Turkish-Armenian writer shot dead

ArmRadio.am
19.01.2007 17:58

The Turkish-Armenian writer and journalist Hrant Dink has been shot
dead, reports the BBC referring to Turkish media.

Dink, the high-profile editor of newspaper Agos, was shot three times
outside its offices in Istanbul.

Dink was one of the writers who had been prosecuted under Turkey’s
strict laws against "insulting Turkishness."

He was given a six-month suspended sentence in October 2005 after
writing about the Armenian genocide of 1915.

Turkey denies any genocide, saying the deaths were a part of World
War I.

Dink, 53, had received threats from nationalists who viewed him as
a traitor.

He was a public figure in Turkey – one of its most prominent Armenian
voices.

He once gave an interview with the Associated Press in which he cried
while describing the hatred some Turks had for him, saying he could
not stay in a country where he was unwanted.