Remarks at Memorial Service for Slain Journalist Hrant Dink

This is a sad and terrible occasion that we have gathered here in honor of a man whose strength and vision we miss. Hrant Dink was a man of courage and decency, and I must express my own awe and admiration for his memory and for his life’s work. And we all express our shock and horror at his brutal murder. 

He was a proud son of the Armenian people and a citizen of Turkey, and in his work and in his life insisted on reconciliation and dialogue. And he stood for a civic virtue higher than hatred, higher than ethnic stereotypes, higher than fears and repression and ignorance. His was a vision of a better world. His was a vision of the best in Turkey’s tradition. 

The measure of how our world falls short must be judged by his murder at the hands of an ignorant, hate-filled nationalist. The measure of the hope for the world can be judged by his achievements in life, which may be measured by the crowds on the streets in Istanbul today, where tens of thousands of people – Armenians, Turks, Greeks – filled the streets and stated their solidarity with his vision of a better world, of a world of tolerance and understanding. 

It is a testament to the power of evil people that he was murdered, and yet a testament to the power of will that his vision was made real today, and that tens of thousands took up his call is a noble vision, and we should all be listening to on our own. 

Thank you.