Author: Emil Lazarian

MOURNING PROCESSION IN MEMORY OF HRANT DINK HELD ON JANUARY 23 IN
SYUNIK REGIONAL CENTER

KAPAN, JANUARY 23, NOYAN TAPAN. On January 23, RPA Syunik regional
youth and Syunyats Artsivner (Syunik Eagles) non-governmental
organizations organized a mourning procession in memory of Agos
newspaper’s editor-in-chief Hrant Dink. The procession ended in
the square near Syunik regional center’s palace of culture, by
candle-lighting. Representatives of regional and town authorities,
RPA Kapan territorial board members, residents of Kapan and other
populated areas of the region took part in the procession.

"The murder of Armenian officer Gurgen Margarian in Budapest was
followed by Hrant Dink’s murder and this is a crime against the
Armenian kind. I think such murders will continue until the Turkish
people makes its government admit the fact of the Armenian Genocide,"
Syunyats Artsivner NGO Chairman Khachik Asrian declared.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Funeral of slain journalist triggers mass support for a more liberal Turkey
By BENJAMIN HARVEY, Associated Press Writer

Associated Press Worldstream
January 23, 2007 Tuesday 6:33 PM GMT

More than 100,000 people marched in a funeral procession Tuesday for a
slain ethnic Armenian journalist who had angered Turkish nationalists
suggesting the grieving for Hrant Dink may become a catalyst for
liberal values and overcoming a century of antagonism between Turks
and Armenians.

"We are all Armenians" chanted mourners in an extraordinary outpouring
of affection for a journalist who had made enemies by calling the mass
killings of Armenians toward the end of the Ottoman Empire genocide.

Dink was gunned down outside his newspaper Agos in broad daylight on
Friday. The murder triggered a period of intense introspection and
touched off debate about excessive nationalism, free expression and
the ability of Turks of different ethnic backgrounds to live together.

Throngs of mourners marched along the eight-kilometer (five-mile) route
from the offices of Dink’s newspaper, Agos, to an Armenian Orthodox
church virtually shutting down the center of this massive city. Many
participants carried placards that read: "We are all Hrant Dinks."

Marchers took time off from work and school to join the procession,
and thousands leaned out of their office windows to applaud, weep
and throw flowers as the black hearse carrying Dink’s body passed by.

Despite a request from his family not to turn the funeral into a
protest, many also raised their fists at times shouting: "Shoulder
to shoulder against fascism" and "Murderer 301" a reference to the
freedom-curbing Turkish law that was used to prosecute Dink and others
on charges of "insulting Turkishness."

The 52-year-old journalist’s daughter, Sera, carrying a framed portrait
of her father, wept as she walked in front of the coffin.

Dink, the editor of the bilingual Armenian-Turkish newspaper, sought
to encourage reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia. But he chose
a dangerous path by making public statements about the mass killings
of Armenians by Turks in the early 20th century remarks that landed
him in court and prompted death threats.

Comments on that tumultuous period of Turkish history have gotten
several of the country’s most famous thinkers dragged to court.

Among them was novelist Orhan Pamuk, who last year won the Nobel Prize
in literature. The prosecutions have alarmed the European Union which
is considering Turkey’s bid to join but until Tuesday there were few
mass rallies in favor of freedom of speech in Turkey itself.

It was not clear how much momentum the liberal outpouring could
gather. But some believe that if it continues, the implications for
democratic movements in the Islamic world where protests against
terrorism and other acts of violence have been muted could be
significant.

Police were questioning seven suspects, including a teenager, Ogun
Samast, who authorities said has confessed to shooting Dink, and Yasin
Hayal, a nationalist militant convicted in a 2004 bomb attack at a
McDonald’s restaurant. Hayal has confessed to inciting the slaying
and providing a gun and money to the teenager, according to police.

The suspects also include a university student who allegedly "inspired"
the attack, Hurriyet newspaper reported Tuesday. Police confirmed the
report but gave no details. A firm motive has yet to be established,
but many believe Dink was killed for expressing his views.

Dink, one of the most important voices in Turkey’s ethnic Armenian
community, insisted he wanted reconciliation between the two peoples.

"I had no intention of insulting Turkishness," he told The Associated
Press in a telephone interview months before his death. "My only
concern is to improve Armenian and Turkish relations."

He seemed to have achieved that to a certain extent in his death:
Turkey has no diplomatic ties with Armenia but still invited Armenian
officials and religious leaders as well as moderate members of
the diaspora to the funeral. Armenia sent Deputy Foreign Minister
Arman Kirakosian. The Armenian Orthodox Church sent U.S-based Bishop
Khazkah Parsamian. "Hrant Dink was a great advocate in the country
for freedom of speech and for reconciliation, in particular between
Armenians and Turks," Ross Wilson, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey,
told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the funeral procession.

"Judging by what you see on the streets, he did bring the people
together," he said.

In an emotional speech to the crowd in front of the Agos office, Dink’s
wife, Rakel, called for a deeper search for answers to the killing.

"Seventeen or 27, whoever he was, the murderer was once a baby,"
she said. "Unless we can question the darkness that turned this baby
into a murderer, we cannot achieve anything."

In a religious service attended by Armenians and Turks including Deputy
Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin and Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu
Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II called for expanded freedoms of speech
and more dialogue between Turks and Armenians.

"It is mystical that his funeral turned into an occasion where Armenian
and Turkish officials gathered together. He would have been happy to
see this turn into real dialogue," Mesrob said, weeping during part
of his eulogy.

Dink was laid to rest at Istanbul’s Balikli Armenian Cemetery, where
priests chanted in Armenian and mourners applauded as his portrait
was displayed and white doves were released.

"It was an attack against all of us," said Oya Basaran, 52, a school
principal. "We want to live together as brothers. We want to give
the message to the world that the killing does not represent us."

In the Armenian capital, Yerevan, several thousand people gathered
in a square in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, holding ironic placards
reading: "Turkey, This Is Your Path to Europe?"

Many later walked to Yerevan’s massive monuments to the victims
of the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians, placing Dink’s
portrait there.

Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser and Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara
and Avet Demourian in Yerevan, Armenia, contributed to this report.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NKR President Condemned Dink Killing

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.01.2007 16:11 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Nagorno Karabakh President Arkady Ghukasian condemned
the assassination of Hrant Dink, the editor of Agos Armenian-Turkish
newspaper. "This crime proves the growing way of intolerance towards
dissent regarding the Armenian Genocide and the attempts of the
Turkish leadership to conceal the historical truth from the people,"
the NKR President said.

Arkady Ghukasian expressed hope that Ankara authorities will take
measures for the soonest disclosing of the crime and its organizers
will be punished, reports the chief information department at the
NKR President.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

‘Editor shot for insulting Turks’

The Brunei Times, Brunei Darussalam –
Jan 22 2007

ISTANBUL

22-Jan-07

THE suspected killer of a prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist has
confessed to shooting Hrant Dink because he had insulted Turkish
people, broadcaster CNN Turk reported on yesterday.

"I read on the Internet that he said ‘I am from Turkey but Turkish
blood is dirty’ and I decided to kill him.

"I do not regret this," Ogun Samast told interrogators shortly after
he was arrested in Samsun on the Black Sea coast, CNN Turk said.

Samast, 17, was arrested on Saturday and confessed to the murder
in an initial interrogation in Samsun before he and several other
suspects were transferred to Istanbul. Police declined to comment,
but said interrogations in Istanbul were continuing.

Dink, editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, was shot
dead in the street as he left his office on Friday in a killing which
has shocked Turkey.

Last year Turkey’s top court upheld a six-month suspended jail sentence
against Dink for referring in an article to an Armenian nationalist
idea of ethnic purity without Turkish blood.

Dink, 52, was a Christian of Armenian descent. He was frequently
criticised by Turkish nationalists, including top politicians and
prosecutors, for saying the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks during World War One was genocide.

Nationalists see such comments as a threat to national unity. The
government of Turkey, which is predominantly Muslim, denies genocide
and says both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks died in large
numbers as the Ottoman Empire was breaking up.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Daily Star – Lebanon
Jan 23 2007

The Turkish curse after a death in Istanbul

By Hugh Pope
Commentary by
Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Is there a curse hanging over Turkey? Each time the country achieves
sustained development, something trips it up. This time it is the
assassination on Friday of Hrant Dink, a newspaper editor, peacemaker
and one of Turkey’s most prominent Armenians. Turkey is trying to
rise to the challenge. Denunciations of the murder fill the airwaves,
from the government to Islamic leaders to the army. Thousands of
Turks marched through the streets hours after the shooting, shouting:
"We are all Armenians, we are all Hrant Dink."

Turkey’s credibility as a future European Union member state is at
stake. A man who confesses to pulling the trigger has been caught –
a nationalist, by all accounts – but no murkiness must remain about
the people and the thinking behind the killing. Hrant Dink was not just
left unprotected by the police. Bad laws, malevolent prosecutions and
a growing nationalist hysteria created the lynch-mob atmosphere that
transformed the sweet-mannered Dink into a public enemy number one.

What killed Dink, in short, is the Turkish Republic’s inability
to deal with the Armenian issue – the charge that its predecessor
state, the Ottoman Empire, killed 1.5 million Armenian men, women
and children in a 1915 genocide. Official Turkey is still stuck in
a rut of denial. Efforts to open archives and to "leave it to the
historians" lead into dead ends, partly because of intransigence in
the Armenian diaspora, but also partly because of Turkey’s anti-free
speech laws – still extant in the form of Penal Code Article 301,
with its catch-all penalties for "denigrating Turkishness."

Discussing the great omissions in Turkey’s public education remains
taboo. Even as moderate a politician as Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gul angrily rejects that there is any room for a Turkish apology.

That’s because the Turks have reasons to feel victimized themselves.

Christian powers don’t apologize much for the ethnic cleansing
carried out during the century until 1923, during which years they
rolled back the borders of the Ottoman Empire. American historian
Justin McCarthy estimates 5 million Muslims were killed. In 1915,
World War I was raging. Turkey was again under attack from Russia in
the east and Britain and France in the west. The Armenian leadership
openly sided with Turkey’s enemies, forming anti-Ottoman militias
and demanding a state on Ottoman land.

Turkey also fears that an apology would trigger claims on its land
or on seized Armenian assets. Turks cannot believe the sincerity of
foreign parliaments who, usually ill-informed about the Turkish case,
give in to Armenian diaspora lobbying for genocide declarations. One
such bill looks more likely than ever to pass the US Congress in
April. Politics often seems to trump history. Would the French
Parliament have made it a crime last year to deny the Armenian
genocide if an unrelated desire to keep Turkey out of the EU had not
been prevalent?

Some maximal views of Turkish evil by Armenians were even criticized
by Hrant Dink. He once wrote that diaspora Armenians should spend
their energy supporting independent Armenia and not "let hatred of
the Turks poison their blood."

But Turkey has an attitude problem, too. Idiotically, it was the
newspaper column mentioned above by Dink that caused him to be put on
trial for violating Article 301, on the pretext that he had said that
Turks were "poisonous." Why is it that, of all the Turkish authors
charged with Article 301 offenses, only Dink actually received a
jail sentence (six months, suspended)? Three years ago, Dink says he
was told "something will happen to you if you continue" by officials
working for the same Istanbul governor who now smugly suggests the
police win a prize for their swift apprehension of the assassin. (The
governor’s office denies making any threat).

Commentators are subtly shirking responsibility by labeling the murder
a "provocation" or blaming "outside forces." Many expressed pain
since Armenians were a "trust" under Turkey’s protection. It took
one of Prime Minister Reccep Tayyip Erdogan’s advisers, Omer Celik,
to point out that they were not guests and "were as much owners of
this country as Turks are."

Neither Turks not Armenians should go on like this. Erdogan – whose
government was the first to grant Dink’s simple request for a Turkish
passport – could try a grand gesture. The prime minister might open the
border with Armenia, closed since the early 1990s. He could advocate
an international conference, where Turkey could argue its case that
there was no centralized attempt to wipe out the Armenian race. After
all, Turkey already officially accepts that 300,000 died.

Recent years have also seen brave Turkish novels, films, exhibitions
and academic conferences that addressed the gaping loss to Turkish
society represented by the Armenian disappearance. Best of all,
Erdogan could abolish Article 301, which made all intellectuals like
Dink a target. What debate can there be if Turkey drags anyone who
deviates from the official line into court?

None of this, however, is likely to happen. Turkey has presidential
and parliamentary elections this year, and ultra-nationalists pose
the main challenge to Erdogan’s centrist, pro-Islamic Justice and
Development Party. Europe – whose support is critical in making a
Turkish regime feel safe to reform – seems in no mood to extend lines
of political credit to Turkey.

So the gap between Turkey and Europe will widen again. Muddled thinking
and inward-looking nationalism will continue to plague Turkey, and
not only in its approach to the Armenian problem. After all, Dink’s
murder is the symptom of negative currents that persist, not their
cause. And that, of course, is why Turkey’s curse keeps returning to
strike with such tragic ease.

Hugh Pope is an Istanbul-based journalist. His latest book is "Sons
of the Conquerors: The Rise of the Turkic World" (Overlook Duckworth
2005). This commentary was written for THE DAILY STAR.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Liberal Party of Canada, Canada
Jan 22 2007

Statement by the Hon. Irwin Cotler, MP (Mount Royal), Opposition
Critic for Human Rights
January 22, 2007

I would like to express my shock and deep sadness at the tragic
assassination of journalist Hrant Dink. This action was an assault
on democracy and freedom of expression – the ultimate silencer.

As editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian Agos newspaper, Mr. Dink
was one of Turkey’s most prominent Armenian voices and someone who
sought dialogue and reconciliation between Turks and Armenians while
remaining faithful to his journalistic credentials.

I hope the perpetrators will be brought to justice and that any
incitement against those who speak of the genocide of Armenians will
come to an end.

amp;id=12186

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Canada Free Press, Canada
Jan 22 2007

Turkey: "I shot the infidel" said Islamist killer
By Western Resistance

Monday, January 22, 2007

Yesterday, the 53-year old editor of Turkey’s only Armenian-language
magazine, Agos, was shot dead in the street as he left his offices.
He was hit three times in the head and neck, and died on the
sidewalk. His killer, a teenaged young man in a white cap, shouted "I
shot the infidel" as he ran off.

The editor, Hrant Dink, also owned the magazine. Two people were
arrested yesterday after the killing in central Istanbul, but were
later released. Three more people were arrested in the night.

Earlier, Hrant Dink was sentenced on 7 October 2005 to a six-month
suspended sentence by the Sisli Court of Second Instance in Istanbul
for breaking article 301 of the Turkish penal code, and "insulting
Turkish identity". Dink’s crime was to report in Agos of the effects
the Armenian massacre from the time of World War I made upon members
of the Armenian diaspora. Turkey denies that there was a "genocide"
and claims that in 1915, no more than 30,000 Armenians and Kurds
died, mostly of starvation. The Armenians were removed from their
homes in eastern Turkey by force, accused of collaborating with
invading Russian forces.

Dink appealed against the conviction of "insulting Turkish identity"
but it was upheld by a court in 2006. He was facing trial over
comments he made at a conference in 2002. That trial was initiated in
28 April 2005 at a court in the southeastern city of Sanliurfa.

Following his death, protesters gathered at the scene of the
shooting. One said: "Anyone who pretends this is a democracy is a
liar. A government that makes laws that target brave people like Mr
Dink should be ashamed to talk about freedom of speech – they are all
liars."

The Islamist prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said: "A
bullet has been fired at Turkish democracy and free speech."

Mr Dink was aware that he was a potential target for assassins. In
his last article, which is translated into English by the
French-based Collectif VAN he compared himself to a pigeon, whose
head swiveled about as he walked through Istanbul.

This is a section from the end:

Like a Pigeon

This much is crystal clear that those who tried to single me out,
render me weak and defenseless succeeded by their own measures. With
the wrongful and polluted knowledge they oozed into society, they
managed to form a significant segment of the population whose numbers
cannot be easily dismissed who view Hrant Dink as someone
"denigrating Turkishness."

The diary and memory of my computer are filled with angry,
threatening lines sent by citizens from this particular sector. (Let
me note here at this juncture that even though one of these letters
was sent from [the neighboring city of] Bursa and that I had found it
rather disturbing because of the proximity of the danger it
represented and [therefore] turned the threatening letter over to the
Sisli prosecutor’s office, I have not been able to get a result until
this day.)

How real or unreal are these threats? To be honest, it is of course
impossible for me to know for sure. What is truly threatening and
unbearable for me is the psychological torture I personally place
myself in. "Now what are these people thinking about me?" is the
question that really bugs me. It is unfortunate that I am now better
known than I once was and I feel much more the people throwing me
that glance of "Oh, look, isn’t he that Armenian guy?"

And I reflexively start torturing myself. One aspect of this torture
is curiosity, the other unease. One aspect is attention, the other
apprehension. I am just like a pigeon… Obsessed just as much what
goes on my left, right, front, back.

My head is just as mobile… and just as fast enough to turn right
away.

While Article 301, the offense of "insulting Turkishness" remains on
Turkey’s statute books, cynically invoked by Erdogan and his cronies
in the Justice Department, Turkey has place in the democracy of
Europe, where free speech should be the order of the day, seems
increasingly insecure.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Die Welt: 01/22/2006

Killing of Hrant Dink

Commentary: Culprit Turkey
(Translation from German)

By Boris Kalnoky

The deadly bullets shot to Turkish-Armenian reporter Hrant Dink were shot
"against Turkey", said prime minister Erdogan. This catchword was repeated
everywhere in Turkish society, from the chief of general staff Buyukanit to
all the way trough the media. It means that the killer or killers weren’t in
fact Turks, but traitors who wanted to harm the Country. The Turkey itself
is the victim.

In reality it is the other way around. It was the Turkish society who made
Dink a victim; it was the Turkish society that shot the bullets. The media
had reported about numerous lawsuits against Dink. Hence he was labeled a
traitor. Because he was saying things nobody dares to talk about in Turkey.
That the founder of the state Ataturk had adopted an Armenian orphan girl
(Dink was himself an orphan), and that there has been genocide perpetrated
against Armenians. Dink was one of a few remaining Armenians in Turkey and
almost the only one who openly spoke loudly. This last remaining voice is
now silenced.

Also responsible are the laws from the arsenal of the police states. The
"Insult to Turkishness", an offence sufficient for high-treason accusations,
that nobody even understands what it means except Turkish state lawyers and
military. The EU insisted to repeal the according penal paragraph 301, an
instrument for slander on intellectuals. The government promised "revisions".
That is not true any more – the murderous paragraph stays as it is, because
the military wants so.

In the internet forums the man was already long dead before he died. At the
office of the Istanbul vice governor Dundur he was threatened. Police didn’t
protect him, although he was in danger. Maybe he didn’t ask for personal
security, but it had to be clear to everybody, that it would be catastrophic
for Turkey and its reputation abroad, should anything happen to him. Whoever
in Turkey’s security service didn’t see this is incompetent.

Now everyone who drove him into the corner before wants to be called "Hrant
Dink": politicians, bureaucrats, opinion makers. None of them will ever go
through what it means to be hunted by Turkish society. Therefore nothing
will change.

—————————————– ————————————–
Die Welt: 01/22/2006

1184968.html

Ermordung von Hrant Dink

Kommentar: Tater Turkei

Von Boris Kalnoky

Die todlichen Kugeln auf den turkisch-armenischen Publizisten Hrant Dink
wurden "gegen die Turkei" abgefeuert, sagte Ministerprasident Erdogan. Von
Generalstabschef Buyukanit bis zu den Medien wurde dieses Schlagwort in der
gesamten turkischen Gesellschaft wiederholt. Es besagt, dass der oder die
Morder eigentlich keine Turken sind, sondern Verrater, die dem Lande schaden
wollen. Die Turkei selbst ist das Opfer.
In Wirklichkeit ist es umgekehrt. Es war die turkische Gesellschaft, die
Dink zum Opfer machte, sie war es, die die Kugeln abfeuerte. Uber die
zahlreichen Prozesse gegen Dink hatten die Medien berichteten. So wurde er
zum Verrater abgestempelt. Weil er Dinge sagte, die man in der Turkei nicht
sagen darf: Dass Staatsgrunder Ataturk ein armenisches Waisenmadchen
adoptierte (Dink war selbst Waise) und dass es einen Volkermord an den
Armeniern gab. Dink war einer der wenigen verbliebenen Armenier in der
Turkei und fast der einzige, der offentlich die Stimme erhob. Diese letzte
Stimme ist nun erloschen.

Mit verantwortlich sind Gesetze aus dem Arsenal von Polizeistaaten.
"Beleidigung des Turkentums", ein Hochverrats-Tatbestand, von dem niemand
außer turkischen Staatsanwalten und Militars weiß, was er uberhaupt bedeuten
soll. Der entsprechende Strafparagraf 301, Instrument des Rufmords an
Intellektuellen, sollte auf Drangen der EU abgeschafft werden, die Regierung
versprach "Änderungen". Das gilt nicht mehr – der morderische Paragraf
bleibt bestehen, weil das Militar es so will.
In Internetforen war der Mann bereits tot, bevor er starb. Beim Istanbuler
Vizegouverneur Dundur wurde ihm gedroht. Die Polizei schutzte ihn nicht,
obwohl ihm Gefahr drohte. Er wollte wohl selbst keinen Personenschutz, aber
allen muss klar gewesen sein, dass es eine Katastrophe fur die Turkei und
ihr Ansehen im Ausland sein wurde, wenn ihm etwas zustieße. Wer das bei den
turkischen Sicherheitsbehorden nicht erkannt hat, hat versagt.
Nun wollen alle "Hrant Dink" heißen, die ihn zuvor in die Enge trieben:
Politiker, Burokraten und Meinungsmacher. Keiner von ihnen wird jemals
selbst erleben, was es bedeutet, von der turkischen Gesellschaft gejagt zu
werden. Daher wird sich nichts andern.

–Boundary_(ID_6bnhlFMuLcABC/946qZTSw)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Deep Roots Of The Murder
BY TAHA AKYOL

Anatolian Times, Turkey
Jan 22 2007

MILLIYET- ‘Who benefited from the murder of Hrank Dink? Turkey’s
enemies. It means that the murder was committed by forces hostile
to Turkey! Don’t consider the boy who was caught as the murderer,
as there is a "killer state" behind him!’

These are unnecessary political conspiracy theories. If a 17-year-old
boy has enough hatred within himself to kill someone, he can get a
Beretta gun and do it! He only has to find a few people to help him.
It’s clear the murder wasn’t a professional job, because he was caught
by the police with the gun he used plus the white hat and clothes
he wore while doing the job. Couldn’t big forces and clandestine,
professional groups even get him a change of clothes? Of course,
all possibilities should be explored by investigators.

Once Dink told a panel the following, which he later included in his
column in Agos newspaper:

"In 1986, when I was in Denizli to do my military service, all of
my friends were honored by being made noncommissioned officers,
with only me left out … I had two children … I was disappointed
with this discrimination.’ This is an example of discrimination he
faced! Of course, we could talk about certain events in history. Such
arguments won’t end for any nation or group. The problem causes from
not overcoming feelings created by bad events in history. Armenian
terrorist group ASALA shed blood for this reason, and the Armenian
diaspora nurses its hatred. Let’s try to consider the situation
of the world if we couldn’t overcome the traumas in history of all
nations. This racist hatred murdered Dink! It’s enough for a boy to
find a gun! It’s so simple, serious, and dangerous!

The unconscious hatred is seen in groups which are closed, insulated,
and socially deformed, and ones which have bad tendencies. When
there’s tension in the community, the worst actions are seen in
these groups. It’s always like this, isn’t it? Let’s not forget that
we have a responsibility to build our future. If we want to build a
sustainable life for our children, and a bright and honorable future
for Turkey, then one of the conditions for this is avoiding actions
both individually and officially which breed racist hatred and instead
showing respect for differences and freedom of expression!

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Jan 22 2007

Suspect confesses to killing Turkish-Armenian journalist

Dink will be laid to rest on Tuesday.

NTV
Guncelleme: 16:31 TSÝ 22 Ocak 2007 PazartesiISTANBUL – Turkish police
now have eight people in custody, including the suspected gunman,
believed involved in Friday’s murder of prominent Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink, though later releasing three after
questioning.

Aykut Cengiz Engin, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor said Sunday
another three persons had been detained in the Black Sea city of
Trabzon earlier that day. A further person was taken into custody
early Monday.

Also on Sunday, Ogun Samast, the 17 year old Trabzon youth accused of
carrying out the shooting of Dink outside his Istanbul office was
brought to Istanbul from Samsun on the Black Sea, where he had been
arrested. Samast had been identified by his father, who informed
police after seeing film footage of the suspect fleeing the scene of
the killing.

According to Turkish authorities, Samast has confessed to the killing
of Dink, a leading human rights and freedom of speech activist.

Dink had often incurred the wrath of Turkish right wing groups by
campaigning for increased democracy in Turkey as well as
rapproachment with Armenia.

In 2006, a Turkish Court of Appeals upheld a six month suspended
sentence handed down to Dink on the charge of "insulting Turkish
identity". The charge stemmed from an article he wrote saying that
Armenian nationalists had the ideal of ethnic purity without Turkish
blood. Dink denied there was any insult implied in the article.
Engin said that an official organised crimes unit will conduct the
investigation into Dink’s killing.

–Boundary_(ID_JTCSJG5x0HX/OKlCOWY7qQ)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress