Armenian Editor Is Slain in Turkey
By SEBNEM ARSU
Published: January 20, 2007
ISTANBUL, Jan. 19 – A prominent newspaper editor, columnist and voice
for Turkey’s ethnic Armenians who was prosecuted for challenging the
official Turkish version of the 1915 Armenian genocide, was shot dead
as he left his office on a busy street in central Istanbul on Friday.
Colleagues of Hrant Dink, the editor of a weekly newspaper in
Istanbul, looked down from the paper’s offices to where his body
lay. Mr. Dink, a voice for Turkey’s ethnic Armenians who was
prosecuted for challenging the official Turkish version of the 1915
Armenian genocide, was shot as he left his office
Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
Protesters rallied in Istanbul, some holding up signs of Hrant Dink, a
newspaper editor and ethnic Armenian who was shot dead outside his
office earlier in the day. Officials said they detained three
suspects. Television images showed the editor, Hrant Dink, lying on
the crowded sidewalk covered with a white sheet outside the office of
his bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly, Agos. Officials said they
detained three suspects. Investigators were monitoring surveillance
tapes from nearby shops.
Mr. Dink, 53, a Turk of Armenian descent, often provoked widespread
anger in Turkey for his comments on the genocide – which Turkey
denies, saying the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians
resulted from hunger and other suffering in World War I. He also
angered some ethnic Armenians for opposing their demand that Turkey
recognize the genocide as a condition of entry to the European
Union. He viewed entry into the Union as the clearest route to
strengthening democracy in Turkey.
In recent articles, Mr. Dink (pronounced deenk) described increasing
death threats against him. `I do not know how real these threats are,’
he wrote, `but what’s really unbearable is the psychological torture
that I’m living in, like a pigeon, turning my head up and down, left
and right, my head quickly rotating.’
Reaction to the daylight shooting, both here and abroad, was swift and
deep. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the shooting as a
direct attack on Turkey’s peace and stability. `A bullet was fired at
freedom of thought and democratic life in Turkey,’ he said in a
nationally broadcast news conference. `Once again, dark hands have
chosen our country and spilled blood in Istanbul to achieve their dark
goals.’
In an unusual show of anger and regret, the prime minister’s remarks
were echoed by the head of the armed forces, the president and other
officials. The Armenian patriarch in Istanbul, Archbishop Mesrob
Mutafyan, declared 15 days of mourning for the small Armenian,
Christian population of Turkey.
Several thousand people marched from Mr. Dink’s office to Taksim
Square on Friday evening to protest the killing. People held pictures
of Mr. Dink, decorated his office door with flowers, waved black flags
and chanted, `Shoulder to shoulder against fascism,’ and, `We are all
Hrant; we are all Armenians.’
European officials and human rights groups also expressed horror and
called on Turkey to do more to protect free expression.
Mr. Dink was one of a number of intellectuals convicted under Article
301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which penalizes remarks against the
state or the Turkish identity. It been harshly criticized by the
European Union as a violation of freedom of expression, as Turkey
moves toward membership.
Turkey has been changing some laws to try to meet the European Union’s
membership criteria, but faced a setback last month when ministers in
Brussels decided to freeze talks on 8 of 35 areas of discussion
because of Turkey’s refusal to open its airports and seaports to
Cyprus, a member of the Union.
Among the crowd that gathered Friday night, the common fear was that
this assassination would be added to the list of unsolved
murders. `This is an attack against our democracy,’ said Ayhan Aydin,
an international financial consultant, who worked on the same street
on which Mr. Dink was shot.
`We’re here to show that sensible people wish this assassination to be
clarified and want the perpetrators to be brought to justice,’
Mr. Aydin said, standing in the crowd. `We all fear that this insane
attack might be swept under the carpet once it gets too complicated to
resolve, like other murders did.’
Turkey’s ambition to become a European Union member requires further
democratization and a better functioning legal system. The group has
been particularly critical of Article 301.
Derya Sazak of the Milliyet newspaper said of the law, `This legal
system brings forward the culture of hatred and lynching, in which
Hrant became an open target. The murderers always go after the
moderate voices, which Turkey needs the most.’
Mr. Dink, a father of three, founded Agos in 1996. The bilingual
community newspaper has a weekly circulation of 5,000.
Haluk Sahin, a columnist for the Radikal newspaper, a strong supporter
of Mr. Dink’s legal struggles, said Turkey had been hit in the heart.
`Those who wanted to harm Turkey couldn’t have chosen a better
target,’ Mr. Sahin said. `As opposed to other killings in the past,
Turkish public reaction against this murder will show us where Turkey
stands in the world.’
Susanne Fowler contributed reporting from Paris.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress