Hrant DinkIn the Armenian Orthodox tradition, a requiem is held for the repose of the deceased’s soul on the fortieth day after a death. This February 25, friends of Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink will gather at a Los Angeles hall to mourn him, shot three times in Istanbul on January 19.

It’s no accident that the requiem is taking place in California. The United States is home to more than one million Americans who claim Armenian descent. Half live in the cities of Glendale, Fresno, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The only Armenian-American to serve as a governor, George Deukmejian, served in California. Like so many, the Deukmejians lost kin in 1915, when Turks massacred and expelled over one million Armenian Turks, considered the first genocide of the 20th century.

Dink’s murderer claimed that he targeted the journalist because of his writings, which called on Turkey to recognize and make amends for the genocide and for its treatment of other ethnic minorities.

Eleven days after Dink’s murder, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who represents Glendale, introduced a resolution on the Armenian genocide. The language calls on the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects an appropriate understanding of the Armenian genocide and accurately characterizes the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians.

Versions of this resolution have been presented and have failed in the past. But under a new Democratic leadership, this one has a good chance of passing.

Dink was born in Turkey, but raised in Armenian-language schools. He embraced both identities, which enraged nationalists. They passionately oppose any critical look at the past and the reforms needed to gain entry into the European Union. Like Turkey’s Nobel laureate, Orhan Pamuk, Dink was prosecuted under Article 301, a law that makes it a crime to “insult Turkishness.”

This is an over-broad category that allows nationalists to claim that they have been harmed by someone who dares write something other than the official line about the past. The law has even been used against a work of fiction, to punish a novelist who dared have her characters discuss 1915.

Some have blamed Dink’s murder on the nationalism of a highly traditional, conservative society. But that is a dangerous and dangerously shallow view.

The attackers were no Anatolian pre-moderns, but urban, Internet savvy and cell phone connected Turks. Ogun SamastDink’s murderer was a 17-year-old high school drop out who spent the days before the shooting doing drugs and soaking up nationalist hatred in an Internet chat room. In 2004, one of his buddies bombed a McDonald’s; another killed an Italian priest in 2006.

The city where all live is Trabzon, a Black Sea port described by one Turkish friend as one of the most hopeless, depressing places in a country with its fair share. Desperate Russian prostitutes, known as “Natashas,” set up shop in depressed downtown while illegal workshops churn out hand-made guns.

It is tempting to dismiss these crimes as a work of a Columbine-style cabal. But in early February, a video was leaked showing Dink’s killer in custody in Istanbul. He held a Turkish flag as he was congratulated by policemen, who treated him as a hero. Turkey’s ultimate power brokers, the military, are steadfast in their refusal to discuss the past and use their bully pulpit to attack the civilians leading the way into Europe.

“Nationalism and bigotry are not unique to Trabzon,” commented one Turkish political scientist to the Christian Science Monitor. “It’s a microcosm, an extreme example of something that exists in other places.”

Yet that’s not the only story. After word of Dink’s murder spread, thousands marched in a spontaneous spontaneous protest, chanting “We are all Armenian.” Now is the moment to support the hundreds of thousands of Turks who embrace a vision of the future where difficult subjects are not silenced.

By passing the genocide resolution, the US Congress can contribute to the mounting pressure on Turkey to take on its nationalists and continue the country’s move towards a better democracy. Though it cost him his life, Dink vowed never to run from Turkey or its problems. In that, he was the best kind of Turk the nation could have wished for.