Reuters, UK
Jan 19 2008
Turks protest editor’s murder on anniversary
Sat Jan 19, 2008 1:13pm EST
By Daren Butler and Osman Senkul
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Thousands of protesters called on Saturday for
all those behind the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink to be brought to justice, a year after he was gunned down in a
murder which shocked Turkey.
An ultra-nationalist gunman shot Dink outside his office in Istanbul
on Jan 19, 2007. The subsequent investigation has triggered claims
police failed to act on warnings his life was in danger.
Amid tight police security and mournful music, people laid red
carnations at the spot in central Istanbul where he was killed. A
huge photograph of Dink was hung from the office of his Armenian
newspaper Agos for the commemoration ceremony.
"We are at the pavement where they tried to clean his blood with
soap," Dink’s wife Rakel said in an emotionally-charged speech from
the office balcony. "You are here for justice today. A scream for
justice rises from your silence."
Ankara has vowed to prosecute all those responsible for Dink’s
killing. Nineteen suspects are on trial. The next hearing is on
February 11.
Amnesty International urged Turkey on Friday to widen the
investigation into his death and the media called for the alleged
complicity of security officials to be fully probed.
"The killer state will be called to account," many in the crowd of
several thousand chanted.
"For Hrant, For Justice," said black-and-white placards, in Turkish,
Armenian and other languages, held aloft by the crowd as they marked
a minute’s silence at the moment he was shot.
"Despite the capture of those who killed Hrant, the powers behind
them are still at large … what is needed is a courageous political
will. In short what is needed is Hrant’s courage," journalist Oral
Calislar told Reuters.
"ROTTEN APPLES"
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.
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.
"I can see that justice has not been done and it makes me angry …
but I believe if we raise our voices justice will be achieved," said
advertising executive Ulas Arikan, 50.
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.
The government has failed to learn the lessons of Dink’s killing,
according to Radikal columnist Murat Yetkin.
"(Prime Minister Tayyip) 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.
(Writing by Daren Butler; editing by Andrew Roche)