Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
from the New York Times
Jan 22 2007
Editor’s killing linked to murder of priest
Sebnem Arsu in Istanbul, Turkey
January 22, 2007
TURKISH police have arrested a 17-year-old suspect in the killing of
a newspaper editor who championed Armenian rights, Turkish
authorities say.
The editor, Hrant Dink, 52, a Turk of Armenian descent, was shot on
Friday afternoon outside the office of his newspaper, Agos. A gunman
was recorded by a surveillance camera nearby, and the police appealed
to the public for help in identifying him.
On Saturday night, Ogun Samast was captured in the Black Sea port of
Samsun after his father recognised him from the video and notified
police in Trabzon, their home town, said the Governor of Istanbul
province, Muammer Guler.
"The suspect was captured in Samsun on a passenger bus destined to
Trabzon, together with all the evidence, including his gun and the
white beret" seen in the video, Mr Guler said.
Samast, an unemployed high school leaver who arrived in Istanbul a
week ago, admitted killing Dink, the Samsun police said.
The police are also looking into possible links between Samast and
the killing of a Catholic priest, Andrea Santaro, last February. The
assailant was a 16-year-old who, like the priest and Samast, was from
Trabzon.
The Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Saturday praised the
efforts of the security forces and expressed satisfaction that an
arrest had been made before Dink’s funeral tomorrow. "We’re going to
continue investigations with the same determination," he said,
stressing that the arrest was only the beginning.
Guler said at a news conference earlier on Saturday that Samast had
visited the Agos office on Friday. He apparently posed as a
university student hoping to meet Dink, whose secretary told the
young man he would need an appointment.
The secretary later saw him loitering outside the office before Dink
was attacked, Mr Guler said.
Kazim Kolcuoglu, head of the Istanbul Bar Association, noting that
Samast and the killer of Santaro were under the age of 18, said
minors in Turkey are used in murders because they face lower
penalties than an adult convicted of the same crime.
As a 17-year-old, Samast will be interrogated by a public prosecutor
instead of the police.
Dink’s murder has shocked Turkey. Mr Erdogan condemned the shooting
as a direct attack on Turkey’s stability. Some analysts saw the
killing as a politically motivated attack on Turkey’s progress toward
membership in the European Union, while others blamed a controversial
law under which Dink had been convicted of insulting Turkish national
identity.
Dink, who angered many in Turkey by challenging the official Turkish
version of the 1915 Armenian genocide, was given a six-month
suspended sentence. But in the eyes of many radical nationalists, it
made him a target.
The New York Times