Hrant Dink Interview/Bloggers Step Up

For those who are wishing to learn more about Hrant Dink, in his words, a great place to start would be this VEM Radio interview given in Yerevan, Armenia late last year. As you can probably discern, Dink has a larger-than-life personality and thinks more on a larger theater level than most. You can listen to this fascinating interview, HERE.

From the news wires and various blogs out there, despite the extraordinary show of support by the liberals and intellectual class of Istanbul in the form of 100,000 people at Dink's funeral procession, word comes out that Ogun Samast' other accomplice is causing trouble. In a story that can be read HERE, Yain Hayal has now issued a thinly veiled death threat against Noble Prize winning author Orhan Pamuk. Also, recent reports are surfacing that a few weeks ago Hrant Dink was called into the Istanbul Mayor's Office only to be told to curb his Armenian Genocide stance, or, he may be killed. It wasn't an official governmental stance, instead, a plea to have him save his own life. Unfortunately, we know what happened.

Does 100,000 people in Istanbul represent all of Turkey in the quest for free speech and a fair acceptance that Turkey is most certainly a multi-ethnic country? Against a population of 70 million? Can we expect Turkey to move forward and abolish, not amend, Article 301? Will there be safeguards for the Armenian minority (and Kurds, etc) in Turkey? Now, we'll see if Orhan Pamuk, Elif Shafak, Taner Ackam face the same discomfort. Let's see if the direct offspring of Turkey are able to carry Dink's message of freedom of speech, while also bringing light to the historically documented Armenian Genocide.

While the Armenian blogs have sometimes veer off into places unknown sometimes, (Yep, I'm guilty there) kudos to a couple of people who have kept us informed about the Hrant Dink situation. First, let me take my hat off to friend and Pomegranate collaborator Arsineh Khachikian for being one of the initiators of the Yerevan Hrant Dink vigil. There were a few others as well, but, again congratulations to Arsineh as one of our own Cilicia bloggers to make a difference. Another hats off goes to British-Armenian journalist Onnik Krikorian over at OneWorld.am/blog for his frequent and comprehensive roundup of the Hrant Dink news, and pictures from the Yerevan vigil. There have been other bloggers, but, these two stood out the most.

Well, I am sick as a dog right now and can't sleep. I have a 7:30am YerazArt teleconference to nail down some specifics on the North American music tour that begins in Sante Fe, New Mexico on April 28. The tour is creating some buzz in the desert. Look for a new website and promotional DVD ( we will post it on YouTube, etc) on YerazArt. More details on the why, including how YOU can help assist young talented Armenian musical prodigies.