“The Legacy of Hrant Dink” Celebrates
the Life and Ideals of Turkey’s Prophet for Peace

By Andy Turpin
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (A.W.)—On Feb. 1, the Friends of Hrant Dink Inc. presented
a panel discussion in honorable memoriam for slain Turkish-Armenian human
rights activist Hrant Dink, entitled, “The Legacy of Hrant Dink” at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s [M.I.T] Kresge Auditorium.
Featured panelists included: Rakel Dink, honored guest and Hrant Dink’s widow,
Colgate University Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Prof. of Humanities and
English Peter Balakian, Robert Jay Lifton, Lecturer in Psychiatry at Harvard
Medical School/ Cambridge Health Alliance and Distinguished Prof. Emeritus of
Psychiatry and Psychology, City University of N.Y., Andrew Tarsy, Senior
Management member of Facing History and Ourselves, and Dr. Oktay Ozel,
Visiting Ottoman History Scholar at Harvard University from Bilkent University.
Armenian Weekly Editor Khatchig Mouradian moderated the panel discussion.
State Representatives Jonathan Hecht (D-Mass.) and Peter Koutoujian (D-Mass.)
were among the 700 who attended the event.
Mouradian said in introduction to the event, “This event is a celebration more
than it is a commemoration. We are not here only to commemorate the
assassination of Hrant Dink. We are here to celebrate his legacy; to embrace his
vision.”
But he noted of Dink’s uniqueness as a man, activist and martyr for his beliefs
that, “No one is Hrant Dink. But if we observe the sacrifices and legacy of Hrant
Dink, and we honor them by struggling for truth, freedom and justice everywhere
we can all become better versions of ourselves.”
“And that would be the best way we could celebrate the legacy of Hrant Dink,” he
concluded.
Robert J. Lifton spoke next, noting of today’s media and society’s sense of
historical memory as it relates to genocide politics that, “If you pick up your
newspaper today, you’ll find a great many headlines of the world’s events. But
how we understand them- depends on how we perceive them in history.”
Lifton spoke of his experiences studying the nature of good and evil as it relates
to man’s atrocities, saying, “I’ve studied Chinese Thought Reform, survivors of
Hiroshima…I’ve worked with Vietnam Veterans and anti-war activists- and
finally I’ve studied Nazi doctors; Hitler’s infamous remark [justifying his invasion
of Poland on the pretext that the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide going
unpunished validated the genocidal use of force of the 3rd Reich] is known, but
not appreciated that it was a double denial [of humanity].”
He ended, noting, “Let me close with a hopeful line from the poet Theodore
Roethke when he says, ‘In a dark time, the eye begins to see.’”
Rakel Dink spoke next about her husband and his humanitarian legacy, saying,
“Dear friends of Hrant Dink are working everywhere today in Turkey and they’re
doing it for justice…They [the perpetrators of his death] thought they had taken
him away and buried the truth, but can you ever take away the truth? As God
says, ‘the truth shall set you free.’”
She noted of the period shortly before his death in which Hrant Dink defended
himself in Turkish court against allegations of inciting ‘Anti-Turkishness’ under
the infamous Article 301 of the Turkish penal code that, “My husband was
actually announced as a traitor to his country. Laws are supposed to be designed
to defend their citizens, not the state.”
Andrew Tarsy spoke next, and related in passing recollection the Anti-ADL [Anti-
Defamation League] controversy in which he was involved previously for
defending with other New England-area Armenian, Jewish and human rights
activists that the Armenian Genocide took place, and was in fact a genocide by
international legal standards, contrary to the official position held by the
National ADL office.
Tarsy noted, “There are so many new friends here already from the Armenian
and Jewish communities I’ve made in the last two years…In standing up for the
simple fact that the Armenian Genocide is a historical truth that needs to be
recognized- there was total agreement in historical candor [amongst New
England Jewish community leaders] in a community that usually agrees on
nothing. I’m very proud of that Jewishly.”
Tarsy noted of the good works his current organization, Facing History and
Ourselves, is undergoing towards Armenian Genocide awareness that, “President
Obama has quoted Dr. Martin Luthor King in saying, ‘the arc of the moral
universe is long but it bends towards justice. It bends towards justice, but here is
the thing: it does not bend on its own. It bends because each of us in our own
ways put our hand on that arc and we bend it in the direction of justice.’”
Tarsy stressed the notion of ‘free will’ in both those that commit and work to
prevent and recognize genocide and cited historically that Rafael Lemkin was told
in 1920 in Lbov, Poland by his law professor when searching for a new category
for what happened to the Armenians in 1915 that, “A nation can do with its
people what a farmer can do with his chickens.”
Lemkin was appalled at the time of hearing this and after WWII and the
Holocaust coined the term ‘genocide’ in international law so that steps could be
taken to prevent such happenings in the future. Tarsy said likewise of the present
and today’s activism, “How are we going to choose to react when we hear about
such atrocities?”
Tarsy ended stressing the need for new and advanced education methods to
proliferate the teaching of tolerance and acceptance of identity in a time when
hate rhetoric is on the rise in cyberspace. As a primary example as a force for
tolerance and diversity he cited President Obama’s African-American, White,
Hawaiian and Kenyan identities; nuances that are not at odds with each other but
rather are expressive of our globalized world.
He stated, “We are all made up of all of our parts and the more we work towards
acceptance- the more progress we can make in the tradition of Hrant Dink.”
Dr. Oktay Ozel spoke next, saying Hrant Dink’s message that the Armenian
Genocide occurred, directed at everyday Turkish citizens, that, “I don’t think it
was an exaggeration to say that most Turks learned a very different story from for
the first time from Hrant in his speakings. Hrant was a turning point in that
process of learning.”
Ozel said of his own first acquaintance with the truth of the Armenian Genocide
that, “I first heard about the ‘Armenian Question’- as it was called in Turkey- in
my 2nd year of university. I was lucky enough to learn even a little bit in my early
days and ask questions.”
Of Hrant Dink, Ozel said, “Hrant started to appear in the media in the late 1990s.
I realized that Hrant Dink was part of my awakening process and that of the
consequences for Turkey. His voice was so powerful it became a manifesto.”
Ozel acted as apologist for those of his peers in the Ottoman history community
who continue to deny the Genocide actively or tacitly, stating, “The community of
historians in Turkey did very badly. They could have contributed positively and
they chose not to, though it is painful to say.”
He continued, “For us historians, I think the bitter legacy is that historians have
to do better and with decency. That’s the job to be done and that’s what I’ve been
trying to do and contribute to the normalization of history.”
Peter Balakian spoke last, saying of Hrant Dink and his mission that, “He spoke
openly in a country where to do so causes great risk. He was gunned down by
forces of repression my Turkish friends call ‘the Deep State’.”
Of the state of Turkey’s Armenian genocide denial that has existed as the status
quo since 1915 and the pain it has caused Armenians, he quoted Joyce’s Ulysses
when he wrote, “History is a nightmare from which I’m trying to wake.”
Balakian, too, recounted of Rafael Lemkin an interview he granted following the
U.N.’s Genocide Convention ratification in 1949 where he said of his term’s
origins, “I became interested in genocide because it happened so many
times…You see, as a lawyer I believed that a crime should be punished not by the
victims but by the courts [in reference to the 1921 assassination of Armenian
Genocide planner Talaat Pasha by Armenian survivor Soghomon Tehlirian].”
He said of the present, “Here I think all of us must move from having this
conversation today to action. I think it’s important for Armenians and Turks to
de-ethnicitize the conflict. It’s not a matter of Armenian-said/ Turk-said.”
Balakian ended stating, “There are new openings in the landscape, and pitfalls
and fears. But there are so many people asking for democracy and change in
Turkey…These are the forces we want to work with and join with to write that
next chapter.”
During the audience Q&A session that followed the panel’s remarks, an attendee
pressed Tarsy to speak further about the A.D.L’s still current denialist positions
towards the Armenian Genocide, as epitomized in the views of the organization’s
president Abe Foxman. Tarsy commented, “I can only say that for myself that I
voted with my feet and moved on and said farewell to colleagues at the ADL I
disagreed with.”
Tarsy reasserted his position that to gain ground in the fight against denialism,
new initiatives must be opened in technological and education spheres, stating,
“We’ll be able to do more if we take advantage of globalization. Education must
be about the Cultivation of Empathy.”
Oktay commented regarding the future prospect of Armenian Genocide
recognition in the Turkish historical community that, “There is no body of
knowledge for ordinary Turks of what really happened in 1915. I don’t think there
will be a dramatic change, but I can say the process has already started.”
After the Q&A session, Mouradian invited Harry Parsekian and Zadig Ozcan, the
president and treasurer of Friends of Hrant Dink respectively, to present a gift to
the Hrant Dink Foundation. Ms. Rakel Dink accepted the $10,000 gift on behalf
of the Foundation.
After the event, Mrs. Rakel Dink, prof. Peter Balakian, and Prof. Taner Akcam—
who was one of the organizers of the event—participated in a book signing
session.
Friends of Hrant Dink, Inc. is a 501©(3) non-profit based in Cambridge, Mass.
It’s mission is to educate and promote principles of universal human rights, to
struggle against prejudice and discrimination, and to commemorate the life and
work of Hrant Dink and to honor his contributions to peace and understanding.
For more information and to make donations, please write to: friends of Hrant
Dink, Inc., P.O.Box 382061, Cambridge, MA 02238-2061.