Hrant Dink's son convicted of same offense
Just like Hrant Dink got virtually no press for his trials and convictions before he was murdered, his son has now also been convicted the same year as this murder, and the world press is completely silent. Even among Armenians, it doesn't seem like big news. So much injustice in the world...
Here's an excellent article from the Oct 20 Armenian Weekly, written by a Pari Turk, Fatma Muge Gocek.
On the Recent Convictions of Serkis Seropyan and Arat Dink
By Fatma Muge Gocek
Sociologists look for patterns in social behavior. The pattern I observe in
the recent Turkish court decision convicting the owners of the Agos
newspaper Serkis Seropyan and Arat Dink, to a one-year imprisonment in
accordance with the infamous Penal Code 301-for publishing an interview with
Hrant Dink where he discussed the Armenian genocide-is one of blatant
discrimination based on prejudice, just as it had been in the previous
lawsuit against and subsequent sentencing of Hrant Dink. I think this
lawsuit has been brought against Seropyan and Arat Dink and they have been
subsequently sentenced because they are Armenians, that is, because they are
minorities in Turkey.
Why do I think so? Because the interview that Hrant Dink had given and Agos
printed, the one that formed the legal grounds of the decision against
Seropyan and Arat Dink, was also printed in all other Turkish media outlets.
Yet, those other outlets were not targeted by either Turkish public
prosecutors or by Turkish courts. As a consequence, those other Turkish
newspapers and journalists will not be targeted or gagged the way Seropyan
and Arat Dink now are and will be in the future.
Previously, while many of us had talked critically about the Turkish past,
in general, and about 1915, in particular, only Hrant Dink from among us was
singled out and targeted by the Turkish public prosecutor and then by the
Turkish court. Because he was an Armenian. He was a minority member in
Turkey. The rest of us did not go through that entire legal process
culminating in the delivery of a sentence. I think we did not because we
were ethnic Turks, and educated, white Turks to boot. While some of us stood
there watching, while some of us tried to help Hrant Dink by conducting
signature campaigns aimed at Turkish state officials and foolishly thinking
it would make a difference, he went through a grueling trial process, was
found guilty and sentenced.
Hrant Dink was sentenced on what I consider to be trumped-up charges, after
an intentional, willful misreading and misinterpretation of what he had
written. I would contend that not only had Hrant Dink not "insulted
Turkishness" in what he had written, but that anybody holding a college
degree ought to have had the knowledge, intelligence or capacity to have
recognized that. Hence, in my opinion, it was a travesty of justice that a
group that had the alacrity to call themselves "deliverers of justice"
reached what I view as a shameful, illegal decision based on untruth and
prejudice. In my mind's eye, I shall always continue to see that group as
"deliverers of death" because I think it was as a consequence of the process
they set in motion, the process they sanctified with their legal decision,
that Hrant Dink was assassinated.
Until that decision to sentence Dink was reached in Turkey, I had thought
legal systems were instituted to protect individuals. Yet, the Hrant Dink
decision taught me that the Turkish legal system can also set individuals,
especially minority members, up for destruction by placing them as offers
upon the altar of ethnic nationalism. It would then quietly withdraw and
watch some people gather "in the name of the majority." They would chant
ignorant songs of unity, thus feeling superior against the unprotected. And
they certainly did. Yes, some also stood against them and protested, but
they were so few in comparison...
Now, today, while there were many Turkish newspapers that had also published
or referred to the interview Hrant Dink had given, once again it was only
the Agos newspaper among them that was singled out and targeted by the
Turkish public prosecutor and then by the Turkish court in exactly the same
manner as Hrant Dink had once been-because, once again, the people involved
were Armenians. The rest were not because they were ethnic Turks. Seropyan
and Arat Dink are minority members in Turkey, and I think that is why they
alone were convicted.
What are we going to do now? Are we going to stand by and watch? Or are we
going to conduct media and signature campaigns that will lead us to who
knows where?
At this point, I am certain of only one thing: I am sickened at the
possibility of the pattern of death repeating itself. I am also sickened by
the timing of the Turkish court decision regarding Seropyan and Arat Dink,
given the Genocide bill that has just passed in the U.S. and given how the
Turkish media, society and state are now reacting to it-as always,
emotionally, and, due to lack of knowledge about the past, with vengeance. I
personally think this conviction date was chosen intentionally by the
Turkish court to intersect with the U.S. bill to further foster and justify
Turkish ethnic nationalism. That intentionality further sickens me.
What to do? I look back at those signature campaigns we had conducted for
Hrant Dink all the while thinking it would make a difference, thinking it
would protect him... After all, all of us who signed those pleas of
protection-at least I, personally-believed that there was a state in Turkey
that somehow, somewhat upheld the delivery of justice and the protection of
the rights of all of its citizens among its fundamental principles, that is,
it at least aspired toward such principles, even if it could not reach them.
What on earth was I thinking, given how the Hrant Dink trial was going at
the moment, given how all of his lawyers' attempts to investigate and
uncover the real instigators and culprits behind his assassination that
reach deep into the Turkish state and the military are being stonewalled!
How could I have been so delusional?
There is only one thing I can think of doing at this moment: If those
Turkish officials who once received our signatures and pleas about
protecting Hrant Dink did nothing back then, if they just put them aside,
did not act upon or investigate them, I now condemn each and every one of
those Turkish officials. For, in collecting those signatures, we might have
deluded ourselves in relation to what the Turkish state might have been
capable of, but at least our intentions were good. Yet, I condemn each and
every one of those Turkish officials who did not uphold the delivery of
justice and the protection of all of its citizens as the fundamental
principles of the Turkish state, and who still do not uphold them today by
enabling a full, open and transparent investigation. I do so because I find
their intentions foul, and their behavior complicit. I think those
particular officials uphold and foster an alternate vision of the Turkish
state that is no different, in my view, from the state that once condemned
hundreds of thousands of its subjects to death by deportation.
I also condemn the naturalized prejudice and the subsequent discrimination
that still perseveres in Turkish society today, as it has ultimately led to
the targeting of minorities in this manner. And I also condemn the falsified
Turkish Republican history taught in school textbooks that has erased all
the violence the Turkish state once committed in the past. Not only has that
violence created the category of minorities in our society to start with,
thereby fostering all this prejudice and discrimination against them, but it
has also been exploited by the same Turkish state and especially by segments
of the Turkish military to create an ethnic Turkish identity, an identity
which was then periodically mobilized against the minorities both to
replenish that hallowed ethnic unity and also to sustain the political
status quo.
As I see the same pattern that eventually led to Hrant Dink's assassination
unfolding right in front of my eyes in the case of Serkis Seropyan, who
happens to be a very dear friend of mine, and of Arat Dink, who I regard as
a very precious gift entrusted to us all for safekeeping by his slain
father, who we obviously were not able to protect, I end up with a final
condemnation: I condemn and curse myself for my own present state of
helplessness.
Here's an excellent article from the Oct 20 Armenian Weekly, written by a Pari Turk, Fatma Muge Gocek.
On the Recent Convictions of Serkis Seropyan and Arat Dink
By Fatma Muge Gocek
Sociologists look for patterns in social behavior. The pattern I observe in
the recent Turkish court decision convicting the owners of the Agos
newspaper Serkis Seropyan and Arat Dink, to a one-year imprisonment in
accordance with the infamous Penal Code 301-for publishing an interview with
Hrant Dink where he discussed the Armenian genocide-is one of blatant
discrimination based on prejudice, just as it had been in the previous
lawsuit against and subsequent sentencing of Hrant Dink. I think this
lawsuit has been brought against Seropyan and Arat Dink and they have been
subsequently sentenced because they are Armenians, that is, because they are
minorities in Turkey.
Why do I think so? Because the interview that Hrant Dink had given and Agos
printed, the one that formed the legal grounds of the decision against
Seropyan and Arat Dink, was also printed in all other Turkish media outlets.
Yet, those other outlets were not targeted by either Turkish public
prosecutors or by Turkish courts. As a consequence, those other Turkish
newspapers and journalists will not be targeted or gagged the way Seropyan
and Arat Dink now are and will be in the future.
Previously, while many of us had talked critically about the Turkish past,
in general, and about 1915, in particular, only Hrant Dink from among us was
singled out and targeted by the Turkish public prosecutor and then by the
Turkish court. Because he was an Armenian. He was a minority member in
Turkey. The rest of us did not go through that entire legal process
culminating in the delivery of a sentence. I think we did not because we
were ethnic Turks, and educated, white Turks to boot. While some of us stood
there watching, while some of us tried to help Hrant Dink by conducting
signature campaigns aimed at Turkish state officials and foolishly thinking
it would make a difference, he went through a grueling trial process, was
found guilty and sentenced.
Hrant Dink was sentenced on what I consider to be trumped-up charges, after
an intentional, willful misreading and misinterpretation of what he had
written. I would contend that not only had Hrant Dink not "insulted
Turkishness" in what he had written, but that anybody holding a college
degree ought to have had the knowledge, intelligence or capacity to have
recognized that. Hence, in my opinion, it was a travesty of justice that a
group that had the alacrity to call themselves "deliverers of justice"
reached what I view as a shameful, illegal decision based on untruth and
prejudice. In my mind's eye, I shall always continue to see that group as
"deliverers of death" because I think it was as a consequence of the process
they set in motion, the process they sanctified with their legal decision,
that Hrant Dink was assassinated.
Until that decision to sentence Dink was reached in Turkey, I had thought
legal systems were instituted to protect individuals. Yet, the Hrant Dink
decision taught me that the Turkish legal system can also set individuals,
especially minority members, up for destruction by placing them as offers
upon the altar of ethnic nationalism. It would then quietly withdraw and
watch some people gather "in the name of the majority." They would chant
ignorant songs of unity, thus feeling superior against the unprotected. And
they certainly did. Yes, some also stood against them and protested, but
they were so few in comparison...
Now, today, while there were many Turkish newspapers that had also published
or referred to the interview Hrant Dink had given, once again it was only
the Agos newspaper among them that was singled out and targeted by the
Turkish public prosecutor and then by the Turkish court in exactly the same
manner as Hrant Dink had once been-because, once again, the people involved
were Armenians. The rest were not because they were ethnic Turks. Seropyan
and Arat Dink are minority members in Turkey, and I think that is why they
alone were convicted.
What are we going to do now? Are we going to stand by and watch? Or are we
going to conduct media and signature campaigns that will lead us to who
knows where?
At this point, I am certain of only one thing: I am sickened at the
possibility of the pattern of death repeating itself. I am also sickened by
the timing of the Turkish court decision regarding Seropyan and Arat Dink,
given the Genocide bill that has just passed in the U.S. and given how the
Turkish media, society and state are now reacting to it-as always,
emotionally, and, due to lack of knowledge about the past, with vengeance. I
personally think this conviction date was chosen intentionally by the
Turkish court to intersect with the U.S. bill to further foster and justify
Turkish ethnic nationalism. That intentionality further sickens me.
What to do? I look back at those signature campaigns we had conducted for
Hrant Dink all the while thinking it would make a difference, thinking it
would protect him... After all, all of us who signed those pleas of
protection-at least I, personally-believed that there was a state in Turkey
that somehow, somewhat upheld the delivery of justice and the protection of
the rights of all of its citizens among its fundamental principles, that is,
it at least aspired toward such principles, even if it could not reach them.
What on earth was I thinking, given how the Hrant Dink trial was going at
the moment, given how all of his lawyers' attempts to investigate and
uncover the real instigators and culprits behind his assassination that
reach deep into the Turkish state and the military are being stonewalled!
How could I have been so delusional?
There is only one thing I can think of doing at this moment: If those
Turkish officials who once received our signatures and pleas about
protecting Hrant Dink did nothing back then, if they just put them aside,
did not act upon or investigate them, I now condemn each and every one of
those Turkish officials. For, in collecting those signatures, we might have
deluded ourselves in relation to what the Turkish state might have been
capable of, but at least our intentions were good. Yet, I condemn each and
every one of those Turkish officials who did not uphold the delivery of
justice and the protection of all of its citizens as the fundamental
principles of the Turkish state, and who still do not uphold them today by
enabling a full, open and transparent investigation. I do so because I find
their intentions foul, and their behavior complicit. I think those
particular officials uphold and foster an alternate vision of the Turkish
state that is no different, in my view, from the state that once condemned
hundreds of thousands of its subjects to death by deportation.
I also condemn the naturalized prejudice and the subsequent discrimination
that still perseveres in Turkish society today, as it has ultimately led to
the targeting of minorities in this manner. And I also condemn the falsified
Turkish Republican history taught in school textbooks that has erased all
the violence the Turkish state once committed in the past. Not only has that
violence created the category of minorities in our society to start with,
thereby fostering all this prejudice and discrimination against them, but it
has also been exploited by the same Turkish state and especially by segments
of the Turkish military to create an ethnic Turkish identity, an identity
which was then periodically mobilized against the minorities both to
replenish that hallowed ethnic unity and also to sustain the political
status quo.
As I see the same pattern that eventually led to Hrant Dink's assassination
unfolding right in front of my eyes in the case of Serkis Seropyan, who
happens to be a very dear friend of mine, and of Arat Dink, who I regard as
a very precious gift entrusted to us all for safekeeping by his slain
father, who we obviously were not able to protect, I end up with a final
condemnation: I condemn and curse myself for my own present state of
helplessness.
posted by Raffi K. at 4:37 PM
4 Comments:
Not so silent, the news about Arat Dink fell just after the one about the armenian resolution at the US congress, shadowing the 2 infos with a cruel perspective
http://www.collectifvan.org/article.php?r=0&id=12788
http://www.collectifvan.org/article.php?r=0&&id=12655
But you're right, not much noise in the armenian world about AD and about what happens to armenians in Turkey in general, that's another subject
Anyway, to be true, if you'd have to point each single defect of Turkey about those basic human rights, it's a full time job
Simply look at the Reporter sans frontières pages to see how often such news fall.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=23957
Thanks for posting this, it really is interesting...but "Pari" Turk? Isn't that a tad condescending?
Pari Turk usually refers to one of the Turks who risked personal harm by saving the lives of their Armenian neighbors during the genocide. It is used in the same vein as "Righteous Gentile", which any google search will show you is a common, and not at all condescending term.
Fatma risks jail by writing the things she does, so I think she'd understand that my use of the term is simply intended to honor her.
Wow, what a hearfelt and brave essay written by Ms. Gocek. I was able to meet her and see her speak in New York so it makes me proud to see that she is still standing up for what she believes despite the very real threat to journalists in her home country.
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