A constant fighter, resister, real patriot and simply a great Armenian-this was Istanbul-Armenian intellectual Hrant Dink was like. Today marks the 8^th anniversary of the murder of Hrant Dink.

On January 19, 2007, Dink was killed in front of the editorial office of Agos Weekly in the Shishli District of Istanbul by a Turk conspirator who didn’t even dare to look into the eyes of the victim and just shot him three times in the head from behind. After shooting Dink, he screamed “gyavur”, making it serve as ground to think that the murder was committed on the ground of nationalism. Later, it became clear that the murder of Hrant Dink, who was in favor of doing away with the taboo on the issue of Armenians in Turkey and the Armenian Cause, was an organized crime in which the Turkish government was also partially involved. Throughout the past eight years following the murder, the case of the murder of the Istanbul-Armenian intellectual became more complicated. Only minor officials involved in the crime were interrogated during the trials and detained, but the real culprits and organizers remain behind the curtain.

Who was Hrant Dink?

Hrant Dink was born on September 15, 1954 in Malatia, Turkey. In 1961, at the age of 7, he moved to Istanbul. In 1996, Dink founded Agos Weekly, which was printed in Armenian and Turkish.

The goal was to help Turkish and Armenian societies get to know each other better. It’s not by chance that Dink always repeated the following phrase: “Armenian society of Istanbul is very self-presumed. If people get to know us better, there won’t be prejudice.”

Dink was not only a good Armenian man, but also a real citizen. Living in Turkey, he never detached himself and did everything he could to make a change in Turkey. He would say the following about himself: “I bear two identities and have two types of conscience. First, I live in Turkey and am a citizen of the Republic of Turkey…Secondly, I am Armenian. Besides the fact that I am a part of the Turkish-Armenian community, I am also morally a part of Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora. With that said, while some have reasons to aspire for normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations, I have at least twice as many reasons.”

In the last years of his life, Dink had started being overtly threatened by ultranationalists and covertly threatened by state officials for his views and revelations in Turkey. Many urged him to leave Turkey to save his life, but the fighter for justice never paid heed to those calls and got angry, stating the following: “This is my country”. “What my family and I are experiencing is not easy for us. There have been times when I have seriously thought of leaving the country, especially when my close ones have been threatened. At those moments I have always felt like I have no way out. If we left, we would be leaving like our ancestors left in 1915, not knowing where we would be heading…We would be walking on the roads that our ancestors walked barefoot and would suffer and feel their sorrow…This is how we would leave the homeland,” Dink would say.

He who dreamed of normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations

Dink’s entire career was aimed at lifting the barrier between Turkey and Armenia. He was certain that only through pressure within the country would it be possible for the Turkish government to come to grips with the Armenian Genocide. In an interview with “Armenpress” in 2005, Dink had mentioned that the Turks’ denial is due to lack of awareness of the reality.

He would get frustrated when the representatives of any third country would join discussions on the issue. “Is our reality going to come true with others’ acceptance? Will our inner world truly become calm if our reality continues to be a topic for the countries having witnessed the tragedy to justify or not justify accepting the reality? Will their “rusty” conscience be able to purify our hearts? Let us deal with our reality, and let them deal with their “rusty” conscience.”

Today, Dink has become a symbol of freedom and human rights protection in modern-day Turkey. His life and particularly his death became a cornerstone for the elimination of many taboos in the country. Although it has already been eight years since his passing, the memory of Dink as a peacemaker will live on. There will always be strong emotions whenever we hear his name, and people will continue to do what he left behind. What he didn’t manage to do in his living years, he did after his death by instilling in the hearts of thousands of Turkish citizens the universal, kindness and justice…By entering their souls, he awakened the conscience that had been torpid, made them go out on the streets and scream “We are all Hrant, We are all Dink!”

By Arax Kasyan

“Armenpress”