I wake up. Put my clothes on and go to breakfast in the main building of the hotel. I will meet, once again, on a new day, with friends from four nations. Friends who are the newborns of the country of literature and our mentors who are on their way to being the sycamores of the same land. I’m listening to one of the Mazurkas of Chopin to relax: my heart, wounded heavily from repeatedly listening to Crane, a piece by Komitas, played by Sergey Kachatryan yesterday, needs healing.

I stop before going into the building and light a cigarette.
I breathe in the beauty of the landscape.

This is Dilijan. This is Armenia. As this piece of Mazurka by Chopin proves its own beauty via its existence, Armenia does the same as well. I am happy I am a part of the Write in Armenia Program. My mind goes back and forth, to the past and to every moment I have had here.

Not only across the sky but through history this plane will go.

We will pass prejudice, the mountains of hatred and the persistent lies while making our way through.
We all, the dust of decades on us, will take a step into not only a country but also a new truth.

I wrote these while we, the participants from Turkey, were on our way toward Armenia. I was right: we wiped the dust of decades from our clothes and together with all participants of the program, overcame prejudice, hatred and more that should be overcome.

Here are a few lines from the beginning of a poem which I dedicated to a poet friend of mine, a poem that I wrote in Dilijan:

you had told me about ararat                                        bana ararat’tan bahsetmiştin
horses that run across the sky                                        göğü koşan atlardan 
together we lived horses and babylon                          atları ve babil’i yaşadık seninle
now the time is mine                                                         şimdi sıra bende

i will give you the lament of crane                                 sana turnanın ağıdını anlatacağım
yearning’s broken wings                                                  özlemin kırık kanadını
voice of the rose                                                                  sesini gülün 

I hope this program continues.
I hope it continues inside the participants of this year, and with the participants of the years to come.