Thousands gather in Istanbul to remember Hrant Dink

Thousands of people commemorated the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was murdered in Istanbul 16 years ago. The event took place in front of the former editorial office of the Agos newspaper on Halaskargazi Street, where Hrant Dink was shot dead in the street on 19 January 2007.

Before his murder, the editor-in-chief of the Armenian weekly Agos had been persecuted for years by nationalist forces in society and the judiciary because he described the genocide of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire as such. Even shortly before his death, he was subjected to hostility from ultra-nationalist circles and judicial persecution – for “insulting Turkishness”.

Dink campaigned for the rights of minorities and for reconciliation between Armenians and Turks and fought for democracy, freedom and social confrontation with the genocide of 1915. To this day, the Turkish government categorically rejects this classification.