Radio Netherlands, Netherlands
Jan 19 2008
Hrant Dink remembered
Published: Saturday 19 January 2008 16:25 UTC
Last updated: Saturday 19 January 2008 16:25 UTC
Istanbul – Thousands of people have gathered in the Turkish city of
Istanbul to commemorate the ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink who
was shot dead a year ago today in front of his newspaper offices.
They also gathered to protest his murder and against the slow pace of
justice. The chief suspect in the case is a 17-year-old
ultra-nationalist. A total of 19 people are being tried in connection
with Mr Dink’s murder.
Amnesty International has called on Turkey to fully examine the
circumstances of the murder and widen the scope of the investigation.
The human rights organisation says Ankara must investigate the role
of law enforcement officials who failed to act on death threats made
against the journalist. Amnesty disputes the official version of
events which says the culprit acted alone.
Mr Dink worked to reconcile Turks and Armenians. He was well known
for writing articles about the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks between 1915 and 1917. He campaigned for the mass killings to
be recognized as a genocide and was convicted under Turkey’s
controversial article 301, which makes ‘insulting Turkishness’ a
crime.