Financial Times, UK –
Jan 20 2007
Journalist killed by gunman in Istanbul
By Vincent Boland in Istanbul
Published: January 19 2007 15:22 | Last updated: January 19 2007
17:14
A prominent newspaper editor and leading figure in one of Turkey’s
most painful historical debates – the massacre of Armenians during
the collapse of the Ottoman empire – was shot dead on Friday.
Hrant Dink, 53, was shot three times in the head outside the office
of his weekly newspaper Agos in Istanbul. He died almost immediately.
His murder brought swift condemnation from the prime minister, Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, who despatched the interior and justice ministers to
the city as an investigation got under way.
Mr Dink was a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent and had played a
leading role in breaking a taboo in Turkey where debate on the fate
of the Armenians had for years been an untouchable subject. He was
widely credited with trying to bring Turks and Armenians together but
had been given a suspended prison sentence in 2005 for allegedly
insulting the Turkish state.
Armenians say the deaths of up to 1.5m Armenian citizens of the
Ottoman empire were a deliberate genocide by the empire’s rulers
beginning in 1915. Turkey denies genocide and insists that hundreds
of thousands of both Turks and Armenians died as a result of war,
famine, ethnic cleansing and disease in that turbulent period.
Mr Dink’s murder could have serious repercussions for Turkey in
Washington. Both houses of the US Congress are due to debate a motion
in the next few weeks that would recognise the Armenian massacre as
genocide. Turkey is fighting a rearguard diplomatic action to prevent
this and the White House has indicated that it would not approve such
a motion. But the atmosphere in which the debate takes place will be
clouded by Friday’s events.
There was a heavy police presence in Istanbul last night as Mr Dink’s
friends gathered outside the office of his newspaper. Mr Erdogan said
the murder was `’an attack on all of us” and appealed for calm. Two
men were under arrest last night in connection with the murder.
Mr Dink’s murder will also have a big impact domestically. It is an
election year in Turkey and all political parties are beginning to
position themselves to capture the nationalist vote, which represents
a sizeable portion of the electorate. Ultranationalists have
succeeded many times in shutting off debate on the Armenian issue
including academic debates at universities.
Most Turks are not aware of the fate of the Armenians because Turkish
school history textbooks make no reference to it. But a debate has
emerged in the past two years with Mr Dink as one of its most
prominent proponents. Yet it remains the most sensitive issue in
Turkey’s 20th century history. The republic was created from the
ruins of the Ottoman empire in 1923.
Mr Dink was known to have received many death threats in recent years
but is understood to have refused police protection.