“Someone wants to get rid of us. What is your problem, what do you want from us? For God’s sake, what have we done other than serve this country? Hrant Dink was an Armenian you killed him, but why do you want to kill us? What is your problem, why did you have Sinan killed?”

On Thursday, the calendars will mark the date January 19. It will be the 16^th anniversary of Hrant Dink’s murder. I followed this case up until the last days I was able to live back home. The events prior to the assassination, the events after it, the court proceedings, the commemoration events, the debates, the prosecutors swayed by intrastate struggles, the judges, the “state wearing the white beanie”* which took photographs with the murderer — I paid close attention to it all.

The Dink Family, the lawyers, Friends of Hrant Dink, the journalists, the politicians, the public…

We know the Murderer…

But do you truly know him?

Does Alaattin Aldemir, who formed the sentences quoted above on the channel TELE 1 during a live broadcast with Gokmen Ozdenak, truly know Hrant Dink’s murderers?

“Someone wants to get rid of us. What is your problem, what do you want from us? For God’s sake, what have we done other than serve this country? Hrant Dink was an Armenian you killed him, but why do you want to kill us? What is your problem, why did you have Sinan killed?”

Former Leader of the Grey Wolves, current Republican People’s Party (CHP) Member Alaattin Aldemir… I have not heard much in the way of objection to these words from the CHP.

Does Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who said to Devlet Bahceli, “His murderers are hiding by you, give them up,” truly know those responsible for the Sinan Ates assassination?

Or does the current Grey Wolves Leader truly know Sinan Ates’s murderer?

The Grey Wolves, the nationalists, the ethnonationalists, the Turks — do they truly know Sinan Ates’s murderer?

Hrant Dink was an Armenian, they killed him…

After all, being Armenian is sometimes reason enough for a person to be killed, is it not?

Why, then, was Berkin Elvan murdered?

Well, living in an Alevi neighborhood is sometimes reason enough for a person to be killed, is it not?

Why, then, was Haci Birlik murdered? Why was Kemal Kurkut murdered?

Well, being Kurdish is sometimes reason enough for a person to be killed, is it not?

Why, then, was Ozgecan Aslan murdered?

Well, being a woman is sometimes reason enough for a person to be killed, is it not?

Why, then, were 301 workers killed at Soma?

Well, being a worker or being poor is sometimes reason enough for a person to be killed, is it not?

At Roboski, at the Ankara Train Station, at Suruc, at Istiklal Avenue, in the ditches, in the streets, on trains, at entertainment venues, at factories, in prisons, during torture, at the border, in the middle of Diyarbakir…

Why are people being slaughtered?

Ugur Mumcu, Muammer Ucok, Cetin Emec, Umit Kaftancioglu…

Esref Bitlis, Gaffar Okkan, Adnan Kahveci, Muhsin Yazicioglu, maybe Turgut Ozal…

Why are people being slaughtered?

Alaattin Aldemir is a microcosm of this country.

In this country, people are enamored with the “mitigating” circumstances of the murderers.

This is how the generations were brought up by the state. In short, if the state kills, the person killed must have deserved it. Our people have been written down as witnesses first, and accomplices second to the murders of the state.

The murderer is reputable, his table respected. The murderer’s statue is erected in the murderers’ streets.

They take pride in the slaughter of one and a half million Armenians, they massacre each other all over again just to distribute the booty leftover from the murder, metal detectors in hand, they rush to rob graves.

They feel no shame at murder, at thievery, at rape.

What I mean to say is that today’s regime is not by chance, it is the very lion that lies in Alaattin Aldemir’s heart.

It was your folks who killed Sinan Ates, Mr. Alaattin.

The barbarity of having no qualms about killing an Armenian, the state, the police, the gendarmerie, the cadres of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the drug cartels, they all came together and killed Sinan Ates.

The Minister of Internal Affairs, the prosecutors, the judges, the police; they are all on the side of the murderer in this matter. It’s no different than what you are familiar with, Mr. Alaattin. Sinan Ates is receiving the “Armenian Treatment.”

Does it distress you, truly?

This is the life you deemed worthy for a Turk, this is the life which you struggled to attain. What more did you expect?

Were you not taking seriously the fact that a murder network is killing its own citizens?

How else did you expect for us to be governed in a regime in which murderers reign sovereign?

Had you thought that it was a good idea to entrust the future of 85 million people, of youth, of children to grave robbers?

How could you not foresee this point to which we have come 16 years after the murder? How could you not foresee the degree to which Hrant’s murder hurt the future of this country, hurt hope, hurt peace, hurt coexistence?

He was an Armenian, and so you killed him. Is that so?

You all, Mr. Alaattin, the values you espoused your entire lives, the attacks you took pride in, and all the people you greeted, killed Sinan Ates in the middle of Ankara.

It’s a habit of yours, after all…

* Bagdat is referring to a headline in Taraf Newspaper from 2012, after the decision in the court case regarding Dink’s assassination in 2007. The headline read, “The White Beanied State,” alluding to the white beanie worn by Samast, Dink’s killer. The spot in the newspaper said, “The state put on Samast’s white beanie and protected the murderers. From the five year comedy comes only an imaginary life sentence.”

*Hayko Bagdat was born in Istanbul in 1976, as the fourth child of an ethnic Greek mother and an Armenian father. After attending the Armenian schools Esayan and Mkhitaryan, he began studying history at Istanbul University in 1994. Due to the unexpected death of his father, he was unable to complete his studies. He began his journalism career in 2002 with a program on a radio station covering minority issues for the first time in Turkey, and worked as a journalist, columnist and commentator for Turkey's mainstream media. In 2007, Bagdat was among the founders of the "Friends of Hrant" group, which was formed after the murder of journalist Hrant Dink and that continues its search for justice. Bagdat's first book on being an Armenian and 'the other' in Turkey, Salyangoz (Snail) was published in 2014, his second book, Gollik, in 2015, and his third book, Kurtulus Cok Bozuldu, in 2016. His one-man stage performance "Salyangoz," based on his book, thrilled audiences in many cities in Turkey in 2016 and was subsequently acclaimed with tours all over the world. In 2017, Bagdat moved to Germany and continues to work as a journalist and producer in Berlin.