Author: Zargarian Hambik

CNN
2007/10/11

Turks warn U.S. over genocide vote

* Story Highlights
* Turkish foreign ministry says Armenia vote jeopardizes U.S.-Turkish relations
* U.S. House committee approves resolution recognizing Armenian "genocide"
* Resolution was opposed by U.S. President Bush, Secretary of State Rice
* Rice to call Turkish leaders to express "deep disappointment" with vote

(CNN) — Turkey’s government on Thursday warned the U.S. that a
congressional bill recognizing the mass killings of Armenians during
World War One as genocide could jeopardize relations between the two
countries.

In a statement, Turkey’s foreign ministry said the country’s
government "resents and condemns this decision" and called the
resolution an "irresponsible act" at an "extremely critical time."

The issue threatened to "not only endanger the relations with a
friendly and allied nation but also jeopardize a strategic partnership
that has been cultivated for generations," it added.

"We still hope that common sense will prevail and that the House of
Representatives will not move this resolution any further."

The resolution was passed by the House Foreign Affairs Committee by a
27-21 vote — the first step towards a full House vote — on Wednesday
evening despite opposition from U.S. President George W. Bush.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul, who has warned in a letter to Bush
that U.S. recognition of the mass killings as genocide would cause
"serious problems" between the countries, called the resolution
"unacceptable."

Meanwhile Turkey’s ambassador to the U.S., Nabi Sensoy, said the
resolution would be a "very injurious move to the psyche of the
Turkish people," predicting that its passage would create a backlash
in his country.

Egemen Bagis, a foreign policy adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, told an audience in Washington that U.S. lawmakers
wanted to play hard ball, adding: "I can assure you Turkey knows how
to play hard ball."

Bagis added that Turkey would respond if Congress passed a bill and
warned: "I can promise you it won’t be pleasant."

He cited Turkey’s refusal to allow French airplanes to cross its air
space since France passed a law declaring it a crime to deny that the
mass killings of Armenians between 1915 and 1923 constituted genocide.

The vote was also strongly criticized by Turkish newspapers, The
Associated Press reported. "Bill of hatred," said Hurriyet’s front
page, while Vatan’s headline read "27 foolish Americans.

Turkish protests come with relations between Washington and Ankara
already tense amid Turkish military and political preparations for a
possible strike into northern Iraq in response to recent attacks by
Kurdish militants.

Turkey accuses fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) of
operating from bases inside Iraqi territory. However, the U.S. has
urged its NATO ally to refrain amid fears they could destabilize the
relatively peaceful region — a key route for supplies into northern
Iraq.

Turkish lawmakers were due to meet on Thursday to discuss a motion
intended to secure their approval for cross-border operations.

But Turkish Prime Minister told CNN Turk that a decision was unlikely
before next week due to the holiday marking the end of Ramadan.

Bush, along with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense
Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday warned U.S. lawmakers that the
Armenia "genocide" resolution would create unnecessary headaches for
U.S. relations with Turkey.

Speaking after the vote, U.S. Undersecretary of State Nick Burns told
reporters that Rice would call the Turkish leadership Thursday to
express the administration’s "deep disappointment" over the vote.

"We want to convey to the Turkish people and the Turkish government a
message of respect and a message of support for them and the hope we
can continue to work together with them," Burns said.

Democratic representatives said they intended to bring the resolution
to the House floor for a full vote. Adam Schiff, the resolution’s
sponsor, said the U.S. had a "compelling historical and moral reason"
to recognize the mass killing of Armenians as genocide.

But House Minority Leader John Boehner said jeopardizing the U.S.
military and strategic alliance with Turkey would be "totally
irresponsible."

"Let the historians decide what happened 90 years ago," he added.

The resolution says that the deportation of nearly two million
Armenians from the Ottoman Empire during and after World War One,
resulting in the deaths of 1.5 million of them, was "systematic" and
"deliberate," amounting to "genocide."

The Armenian government and Armenians around the world, including many
Armenian-Americans, have been pressing for international recognition
of their contention that their people were the victims of genocide at
the hands of the Ottoman Turks.

Armenian President Robert Kocharian welcomed the resolution on
Thursday, AP reported, saying: "We hope this process will lead to a
full recognition by the United States of America … of the genocide."

The issue remains highly sensitive in Turkey, where many insist there
was no organized campaign against the Armenians and that many Turks
also died in the chaos and violence of the period.

In an interview with CNN, Sensoy said the events of the era were
tragic for both Turks and Armenians and that hundreds of thousands
died in "mutual killings."

CNN’s Deirdre Walsh, Elise Labott and Joe Sterling contributed to this report.

Source: protests/index.html

THAT’S WRONG, VAHAN!

Hayots Ashkharh Daily
Oct 10 2007
Armenia

STEPAN SAFARYAN, representative of "Heritage" party who has recently
participated in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic
Cooperation, expressed dissatisfaction with Vahan Hovhannisyan
yesterday.

The latter mentioned in a recent interview that in case Azerbaijan
launches an attack, the Armenian side will explode the oil-wells of
Baku. Being in Baku, S. Safaryan was probably very scared to hear such
news. "Anyway, I have the following question: if Ara Nranyan (member
of ARFD faction) had been in Baku, would Vahan Hovhannisyan have made a
similar statement or not?" he said, without concealing his indignation.

The New York Times
House Panel Raises Furor on Armenian Genocide
Doug Mills/The New York Times
/11prexy.html?hp

Turks opposed to the genocide resolution attended a House Foreign
Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

By STEVEN LEE MYERS and CARL HULSE
Published: October 11, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 – A House committee voted on Wednesday to condemn
the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey in World War I as an act of
genocide, rebuffing an intense campaign by the White House and
warnings from Turkey’s government that the vote would gravely strain
its relations with the United States.
The vote by the House Foreign Relations Committee was nonbinding and
so largely symbolic, but its consequences could reach far beyond
bilateral relations and spill into the war in Iraq.
Turkish officials and lawmakers warned that if the resolution was
approved by the full House, they would reconsider supporting the
American war effort, which includes permission to ship essential
supplies through Turkey and northern Iraq.
President Bush appeared on the South Lawn of the White House before
the vote and implored the House not to take up the issue, only to have
a majority of the committee disregard his warning at the end of the
day, by a vote of 27 to 21.
`We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people that
began in 1915,’ Mr. Bush said in remarks that, reflecting official
American policy, carefully avoided the use of the word genocide. `This
resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings,
and its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally
in NATO and in the global war on terror.’
The resolution, which was introduced early in the current session of
Congress and which has quietly moved forward over the last few weeks,
provoked a fierce lobbying fight that pitted the politically
influential Armenian-American population against the Turkish
government, which hired equally influential former lawmakers like
Robert L. Livingston, Republican of Louisiana, and Richard
A. Gephardt, the former Democratic House majority leader who backed a
similar resolution when he was in Congress.
Backers of the resolution said Congressional action was overdue.
`Despite President George Bush twisting arms and making deals, justice
prevailed,’ said Representative Brad Sherman, a Democrat of California
and a sponsor of the resolution. `For if we hope to stop future
genocides we need to admit to those horrific acts of the past.’
The issue of the Armenian genocide, beginning in 1915, has perennially
transfixed Congress and bedeviled presidents of both parties. Ronald
Reagan was the only president publicly to call the killings genocide,
but his successors have avoided the term. When the issue last arose in
2000, a similar resolution also won approval by a House committee, but
President Clinton then succeeded in persuading a Republican speaker,
J. Dennis Hastert, to withdraw the measure before the full House could
vote. That time, too, Turkey had warned of canceling arms deals and
withdrawing support for American air forces then patrolling northern
Iraq under the auspices of the United Nations.
The new speaker, Nancy Pelosi, faced pressure from Democrats –
especially colleagues in California, New Jersey and Michigan, with
their large Armenian populations – to revive the resolution again
after her party gained control of the House and Senate this year.
There is Democratic support for the resolution in the Senate, but it
is unlikely to move in the months ahead because of Republican
opposition and a shortage of time. Still, the Turkish government has
made it clear that it would regard House passage alone as a harsh
American indictment.
The sharply worded Turkish warnings against the resolution, especially
the threats to cut off support for the American war in Iraq, seemed to
embolden some of the resolution’s supporters. `If they use this to
destabilize our solders in Iraq, well, then shame on them,’ said
Representative Joseph Crowley, a Democrat from New York who voted for
it.
The Democratic leadership, however, appeared divided. Representative
Rahm Emanuel, the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House, who worked in
the Clinton White House when the issue came up in 2000, opposes the
resolution.
In what appeared to be an effort to temper the anger caused by the
issue, Democrats said they were considering a parallel resolution that
would praise Turkey’s close relations with the United States even as
the full House prepares to consider a resolution that blames the
forerunner of modern Turkey for one of the worst crimes in history.
`Neither of these resolutions is necessary,’ a White House spokesman,
Gordon D. Johndroe, said Wednesday evening. He said that Mr. Bush was
`very disappointed’ with the vote.
A total of 1.5 million Armenians were killed beginning in 1915 in a
systematic campaign by the fraying Ottoman Empire to drive Armenians
out of eastern Turkey. Turks acknowledge that hundreds of thousands of
Armenians died but contend that the deaths, along with thousands of
others, resulted from the war that ended with the creation of modern
Turkey in 1923.
Mr. Bush discussed the issue in the White House on Wednesday with his
senior national security aides. Speaking by secure video from Baghdad,
the senior American officials in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus and
Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, raised the resolution and warned that its
passage could harm the war effort in Iraq, senior Bush aides said.
Appearing outside the West Wing after that meeting, Defense Secretary
Robert M. Gates noted that about 70 percent of all air cargo sent to
Iraq passed through or came from Turkey, as did 30 percent of fuel and
virtually all the new armored vehicles designed to withstand mines and
bombs.
`They believe clearly that access to airfields and to the roads and so
on in Turkey would be very much put at risk if this resolution passes
and the Turks react as strongly as we believe they will,’ Mr. Gates
said, referring to the remarks of General Petraeus and Mr. Crocker.
Turkey severed military ties with France after its Parliament voted in
2006 to make the denial of the Armenian genocide a crime.
As the committee prepared to vote Wednesday, Mr. Bush, the American
ambassador to Turkey, Ross Wilson, and other officials cajoled
lawmakers by phone.
Representative Mike Pence, a conservative Republican from Indiana who
has backed the resolution in the past, said Mr. Bush persuaded him to
change his position and vote no. He described the decision as
gut-wrenching, underscoring the emotions stirred in American politics
by a 92-year-old question.
`While this is still the right position,’ Mr. Pence said, referring to
the use of the term genocide, `it is not the right time.’
The House Democratic leadership met Wednesday morning with Turkey’s
ambassador to Washington, Nabi Sensoy, and other Turkish officials,
who argued against moving ahead with a vote. But Representative Steny
H. Hoyer of Maryland, who now holds Mr. Gephardt’s old job as majority
leader, said he and Ms. Pelosi would bring the resolution to the floor
before Congress adjourned this year.
In Turkey, a fresh wave of violence raised the specter of a Turkish
raid into northern Iraq, something the United States is strongly
urging against. A policeman was killed and six others were wounded in
a bomb attack in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey
on Wednesday, the state-run Anatolian News Agency reported.
The Associated Press reported from the town of Sirnak that Turkish
warplanes and helicopters were attacking positions along the southern
border with Iraq that are suspected of belonging to Kurdish rebels who
have been fighting Turkish forces for years.
The Turkish government continued to prepare to request Parliament’s
permission for an offensive into Iraq, with Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan suggesting that a vote could be held after the end of
Ramadan. Parliamentary approval would bring Turkey the closest it has
been since 2003 to a full-scale military offensive into Iraq.
Sedat Laciner, from the International Strategic Research Institution,
said that the Turkish public felt betrayed by what was perceived as a
lack of American support for Turkey in its battle against the Kurds.
`American officials could think that Turkish people would ultimately
forget about the lack of U.S. support in this struggle,’ Mr. Laciner
said, using words that could apply equally to views about the Armenian
genocide. `Memories of Turks, however, are not that easy to erase once
it hits sensitive spots.’
Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting from Istanbul, and Sabrina Tavernise
from Baghdad.

PRESS RELEASE
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)
395 Concord Avenue
Belmont, MA 02478
Phone: 617-489-1610
Fax: 617-484-1759
E-mail: [email protected]

LECTURE ON ARMENIAN QUARTER OF JERUSALEM
AT NAASR BY COLUMBIA DOCTORAL CANDIDATE

Bedross Der Matossian, a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Middle
East and Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University, will give
a lecture on "The Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem: Past, Present and
Future," on Thursday, October 11, at 7:30 p.m., at the National
Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) Center, 395
Concord Ave., Belmont, MA.

This lecture, the first in Boston by Der Matossian, will cover the
history of the Armenians in Jerusalem both before and after the
Genocide, situating it within the political transformations taking place
in the region. Der Matossian will discuss the intra-ethnic politics
during the British Mandate, Jordanian rule, and since the creation of
Israel in 1948. There will be an emphasis on the intricate relationship
between the Patriarchate and the Armenian lay community.

A Rich History and Current Challenges

Furthermore, Der Matossian will discuss the policy of the Patriarchate
towards the local authorities and vice versa, both historically and at
present. After analyzing the current challenges facing the Armenian
community of Jerusalem, Der Matossian will conclude with a discussion of
future prospects for the Armenian Quarter and offer suggestions for new
approaches to current conditions.

Bedross Der Matossian was born and raised in Jerusalem. He is a
graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he began his
graduate studies in the department of Islamic and Middle Eastern
Studies. Currently he is completing his dissertation on "Ethnic
Politics in the Post-Revolutionary Ottoman Empire: Armenians, Arabs, and
Jews During the Second Constitutional Period, 1908-1909" at Columbia.

Special Reception in Honor of Manoog S. Young to Follow Talk

The evening of the lecture, NAASR will also mark the 90th birthday of
NAASR Founding Member and Chairman Emeritus Manoog S. Young. All are
welcome to attend the lecture and stay for a reception in Young’s honor
on this noteworthy occasion.

The NAASR Center is located opposite the First Armenian Church and next
to the U.S. Post Office. Ample parking is available around the building
and in adjacent areas. The lecture will begin promptly at 8:00 p.m.

More information about the lecture is available by calling 617-489-1610,
faxing 617-484-1759, e-mailing [email protected], or writing to NAASR, 395
Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.

ARMENIANS TO WITNESS HISTORY
By Waveney Ann Moore, Times Staff Writer

St. Petersburg Times, FL
Oct 10 2007

A pontiff will consecrate his first church in North America.

Parishioners of St. Hagop Armenian Church are preparing for a historic
visit by their world leader this week.

His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All
Armenians, will arrive Saturday for a two-day celebration during
which he will consecrate St. Hagop’s new $2-million church. It will
be the first time he has consecrated an Armenian Apostolic church in
North America.

Catholicos Karekin, whose ecclesiastical seat is in Etchmiadzin,
Armenia, is on an 18-city visit to the United States that includes
New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Detroit and two additional stops in
Florida – Boca Raton and Hollywood.

This Sunday all Armenian Apostolic churches in Florida will be
closed in honor of the visit and members of those congregations
are expected to be among those who will travel to Pinellas Park to
see the pontiff. He will travel to St. Hagop’s in a motorcade with
police escorts.

Members of the local congregation, who come from as far away as Citrus,
Pasco and Manatee counties, have been preparing for the pontifical
visit for a year. Last October, Archbishop Khajag Barsamian of New
York made St. Hagop’s a promise, said Dr. Hagop "Jack" Mashikian,
vice chairman of the parish council.

The archbishop, head of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of
America, told St. Hagop’s leaders that if they finished their church
before Catholicos Karekin’s pastoral visit to the United States,
he would arrange for the pontiff to consecrate it.

With that goal in mind, the congregation – the only full Armenian
Apostolic parish on Florida’s west coast – rushed to complete its
traditional Armenian-style church. In June, they held a ceremony to
top off the church with an 8- by 5-foot aluminum cross.

This weekend Catholicos Karekin will enter an almost completed
church. The altar and 19 crosses, all of which he will bless, are
scheduled to arrive late this week. The pews will arrive after the
consecration, but parish council president Arsen Bayandrian says the
temporary chairs will allow optimum capacity for Saturday and Sunday’s
historic celebration. An overflow tent with a video feed will be set
up on the church grounds, he said.

Father Hovnan Demerjian, 33, the church’s new priest, said he is
starting under auspicious circumstances.

"It’s a great way to begin," he said. It’s like you’re beginning with
a great boost of energy and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that the
church is being consecrated and also visited by His Holiness. It’s
like a double blessing."

This weekend’s celebration will begin with a turnpatzek, or "opening
the doors" ceremony, on Saturday. A private reception will follow.

The consecration and pontifical divine liturgy will take place the
next day, followed by a banquet at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church.

The ceremonies will be steeped in pageantry, though Sunday’s is
expected to be the more impressive. Demerjian, St. Hagop’s new priest,
said the consecration will be part of the normal Sunday liturgy.

"A main part of it is blessing 16 crosses that are sort of the pillars
of the church," he said.

Each cross has been dedicated to a saint, he said. Additionally,
a godparent has been appointed for each cross and like a godparent,
the role will be a supporting one.

In effect, Demerjian said, the godparents agree to support the church
"and raise it into a strong community of God."

The 250-seat church and planned multipurpose building have been
a long-held dream. Back in 1997, Catholicos Karekin’s predecessor
promised to consecrate St. Hagop’s new church during his 1998 visit.

Demerjian said it’s difficult to describe his emotions now that the
congregation’s dreams are being realized. "I feel that God has done
his job through us to erect this church," he said.

"We are proud that we are the first sanctuary that will be consecrated
in North America by this pontiff. It’s an honor that he has honored
us with his presence. There are no words to express the feelings that
we have.

Waveney Ann Moore can be reached at [email protected] or 727 892-2283.

If you go

The visit

Pontifical visit to St. Hagop Armenian Church, 7050 90th Ave. N,
Pinellas Park

7:30 p.m., Saturday, opening of the doors ceremony

10 a.m., Sunday, consecration of the sanctuary

Valet and off-site parking. Call (727) 545-0380.

About His Holiness Karekin II

1951 – Born in Armenia

1972 – Ordained a priest

1983 – Consecrated bishop

1992 – Named archbishop

1999 – Elected Catholicosof All Armenians

How to greetthe pontiff

Step 1: Say, "May God be your helper."

Step 2: Kiss his right hand

House panel to consider Armenian measure

Published: 10/02/2007

A House committee will vote on a resolution recognizing the Ottoman
massacres of Armenians as genocide.

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the Jewish congressman who has
initiated the nonbinding resolution on the 1915-16 atrocities,
announced Tuesday that the full House of Representatives Foreign
Affairs Committee would consider the resolution on Oct. 10.

Attempts in previous Congresses to consider similar resolutions have
been frustrated by parliamentary maneuvers, but Rep. Nancy Pelosi
(D-Calif.), the House speaker, has pledged to bring it to a full vote.

The resolution has the sponsorship of a majority of House members and
is likely to pass if it comes to the floor. The Turkish government has
pledged consequences to the Turkish-U.S. alliance should the
resolution pass, and Turkish Jews and Israeli government officials
have lobbied against it.

A number of Jewish groups oppose the measure, but others have voiced support.

Source:

ARMENIA’S CURRENT-ACCOUNT DEFICIT DEEPENS SHARPLY IN H1
by Venla Sipila

Global Insight
October 3, 2007

According to the newest data from the Armenian National Statistical
Service, the country’s current-account deficit amounted to nearly
US$256 million for the first half of 2007, ARKA News reports. This
marks dramatic deterioration compared with the shortfall of some
US$55 million registered during the first six months of last year.

Measured as a percentage of GDP, the current-account gap reached
9.7%, comparing to 3% in the first half of 2006. The poor performance
was mainly due a soaring trade deficit; this measured nearly US$682
billion for the six-month period after standing at US$379 million
in January-June 2006. Specifically, exports totalled US$474 million,
rising by some 8% year-on-year (y/y), while imports surged by around
42% y/y coming in at nearly US$1.2 billion. Meanwhile, the services
balance posted a deficit of US$79 million, also widening in annual
comparison. Conversely, the current transfers balances registered
a surplus, the total of some US$378 million marking an increase of
32% in annual comparison. Finally, the surplus on the income balance
reached US$133 million, also growing compared with the year-ago result
of US$88 million.

Significance:Our projections see Armenia’s current-account deficit
widening over 2007 in both absolute terms as also as a percentage of
the GDP, while the deterioration now reported is more marked than
expected. The relatively strong current transfers balance reflects
Armenia’s reliance on workers’ remittance inflows. The considerable
trade gap is likely to keep the overall current account deficit
large in the medium term, while growing net income should curb its
widening. Armenia’s reliance on private transfers and remittances
leaves it vulnerable to external shocks, and while strong FDI inflows
still finance a large part of the deficit, the widening current-account
gap poses a source of risk on Armenia’s external liquidity.

GAGIK HAKOBIAN WAS NOT HANDCUFFED

A1+
[01:32 pm] 03 October, 2007

Today, RA Court on Criminal and Marshal Issues postponed hearings on
Royal Armenia because of the absence of the complainant.

To remind, today Gagik Hakobian, the leading shareholder of Royal
Armenia Company, was arrested at the airport the moment he returned
from Spain.

Gagik Hakobian, and Royal Armenia’s deputy director Aram Ghazarian,
were detained in October, 2005, after having publicly accused the RA
Customs office of corruption. Under the decision of the First Instance
Court they were acquitted in about two years.

The prosecutor had challenged the decision of the First Instance Court,
Hakobian’s acquittal, at the Court of Appeals. Hakobian didn’t attend
the Appellate Court hearings as he was undergoing medical treatment
in Spain.

The court granted the petition submitted by the General Prosecutor’s
office changing the restraint by an arrest.

"Why should Gagik Hakobian return to Armenia,if he is a wanted
criminal?" Aram Ghazarian told A1+.

PROTESTS MARK TURKISH-ARMENIAN EDITOR’S MURDER TRIAL

Reuters
The Nelson Mail, New Zealand
The Dominion Post, New Zealand
Marlborough Express, New Zealand
Oct 1 2007

SOLIDARITY: Demonstrators at an Istanbul court hold up placards which
read: ‘We all are Hrant Dink, we all are Armenians’ during the trial
of the suspects charged with the killing of Turkish-Armenian editor
Hrant Dink.

Hundreds of demonstrators fearing a state cover-up of the murder of
a Turkish-Armenian editor demonstrated outside an Istanbul courthouse
proclaiming: "We are all witnesses. We demand justice."

The EU, which opened membership talks with Turkey in 2005, sees
the case of Hrant Dink as a litmus test for a judicial system often
accused of conservative political bias.

Police imposed heavy security outside the court house where 19 suspects
were being tried over the killing of Dink, gunned down outside his
Istanbul office in January by a 17-year-old who has confessed to
the killing.

"We are all witnesses, we demand justice," said banners held aloft by
the protesters outside the court as the trial resumed in the Besiktas
district of Istanbul.

Dink’s lawyers have complained that the murder has not been properly
investigated and have expressed fears for the independence of the
court, reflecting concerns about the possible involvement of Turkey’s
so-called "deep state".

The "deep state" is a term coined to describe hardline nationalists
in the bureaucracy and security forces who are prepared to subvert
the law for their own political ends.

At the weekend, Turkey’s liberal Radikal newspaper published the
transcript of a conversation between one of the suspects and a police
officer two hours after the shooting which it said showed the officer
was aware of a plan to kill Dink.

The Interior Ministry has launched a probe into the the telephone
conversation.

Dink had angered Turkish nationalists with his comments on the
massacres of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey during WW1. More than 100,000
people turned out at his funeral to show solidarity and protest against
violent nationalism. Lawyers were expected to question the suspects
for the first time at Monday’s hearing. Eight suspects are in custody.

Media reports have said one of the suspects had repeatedly tipped
off police about a plot to kill Dink and that these tip-offs had been
conveyed to the Istanbul police headquarters.

Several officials, including the head of police intelligence in
Istanbul, have been sacked or reassigned to other jobs over their
handling of the Dink case.

Ankara denies Armenian claims, backed by many historians and by a
growing number of foreign parliaments, that the killings amounted
to a systematic genocide. It says large numbers of both Muslim Turks
and Christian Armenians died in ethnic fighting as the Ottoman Empire
collapsed during WW1.

PROTESTS MARK EDITOR’S MURDER TRIAL IN TURKEY

Source : Reuters
Peninsula On-line, Qatar
Oct 2 2007

Hundreds of demonstrators fearing a state cover-up of the murder of
a Turkish-Armenian editor demonstrated outside an Istanbul courthouse
yesterday proclaiming: "We are all witnesses. We demand justice." The
EU, which opened membership talks with Turkey in 2005, sees the case
of Hrant Dink as a litmus test for a judicial system often accused
of conservative political bias.

Police imposed heavy security outside the court house where 19 suspects
were being tried over the killing of Dink, gunned down outside his
Istanbul office in January by a 17-year-old who has confessed to
the killing. "We are all witnesses, we demand justice," said banners
held aloft by the protesters outside the court as the trial resumed
in the Besiktas district of Istanbul.

Dink’s lawyers have complained that the murder has not been properly
investigated and have expressed fears for the independence of the
court, reflecting concerns about the possible involvement of Turkey’s
so-called "deep state". The "deep state" is a term coined to describe
hardline nationalists in the bureaucracy and security forces who are
prepared to subvert the law for their own political ends.

At the weekend, Turkey’s liberal Radikal newspaper published the
transcript of a conversation between one of the suspects and a police
officer two hours after the shooting which it said showed the officer
was aware of a plan to kill Dink.