Thousands in Turkey mourn slain journalist
CBC News, Canada
January 23, 2007 Tuesday 3:15 PM GMT
Tens of thousands of mourners filled the streets of Istanbul Tuesday
for the funeral for a slain ethnic Armenian journalist in a show of
support for freedom of expression and reconciliation.
Hrant Dink was gunned down Friday outside his newspaper, Agos. Dink
had angered Turkish nationalists by calling the mass killings of
Armenians in the last days of the Ottoman Empire a genocide.
Police are questioning seven suspects, including a teenager.
Dink’s wife, Rakel, called for a deeper search for answers to the
killing.
"Seventeen or 27, whoever he was, the murderer was once a baby,"
she told mourners. "Unless we can question the darkness that turned
this baby into a murderer, we cannot achieve anything."
Flanked by her three children, she paid tribute to the mourners.
"No darkness can make us forget," she said.
Funeral shuts down Istanbul
Amid the grieving, there were signs Dink’s funeral might become a
catalyst for easing the antagonism between Turks and the dwindling
ethnic Armenian minority.
The crowds marched along an eight-kilometre route from Agos to an
Armenian Orthodox church in one of the biggest funerals ever held
in the city. They carried placards that read, "We are all Armenians"
in Turkish and Armenian.
Onlookers filled bridges and streets, and the centre of Istanbul was
shut down.
Despite a request from his family not to turn the funeral into a
protest, mourners raised their fists and shouted: "Shoulder to shoulder
against fascism!" and "Murderer 301," a reference to the Turkish law
that was used to prosecute Dink and others on charges of insulting
"Turkishness."
Among those brought to court over Article 301 was Orhan Pamuk, who
won the Nobel Prize in literature last year.
Such prosecutions have alarmed the European Union, which is considering
Turkey’s bid to join the bloc, but until Tuesday there were few mass
rallies in favour of freedom of speech in Turkey itself.
Encouraged reconciliation
Dink, 52, sought to encourage reconciliation between Turkey and
Armenia. But he made public statements about the mass killings of
Armenians by Turks in the early 20th century, which remain one of
the nation’s most divisive issues.
On several occasions, Dink expressed his view that the killings
amounted to genocide. Such statements enrage nationalists who
vehemently insist there was bloodshed on both sides during the
tumultuous collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The remarks also landed
him in court and prompted death threats.
Police are questioning seven suspects, including a teenager, Ogun
Samast, and Yasin Hayal, a nationalist militant convicted in a 2004
bomb attack at a McDonald’s restaurant.
"I had no intention of insulting Turkishness," Dink told the
Associated Press in a telephone interview months before his death.
"My only concern is to improve Armenian and Turkish relations."
He seemed to have achieved that to a certain extent in his death:
Turkey has no diplomatic ties with Armenia but invited Armenian
officials and religious leaders to the funeral as well as moderate
members of the diaspora.
Armenia sent Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirakosian. The Armenian
Orthodox Church sent U.S.-based Bishop Khazkah Parsamian. Church
leaders from Romania and Bulgaria also attended.
‘Great advocate’
"Hrant Dink was a great advocate in the country for freedom of speech
and for reconciliation, in particular between Armenians and Turks,"
said Ross Wilson, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, on the sidelines
of the funeral procession. "Judging by what you see on the streets,
he did bring the people together."
In a service attended by Armenians and Turks, Armenian Patriarch
Mesrob II called for expanded freedom of speech.
"It is unacceptable to judge and imprison someone because of his
thoughts, let alone to kill him," Mesrob said, weeping during his
eulogy.
"It is mystical that his funeral turned into an occasion where Armenian
and Turkish officials gathered together," Mesrob said.
Dink was buried in Istanbul’s Armenian graveyard, where priests
chanted and people applauded as his portrait was displayed and white
doves were released.
"It was an attack against all of us," said Oya Basaran, 52, a school
principal. "We want to give the message to the world that the killing
does not represent us."