TURKEY CRITICIZES U.S. RESOLUTION ON MURDERED ARMENIAN JOURNALIST
Orange County Register, CA
March 29 2007
We are seeking comments from the Orange County Armenian and Turkish
community on a U.S. Senate panel resolution today condemning the
murder in January of prominent Turkish Armenian editor Hrant Dink.
Turkey has criticized the largely symbolic resolution, but according
to Reuters, a more potent action by the U.S. Congress could come
next month as it weighs whether to debate and back a bill that would
recognize the Armenian massacres by Ottoman Turks as genocide.
In January Register reporter Tamara Chuang wrote about a Costa Mesa
service for the Armenian journalist. More than 300 people attended
that vigil at the St. Mary Armenian Church. The 52-year-old editor
of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, was called a hero for
writing about the mass killings of Armenians upon the breakup of the
Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s.
Many in OC’s Armenian community considered Dink a friend and brother.
We will update this entry with comments from the community as they
become available.
Below is a Reuters story on today’s Senate panel resolution:
Turkey chides US Senate panel over Dink resolution
ANKARA, March 29 (Reuters) – Turkey chided a U.S. Senate panel on
Thursday for backing a resolution condemning the murder in January
of prominent Turkish Armenian editor Hrant Dink, saying the bill was
politically motivated. The mainly symbolic resolution, which can now
pass to the floor of the Senate for a vote, has angered Ankara as
it makes a reference to the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 and
mentions that Dink had faced legal action for writing about them.
The resolution, backed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
took place as the U.S. Congress weighs whether to debate and back a
much more explosive bill that would recognise the Armenian massacres
by Ottoman Turks as genocide.
"It is clear that bringing this resolution (on Dink’s killing) to the
agenda of the Senate serves only to exploit the loathsome murder for
political aims by referring to the events of 1915," Turkey’s Foreign
Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry noted the government had strongly condemned Dink’s murder
and that large numbers of Turks had taken to the streets of Istanbul
at his funeral to show their revulsion.
Dink was shot dead outside his Istanbul office by a young Turkish
ultra-nationalist, who later said he had killed Dink for "insulting"
Turkey. Several other men have been arrested in connection with
the killing.
Before his death, Dink had been prosecuted under a controversial
law for his writings on the Armenian massacres, a highly sensitive
subject in Turkey.
Turkey denies Ottoman forces committed a systematic genocide against
Armenians during World War One. It says large numbers of both
Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks died in inter-ethnic fighting
as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has warned of serious damage to
U.S.-Turkish relations if Congress backed the genocide resolution
next month.
Many other parliaments around the world have passed similar resolutions
acknowledging the Armenian killings as genocide.
7/03/turkey_criticizes_us_resolutio_1.html
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
