Hrant Dink - Editor of Agos

Editor of Agos

Hrant Dink was one of the founders of Agos weekly, the only newspaper in Turkey published in Armenian and Turkish, and served as the editor-in-chief of Agos from its founding in 1996 until his death in 2007. The first edition of Agos appeared on April 5, 1996, on the day of Surp Zadik (Easter) and was saluted by Patriarch Karekin II as a gift of Surp Zadik.

Agos was born out of a meeting called by Patriarch Karekin II when mainstream media started linking Armenians of Turkey with the illegal Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). A picture of PKK's leader Abdullah Öcalan and an Assyrian priest appeared in a Turkish daily, with the caption "Here's proof of the Armenian-PKK cooperation". Patriarch Karekin II asked the attendees at the meeting what needed to be done and the opinion that emerged out of the meeting was that the Armenians in Turkey needed to communicate with the society at large. The group held a widely covered press conference, followed by monthly press events and eventually formed Agos.

Dink had not been a professional journalist until founding Agos. Up to that point, he had contributed occasional articles and book reviews to local Armenian language newspapers and corrections and letters to the editor to the national dailies. He soon became well known for his editorials in Agos and also wrote columns in the national dailies Zaman and BirGün.

Up to the founding of Agos, the Armenian community had two main newspapers, Marmara and Jamanak, both published only in Armenian. By publishing in Turkish as well as Armenian, Hrant Dink opened up the channels of communication to the society at large for the Armenian community. After Agos started its publication, the participation of Armenians in the political-cultural life in Turkey increased greatly, and public awareness in Turkey of the issues of the Armenians started to increase. Always willing to speak on the issues faced by Armenians, Hrant Dink emerged as a leader in his community and became a well-known public figure in Turkey.

At its inception, Agos started with a circulation of 2,000, and at the time of Hrant Dink's death had reached a circulation of around 6,000. Influential beyond its circulation, often applauded greatly by some and criticized heavily by others, Agos became a paper whose editorial viewpoint was sought after.