YEREVAN, JANUARY 19, ARMENPRESS. The murderer of Hrant Dink eliminated the hope that something good can happen in Turkey, famous Turkish Human Rights Advocate Ayse Gunaysu said in an interview with “Armenpress”.

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Dink’s murder, Ayse Gunaysu said nowadays Dink has become a symbol of the search for justice.

“The ongoing institutionalized denial in Turkey after Genocide till now forced the remaining Armenians of Turkey to together live with the grandchildren of those who committed the genocide, to think and behave like the Turkish Republic, and on the contrary, it forced them to remain silent. Hrant Dink was an Armenian who didn’t remain silent. He didn’t remain silent, spoke, wrote…

After when the Armenian journalists and writers of “New day” Armenian newspaper, making bold publications in the 1940s, were silenced and had to leave Turkey, Hrant Dink became the first Armenian intellectual who came to the public arena, TVs with an Armenian identity, told about the stories of Armenians, invited the Turkish society to be faced with, tried to show what the Turks didn’t want to see, supported democracy, civil society, opposed to discrimination, openly expressed his advanced, leftist ideas”, Ayse Gunaysu said.

She said Dink supported the dialogue with the Turkish society, without additional tension. “He even opposed to the bills banning the denial of the genocide in the European countries since he believed that only through this way it is possible to communicate with the Turkish public. He believed that banning the denial of genocide will further increase the anger against Armenians within Turks, but in order to establish dialogue it was necessary not to create anger and hatred. His goal was to be able to speak with Turks. And according to him, this was possible only in case of easing the tension. However, Turkey could not even tolerate this”, she said.

The Turkish Human Rights Advocate said thanks to Dink a segment of Turkish society changed. “The murderer of Hrant Dink eliminated the hope that anything good can happen in Turkey. However, Dink led that segment to a change and showed the Armenian reality to the public. He turned into a symbol of search for justice. He will not be forgotten”, Ayse Gunaysu said.

Araks Kasyan