Because I wasn’t subscribed to the RSS feed for the new Blogian, I missed a few posts that Simon made as I was still looking at the old site. Anyway, last week Blogian posted the English translation of the eulogy given by Dink’s wife at his funeral. It’s worth reposting some excerpts here.

Today we send off half of my soul, my beloved, the father of my children. We are going to actualize a march without any slogans and without any disrespect. Today we are going to generate immense sound through our silence.

Whoever the assassin may be, either 17 or 27 years’ old, I know myself that he too was once a baby. One cannot accomplish anything without questioning first how an assassin was created from such a baby.

It was Hrant’s honesty, transparency and love that brought him here. They say “he was a great man.” I ask you, Was he born great? No, he too was born just like us. He did not come from the skies, he too came from soil [like us]. It was what he did, the style he chose, the love in his heart that made him great. He became a great man because he thought great things and pronounced great words.

And you too are great for being here today. But do not let this suffice, do not be content with this act alone! One cannot accomplish a great future through hatred, through offense, through holding one blood superior to another. One can only rise through respect for the other.

Meanwhile, writing for The Boston Globe, Pulitzer Award winning journalist Stephen Kurkjian writes on the death of Hrant Dink and examines the need for Armenians and Turks to come together in the aftermath of this tragedy. There are many voices who oppose such calls, but I think that most people I’ve spoken to in Armenia are both genuinely amazed and touched at the sight of 100,000 people taking to the streets of Istanbul.

[…] The outrage voiced by political leaders over Dink’s death, and the turnout of all segments of Turkish society at Tuesday’s demonstration, so impressed Armenians here and throughout the world that many saw reason to hope that it could lead to a breakthrough on the bitter issues that have divided the two people since 1915.

Certainly, this potential to build bridges without preconditions should not be missed. It won’t be easy, and might even be problematic in so much that it will probably incite more ethnic tension among nationalists in both countries, but it is remotely possible if there’s the genuine will.

The biggest of those issues, of course, is how the two sides view what happened in 1915. That was the year an estimated 800,000 to 1.5 million Armenians were killed, and hundreds of thousands more driven from their ancestral home in Turkey’s eastern Anatolian region.

[…]

But whether meaningful change can emerge from the symbolic events of the past week is uncertain at best, as generations of bitterness and suspicion as well as modern-day political realities divide the two peoples.

[…]

Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, who heads the American Diocese of the Armenian Church, says a reopening of the border should be the first step in building trust between Armenians and Turks. “The two governments and their people need so badly to get to know one another again, to begin a dialogue so they can build trust,” said Barsamian in a telephone interview from New York after his return from Dink’s funeral.

[…]

There is still another factor, however, that could stand in the way of reconciliation. The Armenian diaspora of 6 million, who were spread worldwide by the genocide, generally opposes making any concessions to Turkey without a formal recognition and apology for the events of 1915, and it remains far from certain whether the diaspora is now willing to give up this opposition.

[…]

Dink himself challenged the Armenian diaspora about its hard-line position on the genocide. While Dink wrote that acknowledging the sins of the past would in the end serve to improve Turkey’s image as a democracy, he also said a more pressing priority is to improve living conditions for the small community of Armenians in Turkey as well as those in neighboring Armenia.

“There is a big difference between Armenians in the diaspora and Armenians in Turkey,” he once said. “You guys are Armenian one day a year, on the 24th of April” — the day on which the 1915 killings and deportations are commemorated — “whereas we are Armenian every day of the year. . .”

Meanwhile, as Tuesday’s demonstration showed, there is increasing pressure on the Turkish government to reassess its position on 1915 — and that pressure isn’t just coming from Armenians. One of Dink’s close friends, Taner Akcam, a Turkish-born historian who teaches at the University of Minnesota, has urged Turkey to recognize the Armenian genocide and come to terms with the events of 1915.

“The government should realize that the world applauded those thousands and thousands of Turks marching in the streets because they were all saying we condemn this murderer,” said Akcam, whose recently published book, “A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility,” documents the case for calling it a genocide. “The government could do the same thing by condemning the events of 1915, and tell the world that modern Turkey is different from that.”

In related news, Arpi Vartanian, Armenia Country Director for the Armenian Assembly of America (AAA), was interviewed last week by PanArmenian.Net, and one response is worth quoting below. I’m guessing that “replaceable” in the second to last sentence should read “irreplaceable,” however.

Hrant Dink’s murder has finally forced Turkey to choose between the East and West. If this state is really aspired to the EU and shares western values such as freedom of speech and human rights, Article 301 should be repealed. This article can provoke violence against national minorities – Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians and Kurds. I am convinced that the assassination of Agos editor Hrant Dink is a loss not only for Armenia or Turkey; it’s a loss for the whole world. I am saying it with full responsibility, since Hrant Dink was commemorated in all the states where Armenian Diaspora lives. As you know, Armenians live almost everywhere. About 100 thousand people came out into the streets to bid their farewell to Hrant Dink. This proves that not all Turks are nationalists. I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that during those days Turkish press wrote about Dink as of the victim of Article 301 and the writing was courageous. Hrant Dink spoke not only about the Armenian Genocide recognition but about the rights of the national minorities and rights of Turks to freedom of speech. Dink’s death is a replaceable loss and I cannot understand some politicians in Armenia and Turkey who try to profiteer in the situation. It’s immoral.

As to Turkey’s accession to the EU, Armenia will benefit from a European neighbor that undertook certain commitments.

The full text of the interview is available here.