Well-known Turkish businessman Osman Kavala, who is also chairman of the Istanbul-based Anadolu Kültür (Culture) NGO and has been in prison since November 1, 2017, has sent a message to Agos Armenian weekly of Istanbul via his attorneys, on the 11th anniversary of the assassination of Istanbul Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

“Dear Hrant,

“You are my second friend who was killed after [prominent Turkish writer and poet] Onat Kutlar.

“The bullet that cut you off from life has left us alone with an example of a terrifying fatal malignancy.

“We have endeavored to associate our lives with yours and learn something from you in order to cope with this pain. What we learned from you fortified the building blocks of our conscience by transforming our pain.

“We thank you for these and the power to resist that these provided,” Kavala wrote, according to Bianet website of Turkey.

Osman Kavala is one of Turkey’s well-known human rights activists, and an advocate for normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations.

He has organized numerous events in Turkey aimed at Armenian-Turkish reconciliation.

Kavala has been to Armenia many times.

His publishing house in Istanbul has published numerous books on Armenian Genocide, and discussions and remembrance events on this tragedy have been organized at his restaurant in the city.

Osman Kavala was arrested on charges of collaborating with those accused of the 2016 military coup attempt in Turkey.

Hrant Dink, the founder and chief editor of Agos, was gunned down on January 19, 2007, outside the then office of this newspaper.

In 2011, the perpetrator, Ogün Samast, was sentenced by a juvenile court to 22 years and ten months for the murder.

After long court proceedings and appeals, however, a new probe was ultimately launched into this murder case, and regarding numerous former and serving senior Turkish officials’ complicity in this assassination.