Hrant Dink Protest: Introduction Speech
Hrant Dink was an optimist. He believed that the system that had made him a target in a country where freedom is a dirty word, would one day accept the values he had fought so hard to achieve.
Unfortunately, his trust in the humanity of Turkish politics was undeserved and ultimately rewarded with his demise via a heinous murder. It was a murder committed last Friday by a teenage gunman, who was yesterday quoted in the Turkish press, saying:
“Hrant Dink's writing and his speeches on television bothered me. I shot him directly. I am not sorry.”
The writing and speeches the murderer refers to are those encouraging Turkey to cease their denial of the Armenian Genocide – a Genocide committed by the Ottoman Turks of 1915, slaughtering 1.5million Armenians and taking 9/10ths of the country’s land.
Hrant Dink was on the frontline for all affected Armenians, attempting to educate Turkey into admitting the crime committed by their predecessors, and in the process stepping closer to democracy.
Today, after the murder of Dink, Turkey is as far from democracy as it has ever been.
Here we are, the Sydney-Armenian community, honouring a man who has fought much of our battles. In honour of a man who did not run, but stood his ground.
Hrant Dink was an inspiration to us all, and today we gather in his memory. To mourn his loss. And to continue his struggle by demanding justice for our Armenian forefathers.
