Hrant Dink

Hrant Dink — Biography

Hrant Dink was a Turkish-Armenian journalist and writer, born on 15 September 1954 in Malatya. As founder and editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, he became one of the most prominent voices of Turkey's Armenian community, arguing for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians while criticizing both Turkey's official position on the Armenian genocide and aspects of the diaspora's international recognition campaign. His writing led to three separate prosecutions on charges of "insulting Turkishness" and drew repeated death threats from nationalist circles.

On 19 January 2007, Dink was shot dead outside the Agos offices in Istanbul's Şişli district by Ogün Samast, a 17-year-old nationalist. Photographs that later surfaced of the arrested gunman smiling alongside police officers triggered public outrage and prompted several investigations. More than a hundred thousand people marched at his funeral chanting "We are all Hrant Dink," and his killing intensified calls to repeal Article 301 of the Turkish penal code, the same law under which he had been prosecuted.

In the years since, parts of the inquiry into who was behind the killing have failed to reach a conclusion, while Dink continues to be commemorated annually, with statues raised in his memory in several cities.