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Rakel Dink To Speak in Central California - Fresno

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  • Rakel Dink To Speak in Central California - Fresno

    First Armenian Presbyterian Church
    430 South First Street
    Fresno, California 93702-1056
    Tel. (559) 237-6638 -² Fax (559) 237-9526
    www.fapc.net
    [email protected]

    PRESS RELEASE
    Contact: Liz Cole
    September 11, 2009
    Telephone: (559) 237-6638


    RAKEL DINK TO SPEAK IN CENTRAL CALIFORNIA


    The widow of a martyred Istanbul journalist will make a harvest season
    visit to the Great Central Valley of the Golden State.

    Rakel YaÄ=9Fbasan Dink, surviving spouse of AGOS Weekly co-founder
    Hrant Dink, will speak in Fresno on Friday, October 2, and Saturday,
    October 3, 2009.

    Each of her talks will take place at 7 p.m. in the Sanctuary of the
    First Armenian Presbyterian Church, 430 South First Street at
    Huntington Boulevard in Fresno. Admission is free and open to the
    public and each evening will conclude with a fellowship reception in
    the adjacent Church Hall.

    The October 2 presentation will primarily be in the Armenian language
    and the October 3 presentation will primarily be in the English
    language. Each of the talks will be preceded by a screening of the
    acclaimed European documentary, `Hrant Dink: Mercy and Truth Have Met
    Together.' The October 2008 motion picture is a production of Net for
    God, part of the Chemin Neuf Community of Lyon, France. -more-

    A native of Malatya, Hrant Dink grew up in the GedikpaÅ=9Fa Armenian
    Orphanage of Istanbul and the Tuzla Armenian Children's Camp of
    Marmara. At the camp, Dink first met Rakel YaÄ=9Fbasan, a Kurdish
    Armenian of the Varto clan. The couple married at the Camp some eight
    years after their first meeting and eventually had three children.

    After Dink studied zoology at Istanbul University and completed his
    military service obligation, he opened the Beyaz Adam Bookstore with
    his two brothers. He and Rakel later assumed management of the Tuzla
    Camp when the longtime administrator, Hrant Guzelian, was imprisoned.

    In the Lenten Season of 1996, Dink and others started AGOS Weekly, the
    only newspaper in the Republic of Turkey to be published in both
    Armenian and Turkish. As the founding editor-in-chief, Dink focused
    on Turkish-Armenian relations, the need for democratization of the
    nation, and the rights and roles of minority communities in Anatolia.

    Prosecuted three times for allegedly denigrating Turkishness under the
    Penal Code, Dink was featured in Carla Garapedian's 2006 genocide
    documentary, `Screamers.' On January 19, 2007, he was assassinated as
    he returned to the AGOS editorial offices. Four days later, more than
    one hundred thousand citizens marched in his funeral procession, with
    many carrying signs reading, `We are all Armenians, We are all Hrant
    Dink.'

    Since his passing, Rakel Dink has spoken at home and abroad about her
    husband's ideals and aims, her enduring Christian faith, and the
    pressing need for greater justice in the land of her birth. Appearing
    before Turkish judicial authorities, she prayed for mercy for her
    husband's killers `with the love and justice of Jesus Christ,
    one who knows and sees all.'

    Founded on July 25, 1897 by 40 immigrants from Marsovan and Trebizond,
    FAPC today is a multigenerational congregation of 400 drawn from the
    Old and New Worlds. The theme of the congregation for 2009 is
    `Nothing is impossible with God.' Mrs. Dink's visit is part of the
    congregation's Thanksgiving Season focus on the persecuted church
    worldwide.

    Reverend Mgrdich Melkonian is Senior Pastor of the host church;
    Reverend Aren Balabanian is the Associate Pastor; Shant Barsoumian,
    M.Div. is the pastoral intern; and Elder Thomas Bulger is Chair of the
    Committee on Missions. The boyhood church of authors William Saroyan
    and A.I. Bezzerides, FAPC is a member congregation of the Presbyterian
    Church (U.S.A.) and the Armenian Evangelical Union of North America.

    More information about Rakel Dink's Fresno visit is available by
    calling (559) 237-6638 or visiting www.fapc.net.

    -30-
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