Fethiye Çetin

Who is Fethiye Çetin?

Fethiye Çetin born in Maden, Elazığ Province is a Turkish lawyer, writer and human rights activist.

She was born as a name Heranuş Gadaryan in the small town of Maden, to a Muslim family. Çetin's maternal grandmother, Seher, would later reveal that she was by birth an Armenian Christian who had been taken away from her mother on a death march in the course of the Armenian Genocide to be raised as a Muslim by a Turkish military official; this legacy inspired Çetin's first book, a recounting of her grandmother's story in the memoir entitled My Grandmother. The book, translated into English by Maureen Freely, has become required reading at some progressive Turkish institutes of higher learning, such as Sabancı University. Today's Zaman characterizes the book as "part of a trend in Turkey that is grappling with a history of denial, nationalism and fears of political consequences" in regards to "the lost Armenians".

In her capacity as a lawyer, Çetin has represented the family of murdered Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor Hrant Dink.

In September 2010 Fethiye Cetin visited Australia as an invited guest to a public discussion in a Sydney bookstore, about her novel 'My Grandmother'.