EDITORIAL STAFF OF AGOS CONTINUES RECEIVING THREATS

Noyan Tapan

Dec 10, 2008

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 10, NOYAN TAPAN. After Hrant Dink’s murder
the circulation of the Agos weekly of Istanbul has increased
abruptly. Bagrat Estukian, the editor of newspaper’s Armenian
department, reported at the December 10 press conference. According
to him, the newspaper was published in the circulation of 3000-3500
copies during Hrant Dink’s lifetime, immediately after his murder for
some time the newspaper was published in a ten-fold and at present
in a three-fold more circulation.

B. Estukian said that the editorial staff of Agos is still receiving
threats of death, extermination. According to him, the local policemen
provide employees’ security. "However strong control is unbearable
for a person loving freedom. Even Hrant, who knew about those threats,
did not hire bodyguards, did not carry arms," he said.

In B. Estukian’s opinion, the trial on the case of Hrant Dink’s murder
is constantly deliberately dragged out, and everything is done so
as not to disclose crime’s authors. "As if it is enough that they
have caught the criminal, who has confessed his guilt," B. Estukian
confessed. According to him, H. Dink’s murder shocked the Turkish
society very much, everybody made sure that Dink was killed because
of being Armenian. B. Estukian also said that though for H. Dink’s
family it is dangerous to live in Turkey, they also cannot renounce
their principles and mission like Hrant.

It was also mentioned that the 4 pages of the 24-page Agos weekly
published since 1996 are published in Armenian.