Turkey far from democracy and freedom of speech

ArmRadio.am
20.01.2007 16:05

Hrant Dink’s assassination will further strain the internal political
situation in Turkey, Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of
the Armenian National Academy of Sciences Ruben Safrastyan said in a
press conference today.

According to him, in May 2007 presidential elections are due in
Turkey, and the main struggle launches between the President in office
Ahmet Nejdet Sezer, representative of the so-called Kemalist of
European course, and adherents of the Islamist position headed by
Prime Minister Rejeb Tayyip Erdogan.

The two opposing camps aspire to attract the army, and the one who
manages this will come out victor. However, one should not forget
about the factor of the `state inside state’ factor permanently
existing in Turkey, that is to say about the group of senior officials
who prefer to stay in the shadow, who resolve important state
questions and accomplish this with the help of radical groups like the
`Grey wolves’ terrorist organization. It’s quite possible that they
could have ordered ad perpetrated the murder of Hrant Dink in order
`to show everyone that real Turkey is not the central districts of
Istanbul but the rest of areas with pro-Islamic position,’ Safrastyan
considers.

He noted also that the accident will further delay the opening of the
Armenian-Turkish border, which seemed extremely unrealistic and far
even before. Hrant Dink was a dreamer, who sincerely believed that it
is possible and necessary to change Turkey from inside staying in the
country. However, his death showed how far Turkey is from democracy
and freedom of speech, noted Ruben Safrastyan.

Director of the Caucasus Institute of Mass Media Alexander Iskandaryan
also declared that Istanbul should be differentiated from the rest of
Turkey. `The population of central parts of Istanbul, which is
aspiring to Europe and which organized an act of protest connected
with Dink’s death, is one thing, but if you go 20 km away from
Istanbul you will find yourself in quite a different pro-Islamic
Turkey, the population of which cannot comprehend why it should
organize an act of protest for the murder of some Armenia,’ noted
Iskandaryan.

As for the Armenian-Turkish relations in light of yesterday’s murder,
Alexander Iskandaryan considers nothing special will occur here. Those
who believed establishment of relations is unnecessary will keep to
their conviction. Those who supported the idea will say nothing
extraordinary has happened, murders happen indifferent countries of
the world.

Participants of the press conference agreed on one thing: there is no
need to search for thid countries behind Hrant Dink’s assassination,
since it is the result of the current internal political situation in
Turkey.