between Kurdish and Turkish will be provided throughout the symposium.

First-day sessions

The programme will begin on Saturday, 7 November 2026, with opening speeches scheduled for 09.45–10.30. This will be followed by the session The Voice of the Silenced: Language, Identity and Intergenerational Trauma, from 10.30 to 12.00.

The subsequent sessions will be held as follows:

• 12.15–13.45: Loss and Testimony: Enforced Disappearances, Impunity and Mourning

• 14.45–15.45: Women's Resistance and Memory

• 16.00–17.15: What Remains in the Body: Human Rights Violations, Bodily Memory and the Conditions for Repair

Policy recommendations to inform the municipality's work

The final session of the first day, Policy Recommendations, will take place between 17.30 and 18.40. The findings and demands emerging from this session are expected to directly inform the work of Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality, particularly its planned psychosocial support centre, which is due to open in the near future, as well as its initiatives concerning urban memory and displaced residents.

Memory walk to take place on the second day

On Sunday, 8 November 2026, the second day of the symposium, field visits to the city's sites of memory will be organised.

The Memory Walk, led by Derya Bozarslan from the Memory Centre, will begin at Dağkapı Square at 09.30. The route will include Saray Kapı, the Four-Legged Minaret, Surp Giragos Armenian Church, Surp Sarkis Church, the Common Conscience Monument and the Armenian Cemetery.

To allow for open-air discussions and avoid large crowds, the walk will be limited to 20 participants. Registration will be available at the symposium venue on 7 November.

Two-day discussions to be reviewed in a workshop

The What Stays with Us / What We Remember Workshop, which will bring participants together to reflect on the insights and experiences gained over the two days, will take place on Sunday, 8 November, from 14.30 to 16.00.