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Nikol Pashinyan Nominated for Hrant Dink Award

Chief editor of local daily Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times”), imprisoned journalist Nikol Pashinyan has been nominated for the International Hrant Dink Award.

On Sept. 15, 2009, when Istanbul was marking slain Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink’s 55th birthday, the Hrant Dink Foundation launched the Hrant Dink Award, which is presented annually on Dink’s birthday to “people who work for a world free of discrimination, racism, and violence, take personal risks for their ideals, use the language of peace and by doing so, inspire and encourage others,” according to the official Hrant Dink Award website.

Each year, the award is given to one citizen of Turkey and one foreign citizen. In 2009, the award winners were Turkish journalist Alper Görmüş and Israeli journalist, publicist Amira Hass, while in 2010, the award was given to Turkey’s Conscientious Objection Movement and Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón Real.

Note, this year’s jury includes author Adalet Ağaoğlu; Turkey’s Conscientious Objection Movement; Baltasar Garzón Real; Yerevan Press Club President Boris Navasardian (the only jury member from Armenia); European Parliament member Daniel Cohn-Bendit; journalist Hasan Cemal; former secretary general of Amnesty International Irene Khan; author Judith Butler; and Hrant Dink’s wife and president of the Hrant Dink Foundation, Rakel Dink.

Nikol Pashinyan was nominated for this year’s award by the Yerevan-based International Journalists’ Network.