Indian dissident joins commemoration

"I Regret Never Meeting Dink" Says Roy

She had to live with the misfortune of never having met Hrant Dink, says Arundhati Roy, speaking at the Hrant Dink, Human Rights and Freedom of Expression Conference in Istanbul.

Kudret Çobanlı

One event commemorating the first anniversary of the murder of Agos editor-in-chief Hrant Dink took place at the Bosphorus University in Istanbul on 18 January.

A conference entitled “Hrant Dink, Human Rights and Freedom of Expression” hosted Indian writer and rights activist Arundhati Roy. It is planned to have an annual Hrant Dink Memorial Lecture.

In her lecture entitled “Listening to Grasshoppers,” Roy expressed her regret at never having met Hrant Dink.

"Those wearing white berets are your war"

Speaking about her reaction to the murder, she said: “Personally, my first reaction was to find out everything I could about 1915, read history and listen to witness accounts…now I have got an opinion on this issue, based on facts, but as I said, I did not come here to tell you that. Those wearing white berets (referring to murder suspect O.S.) are not my war, they are your war. I have got other kinds of people with white berets in my own country, and wars to fight against those carrying the torches.”

Roy spoke about the covered up realities concerning the concept and experience of genocide using historical data and examples from her own country.
Roy spoke to a full conference hall, and among the listeners were Hrant Dink’s widow Rakel Dink and his daughter Sera Dink. Rakel Dink came onto the stage after the lecture, thanking Roy for being a “person of struggle” and presenting her with a plaque. (KC/NZ/AG)