TheDay, CT
Jan 24 2007

Slain Journalist’s Funeral Draws Masses In Istanbul
Mourners carry placards: ‘We are all hrant dink’

By Yesim Borg, Laura King, Los Times

by Murad Sezer

Thousands of people march Tuesday behind the coffin of slain journalist
Hrant Dink during a ceremony in Istanbul, Turkey. Tens of thousands
joined a funeral procession for Armenian-Turkish editor Dink, traveling
a five-mile route starting from the bilingual Turkish and Armenian
Agos newspaper where Dink was gunned down Friday.

Istanbul, Turkey – Tens of thousands of mourners wound through the
heart of this ancient city Tuesday in the funeral procession for an
ethnic-Armenian journalist whose murder triggered soul searching over
national identity, freedom of expression and the historical ghosts
that shadow Turkey.

Followed by the largely silent throng, a black hearse slowly bore
the flower-strewn coffin of editor Hrant Dink to an Armenian Orthodox
church, where he was eulogized as a voice of courage and conscience.

A teenage nationalist reportedly has confessed to gunning down the
52-year-old journalist Jan. 19 outside his office.

The extraordinary display of public mourning shut down much of downtown
Istanbul, whose narrow back alleys and wide boulevards are normally
the scene of a raucous commercial free-for-all. Onlookers, many
dabbing their eyes, leaned from balconies and watched from doorways
as the cortege passed by. Some applauded, in the traditional sign of
respect for honored dead.

Dink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian extraction, was best known as an
advocate for the rights of the country’s Armenian minority – including
efforts to win official recognition by Turkey that the deaths of
some 1.5 million Armenians in the final years of the Ottoman empire
constituted the first genocide of the 20th century.

Turkey officially blames the deaths on fighting, cold and hunger
rather than any campaign of extermination, a stance that is widely
viewed internationally as an obstacle to its aspirations to join the
European Union.

Scores of Turkish academics, journalists and novelists, including
Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, have been prosecuted under a provision
known as Article 301, which contains a wide-ranging ban on "insulting
Turkishness." Any public reference to an Armenian genocide, even in
carefully couched language, can result in being hauled into court
and possibly jailed, as Dink was.

Hours before the daylong funeral rites began, mourners gathered outside
the offices of Agos, Dink’s newspaper. Many carried placards saying
"We are all Armenians" and "We are all Hrant Dink."

Even among those Turks who believe their country has been unfairly
tarred with genocide allegations, the violent backlash by right-wing
nationalists has prompted profound unease. Many were particularly
disturbed by the young age of the alleged killer, identified by
authorities as 17-year-old Ogun Samast, and the fact that he had
apparently come under the sway of nationalist militants.

In a highly unusual step, Turkey invited Armenia to send
representatives to the funeral, even though the border between the
two countries is sealed and they have no diplomatic ties. In a sign
of ambivalence, however, the Turkish government was represented by
a bevy of senior ministers – not its topmost leaders.

The slain journalist’s widow, Rakel, flanked by the couple’s three
children, made a poignant appeal to the crowd that gathered before
the funeral march began. Her husband’s death, she said, must not
become a catalyst for more hatred.

"The murderer was once a baby," she said. "Unless we can question
the darkness that turned this baby into a murderer, we cannot achieve
anything."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress