Hrant Dink Foundation is an organization established following the 2007 assassination of Hrant Dink, a prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist, in order to "carry on Hrant’s dreams, Hrant’s struggle, Hrant’s language and Hrant’s heart". [1] [2] Among the organization's specific goals are to monitor hate speech in Turkey, [3] to study history from a non-nationalist perspective especially using oral history, build relationships between Turkey, Armenia and Europe, [1] and improve democratization and human rights in Turkey. [1] [4]
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-funded reconciliation initiative, "Support to the Armenia-Turkey Normalisation Process Programme". [1] In 2010, the organization helped organize an exhibition on "Armenian Architects of Istanbul". [5] 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. [3] In 2017, Hrant Dink's widow, Rakel Dink, accepted the Chirac Foundation's Chirac Prize for Conflict Prevention, which was handed to her by French president Emmanuel Macron. [6] On 23 April 2019, the organization unveiled Hrant Dink’s Site of Memory at their headquarters in Istanbul. [4] In 2020, a suspect was arrested for sending death threats to the organization and Rakel Dink. [2]
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, Istanbul Bilgi University, and Sabancı University. [1] The organization has also promoted research into actions of rescue during the genocide through its History and Memory Research Fund. [7] 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. [8] The organization also sponsored a historical study into the seizure of Armenian foundations during the republican era. [9] In October 2019, a Turkish court banned the organization's conference titled "Social, Cultural and Economic History of Kayseri and the Region". No reason was given. [10]