Pakistan Times
Jan 21 2007

Three detained in Turkey for Journalist’s Murder
‘Pakistan Times’ Wire Service

ISTANBUL: Police have taken into custody three people in connection
with the assassination Friday of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink, Istanbul governor Muammer Guler was quoted as saying by a
Turkish news agency.

The 53-year-old Dink, who angered nationalist circles and the courts
with his views on the 1915-1918 massacres of Armenians, was shot dead
outside the offices of the Agos weekly, which he edited, in the busy
Sisli district in the European side of the city.

Initial media reports had said that police were looking for a man in
his late teens, wearing a denim jacket and a white cap, while
Anatolia reported that witnesses saw a man in his late twenties
running from the scene.

Amnesty Condemns Killing

Meanwhile, a report from London says that Human rights group Amnesty
International on Friday condemned the assassination of a
Turkish-Armenian journalist, believing he had been singled out
because of his outspoken views on free speech.

"Amnesty International deplores the murder today (Friday) of the
prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink," the London-based
group said in a statement.

"The organisation believes that he was targeted because of his work
as a journalist who championed freedom of expression."

Dink, the 53-year-old editor of the weekly Agos newspaper, died when
an unidentified gunman shot him three times in the head and neck
outside his office in Istanbul. His murder prompted thousands of
people to take to the streets in protest in Istanbul and the Turkish
capital Ankara.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Ayyip Erdogan described Dink’s death as
a "heinous murder" and vowed to bring the assailants to justice.
Amnesty praised Dink for his passionate promotion of human rights and
his questioning of official versions of history in Turkey relating to
the massacres of Armenians between 1915 and 1918 in the dying days of
the Ottoman Empire. That drew the wrath of nationalists and the
judiciary.

Amnesty’s Europe and Central Asia programme director Nicola Duckworth
said: "In Turkey there are still a number of harsh laws which endorse
the suppression of freedom of speech.

"These laws, coupled with the persisting official statements by
senior government, state and military officials condemning critical
debate and dissenting opinion, create an atmosphere in which violent
attacks can take place."

Amnesty called on Ankara to "condemn all forms of intolerance, to
uphold human rights of all citizens of the Turkish Republic and to
investigate the murder of Hrant Dink thoroughly and impartially".

The results of the investigation should be made public and the
perpetrators brought to justice "in accordance with international
fair trial standards."