NewsWise Press Release
Jan 20 2007

Turkey Must Note Slain Journalist’s Legacy, Says Expert

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The assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was more
than a senseless murder, says Colgate University professor and
Armenian Genocide expert Peter Balakian – it shows just how far
Turkey is from being a true democracy. Balakian is available to
comment on Dink’s death.

Newswise – The assassination today of Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink in Istanbul was more than a senseless murder, according to
Colgate University professor and Armenian Genocide expert Peter
Balakian – it was yet another example of how far Turkey is from being
a democracy.

Balakian, author of New York Times bestseller and Raphael Lemkin
Prize winner The Burning Tigris; the Armenian Genocide and America’s
Response, is available to comment on Dink’s death.

`As editor of Agos, a weekly Armenian newspaper, Dink held a uniquely
important place in Turkish society, so his slaying was particularly
significant,’ said Balakian. `If Turkey wishes to go forward as a
democracy, it must find a way to embrace Dink’s legacy.’

Eighteen journalists have been killed in Turkey in the last six
years, and 77 are on trial now, he said, but violence toward
intellectuals begins, in the modern period, for Turkey with genocide
of the Armenians in 1915. `Turkey has a long history of punishing its
writers, thinkers, artists, and ethnic minorities,’ he explained. `On
April 24, 1915, at the beginning of the Armenian Genocide which
claimed more than a million lives, the Ottoman government rounded up
more than 250 Armenian leaders in Constantinople (Istanbul) and
transported them out of the city. Most of them were killed, making it
easier for the government at that time to carry out its planned
extermination and exile of the rest of the Armenian population. Dink
now joins those martyrs.’

Political violence of this nature increased when Turkey began its
accession to the European Union in recent years, said Balakian, and
it is definitely not random. `The ruling party’s attempts to meet the
EU’s conditions – among them, more freedom of expression, equal
treatment of minorities, and an end to official government denial of
the Armenian Genocide – amplified the resistance of extreme
nationalists and the military to such reforms,’ he said.

Because of Dink’s standing, Balakian believes the slaying will
reverberate beyond Turkey. `His death is emblematic of the struggle
for freedom of thought and expression people face under violent and
repressive societies and governments all over the world.’

Of Dink himself, Balakian commented: `Despite Turkey’s penal code –
which mandates prison sentences for a long list of offenses that
constitute the crime of `insulting Turkishness’ – Dink persisted in
publishing articles and speaking openly about subjects that are taboo
in Turkey, most notably the Armenian Genocide of 1915 committed by
the government of the Ottoman Empire. For doing so he was put on
trial last year, and threats against his life had increased
dramatically in the last few weeks. Yet no amount of brutality and
danger diminished his courage; he continued to work toward his goal,
which was to help achieve a peaceful reconciliation between
ethnically Armenian and Turkish society.’

Balakian is the Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the
Humanities at Colgate.

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