A commemoration event was held on Wednesday near the former editorial office of the Armenian newspaper Agos in Istanbul on the site where Hrant Dink, the editor of the paper, was gunned down in cold blood on January 19, 2007.
During the event, Dink’s widow, Rakel, presented remarksmade a speech, highlighting that human rights violations in the country have intensified, leading to attempts to silence opposition figures, and in some cases their arrests, reported Armenpress.
”It has been 15 years since the shots fired from behind took you away from us. I can still hear you. Every time you spoke about what they did to your people, you were accused of betrayal, of stabbing them in the back… Yet you always said: ‘Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, do good to those who curse you, pray for those who offend you.’ I pray,” said Rakel Dink in an ode to her slain husband.
“When you were buried, the voice of protest and rejection rising from here was not silenced—it will not be silenced,” continued Rakel Dink. “Workers, women, students, laborers are continuing the strugg. One day they will unite again and become a torrent.”
The ceremony was attended by Armenian member of the Turkish Parliament, Garo Paylan, who represents the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), as well as Dink’s friends and colleagues, intellectuals and activists. “We are here and we will continue to fight for justice,” Dink’s friends said.
In prolonged trials and politically-dictated hearings, Dink’s shooter was Turkish nationalist Ogun Samast, who was only 17 at the time of the crime. The court sentenced him to 22 years in prison. The organizer of the murder, Yasin Hayal, was sentenced to life in prison on January 17, 2012. The real motives and those standing behind the crime are still unknown.
