Author: Chakhmakhchian Vatche

Scoop.co.nz (press release), New Zealand
Jan 29 2007

Memorial Service for Slain Journalist Hrant Dink

Monday, 29 January 2007, 10:43 am

Press Release: US State Department

Remarks at Memorial Service for Slain Journalist Hrant Dink
Daniel Fried, Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs
St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church
Washington, DC
January 23, 2007

This is a sad and terrible occasion that we have gathered here in
honor of a man whose strength and vision we miss. Hrant Dink was a
man of courage and decency, and I must express my own awe and
admiration for his memory and for his life’s work. And we all express
our shock and horror at his brutal murder.

He was a proud son of the Armenian people and a citizen of Turkey,
and in his work and in his life insisted on reconciliation and
dialogue. And he stood for a civic virtue higher than hatred, higher
than ethnic stereotypes, higher than fears and repression and
ignorance. His was a vision of a better world. His was a vision of
the best in Turkey’s tradition.

The measure of how our world falls short must be judged by his murder
at the hands of an ignorant, hate-filled nationalist. The measure of
the hope for the world can be judged by his achievements in life,
which may be measured by the crowds on the streets in Istanbul today,
where tens of thousands of people & ndash; Armenians, Turks, Greeks –
filled the streets and stated their solidarity with his vision of a
better world, of a world of tolerance and understanding.

It is a testament to the power of evil people that he was murdered,
and yet a testament to the power of will that his vision was made
real today, and that tens of thousands took up his call is a noble
vision, and we should all be listening to on our own.

Thank you.

The Halifax Daily News (Nova Scotia)
January 28, 2007 Sunday

The martyrdom of Hrant Dink

by Gwynne dyer

When they buried Hrant Dink in Istanbul last Tuesday, more than
100,000 Turks came to his funeral, filling the streets and chanting
"We are all Armenians." There is a war going on for the soul of
Turkey, but at least a lot of Turks are on the right side.

Dink, who called himself "an Armenian from Turkey and a good Turkish
citizen," was murdered because he insisted on talking about the great
crime that happened in the country 92 years ago: the mass murder of
most of Turkey’s Armenian population in eastern Anatolia. The
newspaper he founded and edited, a bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly
called Agos, had only a small circulation, but his outspoken
editorials had made him one of Turkey’s most famous journalists – and
a target for assassination.

His killer, 17-year-old Ogun Samast, was a semi-educated thug from
Trabzon in the far north-east of Anatolia. He was given the gun by
older ultra-nationalists including Yusuf Hayal, who was convicted of
bombing a McDonald’s restaurant in Trabzon in 2004. But these
marginal characters are just pawns in the larger war between those
who want a more democratic, tolerant Turkey and those who are
desperately defending the power and privileges of the old
"republican" elite.

‘Dirty blood’

Samast shot Dink from behind in the street in front of his newspaper
office. "I feel no remorse," the killer allegedly told investigators.
"He said that Turkish blood was dirty blood."

Of course, Dink never said any such thing. What he said, in a
newspaper article addressed to his fellow Armenians, was that their
obsession with the massacres of 1915 to ’17 was having "a poisonous
effect on your blood."

But it’s easy to see how a useful idiot like Samast could have
believed that Hrant Dink was an enemy of the Turks, because just over
a year ago a Turkish court took that phrase out of context, found
Dink guilty of "insulting Turkishness," and gave him a six- month
suspended sentence under Article 301 of the Criminal Code. A number
of other Turkish citizens, including Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan
Pamuk, have been prosecuted under the same law for daring to discuss
what happened to the Armenians, and most of them have received death
threats, too.

It really is a kind of war, and the villains of the piece are
precisely the army officers, judges and senior civil servants who
were once seen as the guardians of the "republican" tradition, the
people who were going to modernize and democratize Turkey.
Unfortunately, "republican" doesn’t really mean the same as
"democratic."

The forms of the Turkish republic were democratic from the start, but
for a very long time the reality was a mass of illiterate peasants
under the harsh tutelage of a narrow educated elite who were
determined to Westernize the country.

The "republican" elite rewrote history (including the denial of the
Armenian massacres) in order to mould a new Turkish national
consciousness, and saw religion as a retrograde force that must be
banned from politics.

The decades passed, and much of the elite’s dream came to pass.
Turkey today has a per capita income higher than Romania or Bulgaria,
the most recent countries to join the European Union. Democracy is a
reality, and the current prime minister, Recep Tayyib Erdogan, leads
a party whose members openly refer to themselves as "Muslim
Democrats." Under Erdogan, there has been a wave of legal and
administrative reforms designed to qualify Turkey for EU membership.
But all this threatens both the rigidly secular ideology and the
autocratic privileges of the old republican elite.

>From their powerful positions in the army, the judiciary and the
bureaucracy, they work to undermine the reforms and to wreck Turkey’s
chances of joining the EU. In de facto alliance with ultra-
nationalist right-wing parties that also oppose EU membership, they
incite hatred of minorities, bring false prosecutions against the
advocates of a more open and democratic Turkish society, and pursue
the long-term goal of destabilizing the democratic order.

But the war is not over yet, and the good guys have not lost. Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul vowed last November to change or abolish
Article 301, and last week 100,000 Turks thronged streets of Istanbul
to mourn the country’s best-known Armenian and condemn his murderers.

Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist whose articles
are published in 45 countries.

Armenia Exploits the Funeral
Journal of Turkish Weekly
Saturday 27 January 2007
2

Foreign Ministry officials in the Turkish capital referred to
Kirakosian’s comments as "exploitation of feelings," noting that they
came in the wake of national sorrow over the death of journalist Hrant
Dink, and that the "unconditional diplomatic relations" part of the
comment was the same as the phrasing used in a letter from Armenian
President Robert Kocharian to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in
April of 2005.

Yesterday evening in Ankara, PM Erdogan referred to the Yerevan
administration’s refusal to consider the Ankara suggestion of a joint
commission to investigate Armenian claims of genocide, saying "First
they need to answer our suggestion. They have still not offered an
answer. This is not a show of good intention. I do not find this
stance of theirs sincere."

Armenian Government has been repeating the same words "Armenian is
ready for unconditional diplomatic relations with Turkey". However a
Turkish diplomat told the JTW that Turkey cut the diplomatic
relations, not Armenia. "Armenia is not in a position to put any
pre-condition to re-establish the diplomatic relations. They occupied
a neigbouring country’s territories. The occupier is Armenia, not
Turkey. So, they should first withdraw their forces from Azeri
territories, instead of attempting to confuse the peoples’ feelings".

Dr. Sedat Laciner from USAK told the JTW that Armenia is not ready for
a real dialogue and real co-operation:

"The region needs just a little step from Armenia. If they withdraw
from a small part of the occupied territories, Turkey could do
more. However the extremist Armenians including President Robert
Kocharian do not want any solution, because they have been nourished
by the problems. Hrant Dink was strongly against the Kocharian’s and
extremist Armenians’ policies. Unfortunately they now exploit his
funeral".

Jan SOYKOK (JTW) and Hurriyet
27 January 2007

RESULTS OF "VAHAN TEKEYAN" AND "ARA AND MARAL" CONTESTS SUMMARIZED

YEREVAN, JANUARY 24, NOYAN TAPAN. The results of the annual contest
"Vahan Tekeyan" announced by the Tekeyan Cultural Union of Armenia
were summarized on January 23, with awards being given for the works
created in 2005. At the same time, the results of the children’s and
adolescent contest "Ara and Maral" were announced as well.

The award giving ceremony was attended by the RA Prime Minister
Andranik Margarian, the Minister of Culture and Youth Issues Hasmik
Poghosian, the Chairwoman of the RA National Assembly Standing
Committee of Science, Education, Culture and Youth Issues Hranush
Hakobian, high-ranking officials and intellectuals.

A. Margarian said that the union’s awards are given to intellectuals
who make their contribution to the development of the Armenian
culture. "It does not matter where these artists live – in Armenia
or the Diaspora, the most important thing is that they are Armenians
by spirit," he noted. According to him, the state will do everything
possible to support such people.

The winners of the contest "Vahan Tekeyan" received a 1,000-dollar
award each in 11 nominations.

The poetess Silva Kaputikian was posthumously awarded "Vahan Tekeyan"
prize in literature for her book "Last Ring".

The prize in humanities was given to Argam Aivazian for the book
"The Lithographic Heritage of Nakhijevan".

Sargis Hamalbashian was recognized the winner in "fine arts" nomination
for his canvas "Dance". Samvel Sevada received the prize in "art
photography" nomination for his series of portraits of Armenian
intellectuals, and two sculptors received prizes in "sculture"
nomination – Arto Chakmakchian – for "The Walking Man" sculture and
Samvel Ghazarian – for "The Musicians".

Conductor Ohan Durian was awarded the prize in "music" nomination –
for his concert programs in 2005.

Ara Shirianian was recognized the winner in "television and radio"
nomination for the television film "Andranik Iosifian", while Hakob
Chakrian received a prize for his articles published in the newspaper
"Azg".

The prize in "theatre" nomination was given to Yervand Ghazanchian –
for the play "The Oriental Dentist" staged with V. Papazian company
(Beirut), and Vardan Petrosian – for the plays "Ascent" and "What To
Do" in "social and political satire" nomination.

Robert Sahakiants was awarded "Ara and Maral" prize was for his cartoon
"Tigranakert".

SHAVARSH KOCHARYAN DOES NOT SHARE TOROSYAN’S OPTIMISM

A1+
[12:25 pm] 22 January, 2007

Former member of the Armenian delegation to the PACE Shavarsh Kocharyan
will also participate in the PACE winter session where the report on
Armenia will be heard. He has been invited by the PACE Liberal-Democrat
union. He has been member of the organization for the last few years.

The PACE wants to learn Mr. Kocharyan’s opinion about the situation
in Armenia before the 2007 Parliamentary elections. In contrast to
head of the Armenian delegation to the PACE Tigran Torosyan, Shavarsh
Kocharyan does not assess the report of the PACE Monitoring Committee
on Armenia "extremely positive".

He also does not share the opinion circulating in the Azeri Media that
"Armenia has not honored its obligations".

"Everyone says whatever they find suitable. I think the report, as well
as the attached document, are quite objective. They describe both the
progress and the shortcomings, for example, the "A1+" issue, which is
extremely important for the upcoming elections. The RA authorities must
pay special attention to the part of the report where the Monitoring
Committee mentions that the attitude of the CoE towards Armenia is
conditions by the upcoming elections", Mr. Kocharyan underlined.

He thinks that in case of holding the 2007 Parliamentary elections
up to the European standards Armenia can succeed in several issues,
including the settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

According to Mr. Kocharyan, the report of the PACE Monitoring Committee
is also important as after the previous report Armenia was given much
time. "PACE expected the positive potential of the constitutional
reforms to be expressed in the laws. When it comes to legislation,
I can say that we have really succeeded", said Shavarsh Kocharyan
and mentioned the RA Law on Constitutional Court as an example.

Teenager ‘confessed to murder of editor’

By Amberin Zaman in Istanbul

The Daily Telegraph/UK
12:35am GMT 22/01/2007

A teenager arrested in connection with the murder of an ethnic
Armenian newspaper editor has confessed to the killing, Istanbul’s
chief prosecutor, Aykut Cengiz Engin, said yesterday.

The suspect, Ogun Samast, 17, was captured by police in the Black Sea
port city of Samsun on Saturday and flown to Istanbul for questioning
together with six other suspects, police said. They said the youth was
caught after a tip-off from his father, who saw his picture being
broadcast as the prime suspect in the murder of Hrant Dink.

Mr Dink was shot dead on Friday as he walked out of the office of
Agos, the bilingual Armenian newspaper that he founded and edited. The
murder has prompted fresh scrutiny of the pressures facing Turkey’s
ethnic and religious minorities.

The European Union, which Turkey is striving to join, has long cited
discrimination against Christians and Kurds together with curbs on
free speech, as the biggest obstacles to its membership.

Mr Dink was among the few members of Turkey’s small Armenian community
to openly label the mass slaughter of some one million Armenians by
the Ottoman Turks during and after the First World War as "genocide."
His stance provoked fury among Turkish ultra-nationalists, who sent
him hate mail and death threats.

Tributes to the Turkish-Armenian author Hrant Dink It also led to his
conviction last year on charges of "insulting Turkishness".

Samast is said to have expressed no remorse during his interrogation.

"Dink said Turkish blood was dirty and so I decided to kill him,"
Samast was quoted as saying by the news channel CNN-Turk.

Police are also investigating possible links between Mr Dink’s murder
and that of an Italian priest in Trabzon last year.

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
Jan 19 2007

Turkey: Istanbul police searching for assassin of ethnic Armenian
journalist

Istanbul, 19 January: Turkish police carry out their operations in
Istanbul to arrest the suspect of the murder of Turkish journalist of
Armenian descent Hrant Dink, editor-in-chief of Turkish-Armenian
weekly Agos.

The suspect who shot Dink is reported to be at the age of 18-19,
wearing jeans and a white hat.

Policemen took measures to arrest the suspect in the region, subway
and bus stations.

-HRANT DINK-Prominent and active in various democratic platforms and
civil society organizations, Hrant Dink emphasized the need for
democratization in Turkey and focused on the issues of free speech,
civic rights and issues pertaining to the Armenian community in
Turkey.

Hrant Dink was the founder and editor-in-chief of the Agos weekly in
Istanbul, a newspaper published in Armenian and Turkish. He also
wrote for the national dailies, Zaman and Birgun.

Born in eastern city of Malatya on September 15th, 1954, Dink moved
to Istanbul at the age of seven where he lived since. He received his
primary and secondary education in Armenian community schools and
graduated from the Zoology Department of Istanbul University. He then
continued his education at the Philosophy Department at the same
university.

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
Jan 19 2007

Turkish party condemns journalist’s killing

Ankara, 19 January: Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) of Turkey called
for common sense regarding the murder of Turkish journalist Hrant
Dink, editor-in-chief of bilingual Agos weekly of Armenian descent,
in a statement on Friday [19 January].

MHP condemned the murder and said, "We call for our nation to act in
maximum sense of responsibility, common sense and not to get
provoked."

Editor & Publisher
Jan 20 2007

Turkey Still in Shock After Assassination of Journalist

Published: January 20, 2007 10:20 AM ET

ISTANBUL Turkey’s press conveyed the nation’s sense of shock, shame
and self-reflection on Saturday, a day after a journalist and
Armenian community leader was assassinated at the entrance to his
bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper.

The killer and motives for the murder of Hrant Dink were unknown
early Saturday, and Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said no
suspects were in custody. Istanbul’s governor, however, said
authorities had evidence that would allow them to solve the case.

Dink, who gained notoriety after he was put on trial for saying that
the mass killing of Armenians at the beginning of the 20th century
was genocide, was shot and killed Friday in broad daylight. He had
received numerous threats before his murder, and wrote in his last
newspaper column that he was so worried about attacks that his head
swiveled like a pigeon’s as he moved around Istanbul.

Many Turkish newspapers ran a photograph of what was said to be the
killer, a photo captured on a security camera from behind. The image
revealed few details about the man’s appearance.

Turkey’s press was unanimous Saturday morning in claiming as their
own a man whose life in Turkey was largely defined by his being
labeled a traitor and an enemy to his country.

Turkish officials promised to release details of the killing, and
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan went on national television at
least three times to speak about the murder.

"The bullets aimed at Hrant Dink were shot into all of us," he said
Saturday. Within hours of Dink’s murder, the prime minister had sent
his interior minister and justice minister to Istanbul to lead the
investigation.

The state-owned Anatolia news agency reported that Istanbul’s chief
of police and other unit chiefs spent the night at police
headquarters.

Most Turks assumed the shooting was a reaction to Dink’s public
statements that the mass killings of Armenians around the time of
World War I constituted genocide. Nationalists see such statements as
insults to the honor of Turks and as threats to national unity.

Whatever the motivation, the killing made it clear that Turkey
remains a place where people speak freely at their own peril, despite
generations of Western-looking liberal reforms and the nation’s
commitment to joining the European Union.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Turkey was
the eighth deadliest country in the world for journalist, with 18
killed in the past 15 years for their work. Turkey’s Zaman newspaper
said 62 journalists have been assassinated in the nation’s 84-year
history.

Dink, 52, was often subjected to more subtle attempts to silence him.
He was one of dozens of journalists, writers and academics who have
gone on trial for expressing their opinions here, most under the
infamous article 301 of the penal code, which makes it a crime to
insult Turkey, its government or the national character.

In the most famous case, Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk
faced jail time last year for insulting Turkey by saying Turks had
killed a million Armenians. His case was dropped on a technicality.

Dink clearly sensed his life was in danger.

"My computer’s memory is loaded with sentences full of anger and
threats," he wrote on Jan. 10 in his last newspaper column. "I am
just like a pigeon. … I look around to my left and right, in front
and behind me as much as it does. My head is just as active."

In the past few years, Turks had come to know Dink well, mostly
because of the high-profile cases opened against him. In late 2005,
Turks saw him lose his composure, crying on television as he
discussed his latest court case and what it was like to live amid
people who hated him.

A Turkish citizen, Dink said he would stay here, however, in the
hopes that cases he opened at the European Court of Human Rights
would be resolved in his favor, and do something to improve his
country.

Turkey’s relationship with its Armenian community has long been
fraught with tension, controversy and painful memories of a brutal
past.

Much of Turkey’s once-sizeable Armenian population was killed or
driven out beginning around 1915 in what an increasing number of
countries are recognizing as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Turks vehemently deny that their ancestors committed genocide,
however, and saying so is tantamount to treason. In the 1970s and
1980s, tensions were further inflamed as dozens of Turkish diplomats
were killed by Armenian assassins seeking revenge.

Turkey, which is 99 percent Muslim, and Armenia, which claims to be
the first country to officially adopt Christianity, share a border.
But the border is closed, and the two countries have no formal
diplomatic relations.

lay.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003535413

PanARMENIAN.Net

Hrant Dink’s Killing Shocked Turks
19.01.2007 18:21 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Nothing worse than Hrant Dink’s
killing could happen in Turkey on the threshold of
elections, Erkut Emcioğlu, International
Relations Coordinator of ARI Movement told a
PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. Hrant Dink was a symbol of
peace and friendship. The Turkish people are shocked
and the internal situation in the country is under
threat. He was an outstanding journalist and bright
individuality, Emcioğlu said. Dink’s killing
undermines democratic principles in Turkey and
jeopardizes Turkey’s accession to the EU, since he was
once sentenced under Article 301 the cancellation of
which is demanded by the European Union.