TURKISH SINGER HIRES THE ASSASSINS OF SANTORO AND DINK
AsiaNews.it
09/18/2007 12:21
Italy
The song, preformed by a popular Turkish folk singer, inspired an
even more explicit video : at the line "Stop ringing the bells"
the face of the murdered priest appears, while the dead body of Dink
appears while singer says the verse "if a person betrays the country,
he is finished off."
Istanbul (AsiaNews) – "Stop ringing the bells" says the song and
the video shows the face of don Andrea Santoro, (the priest killed
in February 2005); further on the dead body of Hrant Dink, the
journalist of Armenian origins killed at the beginning of the year,
appears while singer says the verse "if a person betrays the country,
he is finished off.".
The video which was prepared for folk singer Ismail Turut’s last
song named "Don’t make any plans" is opening old wounds and stirring
controversy. Written by Ozan Arif, a poet with a large ultranationalist
following, the song and video appeared on YouTube only to be
immediately withdrawn. Beyond the images, which the singer claims to
have had no prior knowledge, the lyrics laude the authors of the two
murders, hiding their names in a clever play on words. For the most
part the references are all too clear: in the case of don Santoro’s
murder, after having said to stop ringing the bells, the text adds:
"people do not want to put up with this, not in the region of the
black Sea", the same region where the Italian priest was killed.
There were immediate reactions: Dink’s family say they will bring both
the singer and writer to court, as does the Turkish section of Human
Rights Association (IHD). Controversy is on the rise regarding the
inaction of the judicial system, regarding the entire episode of the
assassinated Armenian journalist. "If it hadn’t of been Dink – says
Yucel Sayman, one time president of Istanbul’s lawyers association –
the district attorney would have already made his move".