Armenian journalist and intellectual Hrant Dink has been commemorated on the 15th anniversary of his death in Istanbul, Turkey, on the very spot where he was assassinated.
Dink, the founder and editor-in-chief of the Agos newspaper, struggled for a truthful recollection of historical facts hidden in the foundations of modern Turkey, namely the genocide in 1915 that eradicated the Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire, while he equally sought a reconciliation between the Armenians and the Turks.
He was shot by an assassin on the 19th of January in 2007, among a crowd of people in a very busy spot near the offices of Agos.
People gathered at the same spot on Wednesday in a demonstration of remembrance and respect for him.
Hrant’s wife, Rakel, spoke at the commemoration. With a reference to the toxic effects of concealing the whole past of the country, she underlined that a future could be built only on an acceptance of truth.
“Let us open the lock of the past so that suffering spirits may be free,” she said.
“Truth is the solid rock upon which you build your house. Truth is a solid rock. Children are squeezed between the fears and dreams of the future and the tormenting legacy of their elders. And they harm either themselves or others. Only if they could get together and flow like the water, nothing would be able to stand before them. This world saw such tyrants, such cruelties. They all collapsed when the time came. So many sultans, monarchs, kings were overthrown in the change of epochs. They will again. The ones who stood with a gun at the bridge on the way to the village and forced passengers to pay used to be called bandits. Then they hid the guns behind pieces of paper. They called them the state, the corporation. Their own laws were scripted on these papers. We believed it, don’t you believe, children.”
She continued:
“The voice of rebellion and protest that rose at this spot upon your death has never died down, and it never will. The workers, the women, the students and the peasants are putting up resistance once again. The things that belongs to everyone and are possessed by noone are guarded over by those who claim they own these things. One day they’ll unite again and make a flood. Some with broken hearts ask, ‘Where were you when it happened to us?’ We didn’t want to be like that. We tried to share in their voice as much as we could. We will continue to do so. Your voice rings in our ears, we’ll be true to our word.”
