Date: Saturday 21st Jan
Time: 7:15pm-9:30pm
Location: Armenian Institute and online (in-person space limited)
Tickets at door: £5 - to secure a spot please email info@armenianinstitute.org.uk
The Armenian Institute was fortunate to have hosted Hrant Dink in 2005 for a lecture in London on his only trip to the UK. Two years later he was cruelly murdered at the doorstep of his newspaper office, AGOS. Since then AI has hosted an event every year remembering an exceptionally courageous man who played a critical role in modern-day Turkey. An Armenian by birth, Hrant Dink was the first newspaper editor openly speaking up about societal and political issues affecting his fellow countrymen. Sixteen years later and his memory is still very much alive and he remains in the hearts of the public through the Hrant Dink Foundation which was set up in 2007 to carry on his legacy. The Foundation works to develop a culture of dialogue, empathy and peace through its activities.
This year the Armenian Institute will be hosting on Saturday 21st January a hybrid (in-person and online) event to commemorate Dink's legacy.
Nayat Karaköse, programme coordinator of the award-winning 23.5 Hrant Dink Site of Memory will take us on a virtual tour depicting the history of the paper and the work of the foundation to date. Nouritza Matossian, a friend of Dink's and director of the first Hrant Dink documentary, will interview Karin Karakasli, a former editor of AGOS. She will be sharing with us what it was like working at AGOS with Dink, the impact of AGOS on the Armenian community in Turkey and on the wider public's perspective of the Armenians.
The event will close with an Armenian folk song from Noémie Ducimetière and a drink in remembrance of Dink.
Space for in-person attendance is limited so we recommend booking your seat early.
Speakers:
Karin Karakaslı
Karin Karakaşlı graduated in Translation and Interpreting Studies. From 1996 to 2006 she worked at the Turkish-Armenian weekly newspaper Agos as editor, head of the editorial department and columnist on both Turkish and Armenian pages. She has completed an M.A. in Comparative Literature, works as a translation instructor at the university and as a teacher of Armenian language and literature in an Armenian High School. She is currently a columnist at Agos and Radikal newspapers, and continues to write fiction and poetry.
Her books include a children’s novel called Ay Denizle Buluşunca (When the Moon Meets the Sea), short story collections Başka Dillerin Şarkısı (Song of Other Languages), and Can Kırıkları (Splinters of the Heart), works of poetry, Her Kimsen SANA (Whoever you are this is FOR YOU), a novel is Müsait Bir Yerde İnebilir Miyim? (Can I Get Out Somewhere You Don’t Mind?).
She is the co-writer of the research book Türkiye’de Ermeniler: Cemaat, Birey, Yurttaş (Armenians in Turkey: Community, Individual, Citizen).
Nayat Karakose
Nayat Karaköse received her BA in Sociology from Galatasaray University. She holds an MA degree in Theory and Practice of Human Rights at the University of Essex. Nayat was an Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability Fellow at Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University in 2014. She participated in the Distinguished Humphrey Fellowship Program on Media and Information at the University of Washington in August 2021.
Since 2015, Nayat Karaköse works as the program coordinator of the Hrant Dink Foundation that is based in Istanbul/Turkey. Nayat plays various roles at the foundation such as developing and designing projects on hate speech, discrimination, minority rights and dealing with the past, her other key roles including project coordination, fundraising, networking with national and international stakeholders. Besides of her other roles Nayat is responsible of the coordination of the 23.5 Hrant Dink Site of Memory which is the first memory site in Turkey dedicated to Hrant Dink and the values that he embraced such as democracy, justice, peace, human rights and dialogue.
Dealing with the past, collective memory, discrimination, memory sites and practices of memorialization are among her areas of expertise. Before Hrant Dink Foundation she worked for a UK based charity Global Dialogue as a program officer to run the grant program for the CSOs in Turkey. Between 2010-2015 she worked as a freelance journalist for Agos newspaper.
Moderator: Nouritza Matossian
Nouritza Matossian is a writer, performer and human rights activist with documentary films to her credit including award-winning “Hrant Dink, Heart of Two Nations”. She first introduced Hrant Dink to London where she filmed his historic lecture and their conversations together. She published biographies of composer Iannis Xenakis and Armenian American artist, Arshile Gorky. Nouritza collaborated in founding the Armenian Institute, organizing activities over the years and is a former director of the organisation.
Singer: Noémie Ducimetière, folk singer and electronic producer, has trained in medieval chant with Idrîsî Ensemble and leads the experimental soul project Noum.