With all due respect to your interesting and sensitive blog, of course people will use this as a vehicle to promote Armenian Genocide recognition. And, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. In fact, the very reason Dink was in hot water with ultra-nationalist Turks/eventually killed was due to the fact that he championed the facts of the Armenian Genocide to Turks and was beginning to change the minds of many. It would be a tragedy if Dink’s murder doesn’t spur more discussion about Turkey’s immoral position of denying it every happened.

And, I feel that the Armenian government’s position is restrained, yet appropriate in the face of yet another murder to an Armenian in Turkey. It’s politics on the global scale, and there are chess word games that need to be played out. Tigran Torosyan’s statement won’t agitate anything because it is barely being heard. Yet, sometimes, you have to come out swinging.

What is somewhat stunning and worrisome to me is that some Armenians are so passive and politically unsophisticated to not actually take a stand and make some noise when such an affront to our larger community takes place.

In short, it is of the utmost importance to further Dink’s pursuit of continuing to educated the public- Turkish or otherwise- of the crimes of the past that haunted his soul until the end.

Otherwise, I don’t think anybody needs to “use” Dink’s murder to campaign for Genocide Recognition. Just the very fact that a man who stood for peace and reconciliation between Armenian and Turk has been killed because he also spoke about the past does that automatically.

But anyway, internal demand for change is as important if not more so than outside pressure. If it were any other way there will be more violence and more problems. Personally, I can only hope that those more liberal and moderate Turks realize the importance of questioning what kind of society they live in.

Of course, when Turkish and Kurdish journalists died in the past under similar circumstances, many in Turkey were just as shocked, but nothing changed. In this sense, yes, the European Union must keep an eye on this case and must now call for immediate changes and an appropiate response from the Turkish Government.

Still, to be honest, I am encouraged by the comments I’ve read from both Armenian and Turkish bloggers so far, but maybe I’m not asking the most poignant question on that? Just how many of them are there in the scheme of things? Still, I’m sure this story won’t go away, and I’m sure that Dink’s legacy will have postive effects on some part of Turkish society and also demands for Genocide Recognition.

How will it impact the bill to recognize the Genocide in the U.S., for example? Like I said, nobody needs to use Dink. His tragic death has already put the issue firmly on the agenda, and personally, I think that a fitting legacy for a peaceful and noble man will be both internal moves to acknowledge its own past, and recociliation between Armenian and Turk.

Still, I’m not naieve enough to suppose that will be the case. I can, however, hope that it is.

Apparently nothing has changed in Turkey in last 100 years.

Hrant Dink has died for the cause of having world recognize Armenian Genocide.

No people can be classified as “bad”, “fascist”, or one with “poisonous blood”, or “race of murderers” - it is simply NOT ACCEPTABLE. The Turkish people, thousands of them went on streets saying: “We are all Hrant Dink…We are all Armenian..” in an amazing act of solidarity to Hrant Dink, Armenian, their follow citizen. We must be stong now and not give way to provocation. I believe that is also the point made by Harmick at the Blogrel…

Turkey has changed more in the past 5 years than in the previous 80. Some of this was due to Hrant’s work. It is a tragedy that he was murdered when he had so much more to contribute to the dialogue between Armenians and Turks.

He believed that Turkey would come to terms with the legacy of the Armenian Genocide only through internal discussion and out of that would come atonement and an improvement in the lot of all the minorities in Turkey, both muslim and non-muslim. He was anathema to Armenian nationalists who are now shedding crocodile tears for him.

He was against, as I am and many Armenians I know are, the idiotic French law that criminalizes denial of the genocide. You do not shut those you disagree with by legilative means (or the bullet for that matter). You discredit them with the power of facts, reason and argument.

Turks have started realising that what their State has been saying for the past 80 years is a big lie. There is still the nationalist right and ultra right which is very entrenched that won’t tolerate any deviation from their racist beliefs. Hrant Dink’s death shows that clearly. There are however brave voices chipping away at this idea of a ‘monoculture’ which indoctrinates every schoolkid in Turkey today.

A Turkey that is European, human rights oriented and at peace with all its neighbours is the best guarantee for the Armenian State as well as for the remnaining Armenians in Turkey.

The response to the death fills me with hope as Armenians and Turks carry on down the path that Hrant carved. The new editor of Agos, Etyen Mahcupyan is the other bright voice of Turkey’s Armenians. I am sure Agos will carry on being vocal. Let the nationalists in Turkey and our own nationalists keep on braying. As we say in Armenian ‘barab dagare shad tsayn ge hane! (The barrel that is empty makes the loudest noise… ok sounds better in Armenian!). They thrive off each other! The only thing they stand for is hate!

Many of us, Turks and Armenians are tired of this. We need to move forward. The States (both Turkey and Armenia) will have to eventually follow.

So many, Turks and Armenians alike, are trying to score cheap political points out of this heinous crime. They should be exposed for what they are. Tashnags marching in Yerevan! Give me a break! They are our own Armenian Nazis! They stand against everything Hrant stood for! Just like Devlet Bahceli’s Nazis in Turkey!

Posturing and making declarations is the easy way out. If these people want to make a difference they should concentrate on building bridges with the sizable number of Turks and others who are challenging their own constitution and historiography.