NEBAHAT AKKOÇ was born in 1955, in the Karlıova district of Bingöl and attended elementary school in the Hazro and Silvan districts in Diyarbakır. She completed her teacher's training that she began at the Mardin Girl's Elementary Teacher's Boarding School at Manisa, where she was sent as part of a ‘Meeting of East and West’ program. After attending Eskişehir Anatolian University, she taught in villages, districts and capital of Diyarbakır for 22 years. She also became a member of the Association of Teachers’ Union of Turkey.
The human rights abuses brought by the 1980 military regime which targeted wide sections of the public, deeply affected her personal and work life. During visits to her husband who was incarcerated in Diyarbakır Prison, she met female relatives of other prisoners, and saw that they were directly affected not only by communal but also domestic violence. She worked to support female relatives of prisoners who were illiterate and did not speak Turkish.
From 1990 to 1993, she served as president of the Diyarbakır Branch of the Union of Education and Science Workers, but the increasing conflict in the early 1990s impeded the Union’s work. Many teachers were murdered by unsolved killings. As a result of her statements about these killings and human rights abuses in the region, she was subjected to judicial and administrative interrogations, and she as well as her husband received death threats. In 1993, her husband, Zübeyir Akkoç, was assassinated on his way to school. In the wake of this, she retired from teaching in order to focus on human rights work.
She was taken into custody fifteen times during her membership in the Human Rights Association’s Board of Directors between 1994-1996. For ten days straight, she was subjected to types of torture directed especially toward women. She became the first person from Turkey to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights for taking the freedom of thought violations, the murder of her husband, her arrest and torture to this court. In 1999, she won all these suits.
The stories she witnessed as well as the torture she suffered, were instrumental in her decision to concentrate on women’s projects. In 1996, she converted one room in her home into an office, and in 1997, she founded women’s center KAMER. She draw attention to the way gender roles relegate women to second-class status. She conducted projects to raise awareness among women, who are citizens, wives and mothers. Helping more than one hundred women receive protection, she prevented likely killings. She developed and implemented programs to support women in their bid to enter commercial life as entrepreneurs. The program titled “An Opportunity for Every Woman,” helps women to become aware of the violence they experienced and overcome their unequal status through empowerment and economic independence. She conducts projects to promote non-violence, struggle against discrimination and encourage participation in early childhood period. She works on integration and access to equal rights of women and children who sought refuge in Turkey as a result of the War in Syria.
Dear Guests,
I got the news from dear Rakel Dink that I’d be receiving this award. I was astonished and I said “But I feel like I’m an insider, I feel as if I’m a part of the Hrant Dink Foundation…It really ought to go to someone from outside.” I have always been embarrassed to receive awards. I was both amazed and embarrassed.
Until now, I have never been part of this award ceremony. However every year, I have waited expectantly to see who “we were giving the award to”. I have tried to watch the livestream of the ceremonies and read the news about it the next day.
That’s how I felt like an insider
A few days after getting the news, I began feeling honoured that I’d be receiving the Hrant Dink Award. I was happy, and excited. But later, all these feelings began to be overcome by a crushing sense of pain; the pain of the loss of Hrant Dink. He was like the last alive relative of mine. When he was assassinated, it felt as if all of my forefathers had also died that day.
Years before, Hrant and I had attended a meeting in Germany together. It was a few years after my husband Zübeyir Akkoç’s assassination. I didn’t yet know how I’d deal with the great pain of losing him. I felt no hatred, but I was full of rage.
One of the organisers of the meeting asked, “What happened in 1915? What did the ones who were left behind do? How are they?”
This question was first met with silence, as it always did. I looked at Hrant; he was thinking, and getting ready to speak. However an influential person from Turkey who was at the meeting started answering the question that was raised. After he said a couple of sentences, I interrupted him ragingly, and said, “Do you know why you were in such a hurry to answer? It’s because you bear no pain. Stop for a moment if you would; Hrant is here, and I am here.”
The meeting carried on somehow. During the break, Hrant led me to one corner and told me that out of everyone there, it was mainly that man that I needed to be the most patient with.
That person is the “ambassador of peace” with a generous heart that we have lost, who is Hrant Dink.
This is a great loss, and a great pain. This intense pain never passes, it will never pass. We, the grandchildren, have grown the pain of 1915 and 1938 with the pain that we have experienced in the recent times. And our grandchildren will grow up by feeling the pain of their grandparents.
I have never felt hatred, resentment or a desire for revenge out of my pain. Thankfully, I was able to transform the energy born of that powerful emotion into love, solidarity, sharing and empathy.
First, bearing in mind the great pain created by the assassination of Hrant Dink, first of all I would like to particularly thank Rakel Dink, who has established the Hrant Dink Foundation and continually strives for social awareness and sensitivity and the Dink family, and all of the friends of Hrant Dink for their efforts. Your efforts and your attitude are worthy of every possible award.
I accept this precious award,
-on behalf of the true ambassadors of peace, who believe that no act of violence can ever be innocent or justifiable;
-and on behalf of all the women who, believe that revolution begins within themselves and within the family, who bear in mind all the costs while standing against violence, and allowing us to dream of a new world by developing new means to overcome the violence that they have experienced.
I will hold it dear to my heart.