Fethiye Çetin

Fethiye Çetin ( fethi ː per tʃetin, Armenian Ֆեթհիյե Չեթին, maiden name Heranuş Gadaryan; born May 4, 1950 in Maden, Elazig Province) is a Turkish lawyer, writer and human rights activist with Armenian roots.

Life

She was born under the name Heranuş Gadaryan in the small town of maggots in a Muslim family. Cetin's maternal grandmother, Seher, announced award later that she was an Armenian Christian from birth, which was separated from her mother during a death march in the wake of the genocide of the Armenians to be raised by a Turkish military official as Moslems; this fate inspired Çetin her first book - a retelling of the story of her grandmother, titled My grandmother. The book was required reading in numerous progressive Turkish institutions of higher learning, such as at Sabancı University. Today's Zaman characterizes the book in relation to " the lost Armenians " as " part of a trend in Turkey, which is struggling with a history of denial, nationalism and fear of political consequences ".

In her work as a lawyer Çetin represented the family of the 2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian news editor Hrant Dink. In 2008 it signed the petition özür Diliyorum genocide.

In September 2010, Fethiye Çetin attended as an invited guest Australia to a public discussion about her novel My grandmother in a library in Sydney. She also went to Melbourne as an invited guest to the Melbourne Writers' Festival.