Guardian Unlimited, UK
Jan 20 2007
Wave of condemnation at murder of Turkish editor
The murder of journalist Hrant Dink in Turkey has sparked a wave of
protest inside and outside the country. Dink, a prominent member of
Turkey’s Armenian community, died after being shot from behind
outside the Istanbul offices of Agos, the bilingual Turkish-Armenian
weekly newspaper that he edited. Commenting on the murder, Turkey’s
prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, said: "A bullet was fired at freedom
of thought and democratic life."
In fact, the Turkish authorities have long harassed Dink, who was
tried several times because he spoke out and wrote about the killings
of 1.5m Armenians by Turks during the first world war, which many
Armenians regard as an act of genocide. Last year he was given a
six-month suspended jail sentence for "insulting Turkishness". In
what was to to prove his final column he told of having received
death threats from Turkish nationalists who viewed him as a traitor.
Despite that, he was not given protection by the authorities.
Unsurprisingly, the Armenian government condemned the murder, with
the speaker of its parliament, Tigran Torosyan, saying the murder
showed that Turkey should not even dream about joining the European
Union.
Journalists and politicians in Turkey have expressed outrage at the
killing, which many described as a political assassination, while the
US, EU, France, and several human rights groups also voiced shock and
condemnation. The Los Angeles Times, reports that Raffi Hamparian,
leader of the Armenian National Committee of America, the largest
Armenian political organisation in the US, responded by saying: "It
is shocking but not surprising. We are paying for the results of a
tragic policy on the part of Turkey to deny its past and, perhaps
most tragically, the complicity of the US in this denial."
According to reports of a statement by Istanbul’s governor, three
people were arrested soon after the killing.