Hrant Dink Memorial Lecture to Be Held at Harvard Nov. 13

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—It’s been nearly eight years since Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was gunned down in the streets of Istanbul in what has become known as an act against humanity.

Yet his memory perseveres.

To say it saddened Armenians worldwide is putting it mildly, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of Turks who attended his funeral.

Hrant Dink’s death shook the world. And time has not diluted the influence he carried as an editor, journalist, and columnist for the bilingual “Agos” newspaper.

“His death resonates to this day and carries with it a vengeance that underscores man’s inhumanity toward man,” said Harry Parsekian, president of Friends of Hrant Dink. “His legacy will never fade. Justice still has not been served.”

A Hrant Dink Memorial Peace and Justice lecture will take place on Thurs., Nov. 13, at 6 p.m. at Yenching Auditorium, 2 Divinity Ave., on the campus of Harvard University.

The event is being sponsored by the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard.

The keynote speaker will be Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, who will talk about the “Unhealed Wounds of World War 1: Armenia, Kurdistan, and Palestine.”

Introductory remarks will be rendered by Hrant Dink’s widow, Rakel Dink, representing the Hrant Dink Foundation in Istanbul.

Khalidi is a Palestinian-Lebanese-American historian and director of Columbia’s Middle East Institute, also known for editing the scholarly Journal of Palestine Studies.

Dink was best known for advocating for Turkish-Armenian reconciliation, and human rights in Turkey. He was often critical of Turkey’s denial of the genocide and was prosecuted three times for denigrating “Turkishness,” while receiving numerous death threats from Turkish nationalists.

“Who can forget the man and his allegiance to his beloved heritage?” Parsekian asked. “He lived for it and ultimately died for it.”

The program is free and open to the public. Seating is limited.

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Tom Vartabedian

Tom Vartabedian is a retired journalist with the Haverhill Gazette, where he spent 40 years as an award-winning writer and photographer. He has volunteered his services for the past 46 years as a columnist and correspondent with the Armenian Weekly, where his pet project was the publication of a special issue of the AYF Olympics each September.