Journalist’s murder triggers a rare bout of Turkish soul-searching
By Vincent Boland in Ankara
FT
January 24 2007 02:00
Hrant Dink was a controversial and even marginal figure during his
life. In death, the 52-year-old Turkish-Armenian journalist, murdered
in Istanbul on Friday, seems to have pricked an often introverted and
insecure nation into a rare bout of critical thinking.
"We are all Armenians," declared the placards carried by some of the
tens of thousands of mourners who attended Dink’s funeral
yesterday. The dignity of the occasion was undoubted.
Whether it is significant in the longer term is the real question
facing Turkey as it begins to ask why Dink was murdered and what his
death might mean.
The fact that the alleged killer – police say he has confessed – is a
teenager from the eastern city ofTrabzon has deepened the sense of
bewilderment.
Some said the murder was the product of ignorance and exploitation of
vulnerable youngsters by extremists of whatever stripe. Commentators
noted that Trabzon was where a Roman Catholic priest was shot dead
last year during the furore over cartoons of Mohammed that were
published by a newspaper in Denmark.
"As a society we are facing an enormous problem," wrote Ertugrul
Ozkok, editor of Hurriyet newspaper. "There is a climate of hatred
being nurtured in the cities of Anatolia and in our poorer, back-hill,
outskirts areas. We need to start thinking about how we put out these
flames of hatred, from today."
Mehmet Ali Birand, a veteran commentator, blamed the refusal to amend
or abolish a clause of the penal code that allows writers to be
prosecuted for "insulting" the state. Dink was given a suspended
prison sentence under this clause in 2005.
Still others said his murder was a symptom of unthinking
nationalism. Ina ferocious assault on Turkish public discourse, Omer
Taspinar, co-director of the US-Turkey project at the Brookings
Institution, wrote: "Over the last few years a poisonous
ultranationalist environment has befallen our country. The political
class, mass media and state bureaucracy are all responsible for
fuelling a schizophrenic form of nationalism. That such nationalism
begets violence should not be surprising."
As debate rages, one question has emerged. Will the murder bring about
a change in the confrontational relationship between Turkey and
Armenia and in the state of denial in Turkey about hundreds of
thousands of Armenians massacred during the collapse of the Ottoman
empire? Armenians say this was genocide, an accusation Turkey rejects.
The sympathy for Dink, even from a nationalist establishment that
hated his views and from a government largely indifferent to issues of
free speech, is genuine. But it may not be deep. There is no sign that
officials are willing to rethink the Armenian issue.
Nor is the journalist’s death likely to persuade more Turks to accept
his view that Turkey must face up to genocide.
Hasan Unal, professor of international relations at Bilkent
University, said:"We are not all Armenians now. We are Turks and we
will remain Turks."
The nationalist turn in Turkish politics, especially notable in recent
months, comes before a general election in November and amid a fraying
of relations with the US and the European Union. It may be reinforced
as the US Congress considers a resolution that would recognise the
massacres as genocide, joining countries such as France.
Nicholas Burns, the number three diplomat at the State Department,
said last week that the Bush administration would oppose the
resolution. But if it is adopted, say diplomats, it would almost
certainly prompt a crisis in US-Turkish relations, which may become
the most serious casualty of Dink’s murder.