Turkey Urged to Tackle Nationalism After Dink Murder (Update1)
By Ben Holland
Bloomberg
Jan 22 2007
Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) — Human-rights groups and European politicians
urged Turkey’s government and media to stop stoking chauvinist
feelings, as police blamed the Jan. 19 killing of Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink on nationalists.
A teenager detained the next day confessed to killing Dink, saying
he was provoked by the journalist’s writings, according to the
newspaper Hurriyet. Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah said
the crime was motivated by "nationalist feelings." Dink, along with
Nobel prizewinner Orhan Pamuk and other Turkish writers, questioned
Turkey’s denial of what Armenians say was genocide carried out by
Turks during World War I.
Turkey frequently prosecutes those like Dink and Pamuk who question
state policies on such issues, and they’re often labeled as traitors
by lawmakers and the media. Last week’s murder may show Turkish
politicians the danger of excessive flag-waving as they court the
patriotic vote in an election year, says Yusuf Alatas, head of Turkey’s
Human Rights Association.
"We’ve allowed a lynch culture to develop, an aggressive, threatening
nationalism," Alatas said in a phone interview from Ankara today. "The
government is worried about losing votes, so it joins in the chorus. I
just hope that after this, politicians will watch their tongues."
Pre-Election Rhetoric
Turkey is due to hold parliamentary elections by November. Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was criticized yesterday by a senior
member of his Justice and Development Party for using increasingly
nationalist rhetoric in the run-up to the polls, Milliyet newspaper
reported today.
Dink was given a suspended jail sentence in July for an article
about the Armenian massacres, and at the time of his death was being
prosecuted again for calling them genocide. Pamuk, the Turkish novelist
who won the 2006 Nobel literature prize, was charged with insulting
Turkish identity by referring to the mass killings, in a case later
abandoned by the court.
Dink "was killed because of his ideas, ideas that aren’t acceptable
to the state," Pamuk told reporters last night outside the office of
Dink’s Argos newspaper.
Armenians say that at least 1.5 million of their people were
slaughtered in a planned genocide from 1915. Turkey says that number
is inflated and that both Turks and Armenians were killed during
ethnic clashes.
EU Criticism
The European Union, which started membership talks with Turkey in
October 2005, has criticized the government for failing to defend
freedom of expression or repeal laws used to prosecute Dink, Pamuk
and other supporters of Armenian genocide claims.
France’s lower house of parliament last year passed a law making
denial of the Armenian genocide a criminal offense. Members of the
U.S. House of Representatives have said they may submit legislation
representing the killings as genocide as early as April.
Instead of changing laws to meet EU criteria, ministers have joined
in the criticism of dissidents. Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said
the organizers of an Istanbul conference in 2005 on the massacres of
Armenians were "stabbing the Turkish nation in the back."
Such attitudes are part of a nationalism that’s deeply rooted in
Turkey’s culture, said Cem Ozdemir, a German of Turkish origin who’s
a member of the European Parliament.
`No Coincidence’
"If you grow up with the saying that neighbors are enemies, and
the Turk’s only friend is a Turk, then this kind of hostility to
minorities is no coincidence," Ozdemir said in a telephone interview
before flying to Istanbul for Dink’s funeral tomorrow.
Turkey’s media have also helped create a climate in which "you’re
either with us or against us," Ozdemir said.
Hurriyet, the country’s most-read daily, reported Pamuk’s Nobel
victory last year with the headline "The Nobel Goes to a Turk." The
headline deliberately avoided mention of Pamuk’s name because his
comments had offended Turkish feelings, an editorial explained.
Alatas of the Human Rights Association cited the murder of a
Catholic priest and a high court judge last year and attempts to
lynch Kurdish rights activists, as further examples of a "rising tide
of nationalism."
"These kind of attacks are carried out by organized groups," Alatas
said. "And the more politicians use nationalist rhetoric, the easier
it is for such groups to recruit."