The widow of a martyred Istanbul journalist will make a harvest season
\nvisit to the Great Central Valley of the Golden State.<\/p>\n
Rakel Y. Dink, surviving spouse of AGOS Weekly co-founder
\nHrant Dink, will speak in Fresno on Friday, October 2, and Saturday,
\nOctober 3, 2009.<\/p>\n
Each of her talks will take place at 7 p.m. in the Sanctuary of the
\nFirst Armenian Presbyterian Church, 430 South First Street at
\nHuntington Boulevard in Fresno. Admission is free and open to the
\npublic and each evening will conclude with a fellowship reception in
\nthe adjacent Church Hall.<\/p>\n
The October 2 presentation will primarily be in the Armenian language
\nand the October 3 presentation will primarily be in the English
\nlanguage. Each of the talks will be preceded by a screening of the
\nacclaimed European documentary, `Hrant Dink: Mercy and Truth Have Met
\nTogether.’ The October 2008 motion picture is a production of Net for
\nGod, part of the Chemin Neuf Community of Lyon, France. -more-<\/p>\n
A native of Malatya, Hrant Dink grew up in the Gedikpa\u00c5=9Fa Armenian
\nOrphanage of Istanbul and the Tuzla Armenian Children’s Camp of
\nMarmara. At the camp, Dink first met Rakel Ya\u00c4=9Fbasan, a Kurdish
\nArmenian of the Varto clan. The couple married at the Camp some eight
\nyears after their first meeting and eventually had three children.<\/p>\n
After Dink studied zoology at Istanbul University and completed his
\nmilitary service obligation, he opened the Beyaz Adam Bookstore with
\nhis two brothers. He and Rakel later assumed management of the Tuzla
\nCamp when the longtime administrator, Hrant Guzelian, was imprisoned.<\/p>\n
In the Lenten Season of 1996, Dink and others started AGOS Weekly, the
\nonly newspaper in the Republic of Turkey to be published in both
\nArmenian and Turkish. As the founding editor-in-chief, Dink focused
\non Turkish-Armenian relations, the need for democratization of the
\nnation, and the rights and roles of minority communities in Anatolia.<\/p>\n
Prosecuted three times for allegedly denigrating Turkishness under the
\nPenal Code, Dink was featured in Carla Garapedian’s 2006 genocide
\ndocumentary, `Screamers.’ On January 19, 2007, he was assassinated as
\nhe returned to the AGOS editorial offices. Four days later, more than
\none hundred thousand citizens marched in his funeral procession, with
\nmany carrying signs reading, `We are all Armenians, We are all Hrant
\nDink.’<\/p>\n
Since his passing, Rakel Dink has spoken at home and abroad about her
\nhusband’s ideals and aims, her enduring Christian faith, and the
\npressing need for greater justice in the land of her birth. Appearing
\nbefore Turkish judicial authorities, she prayed for mercy for her
\nhusband’s killers `with the love and justice of Jesus Christ,
\none who knows and sees all.’<\/p>\n
Founded on July 25, 1897 by 40 immigrants from Marsovan and Trebizond,
\nFAPC today is a multigenerational congregation of 400 drawn from the
\nOld and New Worlds. The theme of the congregation for 2009 is
\n`Nothing is impossible with God.’ Mrs. Dink’s visit is part of the
\ncongregation’ s Thanksgiving Season focus on the persecuted church
\nworldwide.<\/p>\n
Reverend Mgrdich Melkonian is Senior Pastor of the host church;
\nReverend Aren Balabanian is the Associate Pastor; Shant Barsoumian,
\nM.Div. is the pastoral intern; and Elder Thomas Bulger is Chair of the
\nCommittee on Missions. The boyhood church of authors William Saroyan
\nand A.I. Bezzerides, FAPC is a member congregation of the Presbyterian
\nChurch (U.S.A.) and the Armenian Evangelical Union of North America.<\/p>\n
More information about Rakel Dink’s Fresno visit is available by
\ncalling (559) 237-6638 or visiting www.fapc.net.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The widow of a martyred Istanbul journalist will make a harvest season visit to the Great Central Valley of the Golden State. Rakel Y. Dink, surviving spouse of AGOS Weekly co-founder Hrant Dink, will speak in Fresno on Friday, October 2, and Saturday, October 3, 2009. Each of her talks will take place at 7 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":774848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}