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 ( tr, Türkiye Ermenileri; hy, Թուրքահայեր, also Թրքահայեր, "Turkish Armenians"), one of the indigenous peoples of Turkey, have an estimated population of 50,000 to 70,000, down from a population of over 2 ...

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 about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

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

democratization Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a ful ...

and

human rights in Turkey Human rights in Turkey are protected by a variety of international law treaties, which take precedence over domestic legislation, according to Article 90 of the 1982 Constitution. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR ...

. 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 political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

-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 human ...

, accepted the

Chirac Foundation The Fondation Chirac was launched by former French President Jacques Chirac, after having served two terms in office between 1995 and 2007. Since 2008, this foundation strives for peace through five advocacy programmes: * conflict prevention * ...

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

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017. ''Ex officio'', he is also one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. Prior to his presidency, Macron served as Minister of Econ ...

. 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 deat ...

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 ( tr, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi), also known as Bosphorus University, is a major research university in Istanbul, Turkey. Its main campus is located on the European side of the Bosphorus, Bosphorus strait. It has six facult ...

Istanbul Bilgi University Istanbul Bilgi University ( tr, İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi), officially established in 1996, is a private university located in Istanbul, Turkey. The university has 4 campuses centrally-located in Istanbul namely SantralIstanbul, Kuştepe, Do ...

, and

Sabancı University Sabancı University ( tr, Sabancı Üniversitesi), established in 1994, is a young foundation university located on a 1.26 million squaremeter campus which is about 40 km from Istanbul's city center. Its first students matriculated in 1999. ...

. The organization has also promoted research into actions of

rescue Rescue comprises responsive operations that usually involve the saving of life, or the urgent treatment of injuries after an accident or a dangerous situation. Tools used might include search and rescue dogs, mounted search and rescue ho ...

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 An epileptic seizure, informally known as a seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with lo ...

during the republican era. In October 2019, a Turkish court banned the organization's conference titled "Social, Cultural and Economic History of

Kayseri Kayseri (; el, Καισάρεια) is a large Industrialisation, industrialised List of cities in Turkey, city in Central Anatolia, Turkey, and the capital of Kayseri Province, Kayseri province. The Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality area is comp ...

and the Region". No reason was given.

References

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