The Age, Australia
Jan 20 2007

Editor’s murder a blow to democracy

Nicholas Birch, Istanbul
January 21, 2007

A JOURNALIST who was a prominent member of Turkey’s Armenian
community has been murdered in Istanbul in an attack the Prime
Minister described as an attempt to destabilise the country.

Hrant Dink, 53, a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, was shot from
behind at the entrance of Agos, the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly
newspaper he edited.

A large crowd gathered as police cordoned off the area on Friday.
Workers at the newspaper, including Mr Dink’s brother, were weeping.
Three suspects were later detained.

"A bullet was fired at freedom of thought and democratic life," said
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. Mr Dink had gone on trial several
times for speaking out about the mass killings of Armenians by Turks.
He had received threats from nationalists who saw him as a traitor.
He was a public figure in Turkey and, as the editor of Agos, one of
its most prominent Armenian voices.

In his last newspaper column, Mr Dink said that he had become famous
as an enemy of Turks and that he had received threats against him.

He said he had received no protection from authorities despite his
complaints. "My computer’s memory is loaded with sentences full of
hatred and threats," he wrote.

Established in 1996, Agos was the fruit of his belief that only
dialogue could resolve the bitter memories left by the mass murder of
Ottoman Armenians during the First World War.

An outspoken critic of Turkey’s continuing denial that the events of
1915 amounted to genocide, Mr Dink was equally opposed to
international attempts to politicise the issue.