I was shocked and deeply saddened to hear of Hrant Dink’s murder (more like assassination) today in front of his Agos newspaper offices, in Istanbul Turkey.
I met Hrant Dink at the L.A. premiere of “Screamers“, the documentary by Carla Garapedian featuring System Of A Down. Hrant is interviewed by Carla in the film where he explains how the “deep state” in Turkey is utilizing an outdated penal code, Article 301 to try him, Orhan Pamuk, and other journalists, writers, and human rights activists for “insulting or offending Turkishness.”
In his newspaper Agos, Hrant discussed issues important to the Armenians of Turkey. He was quite careful not to insult anyone in Turkey present or past regarding the Armenian Genocide or any other “sticky issues” that may be taken negatively. He instead tried to truly understand why so many people in Turkey were in denial of their past, why it was important to have a “real democracy” there where everyone can speak freely without worrying about retributions. He was by no means a fanatic nor extremist, but was a humble, kind, yet truthful individual who cared about Turkey, his country, and being Armenian, his culture and heritage.
He yearned to bridge the understanding between Armenians and Turks to get over the pains of the past stemming from the Armenian Genocide by the Ottomans in 1915. The difference between Hrant Dink and Orhan Pamuk and other writers or journalists incriminated under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code was that Hrant Dink was of Armenian descent and therefore may have been viewed more so as a traitor than other Turks of Turkish descent.
After many attempts at appealing the 3 different cases brought against him in reference to Article 301, Hrant was ready to take his case of freedom of speech to the European Court of Human Rights. In the last article he wrote for Agos on Jan. 10th, he made it very clear that the overwhelming amount of death threats against him were psychologically punishing him for speaking out. He felt his life was in extreme danger and asked for help from security officials of the country, but was not given any. When friends encouraged him to leave Turkey to avoid danger, he said that if he left now, he would be betraying the fight for democracy in Turkey, and that wouldn’t be fair to others in his situation. I am not that heroic, I would have left. And funny enough when we met, he mused with me, calling me heroic, the whole time while I looked into his gentle eyes and knew in my heart that he was the true hero. It’s easy for me to speak out against things, because at worst, I’ll be faced with brutal disagreement, where he was faced with prison terms, harassment, psychological torture, and now death.
So he was killed, brutally, in daylight, with bullets to the head, another beautiful soul silenced no more.
Hrant Dink’s cases along with Orhan Pamuk’s past case and many others facing incrimination in Turkey under Article 301 of the penal code encouraged me to work with Amnesty International in getting the word out and working on trying to reverse this unjust incrimination of the freedoms of speech there
Hello Serj,
I read your article on the Genocide of the Armenians. My compliments on your work. I noticed that you had assistance from Mr. Jean Arhan when you did the research. Mr. Arhan was my teacher in the late sixties at St. Joseph Aintoura. If you happen to have his e-mail address, would you be so kind to share it with me? I wish you continued success in your efforts on your publications on behalf of the opressed.
Best regards,
Richard Sleiman
Greenville, SC USA
dear richard,
i did not write this article, ” serj tankian ” did, who is an armenian – american musician. but i will try to send your comment to his record label and perhaps he will respond.
thank you very much for reading this article,
regards,
zum~
Thanks, always good posts on your blog!
Dear Zum
Yusuf Halaçoğlu, president of the Turkish Historical Society (TTK), has announced that a graveyard in Mardin’s Nusaybin district that had been claimed by the Armenians in fact dates to the Roman period.
During a press conference Halaçoğlu said they had appealed to foreign scientists to come and assist with the opening of the graveyard. David Gaunt, a scientist from Switzerland, was the only one to express interest.
Gaunt accepted the offer on condition that the research be conducted without intervention from the Turkish administration. Gaunt began studies with the TTK president and delegation on April 24. However Gaunt soon realized that the photographs of the graveyard he had seen were different from the graveyard in Nusaybin and thus decided to return home without taking any soil or bone samples from the grave.
Reading the results of the soil and bone samples tested at Ankara University’s engineering department, Halaçoğlu said Turkish scientists had determined that the bones to belong to the Roman period.
Have a nice day with Armenian raphsody of lies to all enemies of the Turks.
regards
Oguz Tolga
ıt’s been quite a long time from my last visit.I realy want to ask your opinions about the Switzerland parliement’s law agains denaying the Armanian so-called killings.According to the champions of democracy country Swştzerland it is forbidden to say against Armenian idiotic derams of 1915.Please let me know what do all you thinking.
All the best from Istanbul
Oguz