Hrant Dink Remembrance Event Held in Istanbul

Before the commemoration ceremony kicked off, police closed off the Haskargazi Street and side streets linking to it to traffic.

Police officers allowed people wishing to join the ceremony to enter through barricades, subjecting them to brief security searches.

Despite 11 years having passed, little progress has been made regarding Dink’s case.

Ogün Samast, who was aged 17 at the time of the shooting, was jailed for 23 years in 2011 for the killing. But speculation about the involvement of other groups inside and outside the state apparatus has persisted, and a number of slow-moving investigations are still ongoing.

Among the speakers was Fethiye Çetin, who said, “Let us become Hrant Dink, let us join arms, and embrace this huge world to put love in it. Come, let us become Hrant Dink, to form the broadest front for peace, democracy, a culture of living together and dialogue. We are of the kin, who since time immemorial, has fought for justice, freedom, equality and peace, we are of those who have sought to turn the hell they live in into paradise. We have done it before; we can do it again.”