AZG Armenian Daily #014, 26/01/2007
Murder of Hrant Dink
OPPOSITION CRITICIZES "WE ALL ARE ARMENIANS, WE ALL
ARE HRANT" SLOGAN
Prime Minister Erdoghan Condemns Nationalists
On January 23, over 100 thousand participants of the
funeral of the Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink
were shouting "We all are Armenians, We all are Hrant"
slogan. The Turkish "Star" reported about this in its
January 25 issue. Muhusin Yazejeoghli, chairman of
"Great Union" party greatly criticized this action of
protest on January 24.
This party is a more extremist one, that the political
union of the "grey wolves," i.e. the Nationalist
Movement Party. On the contrary, the
Democratic-Republican Party founded by Kemal Ataturk
is considered to serve as a guarantee for democratic
developments in Turkey.
Nevertheless, all these factors do not hinder Onur
Oymen, former ambassador and deputy chairman of the
party, to remember the 40 Turkish diplomates killed by
the Armenian Secret Army for Liberation of Armenia,
when holding a speech condemning the murder of Hrant
Dink.
According to the Turkish Publis TV, Oymen stated that
till now they didn’t reveal the murderers of most of
their friends. "When Galip Balkar was killed and his
body was brought to Turkey, only the family members
and the officials from the foreign ministry
participated in his funeral, instead of dozens of
thousands rally participants. Certainly, we should pay
tribute to the murdered and condemn murders, but we
shouldn’t forget other victims and find forces in
ourselves to shout "We all are Balkar, we all are
Erez," he stated.
>>From this viewpoint, Develet Bahcheli, chairman of
Nationalist Movement party, shared the ideas of Oymen.
According to the January 24 issue of "Sabah," Bahcheli
condemned those who demanded to make amendments to the
article #301 of the Turkish Criminal Code after the
murder of Hrant Dink. In particular, Bahcheli
said:"The murder of Dink is a dirty deed. But one
shouldn’t call the turksih state a murderer for this
recent murder case and demand repsponsibility from
those who came out to the streets with black flags
immediately after the murder.
It is notable that these circles, even representing a
part of the Turkish nation, never appear on the
funeral of Armenian victims, but always find suitable
inventing new slogans. This is a incosisitency that
still lacks explanaiton.
Bahceli, condemning the "We are all Armenians, we are
all Hrant" slogan, also tried to prevent accusing the
nationalists for the murder. Even though leader of
Turkey’s Nationalistic Movement party gave no name,
Prime Minister Erdogan in his accusatory speech
defined the addressee. "I can never recognize as
nationalisst those people who do respect neither the
law or the human rights and who kill guiltless people.
No one but God can take a life of a man, given by
God," said he.
It shoukld also be noted that Mr. Erdogan, so as to
express his condolences to the Armenian people and the
family of the victim, visited the house of Hrant Dink
and the Armenian Patriarchy of Istanbul. On his
meeting with the Armenian Patriarch Mesrop II Mutafian
the Turkish Prime Minister said that besides punishing
the murderer, the uthorities will do eevrything to
find the organizers of the assasination.
By Hakob Chakrian
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress