Washington Times, DC
Feb 4 2006
Turkey faces world jury after editor’s killing
WORLD BRIEFINGS
By Andrew Borowiec
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
February 4, 2007
NICOSIA, Cyprus — The bullet that killed a Turkish-Armenian
newspaper editor last month has put Turkey and its legal system
before a world jury.
Hrant Dink, editor of the Agos weekly, died because an unemployed
17-year-old boy, Ogun Samast, claimed the editor had insulted
"Turkishness," a concept that enshrines as sacrosanct the country’s
identity, state institutions and its army.
Critics of the concept are treated as criminals under Article 301
of Turkey’s criminal code. Prominent writers, including Nobel Prize
winner Orhan Pamuk, have been tried under the article.
The young assassin apparently acted according to the principles
of patriotism instilled in him and in millions of others. His victim
was a critic of some of the acts protected by a system he judged to
be unjust and was a member of the Armenian minority all but extinct
in Turkey.
Turkish liberals, international human rights organizations and
European editorial writers demand a change in Article 301, which, if
retained in its current form, is likely to keep Turkey out of the
European Union. Turkey’s EU membership negotiations are now stalled.
EU entry at risk
At Mr. Dink’s funeral under the gray January sky of Istanbul,
mourners carried placards denouncing the "301 Killer."
In Strasbourg, France, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe, an advisory body, formally asked for changes in Turkey’s
criminal code, saying it "judicially limits freedom of expression and
validates legal and other attacks against journalists."
Under the pressure of Mr. Dink’s assassination, liberals hope for
evolution in Turkish attitudes and laws, but rising nationalism
across the country and the issues involved in parliamentary and
presidential elections this year appear to preclude a change in the
foreseeable future.
The country has become steeped in chauvinism, with schoolchildren
reciting one of the favorite slogans of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,
founder of the Turkish Republic: "Lucky is he who can say, ‘I am a
Turk,’ " and troops on parade roar, "One Turk is worth the whole
world."
Although Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to submit a
review of Article 301 to parliament, his absence at the funeral that
drew about 100,000 mourners was seen as less than encouraging.
"Evidently, the prime minister is unwilling to lose nationalist
votes," commented the daily Kathimerini in Athens.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
