Remembering Hrant Dink on the Tenth Anniversary of His Assasination

"It has been ten years since the editor-in-chief of Agos Newspaper Hrant Dink lost his life in a heinous attack.

As an Anatolian intellectual, Hrant Dink believed that the only way to overcome the dispute between Turks and Armenians is direct dialogue between these two sides. For Dink, maybe the most crucial reason for the dispute between Turks and Armenians was the existence of the close bond between them. Dink also believed that for the healing of that bond between Turks and Armenians, which has been ruptured because of having fallen victim to the political discourse surrounding 1915 events, the dialogue between the two sides should not be made dependent on the recognition of genocide by a French, a German, an American or especially a Turk. He did not want Armenians’ problems of the past history or of today to be reduced to a capital or, frequently, to a meze [aperitif] for others to use or profit from in Europe, or in the Americas, nor did he accept the despicable mediation of disinterested third parties. Dink was a believer in the ability of Turks and Armenians to freely speak of that [their] history while never invoking a dispute from it. Dink’s most important legacy has been this highly valuable perspective."

Please read more at: TheTenth Anniversary Of Hrant Dink’s Assasination. AVIM, January 19, 2017.