PanARMENIAN.Net
Dink lost his life for courage to speak of Armenian Genocide
02.02.2007 18:35 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Last night on the House Floor, Representative Adam
Schiff remembered one of Turkey’s most prominent Armenian journalists,
who was shot to death outside his newspaper’s office in Istanbul, on
January 19th, Mr Sean Oblack, Congressman Schiff’s Press Secretary
told PanARMENIAN.Net. Hrant Dink was a courageous journalist who
called for a more open discussion of Turkeys past, including the
Armenian Genocide. In 2003, on a trip to Turkey, Rep. Schiff met with
Mr. Dink to discuss the Armenian Genocide and press freedom issues.
Rep. Schiff recently sent a bipartisan letter, cosigned by 42
Congressional colleagues, to the Turkish Prime Minister calling on him
to investigate Mr. Dink’s murder. Schiff asked that he ensure that
this crime is solved and that those responsible are brought to
justice.
Rep. Schiff’s statement says in part,
`About a week and a half ago, a courageous journalist by the name of
Hrant Dink was murdered outside of his newspaper office in Istanbul. I
would like to read today some of the comments that he made in his last
newspaper article Agos on January 19, the day that he was shot dead.
Well, Mr. Dink, unfortunately, found otherwise when he was gunned down
outside of his office by a young man no doubt inflamed by the passions
that the government did so little to quell. Hrant Dink, who had the
courage to talk about some of the darkest periods of Ottoman history,
of the genocide of the Armenian people, the first genocide of last
century that claimed a million and a half lives, paid for that courage
with his life.
Well, we will have the opportunity here soon to take up a resolution
on the Armenian genocide. All we have to do is vote. That is very
little compared to what Hrant Dink did and the price that he paid.
I had a chance to meet him in Istanbul a couple of years ago. He was
optimistic about the future. He was optimistic about Turkey’s future,
about its willingness to examine its past. Regrettably, that optimism
was misplaced.
Today we remember a courageous journalist, Hrant Dink. And his legacy
lives on.’