The assassination of Hrant Dink from the perspective of Armenian youth in Turkey: a time of trauma or solidarity?

Abstract

The 1915 conflict between Turkey and Armenia resulting in a contested genocide has produced a vigorous public debate and an extensive body of literature. The assassination of Hrant Dink, a highly regarded Armenian journalist living in Istanbul, is a significant dynamic within the Armenian issue. While the assassination flamed the debates on the genocide claims and the Turkish-Armenian conflict, the funeral ceremony of Hrant Dink reflected the common reaction of Turks and Armenian citizens against the murder, and an outpouring solidarity between them. With all these characteristics, the assassination of Hrant Dink poses an important opportunity for the study of such critical events and their impacts on ongoing ethnic conflict. This research is designed to explore the psychological effects of Hrant Dink’s assassination on the Turkish Armenian youth living in Istanbul. Specifically, the study analyzes how the murder influenced these young people’s images towards Turks, and approaches to the Turkish - Armenian conflict and its resolution. The in-depth interviews which are conducted with twenty young Turkish Armenian people, who are selected via using snowball technique, provided the main data of this research. The content analysis was used as the basic methodology for the data analysis.