Six years after Turkish-Armenian journalist and editor of Agos Hrant Dink was gunned down in Istanbul, hundreds of thousands of people across the world have continuously gather to honor his memory, a trial has seen his shooter jailed while requests have been made to overturn a verdict that ruled out the involvement of any organized criminal network behind his murder.
Though there have been great strides to improve Armenian-Turkish relations in the years following Dink’s untimely death, setbacks haven’t been uncommon. There were those protocols, which disastrously failed, an Armenian Genocide bill in France that increased tensions and several assaults on ethnic Armenians in Turkey, including the murder of one of the Istanbul Armenian community’s oldest residents, eerily reminiscent of Dink’s murder.
As debate and policy stir on, here is a short infographic with some important numbers to remember and resources to read up on when it comes to Dink and his legacy.
Check out our previous infographic, “The Importance of Armenian Genocide Recognition.
And the point being? How about an alternative set of statistics:
The number of Armenians murdered in Turkey since Dink’s murder.
The number of Armenians who have left Turkey after the murder.
The number of attacks by the Grey Wolves organizations against people they suspect of being Armenian.
The number of times Turkish ministers attended anti-Armenian rallies calling for blood in retaliation for Azerbaijan’s defeat in Karapakh.
The number of Turkish journalists imprisoned or sued since Dink’s murder.
The risk of such discourse is that it covers up and makes something marginal into something hyper-real. Those who are empathetic to Dink and his message are a tiny minority in Turkey.
I just came accross this magazine and read some articles. Very nice but the comments are amazingly full of hatred. Every time there is something good about Turks, there is always a comment saying that they should accept so-called genocide. First and foremost, Turks will never accept anything if you push like that, that is the basic fact.
On the other hand, someone says that the water evaporates at 50 degrees and believe in it. Can you really believe in it? What would you do if somebody tell you such a thing? I guess anybody in the world first do a research, right? What Armenians say to Turkish is exactly the same, just believe in us.
Therefore the current Turkish government asked the Armenian government to open up all the historical documents/archives in any part of the world to support any arguments. Based on that, he said we as people will accept if that is really true. But Armenian government did not accept that. A very good question is, if you are really so sure about that, why don’t you want a scientific/historical research on the topic?
A very important thing is, you also say that the so-called genocide happened in 1915 in the Ottoman State. You probably know that the Turkish Republic established in 1923. You and I may say that Turkish people are the descendant of the Ottomans, however according to the law-book, The Republic established standalone and is not a continuation of the Ottoman State. So what I mean is, Turkish Republic will never accept anything happened in the Ottomans (good or bad it does not matter), so it is impossible that Armenians will satisfy, whatsoever.
If Armenians will not open the archives and accept what comes out of the historical research, then what you are doing is completely in vein.
The reason for the closure of the Turkish-Armenian border is the Hocali Genocide that Armenians did to Azerbaycani Turks. It was nothing to do with anything else. Armenians still currently occupy the the Azarbaycani lands therefore as long as Armenians do not release the lands, the borders will remain closed.
One other thing that I see is the current genocide happening in Armenia to its own people. With this hatred, you so much relied on that the Turkish government will accept and pay you money etc., and you did not work. The economy is getting worse and worse and people is moving out from Armenia to other countries right now, just like 1915.
I sincerely wish that the relationship will be better in the future but as much as Turks, Armenians should also take a step forward toward friendship as well.