How Turkey went back to square one 10 years after murder of Armenian intellectual
On the 10th year anniversary of the murder of prominent Armenian-Turkish intellectual Hrant Dink, Turkey appears further from reconciling with its past.
For the past 10 years, Jan. 19 has been an unforgettable date for some Turks. But this year was more meaningful because it was the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink. As founder and editor-in-chief of bilingual weekly Agos, Dink was a renowned intellectual who was gunned down in daylight on Jan. 19, 2007, on the sidewalk near the entrance to his office located in one of the most crowded districts of Istanbul.
In a rapidly changing country like Turkey, Dink's name has become a symbol for taboo-breaking developments. His funeral on Jan. 23, 2007, was a revolt against the religious nationalism embedded in Turkish society's psyche that had blinded it for generations.
The procession moved from the place where Dink was killed to his burial place many miles away, with almost 200,000 people solemnly following his coffin. The tunes of the traditional Armenian flute known as "duduk" accompanied the crowd. The occasional thunder of the chants — "We are all Armenian" and "We are all Hrant!" — coming from tens of thousands of dignified marchers intermittently broke the silence of the melancholic songs.
The event was unprecedented. Dink seemed to realize the cause of his lifelong struggle in death: Turks reconciling with history and truth, which would lead to a rapprochement between Dink's Turkish compatriots and Armenians — Dink's ethnic brethren and co-religionists.
