Tweet
Detroit Metro Times, MI
Jan 31 2007
Tales from two fronts
[parts omitted]
A real hero for our time:
Here's a name you likely never heard of: Hrant Dink. Frankly, I am
ashamed to say I had never heard of him before he was murdered less
than two weeks ago. He wasn't American, and as far as I know he never
visited this country. Matter of fact, I'm not sure he ever left his
native Turkey. Yet he symbolized what our First Amendment is supposed
to be about far more than nearly anyone who ever practiced the
profession of journalism.
He believed in telling the truth. And, more than that, he believed
anybody has the right to say whatever they believe - and that no
government has the right to shut any free citizen up. Though you
can't tell by his name, Dink was of Armenian blood. Ninety years ago,
the Ottoman Turks tried to carry out the first mass genocide,
murdering something like a million and a half Armenians.
To this day they haven't admitted it. Worse, it is essentially
illegal in Turkey, a country that is supposedly a democracy, to say
that this happened!
Dink made a point of telling the truth, not in spite of the law that
makes it a crime to utter "insults to Turkishness," but because of
it. He did so though he knew it meant risking his life. But here's
something more incredible that my friend George Costaris, the
distinguished Canadian diplomat, brought to my attention: France has
been discussing making it against the law to deny that the Armenian
holocaust occurred. Last fall, Dink declared that if France did so,
he would rush to that country - and openly deny that the Armenian
holocaust happened!
"Then we can watch both the Turkish Republic and the French
government race against each other to condemn me. We can watch to see
which will throw me into jail first," Dink said, adding, "What the
peoples of these two countries [Turkey and Armenia] need is dialogue,
and all these laws do is harm such dialogue."
Then on Jan. 19, Dink, who was 52, was shot in the back of the head
by a 17-year-old dropout who, police said, was told to do it by an
ultra-nationalist.
Dink's wife and two children and 100,000 others showed up at his
funeral. Many wore buttons saying, "We are all Hrant Dink." They
aren't, of course. Nor am I worthy of such a button. But think of
what a better world this would be if it had just a few more
journalists who were as truly American as was he.
Jan 31 2007
Tales from two fronts
[parts omitted]
A real hero for our time:
Here's a name you likely never heard of: Hrant Dink. Frankly, I am
ashamed to say I had never heard of him before he was murdered less
than two weeks ago. He wasn't American, and as far as I know he never
visited this country. Matter of fact, I'm not sure he ever left his
native Turkey. Yet he symbolized what our First Amendment is supposed
to be about far more than nearly anyone who ever practiced the
profession of journalism.
He believed in telling the truth. And, more than that, he believed
anybody has the right to say whatever they believe - and that no
government has the right to shut any free citizen up. Though you
can't tell by his name, Dink was of Armenian blood. Ninety years ago,
the Ottoman Turks tried to carry out the first mass genocide,
murdering something like a million and a half Armenians.
To this day they haven't admitted it. Worse, it is essentially
illegal in Turkey, a country that is supposedly a democracy, to say
that this happened!
Dink made a point of telling the truth, not in spite of the law that
makes it a crime to utter "insults to Turkishness," but because of
it. He did so though he knew it meant risking his life. But here's
something more incredible that my friend George Costaris, the
distinguished Canadian diplomat, brought to my attention: France has
been discussing making it against the law to deny that the Armenian
holocaust occurred. Last fall, Dink declared that if France did so,
he would rush to that country - and openly deny that the Armenian
holocaust happened!
"Then we can watch both the Turkish Republic and the French
government race against each other to condemn me. We can watch to see
which will throw me into jail first," Dink said, adding, "What the
peoples of these two countries [Turkey and Armenia] need is dialogue,
and all these laws do is harm such dialogue."
Then on Jan. 19, Dink, who was 52, was shot in the back of the head
by a 17-year-old dropout who, police said, was told to do it by an
ultra-nationalist.
Dink's wife and two children and 100,000 others showed up at his
funeral. Many wore buttons saying, "We are all Hrant Dink." They
aren't, of course. Nor am I worthy of such a button. But think of
what a better world this would be if it had just a few more
journalists who were as truly American as was he.