Dear friends, Hrant's beloved brothers and sisters;

On January 19th we fell; we fell and bled.

It’s been 7 years since the departure of the one and only person who would end this century-old debate, which keeps hanging over our lives and makes the state bitter...

We are now able to see all the moves in this politically motivated murder chess; we are aware of all the moves of bishop, the king and the pawns.

The bullets hit Hrant Dink; and along with him, the bullets also hit our commitment and social contract for a culture of co-existence of all peoples, whereby everyone lives side by side and touches one another’s live. A culture of co-existence that Hrant Dink has been striving to achieve and blossom.

With their intelligence, security forces and their media, they committed a very well orchestrated murder -  guarded by a protective shield, which has long become known.

And as the game proceeded, what have been whispered in the “deep” found themselves nice coverage in the headlines of the newspapers. We’ve seen it all. We’ve read it all.

As time passed by, we tested our patience, our determination and our resignation. And during this test the doves in our hearts migrated, the leaves of our souls dried and fell. Our lives got destroyed in January. The boat sailed off the island, silencing the songs to be sung.

Hrant, our dear brother, as we are standing here today, we are wearing the shoes you wore 7 years ago. This is how your brothers and sisters’ feet are touching the ground today.

And we ask you, we ask to your great mind: When it is the justice that falls, how does humanity find its way? What is it then, that guide the humanity?

Just as we wondered how we would continue with an increasingly crippled and curtailed judicial system, we came to the parks. We saw that history bows its head to time, and there we felt your presence among the doves and the sparrows. Those that we thought had left were among the trees smiling at those long-shadowed youths and children … Your images in pictures came to life there with one touch.

A manifesto was written in the name of humanity and allegiance, everyone saw it.

The impudent who sliced our lives into pieces!

Both the military and civilian judiciary of this state, which pours salt into the wound, lack mercy and justice. We put this sentence right there, because the mothers of Roboski are dying from grief for the children. Fadime Ayvalitas and Mother Berfo died with this grief. Their and he Saturday Mothers’ lament, not their curse, rose up to the sky, are there any who hear this lament? This lament will find you, do you still not understand?

From the KCK trials to Alevis to lawyers to journalists to students to Gezi protesters, from LGBTI rights to all human rights, who spreads a stench and fear across society? The veil over your face has well slipped off, and we see your silhouette behind it. Because you are barefaced!

As you pile up your positions among the fronts, you took other children who would have changed the world your lies, betrayals and massacres You took Ali Ismail, Ethem, Abdullah, Mehmet, Mustafa, Medeni and Ahmet. You left their mothers and fathers sonless.

Ambushes were planned against this country’s offspring on foreign soil, three women were brought down on French soil, is it possible to forget, the many hearths you have extinguished. These laments are out in the open, do any among you feel shame?

You took out our eyes with plastic bullets and gas cartridges. You rained down bombs on men from unmanned aircraft, entering children’s nightmares. Berkin Elvan has slept in a hospital room since you shot a gas canister at the warm loaf of bread under his arm. With the words of the people, may those who did this be robbed of sleep.

For the sake of your wealth, you lost your understanding and your humanity. You oppressed, you smashed, you killed. You denied, you supposed you could engrave upon on our memories. We have added these to the recorded history of all of the pain.

For you, where is the nation, who are the children of the nation, which rivers are yours so that you have set your eyes on parks and the mountains!

What of yours is righteous, what of yours is true?

With your empty rhetoric and your century-old reflexes, we are the ones whom you wanted to forget even our names, but how could we forget?

This is 2014. Say it to yourselves again, 2014! And we are not carrying truckloads of peace, democracy and human rights to our neighbours, but truckloads of weapons! In other words, we are saying to them, look into each other’s eyes and kill each other!

There is no rain that will wash away these sins!

Should such a country make us proud? Is this a country where holidays are poison, its lamp is without light, its garden torn up, its hearth extinguished, its innocent people shot like birds?

With all of our heart-wrenching losses, we now use the words history and oath alongside each other. If there is no other justice, we know that the justice of life will seize you by the collar. 

In short, dear friends: Is there anyone here who does not doubt the truthfulness of the state?

Hrant Dink is massacred by the State. Let us never forget this. Let us never let the life, the history forget this. So much so that these defiant murderers shall never feel at ease. Let this poison their soul, and never let them be at peace!

And we, the ones who stand right here, will nourish our dreams for humanity with our pain and smiles.

Because, as the poet, Edip Cansever reminds us in his verses, ‘‘people are beautiful only when they smile...’’

Hrant Dink's memory makes us feel orphaned; yet his pain will make us wiser, his great mind and smile will make us empowered.

Salute to the solidarity of the peoples!