SLAIN EDITOR’S WIFE SPREADS MESSAGE OF PEACE
By Andy Metzger, [email protected]
Arlington Advocate
Jan 3 2009
MA
Arlington, Mass. – Those who stand up against the political majority
are often confronted by others who use violence to silence dissent.
That’s what happened to Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian newspaper
editor, who was gunned down on the streets of Istanbul almost exactly
two years ago, likely because his of writing on the Turkish-disputed
Armenian genocide of 1915.
At the Armenian Cultural Foundation this past Saturday, Hrant’s widow,
Rakel Dink, talked of the sorrow that accompanied her husband’s murder,
and the possible routes to peace.
"Every time I visit places like this, it reminds me of my pain, my
sorrow," said Rakel through her translator Anna Ohanyan, an assistant
professor at Stonehill College. "It’s strange and painful to be in
this place."
Wearing a black suit and white blouse, Rakel spoke in Armenian to
the crowd gathered in Arlington in a room where two windows looked
out over the snow-covered Upper Mystic Lake.
The talk was sponsored by the Watertown-based Armenian International
Women’s Association, and occurred a day before Rakel’s MIT panel
discussion with journalists and scholars, sponsored by the Friends
of Hrant Dink, which is based in Cambridge.
Rakel met her husband years ago at an orphanage in Turkey, 40 years
ago. Though they were both ethnically Armenian, neither learned their
native language until moving to Istanbul.
A war on Armenians living within the Ottoman Empire almost 100 years
ago nearly obliterated the people and the language. Armenia considers
those actions in 1915 genocide, a claim Turkey denies.
In 2005, two years before his death, Hrant was arrested for insulting
Turkey’s national identity by writing about the genocide, according
to a BBC report.
"He stood for his rights … He tried to challenge the nationalistic
tendencies," said Rakel on Saturday. "It is very difficult to struggle
for justice in Turkey, and also very dangerous."
Rakel said the Armenian church has helped to preserve Armenian
culture in Turkey, but it has faced opposition from the government
and individuals. Rakel said church property has been confiscated,
and that there is rampant murder and persecution of Armenians and
Kurds in Turkey – even today.
"All of our stories are somehow connected to 1915," Rakel
said. Memories of the mass killings have been passed down,
generation-to-generation, just as culture and language is passed down,
said Rakel.
In 1996, Hrant established Agos, a newspaper about Armenians and
Armenian culture that was written in both Armenian and Turkish.
"This was a way to recreate the Armenian identity in Turkey," Rakel
said. Her husband didn’t want to publish solely in Armenian because
he wanted the newspaper to be accessible to Turks who didn’t speak
Armenian.
His writings, however, may have been what inspired his killer or
killers, according to news articles about the murder. The "alleged
gunman and several others have gone on trial," for the Jan. 19,
2007 murder, according to the AP.
"My husband broke many taboos," said Rakel, whose family is still
involved in publishing Agos.
After her husband of 30 years was murdered, Rakel spoke out, urging
for peace and understanding, she said. A deeply religious woman, Rakel
said those words came directly from Jesus. Rakel also said that after
the killing she cautioned her daughter not to equate the murder of
her father with the multitudinous deaths that occurred in 1915, she
said. The family of mourners was lucky to have each other, she said.
Rakel wants to continue her husband’s work promoting Armenian culture
and bringing Turks and Armenians together. Those plans include a Hrant
Dink institute to study Armenian culture, a forthcoming archive of
Hrant’s writing, and possibly a space dedicated to bringing Turkish
and Armenian people together for soulful talks.