Turkish murder suspect threatens Nobel’s Pamuk
Wed Jan 24, 2007 7:34 PM GMT
By Daren Butler and Paul de Bendern
Reuters, UK
Jan 24 2007
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A key suspect in the murder of Turkish Armenian
editor Hrant Dink, whose funeral attracted 100,000 people, apparently
threatened on Wednesday another intellectual — Nobel Literature
Prize winner Orhan Pamuk.
Yasin Hayal, handcuffed and escorted by police under heavy security
shouted "Orhan Pamuk should be careful" as he was taken to an Istanbul
court house over the killing of Dink last Friday.
Hayal, a known nationalist militant, served 11 months in jail for the
2004 bombing of a McDonald’s restaurant in his home town Trabzon on
the Black Sea. He has admitted to inciting his friend Ogun Samast,
17, to kill Dink.
In the same court house a judge ordered Samast to be sent to Bayrampasa
prison while the prosecution prepares charges against him.
It was not immediately clear whether Hayal and four other suspects
also in detention were sent to the same prison.
Samast, who is reported to have been close to an ultranationalist
group in his home town Trabzon, has confessed to killing Dink for
"insulting" Turks over his writings and statements on the massacres
of Armenians during World War One.
The murder of Dink, who worked for reconciliation between Christian
Armenians and Muslim Turks, has triggered a heated debate in Turkey
about the impact of extreme nationalism.
Dink had been prosecuted for his views on the massacres of Armenians
by Ottoman Turks in 1915. He was among intellectuals, including Pamuk,
who have been prosecuted under laws restricting freedom of expression
in EU-applicant Turkey.
NATIONALISTS
Turkish nationalists, including some senior politicians, regard the
intellectuals’ calls for Turkey to own up to its role in the massacres
as a threat to national security and honour.
"This murder revealed some truths which we undoubtedly all have to
think about, firstly the government and politicians, as well as the
media," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told a news conference.
"We have to think about how we are bringing up our youth."
Samast said in a four-page statement to police, obtained by state-run
Anatolian news agency, that he had carried Dink’s photograph for
several months and had practised shooting for several days before
travelling to Istanbul. He said he had also received money for the
killing.
Murder carries a life sentence in Turkey, but as a minor Samast would
face a sentence of some 18-24 years if found guilty. Media reports said
tests were being carried out to confirm that he is under 18 years old.
Turkish newspapers said police had detained a student in Trabzon on
suspicion of involvement in the killing and published a photograph
of him with the leaders of an ultranationalist political party amid
media speculation about nationalist links to the plot.
Dink’s funeral on Tuesday was attended by ministers, foreign diplomats,
Armenian government officials and many of Turkey’s 60,000-strong
Armenian community and the Armenian diaspora.
But Turkish media criticised the country’s political leadership for
failing to attend the funeral, one of the largest in recent years.
On Wednesday Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan visited the family of
Dink to pay his respects. He also met Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II
to offer his condolences.
Turkey denies claims by Armenia and other countries that 1.5 million
Armenians died in a systematic genocide at Turkish hands, saying large
numbers of both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks perished during
the breakup of the Ottoman Empire.
(Additional reporting by Mehmet Emin Caliskan)