Hrant Dink: An Armenian Voice of the Voiceless in Turkey

Hrant Dink: An Armenian Voice of the Voiceless in Turkey  –

Written by Tuba Candar

Introduction by Gerard Libaridian

Translated by Maureen Freely

 This is the biography of Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist and political activist. He worked for the democratic rights of all Turkish citizens, including the right to speak freely about the genocide of Anatolia’s Armenians in 1915. As a result of his activism, Dink was assassinated by Turkish nationalists in 2007.

As founder and editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper, Agos, in 1996, Dink was the first secular voice of Turkey’s silenced Christian-Armenian minority. He fought for the democratization of the Turkish political system. This was a risky undertaking, in a country where Armenians live as closed communities; it was also unprecedented in Turkey. Dink was prosecuted three times for “insulting and denigrating Turkishness”and ultimately convicted.

The biography is written as an oral history, and assembles a mosaic of memories as told by Dink’s family, friends, and comrades. Dink’s own “voice,” in the form of his writings, is also included. Originally published in Turkey, it is now available for an English-speaking audience on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Transaction Edition 
Tuba Çandar

Acknowledgements 

Introduction to the Transaction Edition x
Gerard J. Libaridian

Guide to Turkish Pronunciation

Rakel’s Letter 

My Hrant 

Lying on the Pavement 

Raising Hrant from The Pavement 

Book One: Khent Hrant

Part I: An Abandoned Child

1     The Hamam of the Infidels

2     The Fisherman’s Basket

3     The Orphanage

4     The Lost Civilization of Atlantis: The Armenian Children’s Camp 

Part II: Madcap
5     Heartbreaker
 
6     First Rebellion 

7     A New Name and a New Life

Part III: Eternal Love

8     Rakel, the Girl from the Mountains 

9     Love at First Sight 

10     Happily Ever After 

Part IV: The Struggle to Make a Living

11     The First Family Business 

12     A Student Like No Other 

Part V: The Dissident

13     The Swallow’s Nest 

14     The Ballad of the Prisons 

15     The Company of Suspect Soldiers