The Assassination of Hrant Dink

[Helen]

Armenian-Turkish Journalist Hrant Dink Shot Dead (Update2)

By Mark Bentley and Ayla Jean Yackley

Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Hrant Dink, the editor of Turkey's main Armenian-language newspaper who had questioned Turkey's denial of an Armenian genocide, was shot dead in Istanbul today.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the assassination an attack against ``Turkey's stability.'' Turkish stocks fell after the shooting was reported.

Dink, one of the most prominent ethnic Armenians in Turkey, received a sixth-month suspended jail term from a Turkish court in July for ``insulting Turkishness'' in a 2004 article he wrote about the killing of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Turks at the time of World War I. Turkey denies that a genocide took place.

``This attack against Hrant Dink is against the Turkish nation's togetherness and peace,'' Erdogan said. `A bullet was fired at freedom of thought and democratic life.''

The European Union has called on Turkey to halt the prosecution of writers and journalists for expressing their opinion or face a halt to its membership bid.

Dink was killed by an unidentified gunman outside his office in Istanbul's Sisli district, a spokeswoman for Agos, the newspaper Dink edited, said in a telephone interview.

``Whatever the motive, this is a despicable act,'' said Ilter Turkmen, a former Turkish foreign minister, in a telephone interview. ``The government needs to find the assailant immediately.''

Just before his assassination, Dink had complained of death threats he was receiving from nationalists.

``My computer is laden with lines filled with angry threats,'' Dink wrote in a Jan. 10 article for Agos. He said he found one letter ``extremely worrying'' and said police took no action after he complained.

Police have arrested two people in connection with the murder, NTV television reported. Police believe a male aged 18 or 19 may have killed Dink, CNN Turk television reported citing unidentified police officials.

Akin Birdal, the former head of Turkey's Human Rights Association who was shot six times in 1998 in his office by a suspected nationalist, called the shooting ``an organized attempt by those who want to destroy Turkey's European Union aspirations to cast Turkey into darkness.''

Police in riot gear surrounded Dink's office in downtown Istanbul. Forensic teams were combing the pavement outside for clues to the murder.

Stocks fell as much as 1 percent in Istanbul following the attack after rising 1.4 percent earlier. They ended the day down 0.1 percent at 40,201.14.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Bentley in Ankara, Turkey on at [email protected]

Last Updated: January 19, 2007 10:06 EST

[Gavur]

Journalist who spoke out on Armenian genocide killed

Journalist who spoke out on Armenian genocide killed
by Mavi Zambak
Hrant Dink, editor of Agos, had received death threats and in 2005 had been condemned for "insulting Turkish national identity."

Istanbul (AsiaNews) - Hrant Dink, Turkish journalist of Armenian origin, was killed this afternoon around 3 p.m. local time, as he left the offices of the newspaper he directed. He was shot four times by, it is thought, a young man of 18 or 19 years who then fled through the crowd of one of the busiest streets of the European quarter of Istanbul, Sisli.

Dink, age 53, had been given a six-month suspended sentence by judges in Istanbul in October 2005 for having "insulted Turkish national identity." Editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper, Agos, Dink had been tried for an article he wrote in 2004 on the genocide of the Armenians. His murder is a shock for all Turks: an improntu protest took place among those who gathered at the doorway where he was shot; protesters shouted "Hrant is not dead, his freedom shall not die."

In a television interview broadcast shortly after the shooting, his friend and fellow journalist, Aydin Engin, who had been sentenced together with Dink on the basis of the same article 301 of the Turkish penal code, recalled how just yesterday the two had spoken on the telephone about their six-month sentence, which had simply been postponed indefinitely, but had not been definitively suspended. And how Hrant said that he was not afraid and was ready for anything. Aydin had urged him many times to accept the bodyguard that police had promised him after the latest threats made against him, but Hrant once again refused saying that he did not want to be defended in his freedom and that he did not fear the dangers he faced.

Engin recalls his colleague as a man who always spoke openly about the search for truth, freedom and democracy. "All of Turkey has been wounded by this assassination, it is a source of mourning for the entire nation," Engin said without hesitation; he sees in this murder a further attempt by those who are against Turkey's entry into Europe to arouse indignation against Turks among Europeans. Various government figures have explicitly condemned this horrible occurrence. President Sezer himself said without hesitation that it was a "brutal" act.

Il premier turco Erdogan, nella conferenza stampa subito organizzata ad Ankara ha affermato: “Questo sangue versato ci lascia sconcertati e sicuramente questo atto è stato compiuto per uccidere la nostra pace e la nostra libertà e democrazia. A nome di tutta la popolazione e della nazione turca condanno questo gesto e si cercherà di fare di tutto per mettere chiarezza in questo omicidio e trovare i colpevoli. Deploro queste mani insanguinate. Non accettiamo questa provocazione intenta a distruggere l’unità di questo paese e a creare contrasti tra le diverse culture e religioni presenti in Turchia.

In an emergency press conference organized in Ankara, Turkish Premier Erdogan said: "The spilling of this blood has left us dumbfounded and this act was certainly committed to destroy our peace, freedom and democracy. In the name of the Turkish people and nation, I condemn this act and everything will be done to find those responsible. I deplore those who have bloodied their hands. We do not accept this provocation which aims at destroying the unity of this country and creating contrasts between the different cultures and religions of Turkey. Nothing is known about who committed this murder, nor what motivated it, but I can already say that I will do everything possible to take part in the funeral of our journalist, wherever and with whatever rite it is held."

Gav;

The coward Turk shot him from the back!

http://www.milliyet.com.tr/content/galeri/yeni/goster.asp?id=1&galeriid=781

[Gavur]

Hrant Dink Latest Casualty in Troubled Historical Record of Turkish-Armenian Relations

19.01.2007 19:33 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The tragic assassination of Hrant Dink in Istanbul represents a sad reminder of the difficulty for some in Turkey to come to terms with both the past, in terms of Genocide, as well as the present, and to see the need for Turkey to improve its relations with Armenia, Richard Giragosian, expert of the Armenian International Police Research Group told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. “Hrant Dink is the latest casualty in the troubled historical record of Turkish-Armenian relations and his example stands as an inspiration to all those in both Armenia and Turkey who advocate a new page in bilateral relations. His death will now challenge the Turkish authorities to both come to terms with their own internal changes now underway, but also to force the Turkish authorities to move strongly to prevent such anti-Armenian violence, which is unacceptable for any modern country. While Armenians worldwide will grieve, others in Turkey must see his death as a lesson that the days of violence have long past and that Turkey's future depends as much on its recognition of the Armenian Genocide as it depends on a Turkey committed to democracy and human rights. Both the European Union, as well as the United States, should move quickly to condemn such killing and must now recognize the need for a breakthrough in Armenian-Turkish relations, including Ankara extending full and normal diplomatic relations and an end to the failed blockade of Armenia by both Turkey and Azerbaijan,” he said.

[Hovik]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-01-20T161636Z_01_L20571520_RTRUKOC_0_US-TURKEY-AUTHOR.xml&WTmodLoc=IntNewsHome_C2_worldNews-4

Wrong Nation Erdogan, it was an attack on Armenia.

Quit feeling sorry for your faltering EU status, you made the bed, lay in it...

[Hovik]

The Murder of Hrant Dink

http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/070120232204.1p1d3qcw.html

[Hovik]

Teen admits killing editor

Prosecutor: Teen admits killing editor
By BENJAMIN HARVEY, Associated Press Writer
23 minutes ago



A teenage boy has confessed to fatally shooting an ethnic Armenian journalist outside his newspaper office in a brazen daytime attack, a prosecutor said Sunday.

Ogun Samast, who is either 16 or 17 years old, was caught in the Black Sea city of Samsun late Saturday, a day after Hrant Dink was gunned down in Istanbul. Police said the youth was captured following a tip from his father after his pictures were broadcast on Turkish television.

The slaying highlighted the precarious state of freedom of expression in a country that is vying for European Union membership.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised the swift work of police, saying "this is a lesson to those who want to shoot at freedoms ... to those who don't want calm to reign in Turkey."

Chief prosecutor Ahmet Cokcinar told The Associated Press that the teenager had confessed to killing Dink during initial questioning in Samsun. He refused to give any further details.

Most Turks assume Dink, the 52-year-old editor of the Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, was targeted for his columns saying the killing of ethnic Armenians by Turks in the early 20th century was genocide. Nationalists consider such statements an insult to Turkey's honor and a threat to its unity, and Dink had been showered with insults and threats.

Turkey's relationship with its Armenian minority has long been haunted by a bloody past. Much of its once-influential Armenian population was killed or driven out beginning around 1915 in what an increasing number of nations are calling the first genocide of the 20th century.

Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of Armenians died but vehemently denies it was genocide, saying the overall figure is inflated and the deaths occurred in the civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Istanbul prosecutor Aykut Cengiz Engin told reporters that authorities were investigating whether Samast acted alone or had ties to a group.

The suspect's uncle Faik Samast told private NTV television that he didn't think his nephew — a high-school drop out — was capable of shooting Dink on his own.

"He didn't even know his way around Istanbul," Samast said. "This kid was used."

Police detained six other suspects, including Yasin Hayal, who was convicted in the bombing of a McDonald's restaurant in the Black Sea city of Trabzon in 2004, Turkish news reports said.

[Hovik]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/234A494E-8FF1-47D7-945E-D8CA2F741637.htm

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BDCEC5AA-A555-413E-8C0D-7D5EEB2D35C5.htm

[Joseph]

We must never forget Turkey's 'first solution'
Jasper Gerard
Sunday January 21, 2007
_The Observer_ (http://www.observer.co.uk/)

My wife is only alive because her great-grandmother hid in a laundry
basket, peeking through slats as troops bayoneted the rest of her
family to death. She is crying upstairs as I write because history
stubbornly refuses to move on. A fellow Armenian, a newspaper editor,
has been shot dead in Istanbul. His mistake? Reminding Turkey it still
hasn't apologised for - or even admitted - the genocide of 1.2m
Armenians under the cover of the First World War.

Hrant Dink had already been convicted of this 'crime', for which Orhan
Pamuk, Turkey's greatest novelist, was also prosecuted. Just imagine
if a British editor was gunned down and men in size 12s bundled off
Martin Amis for, say, daring to mention Bloody Sunday. There would be
riots in London Fields. But because it's in Turkey, a moderate Muslim
state needed in the War on Terror, Brits who normally speak for the
marginalised are watching Big Brother. They shrug: 'Let's fight the
new war, not the old.' The problem is, it is the same war, and as
Dink's bloodied body suggests, there has never really been a
ceasefire.

To qualify, this is not all about religion, about Muslims (Turks)
versus Christians (Armenians): nationalism as much as religion
prevents Turkey uttering the fearful 'sorry'. But if Armenians weren't
Christian, would Turkey have refused for so long? And would the West
have been quite so squeamish about pressuring Ankara?

In extreme cases, Islamicists trade on Western self-abasement. So in
Britain last week it was claimed a terrorist suspect took refuge in a
mosque. Police refused to enter for 'cultural reasons'. Would they
have been so polite if an IRA suspect had holed up in a Catholic
church? Another man allegedly involved in a plot to bomb targets in
London was said to have fled in a burka, knowing no policeman would
dare frisk him.

Turkey still doesn't acknowledge Armenia. Its Prime Minister, Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, condemns the murder, but it was he who outlawed
so-called attacks on the state. He has also stepped up nationalistic
and Islamic tub-thumping, so while his condolences seem sincere, they
are about as valuable as a discourse on multiculturalism from Jade
Goody. And this is the guy with whom Tony Blair wants to chew over
European integration.

Istanbul dazzles. On frequent trips, I see the clash of civilisations
fought, not in mosques but in Moschino: the devil might wear Prada,
but so now do many of Allah's followers. Materialism, not
spiritualism, will win this war. Mama might be shrouded in black, but
her daughter might be a short-skirted babe hopping into her
boyfriend's open-top Mini.

Most Turks want progress, and we should help them. America, with a
Democrat Congress, should shortly join France in recognising the
genocide.

Winston Churchill once called it a holocaust. What a paradox that just
as Europe starts to consider outlawing Holocaust denial, Turkey
outlaws holocaust admittance. Hitler famously reckoned he would get
away with his Final Solution after studying Turkey's first
solution. 'Who,' he asked 'remembers the Armenians?' The torchlit
procession of all nationalities weaving tearfully through Istanbul
suggests that, finally, the entire world remembers.

[Hovik]

Dink not mentioned in Sunday's sermon

Dink not mentioned in Sunday's sermon
Monday, January 22, 2007


VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU
ISTANBUL- Turkish Daily News


Participants of this Sunday's service of the Virgin Mary Church in Kumpkapı, also home to the Armenian Patriarchate building, were greatly surprised because the assassination of Turkish-Armenian writer Hrant Dink, one of the country's prominent defenders of freedom of speech who was outspokenly against Turkey's official denial of the alleged genocide of Armenians, was not mentioned once during the sermon, a TDN correspondent attending the funeral reported.

Turkey's Armenian community would traditionally be expected to mark Dink's assassination with a lengthy Sunday address and hymns sung by a large choir. However, yesterday's service at the Patriarchate's Virgin Mary Church with a 15-person choir was nothing but extremely unexceptional, which is anything but ordinary.

Armenian Patriarch of the Istanbul Armenian community Mesrob Mutafyan, known for keeping his distance stance from Dink, which was not unreciprocated, did not attend the service. Thus Sunday's sermon was carried out by another priest of the church. The bi-lingual sermon delivered in Turkish and Armenian mainly focused on the Bible and the life of Christ and made no single mention of Dink.

Hrant Dink, the voice of freedom for Armenian society, was frequently a target of criticism among some sections of Istanbul's conservative Armenian community. Dink had troublesome relations with the Istanbul Armenian Patriarchate, which severely reacted to Dink's unorthodox views.

Meanwhile, Karekin II, the Patriarch of all Armenians, sent a letter today to Archbishop Mutafyan, about the tragic assassination in Istanbul yesterday of journalist Dink, editor of the “Agos” weekly newspaper.

The message expressed sorrow over Dink's assassination. The statement said: “All our people and we grieve the loss of yet another intellectual who has become an innocent victim. In the strongest of terms, we condemn this clandestine assassination which took from our people a graceful and courageous son, who faithfully brought his service with his pen for the love of a just, free and peaceful life and better world. We also expect that the authorities of Turkey will uncover and punish the individuals responsible for this crime to the fullest extent of the law.”


© 2005 Dogan Daily News Inc. www.turkishdailynews.com.tr

[Hovik]

Turkish police probe ultranationalist links in Dink murder

Another xxxxty article full of inaccuracies and omitted facts.

1. They drop the fact that the accomplice was trained at a terrorist chechen camp in Azerbaijan.
2. They call Samast a secondary school graduate, instead of a high school dropout...
3. They again only write about Dink recognizing the genocide, leaving out the rest of the world (save Turkey)...
4. They said Samast said he shot Dink for insulting the Turkish nation, leaving out that as he squeeze 3 bullets in this innocent man he screamed "I killed the infidel"...

Its all to water the extremism of Turkey down for the west, but why? This is reality, why can't they report reality? sick...


Turkish police probe ultranationalist links in Dink murder

Mon Jan 22, 4:14 PM ET

Turkish police turned their attention to possible ultranationalist links in the murder of Hrant Dink as authorities announced strict security for the ethnic Armenian journalist's funeral.

Istanbul's chief prosecutor, Aykut Cengiz Engin, said investigators had found no link between Friday's murder and "known ideological or separatist" illegal organisations.

"But we are investigating in detail the possibility that it was carried out by an organisation," Engin told the Anatolia news agency.

A prosecutor said Sunday that the prime suspect, 17-year-old Ogun Samast, had confessed to the killing and newspapers quoted the teenager as telling police he shot Dink because the journalist insulted the Turkish nation.

Dink, 52, was a taboo-breaking critic of the official line on the 1915-17 Ottoman Empire massacre of Armenians, which he labeled as genocide, and was given a suspended six-month jail sentence last year for "insulting Turkishness".

Nationalists branded him a "traitor" and Dink wrote in recent articles in his weekly newspaper Agos that he had received threats.

He had also gained respect in Turkey as a sincere activist for Turkish-Armenian reconciliation and for free speech.

Quoting sources close to the investigation, newspapers on Monday said police were probing links between Samast and a small, ultranationalist group in his hometown of Trabzon on the Black Sea Coast.

Samast told police he was told to kill Dink and provided with a gun by a friend, Yasin Hayal, who spent 11 months in jail for a 2004 bomb attack against a McDonald's restaurant in Trabzon, the mass-circulation Hurriyet newspaper said.

Turkish newspapers described Hayal, who is one of the seven other people in custody, as an "older brother" figure who frequently met youngsters in the area and influenced them with his ultranationalist views.

Hurriyet said Samast, an unemployed secondary school graduate, was among 10 youths aged 15 to 17 whom Hayal had last year trained to shoot small arms in order to assassinate Dink.

"I was chosen because I was the best shot and the fastest runner," the daily Vatan quoted Samast as telling police.

His mother, Havva Samast, said Monday that she believed her son had not been acting alone.

"He is not a person who could do this on his own," she said in remarks broadcast on the NTV news channel. "Someone used him."

Istanbul governor Muammer Guler announced that additional police had been called in for Dink's funeral on Tuesday that is expected to draw thousands of people, along with by Armenian religious leaders and foreign diplomats.

Armenia's deputy foreign minister, Arman Kirakosian, will attend the funeral, national television in the former Soviet republic said.

Kirakosian will make the trip despite the absence of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Dink will be buried at an Armenian cemetery in Istanbul after a ceremony in front of the Agos offices and a religious service at the Armenian patriarchate.

"We have cancelled all leave for police officers and we will have an adequate force in place," Guler said in televised remarks.

Some roads would be blocked off along the eight-kilometre (five-mile) route the procession will take, he said.

A Turkish diplomat told AFP Monday that Ankara had invited prominent Armenian religious leaders from around the world to attend.

Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, primate of the Eastern diocese of the Armenian Church of America, has already arrived in Istanbul, Anatolia reported.

The Coordination Council of Armenian Organisations in France said they would send a delegation as well.

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin and Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu will represent the Turkish government at the funeral.