Author

Hrant Dink

Language

English

1st edition - December 2021
341 Pages

Your Man in This Column is a collection of articles by Hrant Dink published in the newspapers Agos, Yeni Binyıl and Birgün between 1996-2007. The collection is a chance to share his message once more, to understand his message once more.

Now available in English, the book looks at the main issues and segments of society which Hrant Dink addressed and on which he focused his thoughts. The thematic framework of this volume centers on the author’s experiences, observations and views on Turkey, the world, leftist politics, minorities, the Kurdish problem, the headscarf debate, the Armenian community of Turkey, the Turkish-Armenian issue, the West, the Diaspora and the Armenian identity.

A stunning aspect of the book is that the articles in question remain as valid as if they were written today. Not only is it clear that Hrant Dink’s analyses and political know-how are on point, but that the struggle for fundamental issues remains relevant as ever. As Vicken Cheterian says in the foreword to the English edition of the book, “...these articles show the reader that there is only one way of healing…The firm belief in positive change through human action.”

“I am from Turkey… I am an Armenian… And I am an Anatolian right down to my very bones. Not for a single day have I contemplated abandoning my country and building my future in the ‘readymade heaven of freedoms’ known as the West, or latching on like a leech to democracies that others have paid such a heavy price to create. My main concern has always been to transform my own country into such a heaven of freedoms. When my country cried for Sivas, I cried too. When my people were struggling against the gangs of the deep state, I was beside them in their struggle. I bound my own fate to my country’s quest for freedom. As for the rights I may or may not enjoy at this moment, they did not come free. I have paid for them, and I continue to do so.
But now…
I have had enough both of the bogus flattery that always speaks of ‘our Armenians’ and of the provocative refrain of ‘the traitors among us.’ I am sick and tired both of the suffocating embraces and of the exclusion that leads people to lose sight of the fact that I am no more than a common, ordinary citizen. It goes without saying that I know the fate my ancestors suffered. Some of you call it a ‘massacre.’ Some, a ‘genocide.’ Some of you call it a ‘deportation.’ And others, a ‘tragedy.’ My ancestors from Anatolia would call it ‘decimation’. I choose to call it ‘devastation.’ And I know well that if it wasn’t for this devastation, today my country would be a much more habitable place, a place that would inspire admiration.”

Hrant Dink was born on September 15th, 1954 in Malatya and his family moved to Istanbul in 1961. He was placed in the orphanage of Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church with his two brothers. He attended İncirdibi Armenian School, Bezciyan and Surp Haç Tıbrevank High School in Üsküdar and spent summers in the Tuzla Children’s Camp. Later, he married to Rakel Yağbasan from the Armenian Varto Village, south eastern Turkey, with whom he grew up at the orphanage, and they had three children.

He studied zoology and philosophy at Istanbul University. In 1996, he established Agos, the first weekly Turkish-Armenian newspaper in the history of the Turkish Republic. The main goals of Agos were, to get in touch with the Armenians in Turkey who don’t speak Armenian, to voice the institutionalized problems of Armenians in Turkey and to get support from public, and to share the Armenian culture and history with the rest of the society in Turkey. Agos with its left wing and opponent tendency, criticized the closed structure of the Armenian community, and proposed new social projects.

Hrant Dink also wrote columns in Turkish dailies, Yeni Binyıl and BirGün. He defended the establishment of relations and the opening of the border between Turkey and Armenia, supported the democratization process of Turkey and the facilitation of a mutual, considerate, and empathetic dialogue about 1915 for both nations.

In 2004, based on an article he wrote, he became the subject of a harsh edict by the General Staff, he was sued with the accusations of ‘insulting Turkishness’, he was convicted to six months of imprisonment regardless of the opposing expert opinion and he became the target of negative mass media propaganda. Hrant Dink was assassinated on January 19th, 2007 in front of his newspaper building.

The ongoing murder trial is considered to be the search for justice in Turkey.

Book name
Your Man In This Column
Original name
Bu Köşedeki Adam
Price
418 TL
ISBN
9786057183507
Pages
341
Width
150 mm
Height
210 mm
Printing
1st Edition - December 2021
Language
English
Author
Hrant Dink
Translation 
Nazım Dikbaş
Kate Ferguson
Compiled by
Karin Karakaşlı
Series book design
Rauf Kösemen, Myra
Cover design
Sera Dink
Page layout
Lora Çapar
Printed by
MAS Matbaacılık San. ve Tic. A.Ş.
  • FOREWORD | KARIN KARAKAŞLI
    • HRANT DINK: A MAN MORE THAN HIMSELF
  • FOREWORD | VICKEN CHETERIAN
    • THE VULNERABLE FORCE OF THE MORAL VOICE
    • YOUR MAN IN THIS COLUMN
  • TOUCH! YOU WILL BE DEMOCRATIZED
  • PARILUYS MY BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY, PARILUYS MY BELOVED TURKEY
    • PARILUYS
    • A MECHANICAL STATE — A DYNAMIC INDIVIDUAL
    • PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY FOR INSPECTION
    • CHARENTS’ HIKMET
    • HOW TO HARVEST HONEY
    • TO THE MERCILESS HUNTER...
    • I WANT MY KURDISH
    • BEING FROM TURKEY
    • YOU PUT YOUR LEFT HAND IN, YOUR RIGHT HAND OUT
    • THE MISLEADING TRUTH
    • EQUALITY NO MATTER WHAT
    • THE JOURNEY IS THE THING
    • CLOSE DOWN METSAMOR... OPEN THE BORDER
    • ON THE KURDISH ISSUE (2)
    • MISPRINTS OF OUR MINDSET
    • I’M NOT RELIGIOUS, BUT…
    • CONTEMPORARY BIGOTS
    • INSIDE-OUTSIDE (1)
    • INSIDE-OUTSIDE (2)
    • ON ‘MUSLIM TURKEY’
    • WHAT TO DO WITH THOSE WHO RESIST BEING CAST IN THE SAME MOULD
    • THE DANGER OF TEMPORARY SOLUTIONS
    • ONE SOLUTION: COEXISTENCE (1)
      ONE SOLUTION: COEXISTENCE (2)
  • UNARMED FORCES OF THE WORLD
    • ‘COLOURFUL QUESTIONS FROM THE COLOUR BLIND
    • UNARMED FORCES OF THE WORLD
    • DIRECTION BLINDNESS
    • EUROPE’S FOREMOST DUTY
    • A CAUSE NOT WORTH DYING FOR
    • A CONSTITUTION OF UNIVERSAL VALUES
  • THE TASTE OF BEING A MINORITY
    • UNBELIEVABLE
    • NOT WITH MY BLESSING
    • AN OPEN INFORMANT
    • WHEN FERMAN’S HOPES RAN DRY
    • IF ONLY IT HAD BEEN ASKED
    • YOU’RE AN ANGEL OF A MAN, BUT…
    • QUESTIONS TO MY DEAR TEACHER
    • LET’S TURN OUR DIFFERENCES INTO JOKES AND BANTER
    • THE MOST RACIST OF THEM ALL: ARAM THE MILLINER
    • GO FOR VICTORY, MONASTERY
    • ON THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ISTANBUL POGROM
  • CONGREGATION OR COMMUNITY?
    • QUESTIONING THE SYSTEM (2) THE WRONG ADDRESS FOR CIVIL REFORM 
    • US AND CIVIL REFORM (2)
    • ON BECOMING A CIVIL-ORIENTED COMMUNITY 
  • 23.5 APRIL
    • 23.5 APRIL
    • WHEN THE CHOICE IS ‘DEPORTATION’… 
    • DON’T GET ME STARTED…
    • WHAT DO WE WANT? 
    • TIME TO BREAK THE ICE
    • ARMENIA-DIASPORA (4) ONE FOR YOU, THREE FOR ME
    • ARMENIA-DIASPORA (7) AT YOUR DISPOSAL
    • DOWNRIGHT PSYCHOLOGICAL TORTURE
    • FROM DENIAL TO RECOGNITION…
    • THOSE WHO SURVIVED
    • THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY ARTICLES (1) THIS IS HOW I FEEL 
    • HEY ARMENIAN, HEY HALF-SHOE, WON’T YOU COME OUT TO PLAY
    • ON (NOT) LEAVING HISTORY TO THE HISTORIANS
    • ETHICS REQUIRES NO DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
    • ON METHODOLOGY (1)
    • ON METHODOLOGY (2)
    • MY NEIGHBOUR’S INTERESTS
    • WHEN PEOPLE TALK…
    • ‘THEY ARE TAKING ME FAR AWAY FROM HERE, MY LOVE’ THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY ARTICLES
  • TO EUROPE, ON ITS RETURN TO THE SCENE
    • ON THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GENOCIDE TO EUROPE, ON ITS RETURN TO THE SCENE (1)
    • ON THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GENOCIDE TO EUROPE, ON ITS RETURN TO THE SCENE (2)
    • ON THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GENOCIDE TO EUROPE, ON ITS RETURN
  • THE DIASPORA: ANATOLIA REFLECTED ACROSS THE WORLD
    • MAPPING TREASURE
    • THE VILLAGE OF THE DIASPORA (1)
    • THE VILLAGE OF THE DIASPORA (2)
    • ARMENIA-DIASPORA (2) TOWARDS NEW CONCEPTS
    • ARMENIA-DIASPORA (3) DIASPORA TORTOISES
    • ARMENIA-DIASPORA (5) TO SHOULDER THE PAIN AND CARRY IT WITH DIGNITY
  • ON THE ARMENIAN IDENTITY
    • ON THE ARMENIAN IDENTITY (4)
      THE THEORY OF PRACTICAL IDENTITY
      ON THE ARMENIAN IDENTITY (5)
      THE WEST: HEAVEN AND HELL
      ON THE ARMENIAN IDENTITY (6)
      ‘THE TURK’ OF THE ARMENIAN 
      ON THE ARMENIAN IDENTITY (7) GETTING RID OF ‘THE TURK’ 
      ON THE ARMENIAN IDENTITY (8) GETTING TO KNOW ARMENIA 
      AN ESSENTIAL INTERMEDIARY EXPLANATION
  • A LYRICAL SOLITUDE
    • A LYRICAL SOLITUDE 
    • SUNGUR, MY BROTHER…
    • LET ME EXPLAIN ONCE AGAIN
    • DO NOT REMAIN INDIFFERENT
    • HOW GRATEFUL I AM
    • AT THE DANCE OF THE CRUTCHES 
    • AS WE BEGIN A CHALLENGING YEAR
    • WHY WAS I CHOSEN AS A TARGET?
    • THE DOVELIKE DISQUIET OF MY HEART
  • IF BEING A DEMOCRAT IS A FORM OF WORSHIP
    • IF BEING A DEMOCRAT IS A FORM OF WORSHIP
  • INDEX