TIME Magazine
Jan 20 2007
An Assassination Shocks Istanbul
Friday, Jan. 19, 2007 By PELIN TURGUT/ISTANBUL Article
ToolsPrintEmail In one of Turkey’s most violent nationalist attacks
in recent years, journalist Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian and one of
the country’s leading voices for reconciliation between Turks and
Armenians, was shot dead in front of his office Friday. No group has
yet claimed responsibility for Dink’s murder, which has shocked
Turks. Hundreds of mourners gathered in Istanbul’s city center to
protest the killing; politicians condemned the attack and the
Istanbul Stock Exchange plunged several points. "A bullet has been
fired at democracy and freedom of expression. I condemn the
traitorous hands behind this disgraceful murder," said Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan.
Dink had been a frequent target of Turkish nationalist rage for his
comments on the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during
World War I. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in 1915, in what
many Armenians say was a systematic massacre at the hands of the
Ottoman Turks. Turkey however denies any genocide, saying that the
deaths were part of a partisan conflict in which thousands of Turks
were also killed. Even discussing the Armenian deaths was for many
years taboo in Turkey but recently there have been stirrings of
public debate as Ankara strives to bring the country in line with
European Union norms. That same process of EU accession however, has
also triggered a growing frenzy of nationalist sentiment, that has
gained strength ahead of elections later this year as politicians of
all stripes play the populist card, buoyed in their insularity by the
less than enthusiastic reception given Ankara in Europe.
In an article last week, Dink wrote that he felt "nervous and afraid"
because of the intensity of the hate mail and threats he was
receiving. "I see myself as frightened, the way a dove might be, but
I know that the people in this country would never harm a dove," he
wrote. Dink was the editor of the Istanbul-based Agos, a weekly
newspaper published in Turkish and Armenian. He was a tireless
campaigner for better relations between Turks and Armenians, who
share a troubled history. [Turkey and neighbouring Armenia still have
no official relations.]
A soft-spoken, gregarious and often emotional man, Dink was
well-respected among Turkey’s literati for his consistently
non-partisan approach to the Armenian issue. Despite being repeatedly
hauled before the courts on charges like "insulting Turkishness" (the
latest incarnation of an older anti-free speech law), he was always
optimistic. "I would never consider living anywhere else," he told
this writer on several occasions. "This is my country."
In July, Turkey’s appeals court upheld a suspended six-month sentence
against Dink for an article he wrote on the collective memory of the
massacres. He had been convicted on charges of "insulting
Turkishness" – similar charges were brought, and later dropped,
against Nobel prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk last year. In
September, an Istanbul prosecutor filed yet another suit against
Dink, seeking three years for describing the killings as genocide in
an interview. Dink said in that interview: "Of course, I say this is
a genocide. Because the result itself identifies what it is and gives
it a name. You can see that people who have been living on these
lands for 4,000 years have disappeared. This is self-explanatory."
Responding to news of the assassination, Cem Ozdemir, a German Turk
and Green Party member of Bundestag: "This is a hard blow for
everyone who stands for peace, understanding and coming to terms with
Turkey’s past."
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
