Agence France Presse — English
January 18, 2008 Friday 6:17 PM GMT

Novelist calls on Turks to break silence on Armenian killings

ISTANBUL, Jan 18 2008

The Booker-prize winning novelist Anrundhati Roy called on Turks
Friday to break the silence over the World War I-era massacre of
Armenians.

Roy was in Istanbul as part of tributes to mark the first anniversary
of the murder of writer Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian campaigning
newspaper editor shot dead by an unemployed member of a fringe
ultra-nationalist group.

"I haven’t come here to fill the silence that surrounds in this
country the events that took place in Anatolia in 1915. That is for
you to do. That is what Hrant Dink tried to do and therefore paid
with his life," the Indian writer said during a lecture at Bogazici
University.

"Obviously, the assassination was meant both as a punishment for
Hrant and as a warning to others in this country who might have been
inspired by his courage."

Dink campaigned for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians, but
on the basis of Turkish recognition that the massacre of Armenians
between 1915 and 1917 constituted genocide.

The total tally of those killed is disputed, with Armenians putting
it at more than 1.5 million and Turkey saying between 250,000 and
500,000.

Roy told supporters that the killing of Dink had backfired —
highlighting rather than silencing the issue of the massacres.

"Hrant has been silenced but those who celebrate his murder should
know that what they did was counterproductive. Instead of silence it
has raised a great noise. Hrant’s voice has become a shout that
cannot be silenced again."

Dink, who had been given a six-month suspended sentence by a Turkish
court for his views, was nominated on Monday by the International
Press Institute as one of its "heroes of world press freedom."