JOURNALIST GETS A FOND, EMOTIONAL MEMORIAL

The UCLA Daily Bruin, CA
Feb 26 2007

Tears flowed from the eyes of both Turkish and Armenian audience
members at a crowded commemoration held at UCLA Sunday afternoon to
remember the death of journalist Hrant Dink.

Dink, the editor in chief of Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, was
murdered in front of his office on Jan. 19 by teenager Ogun Samsast.

Samsast’s motives for the murder remain unclear, but according to
Hurriyet, a daily Turkish newspaper, Samsast was ordered to kill Dink
by militant nationalist Yasin Hayal.

In the last two years of Dink’s life, he received numerous death
threats for speaking about the Armenian genocide. The Turkish
government denies the deaths constitute genocide because it maintains
they resulted from the effects of World War I and not an extermination
of the Armenians.

Dink was convicted for denigrating the Turkish government under article
301 of the Turkish Penal Code. The article allows journalists to be
prosecuted for any perceived criticism of the Turkish government,
according to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Many speakers at the event shared fond memories of Dink. One speaker
was Zeynep Turkyilmaz, a UCLA doctoral student in history and a
member of the informal student group Initiative of Turkish Students
to Commemorate "Our Hrant."

Turkyilmaz said she met Dink 11 years ago in Turkey. She said as a
Turkish undergraduate student doing a project on Armenian literature,
she was met by opposition in the course of her research, but Dink
encouraged the Armenian-Turkish relationship and supported the project.

"He was very excited … and he sent a reporter from Agos to cover
(the presentation on Armenian literature). I was in one of the first
issues (of the newspaper)," recalled Turkyilmaz.

Turkyilmaz urged the audience to remember the challenges Dink went
through in his lifetime and to help Dink’s newspaper Agos endure.

"My last memories of Hrant Dink is at Agos. Agos is his legacy. Its
survival is now on our shoulders," Turkyilmaz said.

Speaker Ayse Gul Altinay, a friend of Dink’s, spoke on her feelings
about his death.

"I still find myself waking up (and hoping) it is a terrible dream,"
Altinay said.

Altinay, a professor from Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey,
last met Dink for dinner, where Dink mentioned the threats he had
been receiving but said he was only worried about the threats to his
family, she said.

This concern for other people and disregard for himself made him
popular, Altinay said.

"It is amazing how many friends Hrant had. He touched many lives,"
she said.

Altinay also discussed the effect of article 301 and the prosecution
of Dink.

"This decision was used as a mechanism to silence Hrant, and yet we
all know Hrant was not silenced," Altinay said.

David Myers, director of the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies, did not
know Dink but said he could relate to and admired the late journalist.

"(Dink) sought to wage the battle for his people and his culture –
a battle in the name of dialogue and understanding. It is a struggle
that many of us are familiar with," said Myers.

Myers also applauded Dink for acknowledging the Armenian genocide
in 1915.

"I think of him less as a victim and more as a inspiration, a role
model, a teacher," Myers said.

Other speakers included Richard Hovannisian, chairman of modern
Armenian history and host of the event, and Ruben Centinyan, a UCLA
alumnus who spoke about Dink’s beliefs about the government.

The event also had Armenian music: A duduk, a traditional woodwind
instrument, was played.

"Let us cry together, mourn together, so that we can soon laugh
together, love together," Altinay said.

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress