The Calgary Herald (Alberta)
January 28, 2007 Sunday
Final Edition

Baby steps for democracy

The Turkish response to the assassination of writer Hrant Dink has
been encouraging.

"We are all Hrant Dink," said the protesters’ signs. It looks as if
the people of Turkey are ready to defend their freedom.

There is little doubt Hrant Dink was killed because of his opinions.

He was shot to death on Jan. 19 in Istanbul. He was the editor of a
Turkish-Armenian newspaper, who spoke his mind about the 1915
massacres of Armenians.

The Turkish authorities have arrested a 17-year-old and say they
suspect the teenager was incited by nationalist militants.

Turkey has yet to come to terms with its history, and there is
tension between ethnic Armenians and ethnic Turks. In such a climate,
one might have expected the assassination of a prominent advocate to
inflame sectarian divisions.

That hasn’t happened. There have been large and peaceful protests.
Non-Armenians carried signs that read, "We are all Armenian." Crowd
estimates from Dink’s funeral procession have been 100,000 mourners.

This is an encouraging sign that the people of Turkey want to live in
a secular, pluralist and free society. As for the Turkish government,
the signs are not as clear. Despite the official display of mourning,
it must not be forgotten that Turkish law makes it a crime to
"insult" Turkey and its national character.

This law has led to charges against several writers, including Dink.
It may have been a misguided teenager who shot him, but it is the
government that is willing to send writers to jail for using the word
"genocide" in the context of the Armenian massacres.

When Turkish police brought a nationalist into a courtroom to face
charges in the Dink case, he yelled that Orhan Pamuk had better watch
out. Pamuk is the Turkish writer who won the 2006 Nobel literary
prize. He, too, has been charged with insulting Turkishness, although
his case was thrown out on a technicality. The state is sending mixed
signals to nationalist zealots.

Turkey’s policy of harassing its best writers is an embarrassment to
a country that wants to be seen as worthy of inclusion in the
European Union.

Most writers, and especially journalists, work to keep governments
accountable. In return, citizens will pressure their governments to
respect the press. In China, outcry over a journalist beaten to death
at a coal mine has caused President Hu Jintao to become personally
involved in the investigation.

Canadian Journalists for Free Expression puts the number of
journalists killed last year at 82 and calls 2006 the most deadly
year on record for journalists.

Freedom of expression is the first freedom; without it, Turkey cannot
reach its potential.