Author: Kafian Jirair

Mass protest at editor’s funeral

· Murder triggers debate on freedom of speech
· ‘We are all Armenians’ mourners chant

Benjamin Harvey, Associated Press
Wednesday January 24, 2007
The Guardian

More than 100,000 people marched in a funeral procession yesterday for the
murdered Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. "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 towards the end of
the Ottoman empire genocide.
Dink was shot dead outside his newspaper Agos on Friday. The murder touched
off debate about excessive nationalism, free expression and the ability of
Turks of different backgrounds to live together.

Throngs of mourners marched along the five-mile route from the Agos offices
to an Armenian Orthodox church, virtually shutting the city centre. Many
carried placards that read: "We are all Hrant Dinks." Thousands leaned out of
office windows to applaud and throw flowers.
Despite a request from his family not to turn the funeral into a protest,
many also raised their fists shouting: "Shoulder to shoulder against fascism"
and "Murderer 301" – a reference to the law that was used to prosecute Dink
and others on charges of "insulting Turkishness."

Sera, the 52-year-old journalist’s daughter, wept as she accompanied the
coffin.

Dink, the editor of Agos, a bilingual Armenian-Turkish newspaper, encouraged
reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia. But public statements about the
mass killings of Armenians by Turks in the early 20th century landed him in
court and prompted death threats. Among others taken to court was novelist
Orhan Pamuk, who last year won the Nobel literature prize. The prosecutions have
alarmed the EU, which is considering Turkey’s bid to join.

Police are questioning seven suspects, including a teenager, Ogun Samast,
who authorities said has confessed to shooting Dink, and Yasin Hayal, a
nationalist convicted of a 2004 bomb attack at a McDonald’s restaurant. Hayal has
confessed to inciting the killing and providing a gun to the teenager,
according to police. The suspects also include a university student who allegedly
"inspired" the attack, Hurriyet newspaper reported. Police confirmed the report
but gave no details.

In a service attended by Armenians and Turks, including the deputy prime
minister, Mehmet Ali Sahin, and the interior minister, Abdulkadir Aksu, Armenian
Patriarch Mesrob II called for expanded freedom of speech and more dialogue
between Turks and Armenians. Although Turkey has no diplomatic ties with
Armenia, officials and religious leaders from Armenia also attended.

–Boundary_(ID_+HwKhSDjKG59SS6qCP8uHA)- –

HZOR HAYRENIK READY TO MAKE ALLIANCE WITH POLITICAL FORCES ANXIOUS
ABOUT JAVAKHK ARMENIANS’ PROBLEMS

YEREVAN, JANUARY 22, NOYAN TAPAN. The Hzor Hayrenik (Powerful Homeland)
Party conducts negotiations with other political organizations, and
the format of party’s participation in the parliamentary elections
will be specified soon.

Hzor Hayrenik Party Chairman Vardan Vardapetian said this at the
January 22 press conference. He said that they are ready to make
alliance with the forces anxious about problems of Armenians
of Javakhk, irrespective of the fact to which power wing –
pro-governmental or opposition, this force belongs.

At the same time, V.Vardapetian considers improbable elections’
transparency and fairness. In his words, Hzor Hayrenik has nothing
to do in the illegitimate parliament.

V.Vardapetian declared that even if one force raising problems of
Armenians of Javakhk should be represented at RA NA. In his words,
this force will try to protect the rights of Armenians of Javakhk
that are often violated by the Georgian authorities.

In the words of Shirak Torosian, party Vice-Chairman, Chairman of
Javakhk compatriotic union, no politician has pronounced the word
"Javakhk" at NA tribune over the past 10-15 years. As he affirmed,
the compatriotic union headed by him together with the Hzor Hayrenik
attended to solution of Javakhk problems most of all and spoke about
what they did least of all. The compatriotic union has worked out
exact programs aimed at preservation of the Armenian nation in Javakhk.

PRESS OFFICE
Department of Communications
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern)
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Jake Goshert, Coordinator of Information Services
Tel: (212) 686-0710 Ext. 160; Fax: (212) 779-3558
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

January 23, 2007
___________________

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES USA CONDEMNS ASSASSINATION OF JOURNALIST HRANT
DINK – EXTEND CONDOLENCES TO BISHOP VICKEN

The National Council of Churches (NCC) is the latest in a score of
organizations issuing statements of condemnation concerning the
assassination of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in Istanbul on Friday,
January 19, 2007.

"The NCC calls on the U.S. State Department to use whatever influence
possible to make sure this political assassination is fully investigated
with courage and clarity," said former six-term United States congressman
and current NCC general secretary, the Rev. Bob Edgar, said. "The Turkish
government must show it will defend the rights and the lives of religious
and ethnic minorities."

The NCC extended special messages of sorrow and solidarity with Bishop
Vicken Aykazian, legate and ecumenical officer of the Diocese of the
Armenian Church of America (Eastern). Bishop Vicken is the NCC
president-elect and will speak at a vigil Tuesday evening, January 23, 2007,
at the St. Mary Church in Washington, D.C.

"The Armenian people around the world are mourning his death," Bishop
Aykazian said. "He died because he had the courage to say there was a
genocide by the Ottoman Turks against the Armenians. But, God willing,
Hrant Dink’s death will serve as an organizing call for all people who love
the truth, democracy and human rights to re-double their efforts to
establish a society where goodness, free speech and respect for truth, which
is essential to justice, is established between the Armenian and Turkish
peoples."

Bishop Aykazian, a personal friend of Hrant Dink, traveled to Los Angeles
with the assassinated journalist on a recent joint trip.

"Hrant said he was not afraid for himself, but he was afraid for his
children," Bishop Aykazian said. "He was a man of immense courage, strong
conviction, deep morals, and unparalleled ethics. He was committed to
responsible journalism in service to the truth."

— 1/23/07

# # #

International Herald Tribune, France
Jan 22 2007

A Turkish funeral invitation to Armenians

Spiritual and political figures to attend rites for slain editor
By Susanne Fowler and Sebnem Arsu

ISTANBUL: Armenian spiritual and political figures from around the
world on Monday accepted an extraordinary invitation from Turkey to
attend the funeral of the founder of an Armenian- Turkish newspaper,
Hrant Dink, who was killed outside his office Friday, officials
said Monday.

The slaying has prompted an outburst of public demonstrations and has
begun to suggest a warming of ties after a near century of animosity
between Turks and Armenians.

Armenia is to send a deputy foreign minister to the funeral, Arman
Kirakossian. The archbishop of the Armenian Church of America, Khajag
Barsamyan, also accepted the government’s invitation.

Earlier, the Armenian defense minister, Serzh Sarkisyan, called for
improved relations so that Armenia could

"establish ties with Turkey with no preconditions," according to the
Turkish news channel NTV.

Important Turkish government officials are to attend the funeral,
and Kirakossian, a former ambassador to the United States, is to
attend with Karen Mirzoyan, who represents the Organization of Black
Sea Economic Cooperation, according to Kaan Soyak, of the Turkish
and Armenian Business Development Council.

The gesture to Armenia was a surprising departure for Turkey, which has
no diplomatic relations with Armenia and has kept the border closed
since 1993. To many Turks and Armenians, a thaw in the relationship
after a personal tragedy suggests a display of humanity toward the
very Armenians who have long referred to Turks as butchers. That
could prove to be a setback for Turkish nationalists who oppose the
country’s membership in the European Union and oppose closer ties to
Armenia if it means admitting to genocide before World War I.

Celalettin Cerrah, the head of the Istanbul security forces, said that
Samast had no ties to any groups and that "the suspect was driven to
commit the crime by his nationalistic feelings."

Diplomatic ties were severed in a dispute over territory, but the
heart of the conflict is the mass killings of Armenians around 1915,
which many countries consider to have been genocide.

Turkey instead calls the loss of life a consequence of a war in
which both sides suffered casualties, and has suggested that envoys
from both sides meet to analyze the history. Armenia has expressed
willingness to participate but insists that the border must first be
reopened to trade.

Many Armenians living abroad hold a much harder line, however, and
are lobbying their U.S. and European governments to deny Turkish
entrance into the European Union until Ankara recognizes the killings
as genocide.

Norman Stone, professor of history at Koc University in Istanbul,
said Dink was killed at a time when Turkey was clearly reacting to
pressure to respond to the Armenian issue.

"There are a lot of balanced people here who say, look, the genocide
issue is unclear, but if you just leave it as a matter of massacres,
then we can start making progress," Stone said during an interview
Monday.

The Turkish invitation signals hope for a new era at a time when
many people in both countries say they are tired of an issue that
threatens their peace and economic welfare.

"Public opinions in both countries, weary of the years-long conflict,
had reached a point of explosion," said Soyak, director of the trade
council in Istanbul. "That’s what lies behind the massive outpouring
for Mr. Dink."

The funeral is shaping up to be far more than a farewell to a
popular, though controversial, figure. The fact that the government
is permitting it to take place on a grand scale is another sign of
a change in Ankara.

A wide boulevard in the heart of Istanbul’s main commercial district
will be closed to traffic as the funeral cortege gathers outside
the offices of the newspaper where Dink was shot. The mayor of
the district, Mustafa Sarigul, said the local government would be
releasing hundreds of birds, a symbol of peace, and passing out
thousands of carnations.

A large crowd is expected to follow the procession for a couple of
kilometers before the body is driven across the Golden Horn to the
Kumkapi district for Mass at the Church of the Virgin Mary. Among
the Turkish government officials expected to attend the Mass are the
interior minister, Abdulkadir Aksu, and the deputy prime minister,
Mehmet Ali Sahin.

Most Armenian Turks live in Istanbul, seen as the center of
intellectual and leftist thought in Turkey. But the anti-nationalist
demonstrations that followed Dink’s killing also surfaced in places as
diverse as Izmir, an Aegean coastal city, and in Sanliurfa and Hatay,
which are close to Turkey’s eastern border with Syria.

Although members of the community complain of discrimination, ethnic
Armenian Turks, like Jewish and Greek Turks, are an officially
recognized minority group and are allowed to operate their own
schools. Dink, for example, attended Armenian schools in Istanbul
until entering a state-run university.

The suspect in the slaying, Ogun Samast, 17, was escorted back to
the scene of the crime Sunday night to describe the attack to law
enforcement authorities. Hundreds of police officers in riot gear
formed a cordon so that Samast could divulge details. A small crowd
of Turkish onlookers pumped their fists into the air and shouted,
"We’re all Hrants! We’re all Armenians!"

One of the most prominent intellectuals in Turkey, Dink was a staunch
defender of free speech. Like others he was prosecuted under a law
known as Article 301, which nationalists have used to file suit against
writers who supposedly insulted "Turkishness." Dink was convicted of
insulting the state and sentenced to six months in jail; but his term
was suspended.

The process labeled Dink as a target among nationalist groups that
carried their tirades against the editor in their Web sites. Samast
read and was influenced by those postings, according to the Anatolian
news agency.

Seven other suspects also were being detained over the weekend,
including Yasin Hayal, who served 11 months in jail for the bombing
of a McDonald’s restaurant in Trabzon in 2004.

Hayal, a known nationalist, is suspected of having a history of Islamic
militant activity. He attempted to join the rebels in Chechnya but
was turned away at the border, his former lawyer, Fatih Cakir, said
by telephone Sunday.

Samast’s mother, Havva Samast, knew that her son and Hayal were
buddies. "I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw him on television and
had a shock," she said during a televised interview with the Dogan
News Agency from their home city of Trabzon. "He couldn’t have done
this on his own. I know that he was friends" with Hayal.

But many here still blame Article 301 for Dink’s death and see it as
an obstacle to freedom of speech in Turkey. In another sign of change,
Bulent Arinc, the parliamentary chairman from the ruling Justice and
Development Party, said he would back efforts to abolish the measure.

"It can be discussed to totally abolish or completely revise the
Article 301," Arinc said, adding that members of Parliament "are open
to this."

Reuters, UK
Jan 23 2007

50,000 Turks mourn slain Armenian editor
Tue Jan 23, 2007 7:55am ET

By Daren Butler

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Some 50,000 people filed silently through
Istanbul on Tuesday behind the coffin of slain Turkish Armenian
editor Hrant Dink, whose killing has stirred debate about influence
of hardline nationalism in the country.

>>From early morning, tearful mourners, many holding identical
black-and-white signs reading "We are all Hrant Dink" and "We are all
Armenians", gathered outside the Agos newspaper office where Dink was
shot three times in broad daylight last Friday.

White doves were released into the air as somber music played. Much
of downtown Istanbul was closed to traffic.

Ogun Samast, 17, has confessed to killing Dink for "insulting" Turks.
A nationalist militant friend of Samast has admitting to police that
he incited Samast to kill Dink.

"We are seeing off our brother with a silent walk, without slogans
and without asking how a baby became a murderer," Dink’s widow Rakel,
surrounded by her three children, told mourners.

Amid tight security, thousands of people followed the black hearse
with the coffin on its 8-km (5 mile) journey across Istanbul and the
Golden Horn waterway to an Armenian church.

Cabinet ministers, foreign diplomats, Armenian government officials
and members of both Turkey’s 60,000-strong Armenian community and the
global Armenian diaspora joined the service.

The killing has sparked concerns about Turkey’s attitude to its
minorities, not least among the diaspora which is especially
influential in France and the United States.

The European Union, which Turkey hopes to join, wants Ankara to
improve the rights of its ethnic and religious minorities.

"This is not an exceptional case but the result of a poisonous
nationalist atmosphere. Turkey’s credibility abroad has hit rock
bottom," said Turkish businessman Vural Oger.

Dink, like dozens of other intellectuals, had been prosecuted for his
views on the massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 — a
very sensitive issue in Turkey.

Turkish media criticized the prime minister, president and top army
generals for staying away from Dink’s funeral.

"If the president, the prime minister and chief of the general staff
came to the funeral, I would be hopeful the state has given up on a
lynching culture and started to (practice) self-criticism," said
liberal columnist Cengiz Candar.

NATIONALISM

Like Nobel Literature laureate Orhan Pamuk, Dink had come under fire
from nationalists, including some politicians. They felt his view
that Turkey should face up to its role in the massacres of Armenians
threatened national security and honor.

Turkey has become a more open, liberal country in recent years,
helped by a swathe of EU-linked reforms.

But the murder of the editor, who had sought reconciliation between
Muslim Turks and Christian Armenians, was a reminder of darker fears
that still haunt this predominantly Muslim country.

Turks are taught from early childhood to revere their country, its
flag and its founder Kemal Ataturk — but this heavy emphasis on the
nation can lead to intolerance for outsiders and has fueled various
militant groups over the decades ready to use violence against
perceived threats.

Newspapers said the murder may lead to warming ties between Turkey
and the tiny ex-Soviet republic of Armenia. Turkey broke off
diplomatic ties in 1993 over a territorial row.

Turkey denies claims that 1.5 million Armenians died in a systematic
genocide at Ottoman Turkish hands, saying large numbers of both
Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks perished.

But, to Ankara’s dismay, many foreign parliaments have passed laws
recognizing the massacres as genocide.

Dink’s murder has increased pressure on the pro-EU government to
scrap a controversial law used against Dink and others to curb
freedom of expression.

OCRegister, CA
Orange County
Jan 22 2007

Armenian community mourns journalist

More than 300 attend Costa Mesa vigil to remember Hrant Dink, 52,
editor of Turkish paper killed Friday..
By TAMARA CHUANG
The Orange County Register

COSTA MESA – A Turkish-Armenian journalist gunned down in Istanbul
was remembered at a vigil attracting more than 300 people at St. Mary
Armenian Church in Costa Mesa on Sunday.

Hrant Dink, the 52-year-old editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian
weekly Agos, was called a hero for writing about the mass killings
of Armenians upon the breakup of the Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s.

"Until he came along, all of us in Orange County who had moved out
of Istanbul, we had given up hope on being able to have the Turkish
government accept that our Armenian ancestors had rights and property
in Turkey," said Puzant Zorayan, who immigrated to the United States
in 1979 with his family to escape what he said was persecution of
Armenians. "He started a whole new movement of Armenian hope."

Dink, a Christian of Armenian descent, was shot Friday outside his
newspaper office. He had received threats for writing columns calling
the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide. Turkish
nationalists viewed this as a threat to national unity. The government
of Turkey denies genocide was committed.

On Sunday, Ogun Samast, who is either 16 or 17, confessed to fatally
shooting Dink, according to Ahmet Cokcinar, chief prosecutor, who
spoke to the Associated Press. Samast was arrested in the Black Sea
Coast city of Samsun late Saturday. Police said Samast was captured
following a tip from his father after the youth’s pictures were
broadcast on Turkish television.

Dink last visited Orange County in November, when he met with
Zorayan’s father, one of the leaders of the local Armenian community.
Orange County is home to nearly 11,000 people of Armenian descent,
according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Armenian groups claim the figure
is much higher, in the range of 25,000 to 50,000.

Dink often spoke to Armenian communities and befriended Costa Mesa
resident Daphne Saharian and her husband in 1996.

"His personality was the number one thing affecting all people. His
loss is a very tragic one. People wonder how such a person so pure
of heart could be killed in such a tragic way," said Saharian.

During the ceremony at the church, more than 50 doves were released –
meant to represent the years that Dink lived. Other vigils for Dink
are planned around the country, including at churches in Van Nuys
and Glendale.

Dink leaves a wife and three children and one grandchild, Saharian
said. Dink’s articles can be found at his paper’s Web site at
agos.com.tr.

Accomplice in Dink Murder Trained in Chechen Camp in Azerbaijan?

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.01.2007 15:25 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The investigators of Hrant Dink’s assassination
informed that a group of nationalist teenagers are involved in the
crime. The criminal grouping was headed by Yasin Hayal, who was
earlier tried for setting a bomb at a McDonald’s in Trabzon.

According to Milliyet newspaper, 17-year-old Ogun Samast, arrested
yesterday over suspicion of Dink’s killing, received the gun from
Hayal. At that both were members of the "Center of Islamic Order"
ultra-right organization. The edition reminds that after the arrest
in Trabzon Hayal shouted out in the court, "I did it to punish
Americans. I’ll get free in three years and will blow up HSBC Bank
and the Russian Consulate."

Meanwhile Istanbul Prosecutor Aykut Cengiz Engin told journalists
on Sunday that the investigation did not reveal involvement of any
organization in Dink’s killing. "The investigation is carried out in
all directions. Presently seven people are being interrogated," he
said. Samast said he committed the crime because of the journalist’s
writing. I am not sorry, he added, reports RIA Novosti.

International Herald Tribune says Yasin Hayal was trained to make
bombs at a camp of Chechen militants in Azerbaijan.

Cyprus President condemn Dink’s assasination

Financial Mirror, Cyprus
Jan 22 2007

22/01/2007

Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos condemned here today the
assassination of Hrank Dink, a Turkish-Armenian editor, who had been
convicted of insulting Turkey’s identity.

Papadopoulos said this was a "very regretable development" and called
on Ankara to show that it respects dissent.

"This is a very regretable development and I believe that everybody
condemns it. Turkey, which has European orientations, first has to
show that it respects dissenting voices and those who have the courage
to speak out for the need to see the country become more European and
for the protection of human rights," the President said, when asked
to comment on Friday’s killing in Istanbul (Constantinople).

The Union of Cyprus Journalists has also condemned the assassination
of Hrant Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin, who was shot
dead on Friday in Constantinople outside the premises of the bilingual
Turkish and Armenian weekly "Agos", where he worked as chief – editor.

"This is a heinous crime against the fundamental principles and
rights of the freedom of the press and the freedom of expression",
the UCJ says in its press release.

The UCJ adds that "it is about time that Turkey proceeds with no
further delay to the abolition of article 301 of its penal code,
which provides for the persecution of persons who freely express
their views under the pretext of insulting Turkishness."

Dink advocated freedom of expression, it says.

He was convicted last year of insulting Turkishness in Turkey,
charges which he denied.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Fethiye Çetin: Turkish Nation Accepted Hrant Dink asEnemy
20.01.2007 14:25 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `Turkish nation accepted Hrant Dink as an
enemy. Soon presidential elections will be held in Turkey, and in
order to destabilize the situation in the country assassination method
was chosen and Hrant Dink became the victim,’ stated Dink’s lawyer
Fethiye Çetin. In her words, currently thousands of people have
gathered near `Agos’ editorial office, who speak for freedom of speech
in Turkey. `And they chant `Armenians’, of course, not in the sense of
nationality, but for the fact they share his views,’ Çetin said,
`Yerkir Media’ reports.

Turkish Press
Jan 20 2007

Three In Custody In Regard To Killing Of Dink, Guler
Published: 1/20/2007

ISTANBUL – Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said that there are three
detainees in regard to killing of Hrant Dink, editor-in-chief of
bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos.
Speaking to reporters, Guler stated, "it is matter of time to reach a
conclusion regarding assassination of Dink."

"There are three detainees. We have solid evidences. We have been
conducting the investigation in accordance with statements of
eyewitnesses. Experts are working on footage and documents," Guler
added.