Author: Emil Lazarian

NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Jan 26 2007

Turkish governor, police chief shifted after Dink murder

Authorities are looking into whether there was any failing on the
part of local administrators.

Güncelleme: 17:05 TSİ 26 Ocak 2007 CumaANKARA/TRABZON – Two
senior officials have been shifted from Trabzon after the murder of
prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink by a youth from the
Black Sea city.

Provincial governor Huseyin Yavuzdemir and Police Chief Resat Altay
were removed from their posts and assigned duties in Ankara on the
order of the Interior Ministry, it was announced Friday.

The Ministry also announced that it had appointed two senior
inspectors to investigate whether there was any failure or negligence
on the part of local administrators and the provincial security
department in connection with the killing of Dink in Istanbul on
January 19. Most of those charged with his murder, including the
alleged gunman, were from Trabzon.

It is not the first time that Trabzon has been linked to a high
profile killing that had international implications. Last year,
Andrea Santaro, the Roman-Catholic priest of Trabzon’s Santa Maria
Church, was shot dead by a teenager while at prayer in his church.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Jan 26 2007

Azerbaijani and Armenian MPs to visit Nagorno Karabakh

[ 26 Jan. 2007 18:24 ]

Azerbaijani and Armanian delegations to PACE made a decision at the
meeting held within plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe to begin direct dialogues on the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict, APA reports.

The delegations reached an agreement to pay a joint visit to Nagorno
Karabakh territory. The delegations will meet with the displaced
people. They also agreed to prepare both societies to the possible
settlement variants of the conflict. Heads of the delegations Samad
Seyidov (Azerbaijan) and Tigran Torosian (Armenia) stated that OSCE
Minsk Group Co-chairs play the essential role in the settlement of
Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Nevertheless, the Council of Europe may
contribute to the improvement of the situation. The sides also agreed
to hold regular meetings for the implementation of OSCE Resolution
1416. /APA/

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Jan 26 2007

Nothing new in Armenian comments: Turkish Foreign Ministry

The Foreign Ministry said that it was to be hoped that the tragic
killing of Hrant Dink would contribute to creating a new atmosphere
in Turkish-Armenian relations.

Güncelleme: 15:48 TSİ 26 Ocak 2007 CumaANKARA – There is nothing
new to be found in comments by Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister
saying that his country is ready to establish relations with Turkey
without any preconditions, a statement issued by the Turkish Foreign
Ministry late Thursday said.

The Armenian government had made similar comments on several
occasions in the past, the statement said.

Armenian Deputy FM Arman Kirakosian, made while he was in Istanbul to
attend the funeral of murdered Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink, were not a sign of a new step, the statement said.

Turkey wants to improve its relations with all its neighbours within
the framework of mutual confidence and respect, said that Foreign
Ministry.

However, enhancing bilateral and regional relations and co-operation
cannot only be achieved by the steps to be taken by Turkey but can be
possible with the will and steps of the other parties, the statement
said.

Turkey had taken a number of concrete steps in the past to further
improve dialogue with Armenia, including Ankara’s proposal to set up
a joint history commission to look into allegations that the Ottoman
Empire had committed an act of genocide against its Armenian citizens
during the First World War.

The statement also said that it was to be hoped that the slaying of
Dink would `contribute to the creation of a new atmosphere in
Turkish-Armenian relations, and Armenia will respond to our
good-willed efforts to overcome the stagnation in our relations with
Armenia’.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Zaman, Turkey
Jan 26 2007

Turkey Goes on Diplomatic Offensive Against Genocide Allegations

Friday , 26 January 2007

With some believing that the assassination of Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink has given the Armenian diaspora an important
trump card for recognition of an Armenian genocide around the world,
Turkey has unleashed an ambitious diplomatic plan.

In the first step of the plan, supported by Turkish Parliament
Speaker Bülent Arınç, a delegation of 10 deputies will pay a
visit to the United States Feb. 9-16 to lobby the US Congress. The
delegation will be headed by Turkey-US Interparliamentary Friendship
Group Chairman Egemen Bağış.

The 10-person delegation is composed of Justice and Development Party
(AK Party) Sakarya deputy Süleyman Gündüz, Aksaray Deputies Ali
Rıza Alaboyun and Ramazan Toprak, Kırıkkale Deputy
Vahit Erdem, İzmir Deputy Zekeriya Akçam, Antalya Deputy Mevlüt
Çavuşoğlu and Republican People’s Party (CHP) İstanbul
deputy Onur Öymen. They will meet with US congressmen and NGO
representatives. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül will have meetings in
European countries, and Turkish representatives will meet with
leading figures of the Armenian diaspora for the first time as part
of its initiative.

Diaspora invited to Akhtamar
One of the most important steps in Turkey’s new anti-genocide
strategy is opening dialogue with representatives of the Armenian
diaspora. During Dink’s funeral, the change in attitude of the
diaspora representatives invited to ceremony also resulted in a
change in Turkey’s attitude: It now prefers to explain itself rather
than adopting a defensive posture. Meetings have been held not only
with the Armenian diaspora but also with the Armenian administration.
Following the invitation of the Armenian diaspora to Dink’s funeral,
the Turkish government took its second step and invited diaspora
representatives to the inauguration of a recently restored Armenian
church on Akhtamar Island in eastern Turkey on April 15. Minister of
Culture and Tourism Atilla Koç said the opening of the church was
previously scheduled for April 24 but has been moved back to April 15
since April 24 is the day Armenians remember the so-called genocide.

Koç hoped Dink’s funeral would serve as a starting point for
Turkish-Armenian and Turkish-diaspora relationships. "If we accuse
somebody of something, then we must prove it. If we cannot, this is
an offense. Every country must face its own history; those who tell
us to face our history must also face their own history."
A number of parliaments have recognized an Armenian genocide as a
result of the lobbying efforts of the Armenian diaspora. Turkey’s
attempts to have Argentina, Uruguay, Switzerland, Canada, Slovakia,
Poland, the Netherlands, Germany, Russia and Lithuania change their
decision to recognize it have so far proven fruitless. However, bills
in the Spanish, Bulgarian, Austrian, Estonian, Romanian, Hungarian,
Ukrainian and Latvian parliaments failed to become law.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Zaman, Turkey
Jan 26 2007

Pressure Mounts on Government to Amend Article 301

Friday , 26 January 2007

Turkey’s leading business group and a European rights watchdog have
raised concerns over a penal code article, increasing pressure on the
government to amend the infamous law after a Turkish-Armenian
journalist tried under it was shot dead by a teenage assailant.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe said Turkey
should scrap Article 301 — which makes it a crime to insult Turkey’s
identity, state institutions and security forces — from its penal
code. The existence of this measure, which judicially limits freedom
of expression, only validates legal and other attacks against
journalists, a resolution passed by the assembly said.
In İstanbul, Mustafa Koç, a senior leader of the Turkish
Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (TÜSİAD),
complained resistance to changing Article 301 of the Turkish Penal
Code "feeds pessimism" about the future of the country.

Article 301 has long been criticized by the European Union for
restricting freedom of expression. Many nongovernmental organizations
also slam the law, under which numerous intellectuals have ended up
in the court for "insulting Turkishness." According to critics, the
law fuels hard-line nationalism and contributed to the murder of
Hrant Dink, the Armenian-Turkish editor of bilingual Agos newspaper.

But pressure has grown even higher since Dink was shot dead by a
17-year-old gunman outside his office in downtown İstanbul last
Friday. The last article Dink penned before his death was itself a
strong appeal for the amendment of Article 301; Dink wrote he was
suffering because he had been convicted for insulting Turkishness and
spoke of the death threats he received for this.

"My computer’s memory is loaded with sentences full of hatred and
threats," Dink wrote. "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."
The government has signaled readiness to change the controversial law
but has taken no concrete step so far, saying it is awaiting
proposals from nongovernmental organizations and looking for
consensus on how it should be changed.

State Minister Ali Babacan, also Turkey’s chief EU negotiator,
reiterated yesterday that the government was ready to change Article
301 as, he said, the government was also not happy with the way it
was implemented. He added, though, amendments to the law would
require consensus, something difficult to achieve.

But the NGOs say they have already offered verbal proposals on how
the article should be changed, tossing the ball into the government’s
court for possible amendments. Dink, widely acknowledged as a voice
for understanding and reconciliation between Turks and Armenians, was
given a six-month suspended prison sentence for an article he wrote
about the alleged genocide of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman
Empire in eastern Anatolia. A number of other intellectuals,
including Nobel winning novelist Orhan Pamuk, have also been tried
under the same article.

Some of the mourners at Dink’s funeral, which attracted up to 100,000
people, carried black-and-white banners reading "Murderer 301." Ogün
Samast, the main suspect in Dink’s murder, reportedly said he had
killed Dink because he insulted "Turkish blood."

TÜSİAD leaders, addressing a regular convention of the group,
denounced the killing of Dink. "This revived memories of those eras
when Turkey was plagued with political murders," said Ömer
Sabancı, executive board chairman of TÜSİAD, adding that
the murder should not be seen as an individual reaction.

"It is clear that this killing has the potential of producing results
that could change the position Turkey has in international arena,"
Sabancı said. "To say it more clearly, this attack may create
the conditions that would make it possible to reverse the progress
Turkey has achieved in the area of freedoms and to cut Turkey’s links
with the West and make it an inward-looking country."

International Herald Tribune, France
Jan 26 2007

Turkish authorities charge 6th suspect in ethnic Armenian
journalist’s killing
The Associated PressPublished: January 26, 2007

ISTANBUL, Turkey: Turkish authorities charged a sixth suspect Friday
in the slaying of prominent ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink,
police said.

Dink, who spoke out about the mass killings of Armenians in the early
20th century, was gunned down outside his newspaper a week ago in a
killing that raised fears that Turkey may continue to be a dangerous
place for intellectuals who openly express their ideas.

University student Erhan Tuncel was formally arrested Friday on
charges of instigating the killing, at the end of the legal four-day
detention period, police said. A seventh suspect, detained along with
Tuncel, was released without being charged.

Five other suspects, including alleged gunman Ogun Samast and Yasin
Hayal, a nationalist militant who served time in prison for a 2004
attack and who police say confessed to inciting the slaying and to
providing a gun and money to Samast, were charged Wednesday.

Also Friday, the government sacked the governor and the police chief
of the Black Sea city of Trabzon, where all the suspects were based.
Both men had come under criticism after Dink’s killing for allegedly
not closely surveilling Hayal despite his conviction for bombing a
McDonald’s restaurant in 2004.

It was in their city last year that Rev. Andrea Santoro, a
60-year-old Italian Catholic priest, was shot dead by an apparently
Islamist youth angered by the publication in Europe of cartoons of
the Prophet Muhammad.

Authorities, meanwhile, launched a separate investigation into Hayal
for what appeared to be a threat against Nobel Prize-winning novelist
Orhan Pamuk – who like Dink has been vocal about the killings of
Armenians, police said.

Hayal shouted: "Orhan Pamuk, be smart! Be smart!" as he was being
brought to an Istanbul courtroom with his hands cuffed behind his
back Wednesday. The investigation could lead to Hayal’s prosecution
if it concludes that his words amounted to a threat against the
novelist.

Dink, the 52-year-old editor of the bilingual Ago newspaper, had been
brought to trial numerous times for allegedly "insulting
Turkishness," a crime under Turkey’s penal code.

Pamuk, who won the Nobel Prize in literature last year, also had
faced trial in Turkey for his comments on the Armenian killings and
had been accused of treason for doing so. His case was thrown out on
a technicality.

Dink’s murder inspired a massive outpouring of support for liberal
values, including freedom of expression, tolerance and reconciliation
between Armenians and Turks,

But the killing also pointed to Turkey’s continuing problems with
extreme nationalism. Most Turks suspect the killing might be linked
to ultra-nationalist groups.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

New York Post, NY
Jan 26 2007

TURKEY’S SUICIDE

OUR OLD ALLY’S BENT ON SELF-DESTRUCTION

by Peter Ralph

January 26, 2007 — IT’S hard to watch an old pal hit the skids,
making one disastrous decision after another, throwing away a
brilliant future. That’s the position we’re in with Turkey – a former
ally bent on self-destruction.

A NATO member ideally positioned to serve as a bridge between the
West and the Middle East, Turkey’s secular constitution and economic
progress should have made it an example for other regional states to
emulate. Instead, Turkey has been aping the blighted regimes of the
Arab world:

* Exploiting the population’s disgust with government corruption,
Islamists gained power through the ballot box – and immediately
started dismantling the secular legacy of Kemal Ataturk.

* On the eve of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Turkey stabbed the United
States – its only dependable ally – in the back, denying passage to
our troops in the fateful illusion that Ankara could save Saddam.

* Turkey strangled its (always faint) chance of membership in the
European Union with internal repression, ludicrous prosecutions,
farcical legislative efforts to Talibanize society and its stubborn
denial of the Armenian genocide.

* Instead of winning Europe’s approval, the government-sponsored
anti-American hate speech poisoning Turkey’s media only strengthens
European convictions that Turks "aren’t our kind."

* Impatient to send Turkish troops into Iraq to attack the PKK (a
radical Kurdish group with a terrorist past), Ankara might face a
startling military embarrassment, further alienate Washington – and
finish off its last prayer of EU membership. (The Europeans just want
excuses to keep Turkey out – and Turkey has a genius for providing
them.)

* Despite the potential for a mutually beneficial relationship with
Iraqi Kurdistan – where Turkish businessmen make substantial profits
– the Ankara government obsesses about preventing the emergence of a
Kurdish state. Betting on Iraq’s Sunni Arabs (who despise the Turks
but use them), Turkey has set itself up to lose big if Iraq
dissolves.

* With its mischief-making in Iraq, cloak-and-dagger monkey business
with Syria and failure to appreciate Iranian deviousness, Turkish
foreign policy is in a self-destructive shambles unrivaled since the
foundation of the modern Turkish state.

All of this leaves me in sorrow, since I spent decades arguing that
Turkey’s strategic importance required us to be patient as this land
of enormous potential found its way to the future.

For an enthusiastic visitor to Turkey for three decades, it’s been
heartbreaking to watch its society and economy come to life – only to
fall prey to Islamist vampires.

With Salafism – the Saudi brand of radical Islam – biting into the
Turkish political jugular, the joke is that the despised Bedouins of
Arabia have finally conquered the "Ottoman Empire." The most
primitive and backward form of Islam is increasingly at home in the
heartlands that had formed the core of the most powerful Muslim state
for five centuries.

Now the question isn’t whether our old ally can overcome its internal
difficulties, but which of its troubles will overwhelm it first. Will
the Islamist destruction of Turkish culture continue, or will a
rumored military coup plunge the country back into another period of
internal violence and political stasis?

For Washington, it’s all bad news. The march of punitive Islam
(punitive, above all, to Muslims) continues to feed on wild-eyed
anti-Americanism – but a military coup could lead to a misadventure
in northern Iraq similar to Argentina’s Falklands debacle.

Last week’s murder of the Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink (in
which Islamo-nationalists cynically employed a 17-year-old assassin
who could only be charged as a juvenile) laid bare the divide in
Turkish society: 100,000 Turks turned out to protest the barbarous
killing, but the government barely shrugged, since the demagogues now
command far greater numbers.

Turkey’s educated elite is in much the same position as Germany’s
elite during Hitler’s rise to power. Imagining that the Islamists
would sputter out, progressive Turks failed to act. Now Turkish
civilization – so great for so many centuries – is unraveling the way
Germany’s did in the 1930s. Turkish intellectuals made the classic
error of underestimating the common man’s capacity for hatred and
lust for blind revenge.

As for the spectacularly virulent and dishonest anti-Americanism in
the Turkish media – we need never have a "Who lost Turkey?" debate:
The Turks lost it for themselves. Instead of maturing into the
Western culture of responsibility, Turks succumbed to the Arab
world’s culture of blame.

Having looked down on Arabs for centuries, Turks are now becoming
functional Arabs, reclining into fantasies of greatness as surreal as
a Sufi mystic’s hashish dreams. Ataturk’s revolutionary vision for a
modern Turkish state – betrayed by his own corrupt successors – is
fading into the reality of yet another retarded Muslim satrapy.

An even more accurate parallel case than 1930s Germany is today’s
Pakistan. Turkey is on the way to becoming another extremist-poisoned
garrison state held together solely by its military.

On my last visit, I got a madman’s lecture from a Turkish customs
officer on the resurrection of the Ottoman Empire. But instead of
returning to that empire’s undeniable glories, 21st- century Turkey
appears determined to replay the miserable Ottoman twilight.

I wish we could save Turkey. But we can’t. That’s up to the Turks.

Ralph Peters’ latest book is "Never Quit The Fight."

/postopinion/opedcolumnists/turkeys_suicide_opedco lumnists_ralph_peters.htm

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Jan 26 2007

Strength in diversity

Nicole Pope

The solidarity and unity displayed during Hrant Dink’s funeral
inspired some hope that his senseless murder would mark a turning
point and be the forerunner of change in Turkey.

Abdullah Gül’s acknowledgement that Article 301 needs to be amended
was welcome, as was the overture made by the Armenian Deputy Foreign
Minister Arman Kirakosyan, who offered an unconditional resumption of
diplomatic contacts.

There are of course just as many reasons to keep a tight rein on our
expectations. Tens of thousands of people attended the funeral, but
neither the president nor the prime minister was among the
participants, although Recep Tayyip Erdogan did pay a private visit
to Dink’s family later. Wednesday also marked the anniversary of
journalist Uğur Mumcu’s murder, which had led to similar display
of popular support 14 years ago but still remains to be fully
explained.
Turkish society is criss-crossed by numerous fault lines —
Kurd-Turk, Alevi-Sunni, secular-religious, Christian-Muslim — that
must be bridged to prevent the kind of polarization that killed Hrant
Dink and others before him. The hard-hitting and soul-searching
editorials published in the Turkish press in the past few days are
undoubtedly contributing to a more open debate. Airing ideas in the
public arena prevents radical views from festering and developing
like mushrooms in the darkness of Internet chat rooms, where
radicalism finds an easy platform.
But the official reflex is still to keep the lid shut on these
differences. This lack of flexibility has always led the Turkish
state to have an uneasy relationship with intellectuals and writers
who have promoted a diversity of opinions.
I remember attending a prize-giving ceremony for Yasar Kemal at the
Frankfurt book fair 10 years ago. Feted by the international literary
world, Yasar Kemal had been dragged through the courts in Turkey for
one of his articles on the Kurdish issue, yet the Turkish culture
minister was giving a reception in his honor at the fair. It seemed
bizarre that Turkey could at the same time proudly celebrate the
success of one of its citizens and charge him for his views. Orhan
Pamuk’s Nobel prize last year was greeted with a similar ambivalence
in official circles.
Only a few days ago, the rector of Istanbul University declared in an
interview published in Sabah newspaper that he would not invite Orhan
Pamuk or Yasar Kemal to teach at his university because of their
opinions. Such a narrow-minded approach to learning deprives students
of a chance to be exposed to a variety of opinions, which are
necessary for them to develop critical thinking and to gain an
understanding of the world beyond the borders of the country.
Critical thought is one of the building blocks of a democratic
society, but the notion that criticism can be constructive and useful
is still not well understood by the Turkish authorities. Deviating
from the received opinion is too often perceived as an insult or a
form of betrayal, largely because diversity — of views, of ethnic
roots, of religions — is still seen as the country’s Achille’s heel.
In fact, diversity is one of Turkey’s best assets. Together with
growing openness to the world, individualism and creativity, it is
among the elements fuelling Turkey’s rapid social and economic
transformation, but its value has yet to be recognized by Turkish
officialdom.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Jan 26 2007

Azerbaijani and Armenian Football Federation meet

[ 26 Jan. 2007 13:16 ]

Azerbaijani and Armenian Football Federation held a meeting in
Dusseldorf, Germany.

Azerbaijani Football Federation Association president Ramiz Mirzeyev
and secretary general Fuad Esedov represented Azeribaijani side and
Armenian Football Federation president Ruben Ayrapetyan and secretary
general Armen Minasyan represented Armenian side. The sides couldn’t
reach an agreement in the unofficial meeting aimed to determine the
place of Azerbaijan-Armenia match to be held in September in `A’
group of selection stage of the European Championship, AFFA
information service Chief Mikayil Guliyev told APA’Sport.
He said that Azerbaijani side insisted on the match to be held in
neutral fields. But Armenian Federation officials stated again that
they want the matches to be held in Baku and Yerevan. Mikayil Guliyev
said that AFFA and AFF will hold next meeting today. /APA/

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY
Jan 25 2007

Nationalism behind editor’s murder worries Turkey’s Jewish community

By Yigal Schleifer
January 25, 2007

ISTANBUL, Jan. 25 (JTA) – The murder of an outspoken Armenian
journalist has sent shockwaves throughout Turkey, raising questions
about whether a recent nationalist upsurge in the country has taken a
violent turn against the country’s minorities.
Last week’s murder of Hrant Dink also presents the government with a
serious challenge to its already embattled democratization and
political reform efforts.

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Although Turkey’s 25,000-member Jewish community has not been
targeted – the 2003 bombings of two Istanbul synagogues were
attributed to al-Qaida-type Islamists rather than Turkish
nationalists – community officials are expressing concern about the
nationalist atmosphere in Turkey.

`The fact that nationalism is on the rise is very troubling for us,’
one senior Jewish community leader said. `As a minority, we see
[Dink’s murder] as a result of the rise of nationalism in the
society, of the encouragement of nationalism in many parts of the
society.’

In a massive outpouring of grief, tens of thousands of Turks gathered
Tuesday in the heart of Istanbul for the funeral procession.

Dink was editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos and
a vocal critic of Turkey’s treatment of its religious minorities as
well as its policy of rejecting claims that the mass killing of
Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in 1915 was genocide.

He had been put on trial several times for `insulting’ Turkish
identity with his writings. In 2005 he was convicted in one case and
given a six-month suspended sentence.

Last Friday he was shot three times near the entrance to the
newspaper’s offices. Turkish police arrested Ogun Samast, 17, from
the Black Sea city of Trabzon, in connection with the murder.

`Those who created nationalist sentiment in Turkey have fed such a
monster that there are many youngsters on the streets who do not find
the state nationalist enough and are ready to take the law into their
own hands,’ Ismet Berkan wrote in Radikal, one of Turkey’s main
dailies.

The last few years have seen Turkey engaged in a deep internal
struggle. The country’s push for European Union membership has
resulted in significant political reforms, particularly regarding
democratization and human rights, and the freeing up of debate on
what previously had been taboo subjects, such as the Armenian
question.

But the E.U.-related reforms have prompted a strong nationalist
backlash. Nationalist lawyers and prosecutors have been able to use a
law, known as Article 301, to charge writers and journalists like
Dink and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk with the crime of insulting the
state as a way of stifling the emerging debates and putting the
brakes on Turkey’s E.U. bid.

Some say the backlash also explains why various conspiracy theory
books about the United States and Israel have become popular, as has
a Turkish translation of `Mein Kampf.’ The murder early last year of
a Catholic priest in Trabzon also was seen as an expression of the
nationalist wave.

`In a sense, both sides have been sharpening their axes thinking that
the E.U. question is the final intellectual battle in Turkey,’ said
Ali Carkoglu, a political science professor at Sabanci University.
`It touches on everything that is salient in Turkish politics: the
Islam vs. secularism debate, democratization and the extent to which
individual human rights are to be protected.’

For many Turks, Dink’s murder harkens back to the turbulent 1970s and
’80s, when journalists and intellectuals often were the victims of
ideologically motivated violence. Though Turkey has moved forward
since then, some wonder whether the murder is an indication that the
political gains made over the past few years really have been
consolidated.

`By Turkish standards [Dink] was playing in a way that the
nationalists were not used to,’ said Rifat Bali, a Jewish,
Istanbul-based researcher who studies Turkey’s minorities and is an
expert on the Jewish community. `In a way he took too many risks, he
underestimated his opponents.

`The message of the murder is you shut up, know your limits as an
Armenian or a non-Muslim, and do not go public often and repeatedly,
otherwise it will turn out bad for you,’ Bali said.

Turkey’s government was quick to respond to the murder, sending top
officials to oversee the investigation. The quick arrest of Samast
also is seen as a positive sign, since perpetrators of such crimes
were rarely caught in the past.

According to press reports, Samast has confessed, saying he decided
to murder Dink after reading on the Internet that he had insulted
Turkey.

`A bullet has been fired at democracy and freedom of expression,’
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on television. `I condemn the
traitorous hands behind this disgraceful murder. This was an attack
on our peace and stability.’

But experts here say the murder poses a major challenge for the
Turkish government, led by the moderately Islamic Justice and
Development Party.

`Domestically speaking, we have a big challenge,’ Carkoglu said. `If
we cannot protect our small minorities, other big talk about
democratization in our country is not worth much.’

Dink, who founded Agos in 1996, used his last few columns to write
about his legal woes. His final column dealt with the increasing
amount of hate mail he was getting, including one letter that scared
him enough that he went to the local prosecutor to ask,
unsuccessfully, for protection.

`I don’t know anyone else like him who raised his voice for
minorities and democracy in Turkey,’ veteran journalist and human
rights activist Murat Celikkan said. `Intellectually he was a very
important figure for Turkey. We don’t have anyone else like him.’

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress