Author: Emil Lazarian

Advertiser Adelaide, Australia
Daily Telegraph, Australia
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia
NEWS.com.au, Australia
Courier Mail, Australia
The Australian, Australia
Jan 21 2007

Teen ‘shot editor for insulting Turks’

>From correspondents in Istanbul
January 22, 2007 03:00am

AN unemployed teenager has told investigators he shot dead editor
Hrant Dink because he had insulted Turks, it was reported today.

Police caught Ogun Samast, 17, carrying a gun at a bus station in the
Black Sea coastal town of Samsun overnight, a day after the
Turkish-Armenian Dink was shot in broad daylight outside his
newspaper office in Istanbul.

"I read on the Internet that he (Dink) said ‘I am from Turkey but
Turkish blood is dirty’ and I decided to kill him … I do not regret
this," CNN Turk quoted Samast as saying.

Dink was a respected but controversial figure who promoted
reconciliation between Turks and Armenians but also called on Turkey
to recognise its role in massacres of Armenians during World War One.

Turkish nationalists saw such comments as an insult to national
honour.

Samsun’s chief prosecutor Ahmet Gokcinar confirmed to state-run
Anatolian news agency that Samast had confessed.

Samast and six other suspects are being questioned in Istanbul,
police said. One suspect, Yasin Hayal, served 11 months in jail for
the bombing of a McDonalds restaurant in Trabzon in 2004, the Vatan
newspaper said.

"The murder was planned in Trabzon and carried out in Istanbul.
Everybody who helped with this has been identified," Trabzon governor
Huseyin Yavuzdemir said.

The affair has shocked Turkey and raised questions about the
country’s tolerance for minorities and freedom of expression as it
seeks to join the European Union. Newspapers demanded authorities
leave no stone unturned in investigating the latest in a series of
politically-motivated murders in Turkey.

Dink, 52, was a Christian of Armenian descent and editor-in-chief of
the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos.

He was frequently criticised by right-wing Turks, including
politicians and prosecutors, for describing the mass killing of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks as a genocide.

The once-influential Armenian community in Turkey has dwindled to
some 60,000 people.

Last year, Turkey upheld a six-month suspended jail sentence against
Dink for "insulting Turkey’s identity" in his writings on Armenians
and Turks. Several other cases related to comments on the massacres
of Armenians were pending against him.

Dozens of intellectuals have been charged with insulting Turkish
identity under article 301 of the revised penal code – passed by the
current AK Party government.

Most, including Nobel Literature Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, were taken
to court by nationalist-minded prosecutors for comments related to
the alleged genocide of Armenians.

Turkey denies 1.5 million Armenians died in a systematic genocide. It
says both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks died in a conflict on
Ottoman territory during World War One.

France has made it a crime to deny the Armenian genocide and the US
Congress is to debate a similar bill.

The ruling AK Party, which has roots in political Islam, has
repeatedly promised to revise the much criticised penal code article.
The European Union wants Ankara to change the law.

The government is likely to face pressure to address freedom of
expression and also the country’s dark past as presidential and
parliamentary elections approach.

"Just wait and see how this will resonate outside," wrote leading
columnist Mehmet Ali Birand. "Turkey will be blamed for everything.
Newspapers will write about how Turkish people could not tolerate a
liberal journalist of Armenian origin. Can there be any greater harm
to our country?"

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

WBAN
Jan 21 2007

Kentikian and Alvarez meet in World Title fight

By Torben L. of Denmark
January 20, 2007

(JAN 20) Thursday PRO7 released the news of a new boxing show
"ProSieben Fight Nights" in co-operation with Spotlight Boxing. The
launch of the new show will take place on 16th February at 8.15 pm
CET, where one of the main events will be a fight for the WBA
Flyweight Title between Susi Kentikian (14-0-0) and Carolina Alvarez
(8-0-1) of Venezuela.

The show will also include a WBO Intercontinental Middleweight fight
between Spotlight’s Sebastian Zbik vs. Alfonso Mosquera of Panama.

Two other Spotlight fighters, heavyweight Sebastian Köber and
featherweight Vitali Tajbert, will also climb through the ropes;
opponents yet to be revealed.

According to the press release, the four young German talents
Kentikian, Zbik, Köber and Tajbert will be the new "boxing" faces of
ProSieben with three shows planned from February to May so far.

The opportunity to appear live on prime time nationwide TV in a World
Title Fight, is no doubt a tremendous encouragement – and well
deserved – for young Kentikian. So far she has been overshadowed by
Halmich, Menzer, Graf and Sahin as far as TV exposure is concerned.
Her TV appearances has been limited to a couple of undercard fights
on the German DSF sport channel and a Intercontinental title fight
against Maya Frenzel shown EUROSPORT.

Despite the lack of TV exposure, the young Armenian has proved her
huge popularity among the German boxing fans recently. She caused an
upset, when overtook both Ina Menzer and Alesia Graf in the 2006
Female Boxer of the Year poll run by the only German hardcopy boxing
magazine "BOXSPORT" and came second only to Regina Halmich, who won
the award for the 5th year running.

A current internet poll on the ZDF website shows a similar picture to
the question "Who will be the successor to Regina Halmich". Kentikian
leads this poll "neck by neck" with Ina Menzer.

Another recent acknowledgement has been the 2006 WBAN "Most
Inspirational Boxer Award", shared with Ann Marie Saccurato.

Regina Halmich will be a further attraction to the premiere of
"ProSieben Fight Night". She will appear as an expert commentator.
Halmich is certainly no newcomer to ProSieben. Her famous show fight
against Stefan Raab was broadcast by ProSieben, and achieved the
highest ever viewer rating of the Station.

Spotlight Boxing’s contract with EUROSPORT will continue, although
with a reduced number of shows in 2007.

tikian.htm

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Jan 21 2007

Hrant Dink, an Armenian who loved Turkey and the truth

Saturday , 20 January 2007

ISTANBUL – Hated by Turkish nationalists, at times misunderstood by
his kinsmen, Hrant Dink, the Turkish journalist of Armenian origin
who was murdered on Friday was also admired by many for his
commitment to dialogue between the two communities.
"Because he sought reconciliation through truth, he was hated by
hardliners on both sides. He was a target," said an editorial in
Saturday’s edition of the English-language daily Today’s Zaman.

Dink, the53-year-old editor of bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly
Agos, which he founded 10 years ago, was shot three times in the head
and neck outside the newspaper’s office in central Istanbul.

He had drawn the ire of the extreme-right in Turkey for his position
on the World War I killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire,
which preceded the Turkish republic.

In his public speeches, which were often intensely emotional, he
never refrained from using the word "genocide", a term fiercely
rejected by Turkey, to describe the 1915-1917 massacres.

Such statements led to several legal cases being brought against Dink
and a six-month suspended jail term for insulting Turkishness.
Hearings sometimes became a free-for-all during which nationalist
lawyers threw insults at him.

The journalist, who was shy in private, also disappointed the
Armenian diaspora by criticising a Frecnh parliamentary bill that
makes it a jailable offence to deny that Armenians were the victims
of a genocide.

"This is idiocy," he said in remarks to the liberal daily Radikal in
October 2006. "It only shows that those who restrict freedom of
expression in Turkey and those who try to restrict it in France are
of the same mentality."

Dink risked further attacks by defending in court other people who
faced prosecution for expressing their opinions, notably Nobel
Literature Prize laureate Orhan Pamuk and novelist Perihan Magden.

"You came to my trial," Magden wrote in Saturday’s Radikal. "When you
saw the lynch mob at the entrance you did not go in, so as not to
give the opportunity for provocation … and you apologised
afterwards for not being at my side."

Magden hailed Dink as "a true patriot" and "a man with a big heart".

Born into a modest family in Malatya, eastern Turkey, Dink moved with
his parents to Istanbul at the age of seven. When they split up, he
entered an Armenian orphanage with his two brothers.

He studied philosophy and zoology and took various jobs, including
with the Armenian Church, running a children’s holiday camp and a
bookshop, before founding Agos in 1996.

Dink was married and had three children.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Media Line, NY
Jan 21 2007

Suspected Assassin of Armenian Editor Confesses
Written by The Media Line Staff
Published Sunday, January 21, 2007

The Turkish police have detained Ogün Samast, a teenager suspected of
killing the editor in chief of the Armenian community’s newspaper in
Istanbul, Hrant Dink, the Turkish Daily News reported.

After his father called the police, Samast was captured on a bus in
the city of Samsun. The suspect confessed to the murder early Sunday
morning.

"I thank the judiciary and the police for their success in capturing
the suspected assassin in such a short time," Turkey’s Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdoðan said on Turkish TV.

Dink was murdered over the weekend in front of the offices of Agos,
the newspaper he had headed in Istanbul since 1996. Dink, a Turkish
citizen of Armenian descent, was put on trial last year for
"insulting Turkishness," after he called on the Turkish government to
recognize the existence of the Armenian holocaust in 1915.

In 2004, Dink received a six-month suspended sentence. Dink appealed
and in February 2006 he was acquitted. In July 2006 he received
another six-month suspended sentence after writing an article that
called for Armenians to "now turn their attention to the new life
offered by an independent Armenia." One week later, the Istanbul
public prosecutor opened a new case against him, this time for
referring to the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide. Dink was
awaiting his trial on those charges when he was killed.

Erdoðan condemned the murder, saying the "attack was against all of
us, against our unity, peace and stability."

Thousands of Turks, mainly of Armenian descent, gathered in Istanbul
a few hours after the murder for a sit-in demonstration.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Hürriyet, Turkey
Jan 21 2007

Whole country stands up

Marches and demonstrations were organised across Turkey following the
assassination of Hrant Dink, the Editor-in-Chief of the Armenian Agos
newspaper and a strong critic of what he saw as Turkey’s failure to
admit that the killing of Armenians during WWI amounted to genocide,
who was shot in the face outside his newspaper office on January 19.

Those who gathered for the marches included mayors, political parties
including the CHP, DSP, ODP, EMEP, SHP, and non-governmental
organisations like the Association in Support of Contemporary Living.
The most common slogan was, `We are all Armenians, we are all Dink’.

Police have arrested a suspect, Ogun Samast, in the Dink killing
after receiving a tip from the suspect’s father, who saw pictures of
his son on TV leaving the scene of the crime.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Kurdish Media, UK
Jan 21 2007

CHAK condemns the assassination of the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink

1/21/2007 CHAK

The Halabja Center against the Anfal campaign and genocide of the
Kurds (CHAK) condemns the assassination of the Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink.

The assassination of Hrant Dink has silenced a different voice and a
brave pen. Mr. Dink’s death is a loss to humanity and has weakened
the struggle to reveal truths from the past.

This assassination is a result of Turkey’s racist policy towards
anyone questioning Turkishness and Turkey’s unity. It is clearly a
political assassination that shows the depth of hatred contained in
Turkism.

The Turkish government convicted Hrank Dink of insulting Turkish
identity in 2005, which is proof of Turkey’s intolerant policy toward
freedom of speech and different thinking.

Turkey’s government was well aware about the threats Mr. Dink
received daily, as he frequently informed the authorities. But they
did nothing to prevent this crime. Thus Turkey carries a heavy
responsibility for this murder.

While we send our sympathy and condolence to the family and friends
of martyr Hrank Dink, we appeal for further efforts to reveal the
dark past in connection with the Armenian genocide and the mass
killings of the Kurds committed by Turkey. Without confession of the
past unforgotten crimes, real peace can not be achieved.

The Halabja Center against the Anfal campaign and genocide of the
Kurds (CHAK)

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RIA Novosti, Russia
Jan 21 2007

Armenian origin school pupil killed in Moscow
16:44 | 21/ 01/ 2007

MOSCOW, January 21 (RIA Novosti) – A school pupil of Armenian origin
was killed in Moscow, a source in the law-enforcement bodies of the
Russian capital said Sunday.

"The body of 16-year-old Artur Martirosyan with a stab injury of the
left side of the chest was found Friday morning at 45 Kastanayevskaya
Street," the source said.

According to the source, a seventh-form pupil, registered in the town
of Tomilino in the Moscow region, resided with his parents in a
rented apartment in Moscow since 2003.

A criminal investigation has been launched, the source said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Aljazeera.net, Qatar
Jan 21 2007

Film tackles ‘genocide’ controversy
By Kris Evans in Los Angeles

BEE-45C2-BA33-3A0F63B4E3A9.htm

Serj Tankian, right, the lead singer of System of a Down
has condemned the Armenian genocide [Getty]

The killing of Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist who
publicised the killing of hundreds of thousands of Armenians at the
turn of the 20th century, is likely to turn a spotlight on a dark
period of Turkish history.

Many Armenians say the killings, perpetrated in the twilight years of
the Ottoman Empire between 1915-17, were deliberate acts of genocide.

Turkey however says the Armenians died in mass communal violence, and
that many Turks also died in the violence.

Dink’s murder on the streets of Istanbul comes only days before the
release of a documentary by a Pulitzer prize-winning author who
teamed up with a rock band to raise awareness of the issue.

Carla Garabedian, an American film maker and former war
correspondent, is trying to pressure Western governments to
acknowledge that the killing of more than a million Armenians during
the break up of the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923 was an act
of genocide.

The US government, however, refuses to use the "g" word, as do the
governments of the UK and Turkey (Amnesty International states that
while the killings are a matter of fact, calling them genocide is a
matter of legal opinion).

The film Screamers is likely to raise the ire of those in Turkey who
argue that Ottoman citizens – Armenian and Turkish – died in great
numbers during the final days of the empire, and who characterise the
deaths as part of a much larger war.

Head banging politics

"Whether the deaths of Armenians or Muslims constitute genocide or
some other no less horrific crime, or no crime at all, should be
studied and openly debated by both sides"

Gunay Evinch, a Turkish-American Fulbright Scholar in international
law

Garabedian’s previous work includes the Emmy-award winning Beneath
the Veil, about women in Afghanistan, and Dying for the President, a
film during which she risked her life to sneak into Chechnya during
the height of the conflict there.

Now she has teamed up with System of a Down, a Los Angeles-based
metal band who are all of Armenian descent, two of which were born in
Lebanon and known in the record industry for embracing political and
human rights issues.

The documentary is interlaced with concert footage as well as
interviews with Turkish dissidents, intellectuals, and Samantha
Power, a Pulitzer-prize winning writer, whose book A Problem from
Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, was Garabedian’s inspiration
for the film.

But it is unlikely that the film, already being shown in Los Angeles
and opening in New York on January 26, will be screened in Turkey any
time soon.

Open debate

Gunay Evinch, a Turkish-American Fulbright Scholar in international
law, says: "Whether the deaths of Armenians or Muslims constitute
genocide or some other no less horrific crime, or no crime at all,
should be studied and openly debated by both sides.

"I also believe that the question of whether a crime has been
committed is a legal inquiry in which historians should serve as
expert witnesses."

Evinch and numerous other Turkish scholars argue that while, for
example, the Jewish Holocaust was the very definition of genocide –
and proven so in court – the Armenian issue is more complex.

System of a Down feature heavily in the
film and are political campaigners [EPA]
They also point to the strength of the Armenian lobby (both sides
like to highlight the other’s lobbying power), and argue that
Armenians and their supporters are opposed to a court determination
because a "public relations approach" is more likely to bring about a
conviction.

And if there were a court case?

Evinch says: "My own opinion is that Turkey would win the case on the
merits, and that all who seek the truth should explore the ICJ
[International Court of Justice] option."

No more debate

"We think we have a policy of ‘never again’ – never again will we let
the Holocaust happen. But we let genocide happen underneath our
noses"

Carla Garabedian, film maker

But for the director of Screamers, the moment for debate and
discussion has long since passed.

"Had they wanted me to have a debate on it, I wouldn’t have taken
part. I just don’t think you can be even handed about something like
genocide."

Consensus may never be reached between the two sides (although
letters have recently been exchanged between the Turkish and Armenian
premiers with regard to a joint study), but the documentary also
explores the West’s reaction, or non-reaction, to events in Darfur,
Rwanda and Halabja (a Kurdish town in north Iraq where thousands of
Kurds were gassed in 1988).

On this point, Garabedian says it’s no longer about Turkey but "about
us [in the West] and our foreign policy".

She said: "We think we have a policy of ‘never again’ – never again
will we let the Holocaust happen. But we let genocide happen
underneath our noses, we know exactly what’s going on and we have
made a decision we’re going to allow it to happen."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Civil Georgia. Georgia
Jan 21 2007

Bagapsh: Informal Deal to Secure Multiethnic Parliament
Breaking News published on 21/01/2007

By Civil Georgia ()

Sokhumi, 21 January 2007 – Abkhaz leader Sergey Bagapsh said that
there is `a gentleman’s agreement’ between the political forces in
Abkhazia which will help to elect `multiethnic parliament’ during the
upcoming elections on March 4.

`Officially there are no quotas allocated for certain ethnic groups
in the Abkhaz Parliament; but there is understanding, there is
agreement at least for time being and we will not let this
[agreement] to be violated. An essence of this agreement is simple:
let’s say an ethnic Russian candidate is nominated in one of the
[single-mandate] constituencies; several other candidates can also be
nominated in the same constituency including by the opposition
parties, but let them [other candidates] also be ethnic Russians,’
Bagapsh said in an interview to the Russian news agency Regnum
published on January 19.

He also said that Abkhazia’s independence agenda will dominate during
the election campaign, like it was during the previous elections in
the unrecognized republic.

`Everyone running for the seats in the Parliament should understand
that they are going to the legislative body for this purpose,’
Bagapsh said.

Georgian daily 24 Saati (24 Hours) wrote on January 19 that no major
tensions are anticipated between the Abkhaz political forces on the
eve of the parliamentary elections.

Political groups backing the Abkhaz leader Sergey Bagapsh, involving
Amtsakhara, Aitaira (Revival) and United Abkhazia will be challenged
during the elections by an opposition Forum of Abkhaz People’s Unity,
uniting supports of Vice-President Raul Khajimba and former Abkhaz
leader Vladislav Ardzinba. Khajimba was Bagapsh rival in 2004
presidential elections and came into power as a result of
power-sharing agreement with Bagapsh.

Newly set up party Russian Citizens Union will also be running in the
elections. This party will try to benefit from the votes of ethnic
Russians and Armenians, according to the 24 Saati.

Inal Khashig, an editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper in
Abkhazia Chegemskaya Pravda, told the 24 Saati, that the opposition
forces have little chances to succeed in the upcoming elections.

`Although there is certain disappointment among the society over the
authorities’ performance, the opposition will hardly benefit from it…
No one wants return of past,’ Khashig told the Georgian newspaper.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

For Immediate Release
January 19, 2006
Contact: Marianne Davitjan
Contact number: (416) 505 3181
45 Hallcrown Place
Toronto, Ontario
M2J 4Y4

Canadian-Armenian Community in Toronto mourns the assassination of Hrant
Dink, Armenian journalist in Turkey

TORONTO, ON – The Armenian National Committee of Toronto (ANCT) mourns the
loss of Hrant Dink, a leading Istanbul-based Armenian journalist murdered
outside the offices of his Agos newspaper today amid a growing tide of
Turkish government prosecutions and nationalist pressure to silence his
writings concerning the Armenian Genocide.

Dink, 53, a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, had received threats from
nationalists who viewed him as a traitor, the Associated Press news agency
reported.

In response to this tragic loss, the following tributes are being
organised:

St Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian National Committee of
Toronto and the ARY YOC Simon Zavarian chapter will hold a special
Memorial Service Sunday January 21st, 2007 at 1:15 pm followed by a
tribute in front of the Revival Monument at 45 Hallcrown Place in
Toronto.

Interdenominational Memorial Service at Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic
Church of Toronto, 920 Progress Ave. (Hwy 401 and Markham rd.) in
Scarborough
The details of the Interdenominational Memorial Service will be announced
during the afternoon services.

The Armenian National Committee will also be holding a special candle
light vigil at Queens Park, Thursday, January 25th, 2007 at 8:00 pm.

We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and friends and would
like to invite all Canadians to partake in the tributes both Sunday and
Thursday to honour the memory, the values, and the perseverance for
recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Turkey, which Hrant Dink
tragically lost his life for.

Read Armenian National Committee of Canada Statement
bid/53/ctl/ViewPressRelease/mid/397/PressReleaseID /13/Default.aspx
Read Armenian National Committee of America Statement
_releases.php?prid=1059
Read European Armenian Federation Statement
icle=325&lang=en

-30-

The ANCT is part of the largest and the most influential Canadian-Armenian
grassroots political organization. Working in coordination with a network
of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout Canada and affiliated
organizations around the world, the ANCC actively advances the concerns
of the Canadian-Armenian community on a broad range of issues.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress