YEREVAN, OCTOBER 31, ARMENPRESS. Ruben Melkonyan, dean of the faculty of Oriental Studies at the Yerevan State University, says the state and public pressure against supporters of dissent and peace in Turkey is becoming increasingly severe, reports Armenpress.

Presenting his report on regional diversity in the example of Turkey during the international conference on ‘Realities and prospects of regional peace’, Ruben Melkonyan said if the Ottoman period is accepted among the professionals to be called as a mosaic society where there were different peoples and cultures, after that the adoption of extremist policy resulted in creation of monolithic Turkey. “My report is about the formation of Turkey from mosaic to monolithic where different nationalities and cultures are denied or embezzled”, he said.

He said in case of Turkey there is a very little place for optimism since the current xenophobic policy continues at the highest level. “The Turkish president with different extremist dogmas does not contribute to establishment of peace, he further deepens the dividing lines, ethnic conflicts, discrimination which reached a high level in Turkey”, Ruben Melkonyan said.

In these circumstances, according to him, the opportunities for dialogue are small, but it is necessary to continue the works with the Turkish public, scientific circles, the small circles of civil society that today exist and can hold discussions and strengthen the idea of peaceful co-existence among the wide circles of the public.

“The Turkish participants of the conference are representatives of Turkish civil society who are well aware of the issue of the Armenian Genocide and different aspects of the Armenian-Turkish relations, they are among those figures who form broader public opinion in Turkey based on objective realities”, Melkonyan said.

According to the expert in Turkish studies, this participation can be considered as courage since it is a courageous step in terms of dictatorial trends gradually deepening in Turkey.

Ruben Melkonyan said the regional peace cannot have religious and sectarian dividing lines, quite the contrary, they need to serve for establishment of peace.

The international conference on regional peace was held in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin on October 31 which has been organized by the Armenian Round Table Foundation of the World Council of Churches. The conference was attended by speakers from Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Iran and Turkey.