The Times, UK
Jan 20 2007

Three held after ‘antiTurkish’ editor killed
Suna Erdem in Istanbul

A prominent newspaper editor who was convicted for questioning
Turkey’s official denial of genocide against its Armenian community
was shot dead in central Istanbul yesterday.

Witnesses saw a young man fire three shots at Hrant Dink, 53, a
Turkish Armenian, outside the offices of the bilingual Agos, which he
edited. Only a week ago he had written about death threats to his
family.

Three men were arrested soon after the killing.

Mr Dink was the highest-profile defendant to be convicted under
article 301 of the Turkish penal code that makes it an offence to
`insult Turkish-ness’. The European Union has called for the article
to be scrapped as part of Turkish entry negotiations.

An appeals court gave Mr Dink a six-month suspended jail sentence for
insulting Turk-ishness last year. Other accused writers, including
Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel Laureate, have been acquitted of similar
charges. Mr Dink was preparing to take his case to the European Court
of Human Rights.

In an editorial on January 10, he referred to numerous death threats.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister, called the attack a blow to
peace and stability in Turkey. `Once again, dark hands have chosen
our country and spilt blood in Istanbul to achieve their murky
goals,’ he told a news conference.

The attack is sure to ignite the tension already building at the
approach of May’s presidential elections and November’s parliamentary
polls in the EU candidate country, where nationalist sentiment has
been growing strongly and sometimes violently.

As Mr Dink lay dead on the street, crowds gathered near by chanted
`shoulder to shoulder against fascism’.

Mr Dink had taken one particularly threatening letter to a
prosecutor, but nothing had come of it. He confided to close friends
that he was worried that he might be attacked.

Lawyers and commentators close to Mr Dink said that they suspected
shady forces from within the nationalist-secular-ist state structure,
who are suspicious of Turkish EU entry.