After an anti-war demonstration in Istanbul on January

26, 2003, a Peace Forum, organized by the Peace

Coalition (Turkey) and Social Sciences Society of

Bogazici University, took place in Bogazici

University, Istanbul, with 11 participants from USA,

England, Sweden, Yugoslavia, and Turkey. Moreover,

there were also other peace activists from Israel,

Italy, Greece and India. There were two sessions in

the forum: the participants, drawing upon their

identities and experiences, shared their own memories

and views on the war. Among the participants, Ryan

Amundson from September 11 families for Peaceful

Tomorrows, who has lost his brother after the attack

on Pentagon, talked about his personal story after

September 11 attack, and how his brother’s death

led him to be a participant of an anti-violence movement.

Norman Finkelstein, the author of The Holocaust

Industry Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish

Suffering, underlined the similarities of US’s

contemporary politics with Israel’s "exploitation" of

Holocaust to justify the attacks on the Palestinian

people. Scila Elworthy emphasized the necessity of

providing an alternative political perspective besides

a pure negation of Bush’s war plans. Marijana

Komarcevic from Women in Black, stressed the

emancipatory power of organized position in order to

speak in our names. Orhan Pamuk from Turkey argue

that the war is not inevitable, that there is still a

chance to stop the war. He also added that, due to its

strategic position, Turkey could change the direction

of the process that goes towards the war. John Hipkin

from Campeace (Cambridge Peace Campaign)

underlined the significance of the participation of

"common people" to the anti-war movement. Among

the audience, an Israelite woman argued that there are

also people in Israel, who are opposed to formal

Israel politics.

Other participants—Obrad Savic, Jan Mrydal, Peter

Curman, Dusan Bjelic, Michael Simmons— shared

their ideas and experiences on war and peace.

This forum points out the vital role of the peace

activity in order to prevent the US war…