Hrant

“I am from Türkiye… I am Armenian… And I am Anatolian to the marrow. Not even for a day did I think of leaving my country to build my future in the ‘ready-made paradise of freedoms’ called the West, attaching myself like a leech to democracies created through the sacrifices of others. My central concern was to turn my own country into such a haven of freedom. The rights I can or cannot enjoy today did not come to me for free: I have paid for them, and I am still paying…

“What I have been through has not been easy… Nor has what my family has been through. There were moments when I seriously considered leaving the country, especially when the threats reached those close to me. At those moments I felt helpless. Perhaps that is what people mean by ‘life or death’… Through it all, I will take one truth as my only reassurance. Yes, I may feel the unease of a pigeon in my soul, but I know that people in this country do not harm pigeons. Pigeons live even in the heart of the city, among crowds of people. A little wary, yes, but just as free…”

— Hrant Dink