Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Jan 29 2007
US Congress to discuss Dink murder
The US Congress may soon discuss murder of Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink and call on Turkey to take more steps to
improve freedom of expression, news reports said.
Armenian groups in the United States said a Democrat congressman,
Joseph Crowley, would soon submit a resolution to the Congress
condemning the murder of Dink and calling on Turkey to abolish
Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, Anatolia news agency said.
Armenian Assembly of America (AAA) and the Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA) announced they would support the
resolution.
Dink?s murder turned the spotlight on rising nationalism in Turkey
and increased pressure on the government to amend the Article 301,
under which Dink had been tried for ?insulting Turkishness? and given
a six-month suspended imprisonment.
On Saturday night, a Turkish man used an air gun to hijack a ferry in
the Dardanelles straits to protest banners raised in funeral for
Dink, which read ?We are all Armenians.?
The man, identified as Nihat Acar, surrendered to police after
seizing the ferry on its way from Gelibolu on the European side of
the strait to Lapseki on the Asian side and threatening to blow up
the vessel on Saturday night.
Acar called himself a ?patriotic Turkish fighter? in his testimony at
the police and said he had hijacked the ferry to protest slogans in
Dink?s funeral on Tuesday, Yusuf Ziya İnce, the acting governor
of Çanakkale, was quoted as saying.
He was carrying an air gun, İnce also said and added that he was
not carrying C-4 explosives as he claimed he had onboard the ferry.
?I did it for the homeland,? shouted Acar as he was getting off the
ferry with police escort.
Up to 100,000 people marched through İstanbul in one of the
biggest ever funerals in this city of 13-million and some of the
mourners raised banners reading ?We are all Hrant Dink? and ?We are
all Armenians.?