Nominated as a symbol of the willingness to promote peace, justice and a multicultural equality over racism, hate and violence even in the face and aftermath of a most heinous and shocking murder.
Wife of the murdered Turkish-Armenian journalist and intellectual Hrant Dink, who since her husband’s assassination on 19th January 2007 has become a human rights activist on her own.
Hrant Dink met his future wife, Rakel Yağbasan, when she came to the Tuzla Armenian Children's Camp at age 9 in 1968. Born in 1959 in Silopi, Cizre, Rakel was one of 13 children of Siyament Yağbasan, head of the Varto clan and Delal Yağbasan who died when Rakel was a child.
In 1915, the Varto clan had received orders to relocate along with the rest of the Armenian population in the region, but they were attacked during the journey. Five families from the clan escaped to nearby Mount Cudi and settled there, remaining without any contact to the outside world for 25 years. Eventually they re-established contact and largely assimilated into the nearby Kurdish population, speaking Kurdish exclusively, although they retained knowledge of their Armenian origin and Christian beliefs. Armenian Protestant lay preacher Hrant Güzelyan (also known as Küçükgüzelyan), who was running a program for relocating Anatolian Armenians to İstanbul, visited the clan and brought back around 20 children to the Tuzla Camp, including Rakel and two of her brothers.
Staying at the Tuzla Camp during summers and at the Gedikpaşa Orphanage during winters, Rakel learned Turkish and Armenian, and finished primary school. Because Rakel was registered as a Turk, not as an Armenian, she was not allowed to enroll at Armenian community schools and her father did not give permission for her to attend a Turkish school past then-compulsory 5th grade. Not able to obtain further formal schooling, Rakel was privately tutored by instructors at the Gedikpaşa Orphanage.
Rakel's father, Siyament Yağbasan, at first opposed Hrant Dink's marriage proposal since the Varto clan traditionally practiced endogamy, but eventually relented when elders of the Armenian community, including Patriarch Kalustyan, applied pressure and Rakel declared that she would marry no one else. Hrant Dink and Rakel Yağbasan got married in a civil ceremony at the Tuzla Camp on April 19, 1976 when they were 22 and 17, respectively. One year later, at Rakel Dink's insistence, the couple conducted a church wedding ceremony on April 23, 1977. Hrant and Rakel Dink had three children: Delal, Arat, and Sera.
Since Hrant Dink’s assassination, Rakel Dink has been a voice of wisdom and conscience, giving talks and solidarizing with human rights causes throughout the world. She continues to serve as the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Hrant Dink Foundation, and has received numerous awards both in her own name and on behalf of the Foundation.
