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Turkey's PM says Armenian killing attack on nation
Sat 20 Jan 2007 15:19:58 GMT
(Adds more reaction and funeral details)
By Paul de Bendern
ISTANBUL, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan pledged on Saturday to tackle the "provocateurs" behind the death of a writer who had angered nationalists with his articles referring to a Turkish "genocide" of Armenians.
Hrant Dink, editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos and Turkey's best known Armenian voice abroad, was shot in broad daylight as he left his office in Istanbul on Friday.
"I am declaring once more as an answer to provocateurs who have blood in their hands that bullets fired at Hrant Dink were fired at all of us," Erdogan told his AK Party.
"We are aware of our responsibility as the government and we're making this a priority ... Hrant Dink was a son of this land."
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Turkish television on Saturday released a detailed picture of the suspected killer -- a young man with a trimmed beard.
Newspapers said racism and nationalism, which is on the rise ahead of elections in May and November, were ultimately to blame for Dink's death.
Dink, 52, was a Christian of Armenian descent. He was a frequent target of Turkish nationalists, including politicians and prosecutors, for saying the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One was genocide.
Nationalists see such comments as a threat to national unity. Turkey, which is predominantly Muslim, denies genocide was committed and says both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks died in large numbers as the Ottoman Empire was breaking up.
"MONSTER OF NATIONALISM"
"Those who created nationalist sentiment in Turkey have fed such a monster that there are many youngsters on the streets who do not find the ... state nationalist enough and are ready to take the law into their own hands," wrote Ismet Berkan in his column in Radikal, one of Turkey's main dailies.
"Politicians, journalists and film makers also contributed to the creation of this murderous nationalist atmosphere."
Dink had received a suspended six-month jail term in 2005 for "insulting Turkey's identity" in an article that discussed Armenian nationalist ideas of ethnic purity.
Despite his record of breaking taboos, his murder sparked rare unity among leading politicians and papers.
The front page of the leading liberal daily Milliyet read "Hrant Dink is Turkey".
Armenia, which has no diplomatic ties with Turkey but shares a border, expressed shock and urged Turkey to find the killers.
But the deputy leader of Turkey's nationalist MHP party, Mehmet Sandir, blamed Dink's death on the Armenian diaspora, the state Anatolian news agency reported.
The killing again raised questions about how far Turkey has come in addressing minorities and freedom of expression as it applies to join the European Union.
Turkey was criticised abroad last year for prosecuting Nobel Literature Prize winner Orhan Pamuk over his comments on the massacre of Armenians. His trial later collapsed.
"Hrant Dink symbolised tolerance. Those who shot him have no idea that they also shot Turkey," leading Turkish commentator Mehmet Ali Birand wrote in the Turkish Daily News.
The killing is bound to raise pressure again on Turkey to deal with its past. Last year France passed a law criminalising the denial of an Armenian genocide -- a law that Dink opposed.
Dink, survived by a wife and three children, will be laid to rest on Tuesday at the Balikli Armenian Cemetery in Istanbul.
In an article in Agos on the day of his death, he wrote: "The prosecutions will continue and new ones will begin. Who knows what other injustices I will face." (Additional reporting by Selcuk Gokoluk in Ankara)
Turkey's PM says Armenian killing attack on nation
Sat 20 Jan 2007 15:19:58 GMT
(Adds more reaction and funeral details)
By Paul de Bendern
ISTANBUL, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan pledged on Saturday to tackle the "provocateurs" behind the death of a writer who had angered nationalists with his articles referring to a Turkish "genocide" of Armenians.
Hrant Dink, editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos and Turkey's best known Armenian voice abroad, was shot in broad daylight as he left his office in Istanbul on Friday.
"I am declaring once more as an answer to provocateurs who have blood in their hands that bullets fired at Hrant Dink were fired at all of us," Erdogan told his AK Party.
"We are aware of our responsibility as the government and we're making this a priority ... Hrant Dink was a son of this land."
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Turkish television on Saturday released a detailed picture of the suspected killer -- a young man with a trimmed beard.
Newspapers said racism and nationalism, which is on the rise ahead of elections in May and November, were ultimately to blame for Dink's death.
Dink, 52, was a Christian of Armenian descent. He was a frequent target of Turkish nationalists, including politicians and prosecutors, for saying the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One was genocide.
Nationalists see such comments as a threat to national unity. Turkey, which is predominantly Muslim, denies genocide was committed and says both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks died in large numbers as the Ottoman Empire was breaking up.
"MONSTER OF NATIONALISM"
"Those who created nationalist sentiment in Turkey have fed such a monster that there are many youngsters on the streets who do not find the ... state nationalist enough and are ready to take the law into their own hands," wrote Ismet Berkan in his column in Radikal, one of Turkey's main dailies.
"Politicians, journalists and film makers also contributed to the creation of this murderous nationalist atmosphere."
Dink had received a suspended six-month jail term in 2005 for "insulting Turkey's identity" in an article that discussed Armenian nationalist ideas of ethnic purity.
Despite his record of breaking taboos, his murder sparked rare unity among leading politicians and papers.
The front page of the leading liberal daily Milliyet read "Hrant Dink is Turkey".
Armenia, which has no diplomatic ties with Turkey but shares a border, expressed shock and urged Turkey to find the killers.
But the deputy leader of Turkey's nationalist MHP party, Mehmet Sandir, blamed Dink's death on the Armenian diaspora, the state Anatolian news agency reported.
The killing again raised questions about how far Turkey has come in addressing minorities and freedom of expression as it applies to join the European Union.
Turkey was criticised abroad last year for prosecuting Nobel Literature Prize winner Orhan Pamuk over his comments on the massacre of Armenians. His trial later collapsed.
"Hrant Dink symbolised tolerance. Those who shot him have no idea that they also shot Turkey," leading Turkish commentator Mehmet Ali Birand wrote in the Turkish Daily News.
The killing is bound to raise pressure again on Turkey to deal with its past. Last year France passed a law criminalising the denial of an Armenian genocide -- a law that Dink opposed.
Dink, survived by a wife and three children, will be laid to rest on Tuesday at the Balikli Armenian Cemetery in Istanbul.
In an article in Agos on the day of his death, he wrote: "The prosecutions will continue and new ones will begin. Who knows what other injustices I will face." (Additional reporting by Selcuk Gokoluk in Ankara)
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