Mr. Speaker, the assassination last Friday in Istanbul of Hrant Dink has shaken both Turkish society and the entire international community. Mr. Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin, was a staunch defender of democracy in Turkey and long-time activist for the recognition of the Armenian genocide.
Orhan Pamuk, the great Turkish writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, after being prosecuted for explicitly insulting Turkishness and the Turkish nation, said that perhaps he should be worried, since the Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was tried before the same court for the very same crime and was convicted. He said, however, that he remains optimistic. Mr. Dink spent time in prison, but the State did not pursue Mr. Pamuk, even after he also said that a million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in his country and he is the only one who dares to talk about it.
The Bloc Québécois hopes that Hrant Dink did not die in vain and that the indignation provoked by this assassination will help the Turkish people to be more accepting of differences.