Dink’s Widow Says Punishing Murderers Important for Turkey’s Democracy

Rakel Dink giving an address during Hrant Dink commemoration in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2017 (Photo: Berge Arabian)

ISTANBUL””Rakel Dink on January 19 gave an address at the 10th commemoration of the assassination of her husband Hrant Dink in Istanbul. The full text of the address can be read below.

English translation provided by Burcu Becermen for Agos newspaper.

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10 years. Easier said than lived”¦ Exactly 10 Years. Without you, it has not been easy at all. Being without you, not having my beloved one with me, and above all, being separated from him by a heinous plot has caused even more pain, sorrow and heartache.

What do I have to say to those who have been suffering for the last 20, 30, 40 years? What do I have to say to those whose children have been murdered?

In the last 10 years, I have learned by living and experiencing what it really means to feel a pang of grief, how my tears could wet my bread and how salty they are. Thanks to the divine grace, I have learned how to cope with hatred and anger. Every time I think of your absence, it burns my body like a fire. I burn and burn so much that I cannot contain the flames under my skin.

So much has happened in 10 years. Oh my darling. Malatya massacre, Ä°skenderun, Sevag Balıkçı, Roboski, Gezi events, Suruç, Diyarbakır, Sur, Mardin, Nusaybin, Cizre, Şırnak, Tahir Elçi, Ankara, July 15th, Maçka, Ä°zmir, Gaziantep, Ortaköy, Airport attack and the war in the Middle East. Operations, terror, and what not”¦ The country has turned into a bloodbath. Some wanted to shower in human blood. A nightmare has swept the country. People started to fear and suffocate. People have been humiliated due to their identities; their dignity has been dishonored and despised.

It is as if mothers give birth to their children just to bury them. They encourage people to have more children, but no one thinks of protecting the right to life of those who are born. Yet murders that are committed day and night, such as murders of workers and women, do not count as political murders. No one takes the blame and responsibility.

Under the power of terror and the terror of the ones in power, it is once again the peoples who pay the price. The way you name what is happening does not change the thing that is happening to us. The terror waged by the states that declare war against terror comes to the same thing. This state becomes the US in Abu Ghraib, Russia in Aleppo, Turkey in Southeast Anatolia and Syria against opposition”¦ One day the winds blowing from north seed death on its lands and the other day the winds blowing from south”¦ Yet, it is always us, the peoples, who end up reaping this cursed harvest”¦ Bodies of babies are coming ashore”¦ Can there be anything more terrible than this?

I call out to the sky and earth”¦ Mountains and seas”¦ Rise and witness. Bear witness to the bloodshed on these lands. For people are silent and silenced. They are dying and being killed. We are too exhausted to mourn after them. Violence and tyranny have already gotten beyond borders. Reasons are eclipsed, and the reasonable ones have been exterminated.

Mountains and seas, skies and earth”¦ Rise and bear witness. Bear witness to the history and the present day. To the deadly sins, to the abundance of murders, to the undoing of people. Bear witness to the plots, lies, endless arrogance and recklessness of the Evil. Bear witness to those who distort justice, and to all abominable incidents happened on these ancient lands.

“Utterly Meaningless!”