By Alin K. Gregorian
Mirror-Spectator Staff
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A beyond-capacity crowd gathered at Harvard’s Mahindra Humanities Center on November 13, for the first annual Hrant Dink Memorial Peace and Justice Lecture. The program, founded by local Armenian activist Harry Parsekian, the president of the Friends of Hrant Dink Boston Chapter, featured Dr. Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, and was titled “Unhealed Wounds of World War I: Armenia, Kurdistan and Palestine.”
Dr. Homi Bhabha, the director of the center, opened the program by both paying tribute to the late Hrant Dink as well as explaining how the various advisors had named Khalidi as their first choice as speaker. He also expressed his gratitude to Parsekian for “his generosity and enthusiasm.”
Dink, he said, aspired to advocate for peace and justice around the globe and a trip to Istanbul confirmed for Bhabha the late journalist’s impact on Turkey.