By Edmond Y. Azadian
Every novel idea — and every revolution — claim their prophets and their martyrs. Hrant Dink was a maverick in every sense of the word. He triggered a movement, which startled many Turks, as well as many Armenians. He was a visionary, yet his vision had not caught the imagination of the masses. He was a new breed of messenger and ideologue: he launched a new brand of patriotism, which Turkey was not ready to embrace. He believed that Turkish society could be emancipated from its bloody burden of history to be able to join the march of European civilization. He also believed that the Armenian Cause could be vindicated through that emancipation.
Like Martin Luther King, Hrant dared to dream. While his dream turned into a personal nightmare, his blood fertilized the seeds of freedom in Turkey.
January 19 marked the fourth anniversary of his assassination and his message continues to evolve and catch the imagination of the masses.
Contrary to its instincts, Turkey has been thrown into a process, which eventually may reform the country and bring it to the European norm of civilization. The process has cracked the wall of silence on the issue of Genocide, which has become a topic of national discourse, after being taboo for so long. In fact, Hrant Dink has achieved much more through his martyrdom, through his death, than he was able to achieve in his life. That is the ironic destiny of Dink.
Yet despite all these changes, the monstrous apparatus of the Turkish state has yet to find and punish the real perpetrators of Dink’s murder. The “Deep State” is still buried in deep mystery to continue subverting justice. Not only do Dink’s real murderers still walk free, but they also continue to torment the rest of the martyr’s family.
