Dink, a prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist, was shot dead last Friday. Dink's wife Rakel addressed the crowd outside her husband's newspaper offices, also the site of his killing, and said farewell to her beloved husband. Grief, anger, and defiance was the crowd's mood and thousands of people displayed solidarity against the narrow nationalist ideas that killed Dink chanting and carrying banners that read "We are all Armenian," "We are all Hrant." It was this solidarity that Dink sought to promote. However, the leaders of the four big political parties, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), the Republican People's Party (CHP), the True Path Party (DYP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), did not attend Dink's funeral because of previous engagements. Their absence was notable and drew large amounts of criticism from both the public and media. It is said that they did not want to risk the nationalist vote prior to the parliamentary elections.Star's Ahmet Kekeç says that the picture which emerged from Dink's funeral was one that showed the "real" Turkey. Kekeç says that for centuries people living in these territories regardless of their ethnicity shared a habit of living together in peace and harmony, so this picture reflected this. "This was a picture of something that Hrant Dink tried to explain and achieve." Kekeç also criticizes some comments made about Dink's murder immediately after the incident, comments like "The bullets were fired at Turkey, at Turkey's stability." He says there is a human being at issue who is no longer alive and making such remarks is meaningless. Though happy to see the 'real Turkey,' Kekeç also directs more criticism to those chanting slogans or carrying banners that read "We are all Armenians, we are all Hrant." "None of you can be Hrant because you remained silent when political assassinations took place in this country, you remained silent when parties and associations were shut down. You preferred to remain silent when the rights of others were at stake," Kekeç remarks. He urges that the first condition of being "Hrant" is to respect the rights of the "other."
Vatan's Güngör Mengi also feels that, in death, Dink realized his lifetime hope to unite the Turkish public for the ideals of democracy. Mengi says that Dink consciously paid the cost of the mission he undertook, but the country's leaders should have given confidence and encouragement to the people of this country by attending Dink's funeral. "Unfortunately the leaders of the four political parties came together, not to realize this significant mission, but to avoid the cost of attending his funeral. Their fear of losing the nationalist vote put them all in that dirty basket," Mengi writes.
Radikal's İsmet Berkan points out that Dink's funeral brought almost 100,000 people together, including Turks, Kurds, Armenians, Jews, Bosnians, Arabs and Georgians, regardless of their religions. He complains that it is a pity that we could not manage this solidarity when he was alive. "But we still managed to do it, which means Hrant's efforts were not in vain. This means that Hrant was not alone in the defense of his case," he writes. Berkan thinks that the people of this country can achieve even more and it is in our hands to make this county a better one. "We want our differences, cultures, and ethnic roots to be values and not the source of conflict," he asserts.
