Hrant Dink Foundation is an organization established following the 2007

assassination of Hrant Dink The prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was assassinated in Istanbul on 19 January 2007. Dink was a newspaper editor who had written and spoken about the Armenian genocide and was well known for his efforts for reconciliation betwe ...

, a prominent

Turkish-Armenian Armenians in Turkey (; or , ), one of the indigenous peoples of Turkey, have an estimated population of 40,000 to 50,000 today, down from a population of over 2 million Armenians between the years 1914 and 1921. Today, the overwhelming majority ...

journalist, in order to "carry on Hrant’s dreams, Hrant’s struggle, Hrant’s language and Hrant’s heart". Among the organization's specific goals are to monitor hate speech in Turkey, to study history from a non-nationalist perspective especially using

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

, build relationships between Turkey, Armenia and Europe, and improve

democratization Democratization, or democratisation, is the structural government transition from an democratic transition, authoritarian government to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction ...

and

human rights in Turkey Human rights in Turkey are protected by a variety of international law treaties, which take precedence over Legal system of the Republic of Turkey, domestic legislation, according to Article 90 of the 1982 Constitution of Turkey, Constitution. ...

. The organization operates a "Turkey-Armenia Fellowship Scheme" enabling Turkish and Armenian professionals to visit the other country with the aim of improving relations, and also participates in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

-funded reconciliation initiative, "Support to the Armenia-Turkey Normalisation Process Programme". In 2010, the organization helped organize an exhibition on "Armenian Architects of Istanbul". In 2012, the Platform "I Demand Hate Crime Legislation" was established, supported by the Hrant Dink Foundation as well as dozens of other civil society organizations in Turkey. In 2017, Hrant Dink's widow,

Rakel Dink Rakel Dink (born 1959) is a Turkish Armenian human rights activist, and head of the Hrant Dink Foundation. She is the last member of the Armenian Varto Tribe who had settled in Cizre. She is the widow of Hrant Dink, a Turkish journalist and hum ...

, accepted the Chirac Foundation's Chirac Prize for Conflict Prevention, which was handed to her by French president

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra since 2017. He was Ministry of Economy and Finance (France), Minister of Economics, Industr ...

. On 23 April 2019, the organization unveiled Hrant Dink’s Site of Memory at their headquarters in Istanbul. In 2020, a suspect was arrested for sending

death threat A death threat is a threat, often made anonymously, by one person or a group of people to kill another person or group of people. These threats are often designed to intimidate victims in order to manipulate their behaviour, in which case a d ...

s to the organization and Rakel Dink. The foundation has organized several academic conferences, including the 2015 conference "A Civilization Destroyed: The Wealth of Non-Muslims in the Late Ottoman Period and the Early Republican Era", in cooperation with

Boğaziçi University Boğaziçi University (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Boğaziçi Üniversitesi''), also known as Bosphorus University, is a Public university, public research university in Istanbul, Turkey, historically tied to a former American educational insti ...

Istanbul Bilgi University Istanbul Bilgi University () is a private university founded in 1996, located in Eyüpsultan, Istanbul, Turkey. The university has four campuses in Istanbul: SantralIstanbul, Kuştepe, Dolapdere, and Kozyatağı. History The university was ...

, and

Sabancı University Sabancı University () is a private research university that adopts a liberal arts education approach, established in 1994 and located on a 1.26 million squaremeter campus which is about 40 km from Istanbul's city center. Its first students ...

. The organization has also promoted research into actions of

rescue Rescue comprises responsive operations that usually involve the saving of life, removal from danger, liberation from restraint, or the urgent treatment of injury, injuries after an incident. It may be facilitated by a range of tools and equipm ...

during the genocide through its History and Memory Research Fund. Another focus for the organization is oral history research, which has involved the publication of a series of books "Sounds of Silence" detailing oral histories of Armenians from various parts of Turkey. The organization also sponsored a historical study into the seizure of Armenian foundations during the republican era. In October 2019, a Turkish court banned the organization's conference titled "Social, Cultural and Economic History of

Kayseri Kayseri () is a large List of cities in Turkey, city in Central Anatolia, Turkey, and the capital of Kayseri Province, Kayseri province. Historically known as Caesarea (Mazaca), Caesarea, it has been the historical capital of Cappadocia since anc ...

and the Region". No reason was given.

References

{{Hrant Dink 2007 establishments in Turkey Organizations based in Istanbul Human rights organizations based in Turkey