Hrant Dink Shot Dead in Turkey
Although you will see this headline more than a few times on the news wire and in our blogosphere, I wanted to write my own commentary on this. And, before I utter another sentence, my condolences go out to the friends and family of Hrant Dink.
The assassination of Hrant Dink in Istanbul represents the latest in a long line of inhuman acts of violence by Turks against the Armenian people there. While some may use this act of murder to make a statement on Turkey's EU bid/freedom of speech issues in the news media, etc, I think it is totally inappropriate, yet topical. Instead, the focus should be on how time, and time again, the Armenian minority in Turkey is used and abused over and over again. The seemingly empathetic statements made by Erdogan fall on deaf ears because if they truly valued Hrant Dink as a unique voice in their "mosaic of nationalities", they would not have tried him for "insulting Turkishness" and would have protected him against valid death threats that Dink had received recently. While this act of madness should not reflect totally on the Turkish people, it does shine a bright light on the continuing national campaign of eradication of Armenians from that troubled country going back to as far as history will let us. Whether it is subtle or overt, the plain truth is that they just don't want Armenians there no matter what sweet words are uttered by politicians or plain-folk alike.
Hrant Dink was truly in difficult position. On one hand, he had to represent the Armenian voice in Turkey while being careful to prevent a violent backlash against his people. Thus, carefully tailored words and actions were his trademark aimed at making the Armenian situation in Turkey better known. In other cases, Dink displayed a brash personality that got under the skin of Turkish nationalists by championing free-speech from any nationality- Armenian or otherwise. At one point, Mr. Dink thought of leaving Turkey stating that he did not want to live in a place "where he was not wanted" and where Armenians were hated so much. He broke down in tears during an Associated Press interview when he spoke those words. He chose to stay.
What a true hero this guy was. He really took the hit for those who believe in freedom of speech, ethnic pride/expression, and historical accuracy. Even for those moderate Turks who believed in all of these values and fight for them on a daily basis. Unfortunately, he lived in a country where those values from the top are not respected at this time. I suppose I should say the right thing and get out my peace sign. But, I can't. Even as much as I wish I could and would be the politically correct thing to do. The fact is that most Turks believe they should have finished the job on Armenians almost a hundred years ago. Go to blogs, read comments on the internet, and imagine the hatred that Mr. Dink had to endure for years. This is all real, and Hrant Dink's assassination proves it. This was no random act, it was a message.
Watch and listen in the next few days the comments of the Turkish government. I am more than sure that they will display little or no sorrow for Dink's family, the Armenian community, or their responsibility to finally admit their past genocidal ways against their prominent ethnic minority. Instead, I am going to guarantee that the Turkish government will convey how Dink's killing will affect their IMAGE in the public eye now that EU membership is at play. In effect, a murderer just completly screwed up the nice and neat little show and tell Turkey is trying to sell to the public. And, that is why I think the focus should be on how Armenians are treated in Turkey, rather than the other issues.
What a terrible way to die, at the hands of monsters.
As published in the New Anatolian, here is an excerpt from Hrant Dink's last column:
"In the beginning I wasn't worried about the investigation of me by the Sisli public prosecutor on suspicion of "insulting Turkishness." It wasn't the first time this had happened. I was already familiar with such a case from Sanliurfa. I had faced three years of trials on the same charge, as at a conference in 2002 I said that in terms of nationality I'm not a Turk, but an Armenian and a Turkey citizen.
I didn't even know what was happening with the cases. I hadn't the slightest interest. Lawyer friends from Sanliurfa attended hearings of the trial in my absence.
When I went to the Sisli prosecutor to give testimony, I was quite unconcerned. I was confident in what I had written and my intent. When the prosecutor evaluated the entirety of my column, not only that specific sentence (which was meaningless in isolation), I knew he would understand that I had no intention to insult Turkishness and the comedy would come to an end. I was quite sure that after the investigation, there would be no charges filed.
I was full of confidence, but incredibly, charges were filed.
Still, I didn't lose my optimism.
I was so sure that, calling into a TV program one night, I told (ultranationalist) lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz, my chief accuser, not to count his chickens too soon, as I wouldn't be sentenced in this case and if I were, I would leave the country.
Just as an expert report of a commission of Istanbul University scholars presented to the court said the same.
There was no reason to worry, I thought, they would realize their mistake in this or that stage of the case.
But they didn't.
The prosecutor demanded punishment, despite the expert report.
Afterwards, the judge decided to give me six months.
Every time they made me notorious, branding me the "enemy of the Turks."
Fascists attacked me with racist curses in the courthouse.
They assailed me with insults plastered on signs.
The threatening phone calls, letters and e-mails went on for months, and their numbers kept growing.
Asking God to give me patience, I bore this burden while waiting for a verdict of acquittal.
When the verdict was announced, I thought, the reality would be revealed and these people would be ashamed of what they did.
But then the verdict was announced, and my hopes fell.
I found myself in the worst situation a person could be in.
The judge decided his verdict on behalf of the "Turkish nation," and so "insulting Turkishness" went down on my record."
The assassination of Hrant Dink in Istanbul represents the latest in a long line of inhuman acts of violence by Turks against the Armenian people there. While some may use this act of murder to make a statement on Turkey's EU bid/freedom of speech issues in the news media, etc, I think it is totally inappropriate, yet topical. Instead, the focus should be on how time, and time again, the Armenian minority in Turkey is used and abused over and over again. The seemingly empathetic statements made by Erdogan fall on deaf ears because if they truly valued Hrant Dink as a unique voice in their "mosaic of nationalities", they would not have tried him for "insulting Turkishness" and would have protected him against valid death threats that Dink had received recently. While this act of madness should not reflect totally on the Turkish people, it does shine a bright light on the continuing national campaign of eradication of Armenians from that troubled country going back to as far as history will let us. Whether it is subtle or overt, the plain truth is that they just don't want Armenians there no matter what sweet words are uttered by politicians or plain-folk alike.
Hrant Dink was truly in difficult position. On one hand, he had to represent the Armenian voice in Turkey while being careful to prevent a violent backlash against his people. Thus, carefully tailored words and actions were his trademark aimed at making the Armenian situation in Turkey better known. In other cases, Dink displayed a brash personality that got under the skin of Turkish nationalists by championing free-speech from any nationality- Armenian or otherwise. At one point, Mr. Dink thought of leaving Turkey stating that he did not want to live in a place "where he was not wanted" and where Armenians were hated so much. He broke down in tears during an Associated Press interview when he spoke those words. He chose to stay.
What a true hero this guy was. He really took the hit for those who believe in freedom of speech, ethnic pride/expression, and historical accuracy. Even for those moderate Turks who believed in all of these values and fight for them on a daily basis. Unfortunately, he lived in a country where those values from the top are not respected at this time. I suppose I should say the right thing and get out my peace sign. But, I can't. Even as much as I wish I could and would be the politically correct thing to do. The fact is that most Turks believe they should have finished the job on Armenians almost a hundred years ago. Go to blogs, read comments on the internet, and imagine the hatred that Mr. Dink had to endure for years. This is all real, and Hrant Dink's assassination proves it. This was no random act, it was a message.
Watch and listen in the next few days the comments of the Turkish government. I am more than sure that they will display little or no sorrow for Dink's family, the Armenian community, or their responsibility to finally admit their past genocidal ways against their prominent ethnic minority. Instead, I am going to guarantee that the Turkish government will convey how Dink's killing will affect their IMAGE in the public eye now that EU membership is at play. In effect, a murderer just completly screwed up the nice and neat little show and tell Turkey is trying to sell to the public. And, that is why I think the focus should be on how Armenians are treated in Turkey, rather than the other issues.
What a terrible way to die, at the hands of monsters.
As published in the New Anatolian, here is an excerpt from Hrant Dink's last column:
"In the beginning I wasn't worried about the investigation of me by the Sisli public prosecutor on suspicion of "insulting Turkishness." It wasn't the first time this had happened. I was already familiar with such a case from Sanliurfa. I had faced three years of trials on the same charge, as at a conference in 2002 I said that in terms of nationality I'm not a Turk, but an Armenian and a Turkey citizen.
I didn't even know what was happening with the cases. I hadn't the slightest interest. Lawyer friends from Sanliurfa attended hearings of the trial in my absence.
When I went to the Sisli prosecutor to give testimony, I was quite unconcerned. I was confident in what I had written and my intent. When the prosecutor evaluated the entirety of my column, not only that specific sentence (which was meaningless in isolation), I knew he would understand that I had no intention to insult Turkishness and the comedy would come to an end. I was quite sure that after the investigation, there would be no charges filed.
I was full of confidence, but incredibly, charges were filed.
Still, I didn't lose my optimism.
I was so sure that, calling into a TV program one night, I told (ultranationalist) lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz, my chief accuser, not to count his chickens too soon, as I wouldn't be sentenced in this case and if I were, I would leave the country.
Just as an expert report of a commission of Istanbul University scholars presented to the court said the same.
There was no reason to worry, I thought, they would realize their mistake in this or that stage of the case.
But they didn't.
The prosecutor demanded punishment, despite the expert report.
Afterwards, the judge decided to give me six months.
Every time they made me notorious, branding me the "enemy of the Turks."
Fascists attacked me with racist curses in the courthouse.
They assailed me with insults plastered on signs.
The threatening phone calls, letters and e-mails went on for months, and their numbers kept growing.
Asking God to give me patience, I bore this burden while waiting for a verdict of acquittal.
When the verdict was announced, I thought, the reality would be revealed and these people would be ashamed of what they did.
But then the verdict was announced, and my hopes fell.
I found myself in the worst situation a person could be in.
The judge decided his verdict on behalf of the "Turkish nation," and so "insulting Turkishness" went down on my record."
posted by Raffi at 7:59 PM
6 Comments:
Armenians are not the only ones who are prosecuted under that article. Many more Turks and Kurds are as well.
However, he was a true hero, and this was also the case when he came to Armenia to defend a Turkish academic who had been arrested and was prosecuted here as well.
He was a true supporter of academic and journalistic freedom unlike the Governments of both Armenia and Turkey.
I have been crying and crying since I have heard the news. What a precious man he was, what a wonderful human being...I don't know what I can say...
And you, whoever you are who posted this comment, you have no right to make a headline and say "turks killed Dink". It is true we as a society are maybe responsible for his death. Isn't it always the case? Is there anything at all that I could have done as me, a ordinary turkish university student, that would have prevented his death, I keep asking myself...I don't really know.. there are always things to be done...
But a headline like yours is very disrespectful of what he had always been fighting for, what he had kept on writing and talking about at the cost of being marginilized both in Turkey and in the Armenian Diaspora...
Please think about this. And if you do not know him well, do read more of what he wrote...
His assasination is not news because he was Armenian only, it is because he was the man he was...
That's why right now, just where he was shot, there is a crowd shouting: "long live brotherhood of the peoples", "down with faschism", "we are all Armenians", etc.
And watch his funeral, we -the wise people who LOVE their country with ALL its people- will all be there!
I am so sorry... so sorry...
--" Dink was trapped in a repressive country where the lack of freedom of speech completely collided with the truth of Armenian history"
This sums it up!
I also want to bring up the comment that was in the reuter's article where Muharrem Gozutok, a restaurant owner near the newspaper, said the assailant looked about 20, wore jeans and a cap and shouted "I shot the non-Muslim" as he left the scene.
Turkey denies allegations that 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a systematic genocide. It says both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks were killed in a partisan conflict that raged on Ottoman territory.
Turkey's powerful secularist establishment fears the ruling AK Party, which controls parliament and has roots in political Islam, will elect Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan as president.
Secularists, including powerful army generals and judges, fear Erdogan -- a former Islamist -- would try to erode Turkey's strict division between state and religion if elected president
Turks like Leyla are the only hope for better future of Turkish-Armenian relations. On the Armenian side, that hope is represented by reasonable and responsible people, one of which was Hrant Dink.
Primitive haters, insecure nationalists and dumb generalizers ("Best Turk is a dead Turk", OR "best Armenian is a dead Armenian") on both sides are the biggest impediment for normalization of our relations AND recognition of historical truths like the Genocide.
Most of the Turkish people I spoke the last 18 hrs. are or schocked or so ashamed what happened, that they don't dare to speak about it.
Leyla said it already, your heading is not correct.
And don't blame the many young Turkish people what the Pasha's did.
Hrant was a man of reconcilation.
No place for (ultra)nationalism please on both sides.
I am a different Raffi than the one who posted this article above, but I would like to simply say that the use of the word "Turks" does not necessarily mean that he is blaming every single Turk in the world. The police in Istanbul arrested 3 people already, and since I blame the Turkish government for the environment of intolerance and ultra-nationalism, I think again the plural form of Turk is not off the mark. What is the point of the government condemning a murder when they were the ones who put him on trial again and again, and made him a famous target, simply for saying things that are said a million times a day outside of Turkey?
And finally, nobody is blaming the young Turkish people for what the Pashas did. We are blaming them for not talking more honestly and openly about what the pashas did. We are blaming many (not all) of them for believing their governments lies about what happened at that time. Every single invading horde passed through Anatolia for 3,000 years, and Armenians survived. After WWI, there were virtually none left, though millions of Turks and Kurds survived. Since the reason they were attacked, deported and killed was all due to orders of the government, it was clearly a genocide. Why should we, the victims in exile for almost a century now have to be fighting for the truth, instead of simply mourning our losses?
I am very very touched that tens of thousands have marched in honor of Hrant in Istanbul, it gives me hope... I just wish they had done it the first time he was put on trial, the first time he was convicted, the first time his conviction was upheld, the second time he was put on trial... but hopefully, this is a sign of things to come and next time someone is tried under section 301, or next time an Armenian church is confiscated, or next time human rights there are trampled they will march, protest, and end this insanity.
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