Xinhua News Agency, China
Jan 21 2007
Turkish PM Announces Arrest of Journalist’s Suspected Killer
(Xinhua) — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on
Saturday that Ogun Samast, the suspected killer of Turkish-Armenian
editor and writer Hrant Dink, was arrested.
Erdogan was quoted by the semi-official Anatolia news agency as
saying that Samast was arrested in the northern province of Samsun
earlier in the day.
The suspect’s father went to Trabzon police department after he saw
photos of his son on TV channels and informed police of the identity
of his son, Anatolia said.
Meanwhile, police were taking testimonies from five people, including
the suspect’s father, Ahmet Samast, and his wife.
It was reported that Ogun Samast had left his home three days ago,
saying he would go to Istanbul.
Hrant Dink, a 53-year-old Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, was
shot dead by an unidentified assailant in front of his office
building in Sisli district on the European side of Istanbul on
Friday.
Dink had been convicted of insulting Turkey’s identity over his
comments on the alleged Armenian genocide by Ottoman Turks during
World War I and received a six-month suspended sentence. He had
received threat from nationalists who considered him as a traitor,
local media reported.
Turkey has denied that up to 1.5 million Armenians died as a result
of systematic genocide during the Turkish Ottoman period between 1915
and 1923.
However, it does acknowledge that up to 300,000 Armenians and an even
higher number of Muslims died in fighting and efforts to relocate
populations away from the war zone in eastern Turkey.