Jan 23, 2019
Running an Armenian publishing house in Turkey is a challenge, on many fronts. Rober Koptas is editor-in-chief of the Aras Publishing House, co-founded in 1993 by Hrant Dink, Mkrtich Margosyan and Yetvart Tovmasyan. Aras publications are bridges between the Armenian experience and the Turkish readership. Rober Koptas joins Salpi Ghazarian and explains that readers also seek Aras publications because, independent of the Armenian content, many of the titles are windows into Anatolian life that is difficult to find in Turkish elsewhere. He speaks about the new crop of Turks in Armenian Studies, as well as the business, political and content decisions facing a small publishing house anywhere, and especially in Turkey. Are there enough capable translators? Who is the reading public that seeks these works? What are the distribution channels? Does the audience change with the political transformations? An unusual conversation about a unique institution.