Agence France Presse — English
January 20, 2007 Saturday

Armenian media slams Turkey after journalist killing

Armenian newspapers criticised Turkish authorities on Saturday for
not doing enough to protect slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink.

"Turkish authorities should have guaranteed the security of Dink. He
had received many threatening letters and had told police about
them," said the Aikakan Dzhamanak (Armenian Times).

The Aravot (Morning) daily said: "Turkey’s ability to become a
civilised, reformed country and its readiness to integrate with
Europe are in serious doubt."

Dink, who was hated in Turkish nationalist circles for his views on
the massacres of Armenians under Turkish rule during World War I, was
shot dead outside his office in Istanbul on Friday.

The killing brought thousands of protestors into the streets of
Istanbul and the Turkish capital Ankara. Turkish authorities have so
far detained three people in the murder inquiry.

Armenian analysts said the killing would have little impact on ties
between Turkey and neighbouring Armenia, which have been effectively
frozen since the fall of the Soviet Union.

"I don’t think the killing will lead to any major changes in
Turkish-Armenian relations," said Alexander Iskandarian, director of
the Caucasus Media Institute in Yerevan.

"Those who were against opening the border with Turkey will say that
a Turk is still a Turk, Turkey is still a dangerous neighbour and the
border shouldn’t be opened," Iskandarian said.

"Those in favour of opening will say that such things happen
everywhere."

The 355-kilometre (221-mile) border between the two countries was
closed in 1993 at the height of the Nagorno Karabakh war in which
ethnic-Armenian separatists in Azerbaijan took over almost a fifth of
Azerbaijani territory.

Armenia backed the separatists, while Turkey supported Azerbaijan.

In recent months, Armenian government ministers have expressed the
hope that diplomatic relations will be restored with Turkey and the
border re-opened in order to boost trade and transport potential in
the region.

Views in Turkey and Armenia over the killings of ethnic-Armenians in
the Ottoman Empire during World War I are still deeply divided.

Armenians say that up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered
between 1915 and 1918 and want the massacres to be internationally
recognized as genocide.

Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that 300,000 Armenians
and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians took
up arms for independence.