INTERVIEW WITH LATIF TAS, MARIE-SKLODOWSKA-CURIE GLOBAL FELLOW AND VISITING SCHOLAR AT MAXWELL SCHOOL OF CITIZENSHIP AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS

I was born in Kars, a city in eastern Turkey, which used to have a multi-ethnic, multilingual and multi-religious population. The city municipality shares borders with four countries and one disputed territory: Turkey, Iran, Georgia, Armenia, and the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic. I don’t know if a similar city exists in the world, but it was one of the cities where pluralism coexisted, where Kurds, Turks, Azeris, Armenians, Terekemes, Turkmen, Georgians, Chechens, Russians, and even some Germans lived peacefully side by side; where many mixed families flourished. Having spent your childhood in such a diverse environment as I did, certainly shapes an individual’s identity. Kars is not just the city where I was born; it is the place that created my pluralistic identity and belief in tolerance, pluralism, and the coexistence of difference within any given society. These principles have been my guide, first during my many years in journalism and more recently, over the past 10 years, in the context of my academic work.