23.5 Hrant Dink Site of Memory - Virtual Tour

Aras Publishing House

What is the minority policy of Turkey?

Would you defend the freedom of expression of someone you disagree with? Why or why not?

The slur on my honour: Racism

Does referring to what had happened in the past as Armenian Genocide amount to insulting Turkishness

Turkish-Armenian editor deiant after court defeat

Turkish-Armenian editor deiant after court defeat Daren Butler / Osman Şenkul, 2006, Reuters   Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink vowed on Friday to continue speaking out over his beliefs in defiance of a suspended six-month jail sentence which has drawn strong European Union criticism.   The High Court of Appeals this week upheld his conviction in a landmark ruling on a penal code article which outlaws insults to “Turkishness”. Rights groups are calling for the article’s abolition, arguing that it restricts freedom of expression.   Dink, editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish and Armenian weekly Agos, said he would now take his case to the European Court of Human Rights and would not be cowed by fear of imprisonment.   “One of the fundamental goals of such punishments is to make people censor themselves. But I don’t think there is any benefit in that -- particularly for people like us who are struggling for democracy,” he told Reuters in an interview.   Dink was convicted of insulting Turkishness for referring in an article to an Armenian nationalistic idea of ethnic purity without Turkish blood.   “Whatever we have said or written in the past according to our own sensitivity, we will continue to do so,” he said at the central Istanbul offices of Agos, which he founded 10 years ago.   EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said on Wednesday the Dink ruling would set a binding precedent for other pending human rights cases which invoke Article 301 of the penal code. It carries a jail sentence of up to three years.   But the ruling could paradoxically serve the interests of freedom of speech in Turkey as it will pile fresh pressure on the government to abolish the controversial article, Dink said.   In October Ankara began EU entry talks which are set to last more than a decade. Brussels has criticised the pace of reform and will review Turkey in a progress report this year.   The government has said it may call parliament back from its summer recess early in mid-September to push through the latest package of reforms and is now facing calls to abolish 301 then.   “I may be paying the price for this, but Turkish democracy will gain from it, I hope,” Dink said.   He is also on trial on charges of “trying to influence the judiciary” along with three other Agos journalists who face jail terms of nine months to 4-1/2 years if convicted for criticising the verdict in Dink’s other trial.   He is one of a series of writers who has been charge under laws against insulting Turkishness, state institutions and the revered founder of the republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.   Armenian massacres   Prosecutors closely scrutinise the weekly’s comments on Armenian issues, notably the massacres during World War One.   Armenians say about 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a genocide by Ottoman Turks in 1915. Turkey rejects this and says both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks suffered mass killings in a bitter partisan conflict.   The European Parliament has called on Turkey to recognise the 1915 massacre of Armenians as a genocide before it joins the bloc.   The 52-year-old, a Turkish citizen of Armenian origin born in the southeastern city of Malatya, said he had no doubt that it was a genocide.   “Of course I call this genocide. It names itself given the consequences: a people which lived in this region for 4,000 years was no longer there,” he said.   Most Turks would angrily reject such comments.   Well-known novelist Orhan Pamuk was prosecuted for speaking out on the issue but his case was dropped earlier this year.   Pamuk had been charged for telling a Swiss newspaper nobody in Turkey dared mention the killing of a million Armenians during World War One or 30,000 Kurds in recent decades.   Turkey is home to some 60,000 ethnic Armenians, most of them in Istanbul. Most prefer not to talk about the events of 90 years ago, caught between the demands of the Armenian diaspora for Turkey to admit genocide and Turkey’s denials.   * Full text of Reuters interview published in English on July 14th, 2006. (© 2006 Reuters Limited)

"Why was I targeted?"

Why was I targeted? Hrant Dink, 12 January 2007, Agos   A foreword before I begin: I have been sentenced to six months imprisonment for “insulting Turkishness,” a crime I’ve never committed. I am now applying to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) as a last resort. My lawyers will submit the petition by 17 January, and they wanted me to write an account of how things developed to where we stand today. I decided to share this article, which will be included in the case file, with the public. I do this because the decision the people of Turkey will reach in their conscience is as important to me as the decision of the ECHR, if not more. I probably would have preferred to keep some of the information disclosed in this article, as well as my state of mind, to myself. But since things have come to this point, I suppose that sharing everything will be for the best. It is not just me, nor just the Armenian community, but an entire public that wants to know the answer to this question: “For almost everyone ever investigated or prosecuted for insulting Turkishness, a technical or juridical solution was somehow found, and their cases were dismissed at the first hearing without a conviction. Why, then, was Hrant Dink convicted and sentenced to six months?”   Getting away with it...   This is neither an incorrect assessment nor an unnecessary question.   If you recall, they worked hard to find a way to dismiss Orhan Pamuk’s case before hearings began.   Some said that the Ministry of Justice had to give permission for the trial, so the minister was asked about it.   Cornered, he railed at Orhan Pamuk on the one hand, and on the other called upon him to deny he had ever said what he was being accused of saying.   Eventually the first hearing of the “Pamuk case” was held. The vandalism staged during this first hearing disgraced Turkey in the eyes of the world so badly that the case was dismissed before a second hearing was held. Pamuk’s Article 301 adventure ended with a technical solution.   An even lighter solution was found in the Elif Şafak case. Although there was a lot of noise before the case started, it was dismissed at the first hearing, without Elif Şafak even having to come to court. Everybody was quite happy with these technical solutions. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan himself called Şafak to convey his good wishes regarding the dismissal of her case. Similarly, the writers and academics who faced prosecution for the crime of “insulting Turkishness” for what they had written subsequent to the Armenian Conference also “got away with it,” receiving only similar “slaps on the wrist.”   Unanswered questions   Don’t think that I am jealous that these cases were resolved so easily. On the contrary, the mere fact that these trials or investigations took place is a very heavy price to pay for the people involved. I am one of those who understand best and share what these friends of mine have been through.   My point is to try to find some answers to the question of why similar concern and commotion was not displayed in the Hrant Dink case.   We saw that these mere “slaps on the wrist” gave the government an opportunity to point to them as examples of Turkish good faith in the eyes of the European Union, which is pressing for the repeal of Article 301. But the conviction of Hrant Dink was the only case in which the government had no answers for the EU.   There was total silence when this issue was raised.   Truly, “Why is it that for almost everyone who was investigated or prosecuted on charges of insulting Turkishness, a legal or technical solution was found so that the cases were closed without any convictions, but not for Hrant Dink? He was sentenced to six months for an article in which no crime was committed.”   The significance of being Armenian   Yes, we all need an answer to this question! Especially me.   At the end of the day, I am a citizen of this country and I insist on being treated equally with everyone else.   I have, of course, faced a lot of negative discrimination for being an Armenian.   For instance, when I was doing my short-term military service (eight months) in the Denizli 12th Infantry Regiment, following the oath ceremony, all of my friends were promoted to the rank of corporal—I alone was kept to one side, and remained a private.   I was a man with two children, and normally I shouldn’t have cared. What’s more, I was going to be more comfortable than the others, as I would not be assigned night watches or tough duties.   But the truth of the matter is that I was deeply affected by this discrimination.   I will never, ever forget how I hid behind a tin shed and cried for two hours, alone, while everyone else shared their joy with their families.   It remains a deep wound in my memory how the field officer called me to his office and tried to comfort me by saying, “Don’t worry, if you happen to have any problems, come to me.”   Obviously being prosecuted under 301 is not the same as being passed over for promotion.   Hence, I am not, of course, saying anything like, “If they were not convicted, I shouldn’t have been either,” and certainly not, “If I am convicted, then they should have been too.”   But I have to admit that as someone who has had to deal with no small amount of discrimination in his life, I can’t stop asking this question: “Has the fact that I am an Armenian played a role in this outcome?”   What I know and what I sense   Of course, when I put what I know and what I sense together, I do have an answer to this question.   Here is the summary: Certain people reached a decision and said, “This Hrant Dink has gone too far... He needs to learn a lesson,” and they took action.   I know this is a claim which puts me and my Armenian identity at center stage. You may argue that I am exaggerating.   But nevertheless, this remains my instinctive perception of it... The facts I have and my life experiences leave me with no other explanation.   Probably the best thing for me to do now is to tell you everything I have lived through and all I have sensed. Then you can decide for yourself.   Showing me my place   First, let me clarify what “Hrant Dink has gone too far” means.   Dink was a thorn in their side and had already been on their radar for quite some time. He had been occasionally overstepping the line since 1996, the year he started publishing AGOS, by voicing the problems of, and demanding rights for, the Armenian community and expressing his own views about history, which ran counter to the official Turkish state doctrine. But the last straw was the article AGOS published on Sabiha Gökçen on 6 February 2004.   In the article, titled “The Secret of Sabiha Hatun” and written by Hrant Dink, the Armenian relatives of Sabiha Gökçen, Atatürk’s adopted daughter, claimed that she was in fact an orphan taken from an Armenian orphanage.   Turkey was shaken when Hürriyet, the country’s best-selling newspaper, quoted the article in a headline in its 21 February 2004 issue.   More than 15 days, columnists wrote both negative and positive comments about it, and various public groups issued a variety of statements on the matter. The most important statement was the written statement of the General Staff.   The General Staff reacted to this news by saying, “Regardless of its aim, opening a national symbol like this to debate is a crime against national integrity and social harmony.”   They believed that the authors of this article were evil-minded people intent on carrying out a devastating assault on Turkish identity by attacking one of its key figures—a person who had been transformed into the mythical symbol of the Turkish woman—by stripping her of her Turkish identity. Who were these unscrupulous people? Who was this Hrant Dink? Someone needed to put him in his place!   Invitation to an official chat   The declaration of the General Staff was published on 22 February.   I listened to this long declaration on TV at home.   That night, I felt uneasy. I felt that something would happen the next day, for sure. As it turned out, my intuition was right.   My phone rang early the next morning.   It was one of the deputy governors of Istanbul. He said, in a cold voice, that he was waiting to see me in his office, and that I should bring with me all the documents I had related to the news story.   When I asked the purpose of this invitation, he answered that he wanted to have a chat and to see the documents I had.   I called my experienced journalist friends and asked them how I should interpret this invitation.   They said that it was unusual, but not a legal procedure, and advised me to go with the documents.   I had to be careful I took my friends’ advice and went to the deputy governor with the documents   I had. He was very polite.   When he invited me in, I noticed that two other people, a man and a woman, were in the room as well. He told me that they were his close acquaintances and asked if it would be okay with me if they stayed during our meeting.   Having already realized how delicate the situation was, I replied that I had no objection and took a seat.   The deputy governor came straight to the point. “Mr. Dink,” he said, “you are a highly experienced journalist. Wouldn’t it be better if you wrote your stories more carefully? And besides, what use are these kinds of stories anyway? You see what a commotion yours has caused. Don’t get me wrong, we wouldn’t misjudge you, but the ordinary people on the street might. They may think that you have other intentions in writing this kind of news. You see this document? The Armenian Patriarch filed a petition complaining about some Internet sites. There were some unscrupulous people who were trying to initiate what could be called terrorist acts against some institutions of the Armenian community. We searched for these people, found them in Bursa, and handed them over to the authorities. But the streets are full of people like these. Shouldn’t we be more careful about writing this kind of news?”   The male guest then completely took over the discussion; no one else could get a word in edgewise. He reiterated the things that the deputy governor had said in clearer terms.   He said that I had to be careful, that I should avoid doing anything that would create tension among people in the country.   He warned repeatedly me, saying, “Even though we do not agree with your style, it is clear to us from certain other things you have written that you do not have bad intentions. However, not everyone will see things that way, and you may draw reactions from the public.”   For my part, I simply told them why I wrote that story.   First of all, I was a journalist and it was a story that would excite any journalist.   Second, for once I had wanted to try to talk a little about the Armenian question in the context of the survivors instead of the dead.   But they made me understand that it was even harder to talk about the survivors! As I was about to leave, I realized that they hadn’t even asked to see the documents I had brought with me. It was I who reminded them that they had asked for the documents, and I handed them over.   The reason for the invitation was clear from what they had said. I had to know my boundaries...   I had to be careful or else it could turn out badly for me!   Now I was the target   Indeed, what followed was not good.   The day after I was summoned to the governor’s office, many columnists from various newspapers cherry-picked a line from my series of essays on Armenian identity which read, “Poisoned is the blood that has so long pulsed with ‘the Turk’ at its heart. It is time for an infusion. And fresh blood is close to hand, running plentifully through the noble veins that Armenians shall develop in connecting with Armenia.” Twisting my original meaning, they started to publish articles suggesting that I was running an anti-Turkish campaign. Following these articles, on 26 February, a group of ultra-nationalists led by Levent Temiz, head of an ultra-nationalist youth group, gathered in front of the AGOS building and chanted slogans and threats against me.   The police had already been informed that this demonstration was going to happen. The necessary measures to ensure our safety were taken, both inside AGOS and at the entrance of the building.   All of the TV channels and journalists had been informed beforehand, and they were also all present in front of AGOS.   The slogans of the group were very clear: “Love it or leave it,” “To hell with ASALA” [Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia], “We’ll come for you in the dead of night.”   Levent Temiz made a speech in which his target was also very clear: “Hrant Dink is the target; he is the target of all our fury and hatred.”   After the demonstration, the group dispersed. However, for some reason, none of the TV channels (except the religious Channel 7) or newspapers (except the leftist and pro-Kurdish Özgür Gündem) covered what had happened.   It was clear that the powers that had led the ultra-nationalists to AGOS had also succeeded in keeping the media from broadcasting those negative images and slogans, with the exception of the few that had slipped through.   On the edge of danger   A couple of days later a similar demonstration was held in front of AGOS by a group of people who called themselves the “Federation to Fight against Baseless Armenian Claims.”   Then suddenly a group called the “Grand Lawyers Association” headed by lawyer Kemal Kerinçsiz, who wasn’t known until then, became a party to this process. Kerinçsiz and his friends filed a complaint against me with the Şişli Prosecutor’s Office. This complaint effectively sped up the cases initiated under the infamous Article 301, which has ruined Turkey’s reputation. As for me, this marked the beginning of a new and dangerous phase.   In fact, I have walked on the edge of danger throughout my life.   Either danger loved me or I loved it... And here I was, on the edge of the same cliff once again. There were people after me again.   I could sense them.   And I knew very well that they were not limited to Kerinçsiz’s group, that they were not that visible, not that ordinary.  

Tırttava

“In 1986, I spent eight months at the Denizli 12th Infantry Regiment. At the swearing-in ceremony, all of my friends were promoted to the rank of petty officer. Only I remained a private. I was a grown man with two children, so perhaps I shouldn’t have let it get to me. But the truth is, this act of discrimination hurt me to the core. While all of others went off after the ceremony to celebrate with their families, I spent two lonely hours crying behind a tin shed.” This room is designed for sharing, pouring out your sorrow and for ‘tırting’. The room is yours...

Would you like to share your story?

Toilet Choir

"Toilet Choir"

"Toilet Choir" Toilet ChoirHrant Dink, 3 January 1997, Agos   A contest was held among the schools in some districts of Istanbul and pupils from various schools, including our minority schools, participated. Our children took first place in the contest for the districts of Şişli and Beyoğlu, and Kadıköy too I think, and they also did well in other districts. The topic of the contest was “Reciting the March of Independence”. Among the best reciters of the national anthem, our pupils came out in front. It was nothing but a contest, but just look at what this contest brings to mind... *** In the immediate aftermath of the September 12 coup, they were raiding houses one by one, taking people in, and locking them up in whatever place they could find. One of the places was in Samandıra in Istanbul. They’d turned a military barracks into a prison, and military toilets into cells. These cubicles were less than a square meter in size, and they were all in a row. They’d covered the toilet holes with wooden grilles. So this was where they locked up all the people they brought in –whoever they could find. It had been exactly eight days since they had brought me in with my brother. Now and then, they would take us upstairs for interrogation. After giving us our share of what they had to offer, they would take us right down again and lock us up. *** Night and day, we were subject to psychological torture. The soldiers made us sing military marches constantly. Every half an hour, a new guard would bash against the door, shouting. ‘‘Sing the march, you bastard!’’ The march they made us sing most often was the ‘‘March of Independence.’’ Think about it: these men imagined that they could teach us patriotism by making us sing the ‘‘March of Independence’’ while we were locked up in those toilets. If you didn’t start singing, they’d unlock the door to give you one hell of beating. After you’d survived a few beatings you got some seniority, and the guards who came in next would give you some slack. Inevitably, they preferred to pick on the newcomers. *** Then they brought in a new group of prisoners. Hurrah... It was an onslaught, a real ruckus. Almost all of them were Armenian. They packed them into the cells next to me. When the soldiers called out their names, I found out who they were. I recognised most of the names. From a conversation with my neighbour through the wall of our cells, I learned why they had been brought there. A pointless reason. None of them had committed any real crime. A student was being taken to Jerusalem to study, and at the airport they’d pulled over the clergyman who was taking him, and asked, “Why are you taking this kid to Jerusalem?” And then they rounded up everyone who’d had a part in sending him: the person who gave the scholarship, the person who received the foreign currency, the person who exchanged the money, whoever was even remotely involved. They stayed in Samandıra for a few days and in the end they let them all go apart from one clergyman. But that’s not the story I want to tell here. What I remember best of those days were the magnificent concerts of ‘‘toilet choir’’. *** The minute they heard a soldier approaching, some of them would yell out ‘‘Commander, shall we sing the march?’’ And then they’d start singing and yelling the national anthem at the top of their lungs. Those toilets never witnessed a choir like that, I’m sure, and they never would again. Of course, I’m not saying this to belittle those people, but shame on the people who decided to teach us the ‘‘March of Independence’’ in those toilets. And shame on the mentality that gave them the idea. And so today they should understand from our children’s success in these contests that we are not — not yesterday, not today, and not tomorrow — elements who should be forcibly taught the national anthem in toilet cubicles.

"The Village Idiot"

"The Village Idiot"The Village Idiot Hrant Dink, 27 March 1998, Agos    It may not be this way anymore, but there once was a time when there was no place in Anatolia without its own village idiot. In Anatolian culture, every town, every village, and just about every neighborhood had one. And in Malatya, we had Crazy Gaffar. He was shared between the Çavuşoğlu and Salköprü neighborhoods out along the old railroad tracks. He was a regular diversion for the shopkeepers and a right nightmare for the ladies, but harmless for all that... And when it comes to children - well, let me put it this way: Gaffar was a friend to the good and a monster to the bad. When they threw stones at him, he’d throw stones right back. But when they just wanted to play, he’d become a kid himself. *** If you were to ask anyone middle-aged or older in Malatya today about Gaffar, I’m sure they would all speak fondly of him. And the first thing they’d tell you would be the way he wore his heart on his sleeve. I said he was a diversion for the shopkeepers, and I meant it. The shopkeepers down at the market, oh they’d go on and on about the fun they had with Gaffar, like it was nothing but a good laugh: “We’d take the poor guy and dress him all up, and he’d look himself up and down and just be tick- led pink! But we didn’t just dress him up for no reason. No, what we were really after was what came next. ‘Hey Gaffar, what you’re wearing is a dead guy’s clothes!’ we’d tell him, and then he’d go and tear them all off... and there he’d be, as naked as the day he was born. So we’d dress him up and send him off next door, and they’d have him tear off his as well. Or they’d dress him up and send him over to us and we’d do the same. We’d all have a good laugh. But Crazy Gaffar, oh he was a thick one. His name said it all. He was crazy. There he’d be, stark naked. But he wouldn’t just stand there. No sooner had the last of his clothes come off than he’d start running around the neighborhood showing himself off to the ladies. They’d throw stones at him and run him off, yelling, ‘de kına,* you nutter!’” *** You may be asking yourself what this story about Crazy Gaffar has to do with anything. What can I say? Agos just celebrated its second birthday, and I guess it just sort of made me think of Crazy Gaffar. After all, some folks think of Agos as the village idiot of our community. And to tell you the truth, we’ve embraced that title, and we’re doing all we can to live up to it. For two years we’ve been working to play the role of the ‘idiot savant,’ and I think we’ve made a pretty good job of it. *** I know you’re probably still asking yourself what the connection is between Agos and Crazy Gaffar going nuts and tearing off all his clothes. How well has Agos succeeded in its mission to be ‘the spirited newspaper of a spiritless community’? For our part, we’re pleased with our work so far. But when the community which has brought us to this point seems so torpid that one sometimes wonders whether there remains any trace of life within it, when it brushes off our attempts to critically examine various matters with a ‘Don’t go there, leave it well enough alone,’ when it tries to dress us up in its own dead man’s clothes, what are we to do but act a bit like Gaffar ourselves? *** Whenever we attempt to reflect on any aspect of our community with an eye to im- proving it, we find our path blocked. Whether we are examining our community’s educational life, other fields, or the dynamism or lack thereof of our community structures, it is the same story. These obstacles are but more dead men’s clothes. We’ll allow no one to dress us up in them... We’ll rip them right off... And we’ll protect our innocent nakedness right to the end. *** In the face of the callousness of the community that made us, the community that has seen Agos through its second year, the only possible reaction is to go a bit crazy. We’re comfortable with craziness, at least of the idiot savant kind, and that’s the part we so lovingly play. Just don’t try to dress us up like Gaffar.   * In Armenian, de kına means ‘get lost’

Why was Agos founded?

If you could draw something on the wall of the Agos room, what would it be?

Agos Illustrators

Ohannes Şaşkal, Sarkis Paçacı and Kemal Gökhan drew illustrations on Agos’ walls in real time at the pre-opening on April 23 2019.

If you started a newspaper, what would you call it?

You can visit the AGOS newspaper website by clicking here.

Searching for family

'The Conference on Islamized Armenians' You can watch 'The Conference on Islamized Armenians' speech series held in 2013 on our website.

Agos’s 2004 coverage of the Armenian identity of Sabiha Gökçen, Atatürk’s adopted daughter, provoked a very strong reaction. Why do you think this was?

What is the main reason for my intimidation?

Can we talk about history through survivors?

"On Armenian identity (7-8)"

"On Armenian identity (7-8)"On Armenian identity (7-8) To Be Liberated from “the Turk” Hrant Dink, 30 January 2004, Agos   There appear to be two ways for Armenian identity to liberate itself from “the Turk.” The first would be for Turkey (both as a state and as a society) to develop an empathetic attitude toward the Armenian nation and to make clear that it shares that nation’s pain. Such a disposition might help the “Turkish” element fade from Armenian identity, if not immediately. However, at this moment in time, this particular development seems quite unlikely. The second path would be for Armenians to personally free themselves of the effect of “the Turk.” Of the two, this second is more closely tied to Armenians’ own will and initiative, and for that reason has a higher probability of becoming reality. And that is the path we should take. *** The Armenian world’s ability to achieve this is tied to whether it can develop a new perspective on the way it views the current situation. On the way it views 1915, for instance… The Armenian world is aware of the reality of the historical drama it experienced, a reality that will not change regardless of whether Turkey and the other countries of the world accept it. And even if they don’t, the name of what took place has been carved into the conscience of the Armenian nation from the very start. Therefore, expecting the world or Turkey to recognize this reality cannot be the Armenian world’s only target. It is long past time to leave everyone to reckon with their own lack of conscience. *** Accepting this reality is in essence a matter for everyone’s own conscience; after all, the bedrock upon which conscience rests is our shared human identity. Therefore, in accepting the truth, those who do so purify their own humanity. To let the health of Armenian identity depend on whether the French, the Germans, the Americans, and especially the Turks recognize the genocide is a mistake the Armenian world must finally abandon. It is high time to depart from this mistake and set aside “the Turk” from the active role it currently plays in Armenian identity. Armenian identity has suffered enough; it is time to pass on the suffering, in some part at least, to the wider world called humanity. *** The Armenian world has long-chained its hope of finding peace and stability to “the Turk.” It has put all its efforts into mobilizing international support to push “the Turk” to recognize the genocide. And all the while “the Turk” has remained negative and indifferent. These efforts have not only been a huge waste of time but have also delayed the awakening of Armenian identity. Moving forward, the Armenian world must introduce concepts for the future of its identity that have the power to reignite this nation’s smothered capacity to produce. And precisely for this reason, the primary aim should be to establish in the Armenian identity a willingness to shoulder its own burdens and, if necessary, bear them with dignity to the end of days. Otherwise, the Armenian world will end up chaining itself to whether others, in their mercy, accept the truth or not. And that would but continue our bondage. *** There are those who believe that the Armenian world will suffer an identity vacuum if ever it frees itself from “the Turk,” a vacuum that will only hasten the dissolution of Armenian identity, particularly for the Diaspora. But they are mistaken. There is a much more vital phenomenon within Armenian identity that will fill the gap left behind by “the Turk,” and that is the existence of the independent Armenian state. This new source of exhilaration, which did not exist fifteen years ago, is a candidate to play a great role in the context of Armenian identity, one above all other influences and factors. When the Armenian world comes to associate its future with the future welfare of this tiny country and the happiness of its inhabitants, this shall mark the beginning of its release from the pains that so trouble its identity. *** The path for Armenian identity to liberate itself from “the Turk” is quite simple: stop struggling with “the Turk.” The frontier where Armenian identity shall seek new definitions for itself lies now before us—it is time for it to focus its attention and efforts on Armenia.   Getting to know Armenia Hrant Dink, 13 February 2004, Agos   The new blood that will fill the void of the poisonous blood to be shed after freeing oneself of “the Turk” shall be found readily available in the noble veins that Armenians will develop in connecting with Armenia.* But Armenians must first know where to look. Those responsible for this awareness are the administrations of Armenia, rather than the Armenians spread throughout the Diaspora. It is incumbent upon them to become aware of their responsibilities and to act accordingly. However, an examination of relations between the Diaspora and Armenia during the twelve years since independence reveals that the governments of Armenia have not been sufficiently aware of this responsibility. Apart from a few flashy “Pan-Armenian Meetings,” little has been done. Even a properly functioning mechanism for “Diaspora–Armenia meetings” has yet to be established. Armenia’s relations with the Diaspora have progressed at a snail’s pace, with the initiative for engagement at times coming from the Diaspora, and at other times from Armenia. None of this has solidified into a permanent and Armenia-centered institutionalized form. *** Armenia should have established a dedicated Ministry of Diaspora a long time ago. Such a ministry could have turned the task of embracing every single Armenian scattered across even the most remote parts of the world into a central concern. It could have worked toward this goal and developed projects to realize it. But no such ministry exists, and Armenia’s indifference to this remains a major problem. Not only has Armenia failed to connect with the members of the Diaspora, it has not yet even realized that it must be the wellspring of this connection. This shows that the governments of Armenia are not yet worthy of the members of the Diaspora, though Armenia itself is. *** It is vital that Armenia establish direct relations with individuals of the Diaspora. And the role such relations will play in forging new definitions for the identity of the Diaspora is huge and indisputable. The sole aim of the Armenian schools, the language courses, and the social and cultural institutions maintained by the Diaspora, and that of all the other collective activities carried out among its members, is to carry Armenian identity forward to new generations—to preserve that identity, foster it, and, where possible, develop it further. Millions of dollars are spent to this end. The outcome of all these efforts is a language that is known but is not (or cannot be) spoken and an identity that is content with an occasional visit to church, but no more. But there is a reality that cannot be ignored and a pressing need that requires follow through. This reality is that the most natural school for Armenian identity is not a Diaspora school or a language course, but the moral dialogue that the members of the Diaspora will establish with Armenia itself. *** Even if they have not studied at those schools or been to those churches, it would mean a lot for the identity of Armenian youth to introduce them to the natural school that is Armenia. A single visit to Armenia would do more for the identity of an Armenian youth than decades of education and churchgoing in the Diaspora. It does not cost much to put this claim to the test. A few cents set aside here and there would suffice for an Armenian youth to spend a fortnight of his or her annual holiday taking in the streets of Armenia. *** The transformative power of a visit to Armenia will be clear from how even a young person who previously appeared quite aloof from Armenian identity will have intravenously imbibed that identity in only two or three weeks. From that minute on, it will be impossible for that young person to forget his or her identity, regardless of where on the planet he or she lives. Having received a direct injection of Armenian identity, that young person will find that Armenian identity will henceforth course through his or her veins. Therefore, the organization of special Armenia tours for young people represents one of the most effective means to help them acquire their identity. Such efforts must be given precedence in the list of annual programs at all costs, and in every corner of the Diaspora. *** The definitions that the Armenian identity will acquire directly from Armenia will represent indescribably rich gains. This could also be compared to a plant one has tried to grow in a pot that finally gets the chance to taste its own soil, its own water, and its own sun. It is free to try. Recommended to all and sundry.   *As a result of these words, on 16 April 2004 Hrant Dink was served with an indictment and tried for “publicly insulting and denigrating Turkishness”. On 7 October 2005, the panel of judges sentenced Hrant Dink to six months in prison despite the expert opinion to the contrary. The expert report concluded that, taking into account the series of essays as a whole, Hrant Dink’s sentence could not be characterised as insulting and denigrating Turkishness.

‘Now That I Have a Passport…’

Two Close Peoples Two Distant Neighbours

‘‘As for the coordinates of my vantage point: I have two identities, and I am highly aware of both of them.  First, I am from Turkey, I am a citizen of the Republic of Turkey… Second, I am an Armenian. And although I am part of the Armenian community in Turkey, I am also a moral part of Armenia, and of the Armenian Diaspora scattered across all corners of the world, I am kin to them. And it is for all these reasons that if, if anyone wants, even for one sole reason, the improvement of Turkish-Armenian relations, I have at least twice as many reasons than them.”

Book: ‘Two Close Peoples Two Distant Neighbours’

The water has found its crack

Have you ever experienced discrimination? Would you like to share what happened?

A dove’s disquiet

Over the course of the three years prior to his assassination, Hrant Dink was targeted and isolated through an orchestrated and systematic campaign. He was labelled as ‘an enemy of the Turks’, he received threats, he was taken to court time and time again. He was murdered on January 19th, 2007. This was an assassination of national consensus.  And it is for all these reasons that if, if anyone wants, even for one sole reason, the improvement of Turkish-Armenian relations, I have at least twice as many reasons than them.”

Kitchen

The kitchen was an important hub for socializing when it was a part of the Agos office; it continues to be used at 23.5 Hrant Dink Site of Memory. You can take a break here and have a cup of tea during your visit to the memory site.

Would you like to write your own message of justice?

What happened on 19 January 2007?

Have you ever attended a 19 January commemoration? Why?

19 January Commemoration interviews

We are all Hrant, we are all Armenian

Who killed him?

Who killed him?

Telephone conversation between suspects of murder trial

You can review HDV Publications on our website

What does the phrase “two close peoples, two distant neighbors” mean to you? The Turkey-Armenia border has been sealed since 1993, and there are no diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Embassy Founding Project

Andreas Knitz: Art as an Ambassador

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Agos digital archive

Download KarDes Multicultural Memory Tour Guide to your mobile phone!

"23.5 April"

'Public Square'

23.5 Hrant Dink Site of Memory

Hrant Dink Biography

Who is Hrant Dink?

First articles in Marmara newspaper

During the 1990s, under the pseudonym ‘Çutak’ (meaning violin in Armenian), Hrant Dink wrote reviews in Marmara — a daily Armenian newspaper that had been published in Istanbul since 1940 — about books in Turkish that focused on Armenian history.

New label

Am I a Turk?

Camp Armen

Camp Armen In the 1980s, Hrant Dink and his wife Rakel took over the management of the Tuzla Children’s Camp, where they themselves had grown up, and looked after countless Armenian children in need. Following the seizure of the Tuzla Camp by the state, supposedly for ‘breeding Armenian militants’, Hrant Dink was detained and arrested three times due to his political views.

Fırat Dink

At the time of the 1971 military memorandum, Hrant Dink was a supporter of one of the left-wing fractions. Worried that his political engagement could be linked to his Armenian identity and cause problems for the Armenian community in Turkey, he legally changed his name to the Turkish ‘Fırat’. Until he started writing for Agos in 1996, he continued to use this Turkish name, just as many other Armenians in Turkey change their names so as not to face discrimination in the workplace.

How I feel 

The 90th anniversary articles (1)* How I feel  Hrant Dink, 1 November 2004, BirGünI am a citizen of Turkey... I am an Armenian... And I am an Anatolian right down to my bones. Not for a single day have I contemplated abandoning my country and building my future in the ‘readymade heaven of freedoms’ known as the West, or latching on like a leech to democracies that others have paid such a heavy price to create. My main concern has always been to transform my own country into such a heaven of freedoms. When my country cried for Sivas, I cried too.** When my people fought against criminal gangs, I fought alongside them. I bound my own fate to my country’s quest for freedom. As for the rights I may or may not enjoy right now, they didn’t come free. I have paid for them, and I continue to do so. But now... I have had enough of both the bogus flattery that always speaks of ‘our Armenians’ and the provocative refrain, ‘the traitors among us.’ I am sick and tired of both the suffocating embraces and the exclusion that forces me to lose sight of the fact that I am no more than a common, ordinary citizen. *** I did not have the chance to take to the streets for the 24 April demonstrations, or to light a candle in memory of my ancestors. But I did not abandon them then, and I won’t allow them to be reduced to lifeless statues now. I shouldered the mission of ‘making them a living part of my own life.’ To the utmost limits of my powers, I carried them high and kept their memory alive. I struggled relentlessly against those who attempted to prevent me from doing so. It goes without saying that I know the fate my ancestors suffered. Some call it a ‘Massacre.’ Some, a ‘Genocide.’ Some call it a ‘Forced migration.’ And others, simply ‘Tragedy.’ My ancestors, using the Anatolian phrase for it, called it ‘slaughter.’ I choose to call it ‘Devastation.’ And I know well that if it wasn’t for this devastation, today my country would be a much more habitable and enviable place. This is the reason behind my curse upon both those who caused the destruction and those who acted as their pawns. Yet my curse is aimed at the past. I naturally want to find out about everything that went on in history, but that hate —that despicable, disgraceful thing that is hate—I abandon it in its dark cave in his- tory and add, ‘May it stay wherever it is, I do not wish to make its acquaintance.’ *** I feel offended when people in Europe or America use my problems, past or present, for political capital. I sense abuse and rape lurking behind their kisses. I no longer accept the despicable arbitration of an imperialism that strives to drown my future in my past. It was those same despicable arbiters who in centuries past pitted slave gladiators against each other in the arena, who watched with great relish as they fought, and who eventually gave the thumbs down for the victor to finish off the injured loser. Therefore, in this day and age, I can accept neither a parliament nor a state assuming the position of judge in this matter. The real judge is the people and their conscience. And my conscience tells me that the conscience of no state authority could ever match that of a people. *** My only wish is to talk freely about our shared past with my beloved friends here in Turkey—in the most comprehensive manner, without extracting any animosity from that past. I also sincerely believe that the day will come when all Turks and Armenians will find a way to talk with one another about this shared past. And I am counting the days until a time when there won’t be a single topic that Turkey and Armenia can’t comfortably discuss or difference they cannot put right. And when that time comes, that’s when I will turn to extraneous third parties and say, ‘Well, all that remains for you is... silence.’ The Armenians of the world are preparing to commemorate the 90th anniversary of 1915. And so they should... It is their right. As for the lines above, they are how I feel. Submitted to you for your kind attention. *On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of 1915, Hrant Dink wrote a series of nine articles entitled ‘The 90th anniversary articles’ or ‘In memory of the 90th anniversary.’ The first of these articles has been published in BirGün on 1 November 2004. **He refers to the Sivas massacre of July 1993, which resulted in the killing of 35 people.

Do you know people who have to hide their real names because of who they are? If so, why do they feel they have to hide their identity? Hrant Dink was worried that his political engagement could be linked to his Armenian identity and that this could harm

What is something you think is worth fighting for?

What am I struggling for in Turkey?

It is built for what need

Armenian community of Turkey

Agos

Agos’, the furrow opened by the plow for sowing seeds; the place from where water flows, seeds sprout and fertility springs… Agos was founded by Hrant Dink and his friends in 1996 as the first bilingual newspaper published in Turkish and Armenian. The team’s main aims were to show solidarity with those in Turkey’s Armenian community who were unable to speak their mother tongue, to give Turkey’s Armenians a platform through which to voice their own issues and win the support of the wider society, and to inform the Turkish society at large about Armenian culture and history.

"The Dovelike Disquite of My Heart"

The Dovelike Disquite of My Heart Hrant Dink, 19 January 2007, Agos   In the beginning, I wasn’t apprehensive about the inquest initiated by the Şişli public prosecutor against me on the grounds that I had “insulted Turkishness.” It wasn’t the first time I had faced such an investigation. I had already been through a similar one in Urfa. At a conference held in Urfa in 2002, I had stated that I was not a “Turk,” but rather a “Turkish citizen and an Armenian, as a result of which I was charged with the crime of “insulting Turkishness,” leading to a trial that has been going on for the last three years. However, I didn’t even know how the trial was proceeding. I wasn’t in the least interested. Some lawyer friends of mine from Urfa were representing me at the hearings. So I was fairly unconcerned when I gave my deposition to the Şişli public prosecutor. I ultimately believed in what I had written and in my intentions. The prosecutor would not consider in isolation that single sentence from my article, which meant nothing out of context, but rather the entire text, and would easily realize that I had no intention whatsoever of “insulting Turkishness.” Soon enough, this farce would be over. I felt certain that at the conclusion of the inquest, no case would be brought against me.   I was sure of myself But to my shock and surprise, the trial went forward. Nonetheless, my optimism wasn’t shaken. I was so sure of myself that during a live telephone call broadcast on a television program, I told Kerinçsiz, the lawyer pressing charges against me, that he shouldn’t be overly hopeful about the results and that I wouldn’t be charged with anything. I even added that if I were sentenced, I would leave the country. My self-confidence was unshakeable; in my article, there really wasn’t the slightest intention or desire to denigrate Turkishness. To anyone who read in full my series of articles, this would be abundantly clear. Indeed, a three-person expert panel of Istanbul University professors submitted a report to the court stating that this was truly the case. I had no reason for concern; there was no doubt that at some stage in the course of the trial the misunderstanding would be put right.   Staying patient But it wasn’t. Despite the experts’ report, the prosecutor demanded jail time. After, the judge sentenced me to six months. On hearing the sentence, the hopes I had nourished during the course of the trial turned into a bitter weight. I was bewildered... My hurt and rebellion were boundless. For days, for months, I had held out by telling myself, “Look, just let the verdict be announced, just wait till you are acquitted, and then they will regret all they have said and written.” In every hearing, it was argued that I had said, “The blood of the Turks is poisonous,” a claim that was then echoed in newspapers, editorial columns, and television programs. With each pronouncement, I was becoming a little more infamous as an “enemy of the Turks.” In the hallways of the courthouse, fascists rained racist curses on me. They insulted me with placards and banners, and day by day the flood of threatening telephone calls, e-mails, and letters grew a bit further. Telling myself to remain patient, I had held out, waiting for acquittal. With the announcement of my acquittal, the truth would come out one way or another, and those people would be ashamed of what they had done.   My only weapon is my sincerity But instead they found me guilty, and all of my hopes were dashed. I was in the most dismal state imaginable. The judge had made a ruling in the name of the “Turkish people,” making it officially a fact that I had “insulted Turkishness.” I could have endured anything, but not that. In my opinion, for a person to denigrate his fellow citizens based on any kind of ethnic or religious difference constitutes racism and, as such, is inexcusable. With this in mind, I offered the following words to those friends in the press and media who were waiting at my door to see whether or not I would hold to my word that I would “leave the country” if convicted: “I am going to consult my lawyers. I am going to apply to the Court of Appeals and, if necessary, I will take this matter to the European Court of Human Rights. After all of this, if not acquitted, I will leave my country; for someone charged with such a crime, in my opinion, does not have the right to live among the citizens he has insulted.” As I said these words, I was, as always, emotional. My only weapon was my sincerity.   A black humour But the hidden powers that had worked to isolate me in the eyes of the Turkish public and make me a viable target found cause in my statement to take me to court yet again, this time accusing me of trying to pervert the course of justice. But it didn’t stop there; even though my pronouncement had been published by all of the press agencies and media corporations, it was AGOS that they singled out. The directors at AGOS and I were put on trial, this time for attempting to unduly influence the course of justice. This had to be some kind of “black humour.” I was a defendant; who could possibly have more right to influence the course of justice than the defendant? The irony of it was that I, as the defendant, was now being tried for attempting to sway the opinion of the judge in my own case.   “In the name of the Turkish state” I have to admit that my faith in my country’s judicial system and its conception of “law” had been thoroughly shaken. It seems that this country’s judicial system is not as independent as its public officials and politicians boast. The judiciary doesn’t defend the rights of the citizenry. It defends the state. Consequently, of this I had no doubt: Though the ruling was presented as having been made “in the name of the people,” it was in truth made “in the name of the state.” Although my lawyers were going to apply to the Court of Appeals, I could not help but wonder whether the hidden powers that be would not play a role there as well in determining my fate. In any case, were all the judgments handed down by the Court of Appeals just? Wasn’t this the same court that had passed the unfair laws that confiscated the property of the Minority Foundations?   In spite of the Attorney General’s efforts We applied to the Court of Appeals, but what came of it? The Attorney General, just as the panel of experts had reported in the first trial, stated that there was no incriminating evidence and asked for my acquittal, but the High Court once again found me guilty. The Attorney General, just as sure as I was about the contents of my writing, objected to the ruling and transferred the case to the General Assembly. Nevertheless, that immense power which was taking the lead in deciding my destiny and which, with methods I will never comprehend, made its presence felt in all of the stages of my trial, was once again pulling the strings behind the scenes. In the end, with a majority vote of the General Assembly, it was announced that I had been found guilty of “insulting Turkishness” yet again.   Like a dove It is quite clear that those who wished to alienate me, weaken me, and render me defenseless have succeeded. Already, by means of mudslinging and misleading information served up to the public, they have influenced a sizeable section of society, who have come to see Hrant Dink as one who “insults Turkishness.” My computer’s memory drives are full of angry and threatening messages sent by such fellow citizens. (I should note here that one of these letters, posted from Bursa, gravely concerned me and seemed to be an imminent threat; even though I took the letter to the Şişli district attorney, to date absolutely no action has been taken). How much substance do these threats have? Of course it is not possible for me to know. The most fundamental threat for me, and the most unbearable, is the psychological torture that I have been immersed in. It is the question, “What do these people now think of me?” that gnaws at me. It is unfortunate that I am so much more well known than I was in the past, and I am acutely sensitive to the glances thrown my way which say, “Oh look, isn’t he that Armenian?” And, as a reflex, the self-torture begins. One aspect of this torture is curiosity; another, edginess. Another aspect is alertness; yet another, fear. I am just like a dove... Like a dove’s, my gaze flits right and left, forward and back. My head is just as fidgety... And quick to turn.   This is the price you pay What was Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül saying? What about Minister of Justice Cemil Çiçek? “Now look, Article 301 [on “insulting Turkishness”] doesn’t contain anything worth blowing out of proportion. Tell me, has anyone been sent to prison on account of it?” As if paying a price only meant going to prison... This is the price for you... This is the price you pay... Ministers, do you know what it means to sentence someone to live a dove’s life of constant fear? Do you? Don’t you ever watch doves?   “Life or death” The things I have lived through have not been easy, neither for my family nor for me. There were moments when I very seriously considered leaving the country. Especially when people close to me started receiving threats... At that point I was at my wit’s end. I thought this must be what they call a “life or death situation.” I could have held out on my own, but I had no right to put the lives of others in danger. I could have been my own hero, but not if it meant putting someone else in peril, least of all those dear to me. It was in hopeless times like these that I gathered my family and children together and found shelter with them. They believed in me. Wherever I was, they would stand by me. If I said, “Let’s go,” they would come. If I said, “Let’s stay,” they would stay.   To stay and to resist Okay. But if we left, where would we go? To Armenia? Fine, but for someone like me who cannot stand injustice, how would I put up with the injustices there? Wouldn’t I find myself in even more trouble? As for Europe, well, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I’m the kind of person who after just a couple of days in some Western land finds himself desperately longing to have it all over with and go back home—“Okay, that’s enough, I’m missing my homeland.” Now what would a person like that, like me, do in the West? The comforts would drive me crazy. To escape from the “fiery depths of hell” to a “readymade heaven” would go against everything I am. We were the people seeking to turn the hell where we live into heaven. Our respect for those who struggle for democracy in Turkey, for those who support us, and for our thousands of friends—some of whom we know, and some we don’t know personally—demanded that we stay and live in Turkey. Not only that, but it was our own personal desire to stay and live in Turkey. We would stay, and we would resist. But what if one day we had to leave? Just like in 1915... We would go just like our ancestors, not knowing where we were going, on the same roads they traveled, enduring pain, suffering anguish. With that same lament, we would leave our homeland. And we would go, not where our hearts led us, but where our feet took us—wherever that might be.   Afraid and free I hope we never have to make such a departure. We have more than enough hope and more than enough reasons to avoid such a situation. And so I am applying to the European Court of Human Rights. How many years this case will go on for, I cannot say. The knowledge that, at the very least, I will be able to live in Turkey until the end of the trial comforts me. If a verdict is handed down in my favor, I will of course be even more pleased, and it will also mean that I will never have to leave my country. Very likely 2007 will be an even more difficult year for me. The accusations will continue, and new ones will come forth. Who knows how many injustices I will have to endure? But as these things happen, I will find reassurance in the fact that while I may view my current state of mind, my current state of soul, as being marked by the disquiet characteristic of doves, I know that in this country, nobody ever hurts doves. Doves live their lives in the hearts of cities, amid the crowds and human bustle. Yes, they live a little uneasily, a little apprehensively—but they live freely, too.

Hagop Mıntzuri

1886 Erzincan – 1978 İstanbul

Atamyan and Erkeletyan Families

Atamyan and Erkeletyan Families Around WW-I, Nevşehir  houshamadyan.org

Widowed Armenian Woman Walking from Kigi to Harput 1899

1899

Komitas Vardapet

1896 Kütahya – 1935 Villejuif, France

William Saroyan

1908-1981 Fresno, California, USA

Karin Karakaşlı

1972, İstanbul

Mardiros Saryan

1880 Nor Nahçivan – 1972 Yerevan

New label

Komitas Vardapet

Berç Çalıkman

Arshile Gorky

1904, Van - 1948, Connecticut, USA

Aram Dzaturyan

'Resting', 1983

Norayr Antonian

Metsovan view, 1995

23rd Psalm

Şmavon Şmavonyan

1994 tarihli "Can Gülüm" adlı tablo

Patriarch of Armenians of Turkey

1715 - 1741, Bitlis

Şınorhk Badriark Kalusdyan

1961-1990, Yozgat Patriarch of Armenians of Turkey

Karekin Badriark Haçaduryan

1951-1961, Trabzon Patriarch of Armenians of Turkey

The icon of the resurrection of Jesus

Ayp pen kim

A new year’s gift from Agos for its readers in 1998

Which object, photograph, or image from Hrant Dink’s office did you find most interesting?

If you could have interviewed Hrant Dink, what would you have asked him?

"Sungur, my brother..."

Sungur, my brother...* Hrant Dink, 5 March 2004, Agos   I trust your illness is not of a serious nature. Reading between the lines, we could feel that you were trying to dispel our fears, yet I worried nonetheless. I hope to God that it’s nothing serious. As for recent events, what cancer is to our human bodies, nationalism is to our social body. Where the one eats into and devours a single human being, the other does the same to an entire nation. If we leave the field to extreme nationalists, the illness will not recede. Conditions will deteriorate, and all types of cancer, from racism to fascism, will spread. Cancer itself pales in comparison to this type of nationalism. *** For many years, I have tried to open up new paths toward a resolution of the Armenian issue, a topic which is notoriously difficult to talk about. Ideas I have developed with the advantage of being both Armenian and a citizen of Turkey have, for some reason, drawn the ire of the extreme nationalists on both sides. Oddly enough, one side often takes offense over words that were in fact aimed at the other. This is in fact an important proof of how similar the two are. But reconstructing the future of Turkish and Armenian societies is too vital an issue to be left to their kind. *** They do not like Agos, or Hrant Dink’s column pieces, because they challenge their set beliefs. Each side has grown used to watching the other from its own familiar trenches, developing discourses targeted solely at countering the discourses of the other. Ultimately, each has learned to call white what the other calls black. And in this way, they have reached something of an accord. But the moment someone turns up and starts talking about shades of gray, they are left baffled. They are so surprised that they don’t know whether to praise me or curse me. This talk of shades of gray challenges their set beliefs. And the more they are challenged, the more hostile they become. *** Dear Sungur, In my life, I have twice experienced an assault on my human dignity. The first was when, in the aftermath of the 12 September military coup, my torturer stretched me out on the floor and forced me to sing folk songs while he crushed my fingers under his heel. He must have heard me singing folk songs in the prison ward and decided to have some fun with me. Immersed in pain, I sang the song ‘Spring has come to the mountains of my land.’ I have never forgotten that experience. As for the second instance, it is what I am going through right now. Believe me, it reminds me much of the first. *** Yet it is such a beautiful song when you can sing it in your own time, giving voice to the yearnings of your own heart. It is a song of imprisonment, and of isolation... Especially of isolation. On the topic of isolation, all this is in fact part of a strategy to cut Agos off, to leave it alone and helpless. But what they don’t know is that isolation only strengthens people like us, only increases our numbers. *** Sungur, you aren’t the only one. Friends and relatives are concerned, too. My thanks go out to all of them. They paid me visits of support all throughout the week. They called me up and wrote articles. The women have for a while now moved in with my wife, and they are praying in seclusion. They are pleading to God to protect me. Clearly, they are afraid for me. As for myself, I can’t say I’m not afraid, Sungur. I certainly can’t say that. But put your heart at ease, I’m not about to leave my country and run. I’m used to living like this, after all. From now on, I’ll just be a bit more afraid as I live on... That’s all.     * This article was written in response to Sungur Savran’s open letter to Agos in support of Hrant Dink, dated 5 March 2004.

“Salt and Light”

Salt and Light is designed especially for 23.5, this installation by Sarkis was based on the metaphor of “creating diamonds from pain” and gives visitors a space to feel, contemplate and commemorate. A permanent exhibit, the piece is located on the balcony to the rear of Hrant Dink’s office.

Hrant Dink's Personal Library

When Ferman’s hopes ran dry

When Ferman’s hopes ran dry Hrant Dink, 5 May 1998, Agos   My dear brother Seropyan has a little story he always tells. He says he read it somewhere, but he doesn’t remember where. It’s a very simple story. At the time of the deportation, the government issued a ferman, an imperial edict, declaring, “Get ready, you are leaving.” As news of the ferman began to spread, everyone of course began to worry, wondering, “What will we do, what can we take with us?” But there was one old villager who seemed to be living in a world of his own… Not a single sign of worry… He sat there repairing and sharpening the flint stones of the threshing board, the implement used to separate the wheat from the straw. “Look here,” said the other villagers, “We’re leaving. There’s no two ways about it. It’s not like you’re going to take that threshing board with you. Why are you wasting your time mending it?” “No matter,” the old man replied, “We might be on our way. But we have sown the crop, and somebody is bound to turn up to harvest it… So, will the harvest lay unattended? Someone is bound to winnow the grain. You want them to come and find the threshing board out of order?’ *** Someone much like the old villager from 85 years ago appeared at a ceremony held at Mimar Sinan University2 the other day: Mr. Samuel Kavafian. The historical Kavafian Mansion in which he lives had been the subject of an academic research project carried out at the university, and a plaque of appreciation was being presented to the old Kavafian family for protecting and maintaining this historical mansion for so many years. The Kavafians were filled with emotion. When invited to take the stage, they slowly tottered up to the pulpit. The rector of the university uttered moving words such as, “If ever your roof starts leaking, do not think, ‘We have no place to go, what will we do?’ From now on, this university is your home.” Although the old Kavafian family had been the owners of the 250-year-old historical mansion, it had been opportunistically taken away from them and passed on to the General Directorate of Foundations. Now they are paying rent to live in that same mansion. But looking at them, you would not guess that it was they who had suffered this terrible injustice. Mr. Kavafian, his usual gentlemanly self, gave a short speech to the students of the university: “I thank you very much,” he said, “I thank you very much, and you are all always welcome in our home. Come and see what our forefathers built, so you can build something even better.” Vakhtang Ananyan is a writer who came to fame as an environmentalist in Soviet-era Armenia and who devoted his literary work to the protection of nature, writing short stories on this topic for both children and grown-ups. One of his short stories, Hunani Aykin, or the Hunan Vineyard, is based on a real event. The letter written by Hunan Avetisyan, who was posted at the frontline during World War II, to his son Henzel has today gained legendary status. In his letter to his son, Hunan writes, “How is my vineyard? Has it grown? If I die in the war, my request is that you ensure my vineyard and cherry orchard always thrive.” Hunan did not return from the war. His vineyard was later tended by groups of Scouts, children and youngsters, it was looked after by the following generations. They regarded the trees there as statues of Hunan, the ecological warrior. And then there’s my friend Ferman. He is a fair bit older than me, I must say. He has a summer house in Marmara Ereğlisi, right on the sea, and a garden. But there isn’t a single tree in the garden. He’s planted his tomatoes and peppers and his corn and sunflowers, and it’s with them that he placates his visitors. Last summer, me and my family were guests at his summer house for three days. God bless him. We ate a lot of corn and sunflower seeds. But then I asked him, “Why on earth don’t you plant a tree or two?” He soon made me regret asking. “Mark my words, I shall not!” he declared, and began to tell me why. “Since the time of Adam and Eve until 1938, our forefathers lived in the Kitoro neighbourhood of the village of Kerkho in the Mutki district in the region of Bitlis. There were 36 households in the neighbourhood. We had vineyards, and gardens. From 1920 to 1938, on the pretext of the Sheikh Said rebellion, both the army and the rebels bombed and looted our fields every single year, to ensure that we could no longer live there. Not a single person had been hurt in the slightest during the events of 1915. Imagine that! But after the clashes of 1920 to 1938 had died down, out of the whole village, only my father and mother remained. I was two years old in 1938. They forced us into exile in the Osmancık district of Çorum, to the village of Kızıltepe. The next ten years we spent holed up in a wheat warehouse where we had been ordered to live. So we planted trees in an adjoining plot. I lost two of my six siblings there. Just as the first fruits began to appear on the branches of the trees we had planted, they moved us to Gümüşhacıköyü in Amasya. And two years after that, we were moved on to the village of Soğurt in Ahlat, and then to the ruined village of Kötibe Hırab in the Kurtalan district of Siirt. It was an old Armenian village. The state gave us 25 acres of land there in 1950. But six years later they exiled us to Diyarbakır, and from there to Istanbul. In 1972, I bought a plot of land in Avcılar district in Istanbul with the money I had earned from my street stall. I built a summerhouse. I planted 35 trees. Seven or eight years later, just when I was about to harvest the first fruit from my trees, all manner of scoundrels and thieves set their eyes on my garden. They stole everything I had. I couldn’t bear it, so I up and left. And now I’m here. My entire life, I planted trees wherever I went, but it was always others who ate their fruits. I never got the chance. And that’s why I am not planting a single tree here. I just grow enough vegetables to keep me going, and that’s all.” That’s when I had to admonish Ferman… For letting his hope run dry… I couldn’t bear the idea that he had given up, even though he was right… But giving up did not become us. *** Dear Akın Birdal!3 Those who rained down bullets on you attempted to break yet one more branch4 off the tree of our society. Their mindset is nothing new. They have never appreciated that by breaking off the branches of the tree one by one, they will one day destroy the tree; and tree by tree, they will eventually destroy the whole forest! But if they think they can consume our strength with their traitorous fermans, they are gravely mistaken.   1 Translator’s note: The author displays a masterful use of the language, which cannot entirely be transmitted in translation. ‘Ferman’ is a male name (in the article, the name of a friend of the author), as well as the word for an imperial decree. At different points in the passage, ‘Ferman’ is used to denote both meanings. Incidentally, ‘Ferman’ strongly rhymes with ‘derman’ (remedy), the counterpart word in the original Turkish title, Ferman’ın Dermanı, or ‘Ferman’s Remedy’. 2 Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University is a public university in Istanbul that was founded in 1882, then as the School of Fine Arts, by renowned artist Osman Hamdi Bey. The university was later renamed after the Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan. 3 The former president of the Human Rights Association, Akın Birdal, was subjected to an armed assault on 12 May 1998 at the Headquarters of the Human Rights Association in Ankara. He sustained heavy injuries but survived the attack. To this day, the true perpetrators of the attack have not been caught. 4 Translator’s note: The literal meaning of Akın Birdal’s surname is ‘one branch’.

Have you ever experienced a situation where you worked hard for something, but someone else took it away from you?

Some of the songs that were sung by the children of Camp Armen, ‘Fishers of Men’, ‘Ay Forga’ and ‘Şoğkam’, were performed  for 23.5 Hrant Dink Site of Memory  by the Kınalıada Church Nersesyan Choir and a group of children from Kınalıada Gazturman Gayan Children’s Camp, conducted by Hrant Çizmeciyan. To listen to these recordings, as well as a traditional folk song  called  ‘Vay Lele’ sung by Rakel Dink, come closer to the bird’s nests.

Swallow's Nest

Do you know about Turkey’s rich multicultural heritage?

"Hear my plea, brothers, sisters!"

"Hear my plea, brothers, sisters!" Hear my plea, brothers, sisters!* Hrant Dink, Aralık 2000   They put us on tow one morning, us 13 kids... A walk from Gedikpaşa to Sirkeci... A boat from there to Haydarpaşa... The train from Haydarpaşa to Tuzla Station... And an hour’s walk from the station to a vast, boundless flat land edged by the lake and the sea. Tuzla, back then, was nothing like the suburb of the rich and the bureaucrats of today... Just a finely sanded, virginal seaside and a piece of lake reaching out to the sea... A couple of cottages on the spreading land, a spatter of fig and olive trees, and thorny blackberry bushes over ditches here and there... And the conical relief tents we set up ourselves... For us 13 scrawny kids aged from 8 to 12, this was goodbye to the hot misery of summers on the concrete garden of the Gedikpaşa Orphanage... We only remembered our families or friends at night, as we watched the twinkling city lights way out. We thought the lights looked like old stars fallen and heaped together... We woke up at dawn for three years, and worked till midnight till we finished the camp building. The shortest of our group, ‘Log’ (our nickname for Zakar), could grab a cementbag and haul it all the way to the roof on his own. We were so tired, we wetted our beds at night. I went to Tuzla when I was eight. I poured my labour in there for 20 years. I met my wife Rakel there. We grew up together. We were married at the camp. Our children were born there... After the September 12 coup, our camp manager was arrested on the claim that he was raising Armenian militants. A wrongful claim. None of us was brought up to be a militant. My friends and I, each of us old charges of the camp, rushed to fill the job to save the camp and the orphanage from shutting down. But then, one day they handed us a paper from a court... ‘We just found out that your minority institutions do not have a right to buy real state. We should never have given you that permission back then. This place will now revert to its old owner.’ We fought for five years, yet we lost... Little chance we had with the state as the contestor. Hear my plea, brothers, sisters!... They threw us out of the civilization we built. They seized the fruit of the sweat of the 1500 children who grew up there. They stole our child labour. They could still have my blessing if only they had continued our place as an orphanage for poor children, a camp for the needy or challenged youngsters of whatever identity. But grabbed by a handful of villains as it is, I deny them the blessing of my labour. And now, ‘the Tuzla Poor Children’s Camp’ that we created, our ‘Civilization Atlantis’, lies in ruin... The well dried up once the children’s voices ceased... The building slumps over... The earth is parched... Trees are stulted... And the stabs of my grievance are as sharp and as helpless as the diving flight of the swallow whose lovingly built nest was crushed with one blow... And as helpless...   * Tuzla Armenian Children’s Camp – A Story of Seizure, Human Rights Association Istanbul Branch, December 2000

New label

Kamp Armen Resistance

‘2012 Declaration / The Seized Properties of Armenian Foundations in Istanbul’

Who were those children? From Mount Judi to Camp Armen

Can we become a civil society?

"Can we become a civil society?" Can we become a civil society? (2)* Hrant Dink, 4 March 2005, Agos   The loss in terms of both quality and quantity in the Armenian community of Turkey is a complaint frequently expressed by the community itself. This complaint is not unmerited. Looking at the current reality of the community, from the drop in the number of students at Armenian schools to the reduction in the quality of the educational, artistic, cultural, and social output of the community, the signs of this loss are apparent in almost every field. *** However, this decline needs to be analyzed accurately. The primary field in which this decline is experienced is the community’s institutional network. That network may appear to be a civil society as far as its structure is concerned, yet the mindset underpinning it is anything but. And it is that mindset that blocks the Armenian community from developing a true civil society. Despite the many areas of decline experienced by the Armenian community, many of the community’s individual members are actually staking a stronger claim regarding their own identities. Yet because this claim is restricted to the individual sphere and fails to become a social phenomenon, it, unfortunately, fails to stem the visible general decline. I remember ending an essay I wrote recently with the following lines: ‘The identities of the individuals of the Armenian community in Turkey are becoming stronger; however, their institutions are being suffocated. The only solution for these institutions to overcome this suffocation is for them to become more civil in structure, just as the individuals have done. Those who are really in danger of suffocating, however, are those who defend this closed system and oppose the community’s civil turn.’ *** It is high time for me to take up the issue from where I left off and seek an answer to the question, ‘What are the obstacles preventing the Armenian community in Turkey from developing a true civil society?’ My personal observations tell me that there are three types of obstacles. The first is the state’s mindset regarding its perception of the minority community, together with the position and policy of erosion it has adopted within the framework of this mindset to this day. I believe that there is not much left to say or write about this particular role played by the state. Looking back in history, the social and civil awakening of the Armenian community has been the state’s greatest problem. And the policy the state ultimately adopted to rid itself of this problem is what led to the disaster of 1915. In a nutshell, this policy, which is still being pursued today, is as follows: ‘The minorities are a security issue. A decrease in their numbers and their gradual reduction to a tiny religious community is beneficial in every respect.’ *** The second obstacle in the way of the Armenian community in Turkey becoming a civilly oriented community is the ruling authority of the community itself. This authority is the seat of the Armenian Patriarchate of Turkey. Although the Patriarchate wears the guise of religious authority, it does not restrict its activities to the religious field, instead striving to maintain a hold on all the social and cultural affairs of the community. This effort on the part of the Patriarchate is nothing new, nor is the struggle against it. The Armenians of Turkey have struggled throughout their recent history, for the past century and a half or so, to develop a civil society. And the primary target of this struggle has been none other than their own Patriarchate and the authority the state exercises over them through that institution. It must be admitted, however, that in many cases, the struggle against the Patriarchate has had more to do with the community’s powerlessness and despair in its struggle against the state than with the Patriarchate itself. Yet in many cases, the Patriarchate’s reaction, and its efforts to curb the civil awakening within its community, has been even sterner than the state’s own. Even today, the Patriarchate still refuses to accept a civil stance independent of itself. *** The third and most significant obstacle is society itself—a society that has succeeded in individualization, but not in becoming a civil society. The entire organizational structure of the Armenian community, including its non-religious social and cultural institutions, is, to use the fashionable term, at best ‘quasi-civil.’ And what’s more, these institutions have no intention of becoming truly civil institutions, for that would entail taking a clear political stance and accepting the responsibility that comes with it. Today, those in positions of management at these institutions view their duties in purely administrative terms. They eschew the civic duties incumbent on them by virtue of their positions, leaving the task of developing political solutions to existing problems to the religious leadership. This lack of civic-mindedness turns our institutions into places that do not produce solutions but merely manage and cover up existing problems. And under such circumstances, those who ‘manage’ our institutions become the managed, and those who refuse to be managed and attempt to exercise their own will become cannon fodder for a broken system. And this is why our quasi-civil institutions do not produce individuals but instead consume them.    * The first of three articles of this series has been published in Agos on 25 February 2005.

6 February 2004 Agos published a story about Sabiha Gökçen — Atatürk’s adopted daughter and Turkey’s first female war pilot — having Armenian roots.

13 February 2004 Hrant Dink’s article on Armenian identity, which was later to be the subject of a court case, was published

21 February 2004 Hürriyet, one of the leading mainstream Turkish newspapers, published an article on the Agos story about Sabiha Gökçen.

22 February 2004 The Turkish Armed Forces General Staff issued a statement about the Sabiha Gökçen story, calling on Turkish citizens and institutions to defend Atatürk’s sacred memory and system of thought.

February 2004 The Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate sent Hrant Dink’s column to the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office by mail. The Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate, which is not recognized by the Eastern Orthodox Church, is known for its close links to Turkish St

24 February 2004 Hrant Dink was asked to visit the Istanbul Governorship. He met with the vice-governor in the presence of Turkish Intelligence Service agents. Hrant Dink later defined the content of the meeting as a threat.

February 2004 Multiple individuals and organizations signed and sent a copy of the same letter denouncing Hrant Dink to the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office

25 February 2004 A court case was filed against Hrant Dink on the charge of ‘insulting Turkishness’ based on expressions — taken out of context and distorted — in his column on Armenian identity.

26 February 2004 The Istanbul headquarters of the nationalist group ‘Ülkü Ocakları’, a.k.a. ‘the Grey Wolves’, held a protest in front of Agos. They lay a black wreath and threatened Hrant Dink.

3 March 2004 The Federation for Fighting Groundless Armenian Claims (ASEF) held a protest in front of Agos.

27 May 2005 The court-appointed independent expert group issued a report concluding that Hrant Dink’s expression had been taken out of context and that his article did not insult Turkishness.

8 July 2005 In spite of the expert report in support of Hrant Dink, the prosecutor issued his legal opinion that a sentence should be given.

1 September 2005 A new court case was filed against Agos for ‘influencing the judiciary’ by publishing the expert report and the prosecutor’s legal opinion.

7 October 2005 Hrant Dink was sentenced to six months in prison for ‘insulting Turkishness’, based on Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code.

7 October 2005 Hrant Dink’s lawyers submitted an appeal to the Supreme Court.

11 October 2005 Intellectuals visited Agos to offer their support.

16 October 2005 A criminal complaint was filed against Hrant Dink for influencing the judiciary by saying, ‘They didn’t understand what I wrote.’

6 November 2005 In advance of the appeal, former Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Prof. Dr. Sami Selçuk, gave his legal opinion in support of the expert report stating that Hrant Dink had not insulted Turkishness.

25 December 2005 A further court case was filed against Agos for influencing the judiciary.

24 February 2006 The Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Court issued his opinion that the court decision should be reversed.

1 May 2006 Despite the opinion stated by the Chief Prosecutor, the 9th Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the conviction.

6 June 2006 The Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Court objected to the decision of the Chamber.

11 July 2006 The Assembly of Criminal Chambers rejected the Chief Prosecutor’s objection by 18 votes to 6, upholding the conviction.

14 July 2006

14 July 2006 A new court case on ‘insulting Turkishness’ was filed against Hrant Dink for defining the events of 1915 as genocide in his response to a question during an interview with Reuters.

11 January 2007 An application was submitted to the European Court of Human Rights in relation to the upheld six-month prison sentence.

17 July 2006 A petition was launched against Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which is used to bring prosecution for ‘insulting Turkishness.

12 January 2007 Publication of the first part of the article Hrant Dink wrote for the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) application.

19 January 2007 Publication of the second part of the article Hrant Dink wrote for the ECHR application.

What happened to Camp Armen?

What happened to Camp Armen?The seizure of Camp Armen was completed after the Court of Cassation upheld the lower court’s decision. Soon after being returned to its former owner, the plot of land was sold on. It then changed hands a number of times, before eventually being abandoned. The Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church Foundation filed numerous applications for the return of the land in the 2000s and later based on a decree issued on 27 August 2011, but all were rejected.  On 6 May 6 2015, construction machinery entered Camp Armen and demolition began. In response, members of Nor Zartonk, residents of Tuzla, a number of political parties and civil society organisations came to the camp and managed to halt the demolition. People arrived at the camp to pledge their support from different parts of Turkey, but also from Europe, Lebanon, the USA and Australia. Since the very start of the demolition, people began to hold watch over the camp, and the watch was bolstered by Armenian language workshops, concerts, and talks on various topics with writers, academics, researchers and journalists. Educational workshops, and painting and theatre classes for children were also held, reflecting the original spirit of the camp. [The Armenian tradition of] Siroseğan (literally ‘Meal of Affection’) were held together with ‘Mother Earth Meals’  (an alternative Ramadan meal organized by anti-capitalist Muslims) to break the Ramadan fast. Embraced by young and old alike, the resistance became a model of solidarity, bringing together different segments of society, helping break down prejudices, and opening up a space for dialogue. After a 175-day resistance, 4,850 square metres of the Camp Armen site was returned to its original owner, the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church Foundation, with the remaining 3,800 square metres staying in the hands of the Tuzla Municipality for use as green space. As well as continued demands for the return of this land, there are ongoing efforts to ensure sure that the entire camp is returned to its function as a social service facility.

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«Ваєй леї леї» -- Раел Тинк