(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)May 29, 2014

(MAHWAH, NJ) – On March 25, in a broad-ranging lecture, New York University Professor Ayda Erbal examined the ramifications of the assassination in 2007 of Turkish-Armenian editor, journalist and columnist Hrant Dink. In particular, she drew attention to how each segment of Turkish society used Dink’s murder at the hands of a young Turkish nationalist for its own ends. As she pointed out, in some instances the Turkish-Armenian journalist’s tragic demise, instead of opening a discourse about Turkey’s continuing denial of the Armenian Genocide, was used to contain or avoid it. To summarize, Erbal presented a cautionary tale about the limits of establishing and consolidating human rights in a society in which there has been a lack of post-conflict institutional change.

Ayda Erbal

Ayda Erbal teaches two advanced undergraduate classes, “International Politics of the Middle East” and “Democracy and Dictatorship,” as an adjunct professor of politics in the College of Arts and Sciences at New York University. She is interested in democratic theory, democratic deliberation, the politics of “post-nationalist” historiographies in transitional settings, mass violence and the politics of apology. She is a published short-story writer and worked as a columnist for the Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos from 2000-03. Additionally, Erbal is the lead singer and second percussionist of the polyglot Middle-Eastern band NOUR (http://www.myspace.com/nourmusic). She is alsoin the process of writing her second narrative short film “Meligone”. Her first narrative short “Harvest” was invited to Cannes Short Film Corner.

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