Turkish protest to mark editor’s murder anniversary

ISTANBUL, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Turkish media lamented on Saturday the
failure of an investigation into the killing of prominent
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink to shed full light on a murder
which shocked Turkey a year ago.

An ultra-nationalist gunman shot Dink outside his office in Istanbul on
Jan. 19, 2007. Protesters planned to gather at 3 p.m. on Sunday at the
spot where he was killed to call for justice.

Amnesty International urged Turkey on Friday to widen the scope of the
investigation and the liberal media called for the alleged complicity
of security officials to be fully investigated.

"Hrant Dink is in his grave, they are still at their posts," said a
headline in the Radikal daily, in reference to claims that police
failed to act on warnings that Dink’s life was in danger.

Before his murder, Dink received death threats for his articles urging
Turkey to accept responsibility for its part in mass killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks and Kurds in 1915.

Ankara has vowed to bring all those responsible for Dink’s killing to
justice. Nineteen suspects are on trial. The next hearing is on Feb. 11.

The murder was one in a series of attacks in recent years on Turkey’s
small Christian population, which includes Roman Catholics, Protestants
and Orthodox.

The government has failed to learn the lessons of Dink’s killing,
according to Radikal columist Murat Yetkin.

"(Prime Minister) Erdogan, who claims leadership of the Alliance of
Civilisations, should sort out those who want to turn his country into
a hell for non-Muslims," he said.

"All the government’s bodies associated with security, starting with
the interior ministry, must root out the rotten apples within," he said.

According to the court indictment, one of the defendants in the Dink
case acted as a police informer and told the police of plans to
assassinate the editor in the months before the murder.

Dink’s writings brought him a suspended 6-month jail sentence under a
law that makes it a crime to insult Turkish identity. Ankara has failed
to amend or scrap the law, despite pressure from the European Union
which calls it a major obstacle to free speech and to Turkey’s goal of
joining the bloc.

"Hrant Dink’s case is not an exception. Many in Turkey continue to be
prosecuted for the peaceful expression of their non-violent opinions,"
said Andrew Gardner, Amnesty’s researcher on Turkey. (Reporting by
Daren Butler; editing by Andrew Roche)