The Support Fund for Research in History Studies, created with the kind assistance of Dr. Alper Öktem, one of the supporters of the Hrant Dink Foundation, , to share their decisive conscience with today’s society, and to shed light upon this unspoken aspect of the history.

The Fund will support undertaking and publicizing of scientific research on people – in modern parlance: human rights defenders, who through their humanist acts influenced the lives of other people during 1915 in any providence of Anatolia and whose acts remained unknown up until today. 

The Hrant Dink Foundation has formed a jury, in line with the abovementioned aim and scope, consisting of Prof. Taner Akçam (Clark University), Prof. Halil Berktay (Sabancı University), Prof. Selim Deringil (Boğaziçi University), Prof. Edhem Eldem (Boğaziçi University), Prof. Raymond Kévorkian (Paris 8 University), Prof. Hans-Lukas Kieser (Zürich University), Prof. Arus Yumul (Bilgi University) and Prof. Boğos Zekiyan (Venedik Ca‘ Foscari University).

The Jury evaluated the applications’ compliance with the accepted norms of the scientific community in terms of research method, presentation and references, considering authenticity and originality of the content, novelty and intensitiy in research effort, the strength of observation, the depth of research, the quality of interpretation, and overall compliance with the aims and targets of the Support Fund and thus decided to reward the following three researchers this year.

BURÇİN GERÇEK: studied Political Sciences at the Marmara University. Obtained her Master’s degree in Journalism at the Strasbourg Robert Schuman University. She is currently working as project manager at Anadolu Kültür. She has been awarded a full fellowship of 2000 Euros for her work entitled “Celal Bey and the Others” on state officials who kept their humanistic stance in 1915, Hüseyin Nesimi who paid the price of his moral standing with his life, the leader of Rutan tribe who is still remembered in Derik and other civilllians who resisted to the orders or openly condemned the atrocities of the deportations and massacres.

ABDÜLHAMİT KIRMIZI: studied public administration at the Ankara University. Obtained his Master’s degree in History from Hacettepe University and his PhD from Boğaziçi University. He is currently working at the İstanbul City University. He has been awarded a fellowship of 1000 Euros for his work entitled “Feelings of Gratitude: Muslim Rescuers of Armenians in Adana 1909” focusing on the acts of humanity of the state officials during the Adana massacres.

ARMEN MARSOOBIAN: Studied History at the Bucknell University. Obtained his PhD in Philosophy from the State University New York. He is currently a faculty member at the Southern Connecticut State University. He has been awarded a fellowship of 1000 Euros for his work entitled “Rescue in Merzifon: the Untold Story behind a Photograph” where he tells the story of his own family, who saved their own lives and of many others after converting to Islam, thus displaying another dimension of the history.