On July 5, Rakel Dink, widow of assassinated journalist Hrant Dink, visited the community of Uludere in south-eastern Turkey where 34 local residents were killed in a botched Turkish air strike on December 28, 2011.

Rakel Dink is heading a joint project with leading Turkish cultural figures to establish a monument to those who died in Turkey’s Province.

Dink is from Şırnak’s Silopi district herself and spoke in Kurdish to the families of those who died in the air attack.

She has teamed up with the three other women, writer Bejan Matur, dancer Zeynep Tanbay and prominent Turkish singer Sezen Aksu, to commemorate the names of the deceased civilians and their families’ pain.

“If they accept your reality, they will start to feel regret and comprehend the situation. Comprehension precedes shame and apologies, but they haven’t done any of these. The state positions itself as a father, but here the father has become the killer,” Dink said during her visit.

The names of the 34 civilian dead will be inscribed on the gigantic black stone monument which is slated to be brought to Uludere in the fall.