Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Jan 19 2007

Tragic Death of Hrant Dink

Friday , 19 January 2007

Editor-in- chief of Turkish Armenian weekly AGOS was murdered in
front of his office building in Istanbul. It is not revealed by whom
and why Hrant Dink, Turkish-Armenian editor, was shot dead. Yet, it
is claimed that he was intentionally targeted by two people and shot
dead with four bullets and more than hundreds of notifications were
given to police.

Turkish intellectuals and Turkish people were shocked by the news of
Dink’s murder. They have stated their regrets and condemned this
painful loss of Armenian journalist.

In accordance with the statements of Ýhsan Bal, the head of Center
for International Security, Terrorism and Ethnic Studies in ISRO,
Dink was a symbolic name in Turkey. The reason is that being editor
of the newspaper AGOS, for the Turkish-Armenian society, Dink
emphasized liberalism and democracy in his speech and foregrounded
the importance of `softening of relations’ with regard to
Turkish-Armenian issues.

Another aspect of Dink’s character was that he has defended the
national integrity of Turkey and objected to the Armenian Bill which
charges the ones of denying so-called Armenian Genocide. He was an
intellectual who advocated the arguments parallel to that of Turkey
in spite of the fact that he was suspended jail sentence last year in
Turkey, which is another thing that was of significance about Dink.

Therefore, although the identity of the murderers of Dink is not
known, it can be put forward that the concern is on the attempts,
which aim at rising the tension between Turkey and Armenians. It is
surprising to witness that in the crime scene where Dink was
murdered, there appeared a group of people who were claiming to come
up with the names of the murderers other than searching for them. The
evidence in the crime scene is shadowed by this crowd of people,
while the officials of the state are prevented from operating
properly, and the provocations claiming that ‘it has something to do
with the state’ outspread rapidly. Although the created scenery is
touching, the facts and background agents are still unrevealed.

It is also asserted that Dink was shot dead because of Turkey’s
denial of so-called Armenian Genocide as well as his famous policies
about the claims of the Genocide. In fact, it can be seen that
particular groups, especially the Armenian Diaspora, is making
`propaganda by death’ after the murdering of Dink. However, this has
not been proved yet. Consequently, the attention should be on the
condemnation and clarification of the murder by helping the
authorities.

Gökçe Arslan

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress