OCRegister, CA
Orange County
Jan 22 2007

Armenian community mourns journalist

More than 300 attend Costa Mesa vigil to remember Hrant Dink, 52,
editor of Turkish paper killed Friday..
By TAMARA CHUANG
The Orange County Register

COSTA MESA – A Turkish-Armenian journalist gunned down in Istanbul
was remembered at a vigil attracting more than 300 people at St. Mary
Armenian Church in Costa Mesa on Sunday.

Hrant Dink, the 52-year-old editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian
weekly Agos, was called a hero for writing about the mass killings
of Armenians upon the breakup of the Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s.

"Until he came along, all of us in Orange County who had moved out
of Istanbul, we had given up hope on being able to have the Turkish
government accept that our Armenian ancestors had rights and property
in Turkey," said Puzant Zorayan, who immigrated to the United States
in 1979 with his family to escape what he said was persecution of
Armenians. "He started a whole new movement of Armenian hope."

Dink, a Christian of Armenian descent, was shot Friday outside his
newspaper office. He had received threats for writing columns calling
the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide. Turkish
nationalists viewed this as a threat to national unity. The government
of Turkey denies genocide was committed.

On Sunday, Ogun Samast, who is either 16 or 17, confessed to fatally
shooting Dink, according to Ahmet Cokcinar, chief prosecutor, who
spoke to the Associated Press. Samast was arrested in the Black Sea
Coast city of Samsun late Saturday. Police said Samast was captured
following a tip from his father after the youth’s pictures were
broadcast on Turkish television.

Dink last visited Orange County in November, when he met with
Zorayan’s father, one of the leaders of the local Armenian community.
Orange County is home to nearly 11,000 people of Armenian descent,
according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Armenian groups claim the figure
is much higher, in the range of 25,000 to 50,000.

Dink often spoke to Armenian communities and befriended Costa Mesa
resident Daphne Saharian and her husband in 1996.

"His personality was the number one thing affecting all people. His
loss is a very tragic one. People wonder how such a person so pure
of heart could be killed in such a tragic way," said Saharian.

During the ceremony at the church, more than 50 doves were released –
meant to represent the years that Dink lived. Other vigils for Dink
are planned around the country, including at churches in Van Nuys
and Glendale.

Dink leaves a wife and three children and one grandchild, Saharian
said. Dink’s articles can be found at his paper’s Web site at
agos.com.tr.