Must be present

We must be present on July 2 for the first hearing of the Hrant Dink murder trial, in front of the Istanbul Criminal Court, located in the old State Security Court (DGM) building in Beşiktaş.

We must be present to state that we are aware of our responsibility towards a life that was lost on January 19, 2007, towards unfinished business, towards a life cut in half, towards the pure symbol that he left behind.

We must be present to say that we are closely following the tracks of the murderers, of the instigators, of the directors, of those that permitted it to happen, that we are keeping track of the process and its results.

We must be present even if we are left paralyzed, even if we cannot raise our voices due to our surprise or fear, to let them know that we have been following every item of progress with our owlish eyes used to the dark for the past six and a half months.

We must be present to remind everyone that we have not forgotten that Hrant Dink had been summoned to the Istanbul Governorship on February 24, 2004 and had been threatened by some people in front of a vice governor.

We must be present to draw attention to the fact that the chief of security who happened to declare within 48 hours of the murder that the murderer did not have any ties to an organization, and the police who posed for heroic posters together with the murder suspect continue to be employed.

We must be present to declare the participation in crime of the government that did not change Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code which led to Hrant Dink being charged with “denigrating Turkishness” as well as many authors, publishers, magazines and newspapers being brought to trial and of CHP, led by Deniz Baykal who shooed off NGO’s suggesting changes in Article 301.

We must be present to declare that we live, and that as we live, Hrant Dink lives with us and multiplies with us.

We must be present to mend our broken hopes to form a new life and a new country.

We must be present to take the first steps in laying the bricks of a new society, to show that we have started getting together to face hardships.

We must be present to feel the security of being shoulder to shoulder with those that say “We are all Hrant” against those that say “You are all traitors”.

More importantly, we must be present to demand the naked truth, to demand the only thing that holds a society together, that is, to demand justice.

On July 2, in front of Istanbul Criminal Court in Beşiktaş, the old DGM building.

Translated by Deniz Akkuş
June 29, 2007