HBDH: “We promise Hrant Dink that we will smash fascism and racism”

The editor of the Armenian newspaper AGOS, Hrant Dink, was murdered by a Turkish fascist exactly 15 years ago, on 19 January 2007. On the anniversary of the murder, the left guerrilla alliance HBDH (Peoples’ United Revolutionary Movement) has published a statement in memory of the Armenian journalist. The HBDH commemorated Dink with the words: “15 years have passed since the murder of Hrant Dink, one of the honourable children of the Armenian people, by an assassination orchestrated by the state. We remember Hrant with love and respect and share the never-ending pain of his family, his friends and the Armenian people.”

The statement continued: “Hrant Dink was one of the revolutionary intellectuals who wanted an equal, free life for all oppressed peoples and workers. For Hrant, it was not just a matter of wanting, he made it his own goal. Hrant believed with all his heart that equality and fraternity were possible on the soil of Mesopotamia, soaked with the blood of the peoples, and that this could only be achieved through the united struggle of the peoples. He was a staunch defender of this idea, which he carried both in his spirit and in his heart. He lived in devotion to this idea until his last breath and never deviated from this struggle until the moment when this heinous bullet from the hands of a racist and fascist hit him.

“Hrant was murdered because he was Armenian”

Hrant was murdered because he was Armenian. Yes, he was the person in charge of the newspaper AGOS, a worker, but he was more than that; he was an activist, a revolutionary. The roots of the Armenian people are in this country, and they are firmly connected to this country. He fought for the equality of peoples. He was one of the pioneers of the struggle for the democratic enlightenment of the Armenian people. He was a courageous, determined, indomitable intellectual revolutionary in the struggle to confront the Armenian Genocide at the social and international level. He is a descendant of people like Paramaz who brought the idea of communism to Anatolia and started building the Communist Party. They hanged Paramaz, murdered Hrant, but they could not stop the peoples from seeking a world of freedom and equality. They cannot stop them!”

“They wanted to continue the genocide”

The HBDH stressed that although Dink was murdered, the Turkish state was unable to achieve its goal, because “from the mouths of hundreds of thousands rang out at the funeral service for Hrant: ‘We are all Armenians’. Thus, they made the politics of hostility, racism and chauvinism fail. These hundreds of thousands created the best basis to show that the workers, the oppressed, can unite. On 19 January 2007, Hrant Dink became one of the symbols of the united struggle of the oppressed Armenian, Kurdish, Syriac, Circassian, Roman and Turkish people against fascism and one of the sources of resistance.”

The HBDH recalled the Ottoman genocide of Armenians and placed the murder of Hrant Dink in the same context; “The policy of hostility and hatred against the Armenian people was used as the basic building block of the idea of a sovereign Turkish nation. Today, the fascist Turkish state continues to use this racist demagogy to poison the masses and new generations and strengthen Turkish chauvinism. The racist demagogy was meant to intimidate the different identities in Turkey and Northern Kurdistan. This demagogy leads to a murderous practice: Armenians, Alevis, Kurds and Arabs continue to be the target of racist, nationalist attacks, lynching and massacres. The Turkish state whips up racism and chauvinism to preserve its rule beyond the crisis. It clings to these reactionary ideologies.”

“The liberation of peoples is a collective process”

In this context, the HBDH highlighted the common struggle of the peoples and stated: “The liberation of the workers and the oppressed in Turkey and Northern Kurdistan is interconnected. The anti-fascist struggle must be waged together with the struggle against chauvinism and racism. Therefore, a struggle without the slogan ‘We are all Armenians’ and without remembering the reality of the Armenian genocide can neither be anti-fascist nor anti-racist in Kurdistan and Turkey.

“Turkish national history is based on lies and demagogy”

The history of the formation of the Turkish nation is based on lies, distortions and demagogy and is imposed on the social consciousness. The vanguard of the workers, the progressive and revolutionary forces, have to deal with this bloody history first. Only in this way can a bridge of fraternity be built between the peoples.”

“We will smash fascism”

At the end of the statement, the HDBH stressed that, “We promise Hrant and with him to the Armenian people; we will smash fascism and racism, clear these ancient lands of this poisonous ideology and achieve freedom. Until we realise this goal, we will intensify our struggle and build a social system in Mesopotamia where peoples can live as equals and brothers and sisters.”