Michalis Vassiliadis

You were born and raised in Istanbul’s Greek community, you were a friend of Dink’s and collaborated with him in his work on minorities. How has his death marked you? It was a painful experience. As I have written, when I heard the news the ground fell out from under my feet. I leaned against the wall so as not to collapse. In cases like that, when you know the victim personally, you are shaken by the tragedy for his family, their loss. The political aspect comes second. However, it could be described as a genesis. Now we talk about time as being before and after the murder. Are intellectuals, journalists, writers and citizens terrified by the sinister forces at work behind the murder, or do you think they will stand their ground and intensify their struggle to open up their country and society? It isn’t possible for so many people to react in the same way, like robots. Generally, however, it appears they are standing their ground. Of course there are some (such as Orhan Pamuk) who seem to have been terrorized. To be honest, Pamuk’s behavior, although understandable, is not an example to be followed. For many people, myself included, it made a bad impression. You can’t grab an award and then sound an alarm. Hrant would never have done that. As for the country, I believe it will continue to open up. When you have a foreign trade deficit of $30 billion you don’t have much choice. In the aftermath of attacks on churches in Kumkapi and Besiktas with Molotov cocktails and stones, are you worried about more attacks against progressive intellectuals or minority targets? Will political tension forecast for 2007 encourage the ultra-nationalist underworld? That can’t be predicted. When these sinister forces operate as a spearhead for an organized, all-powerful para-state, they affect their behavior and you can hazard a guess. When they have been abandoned by those that created them, they function autonomously and become unpredictable. These people have been brainwashed by the fringe, ultra-nationalist press. They constitute a danger. What are the feelings of the Greek community here? How optimistic are you about the Europeanization of Turkey? Recent events have taken us back to the 1960s, when fear prevailed. However, I can say that I and several of my friends talk about the future of the Greek community and we are optimistic. The country and society have a great need for «Europeanization» and opening up. Otherwise we will be talking about another Turkey where even the Turks themselves might not want to live.