TURKEY ARRESTS 33 IN CRACKDOWN ON NATIONALIST GROUP, AKSAM SAYS
By Ben Holland
Bloomberg
Jan 23 2008
Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) — Turkish police detained 33 people in a
crackdown on a nationalist group suspected of involvement in the
murder of journalist Hrant Dink and other violent attacks, Aksam
newspaper reported.
Those detained include a retired general, a journalist and a lawyer
who brought charges of "insulting Turkishness" against novelist Orhan
Pamuk, Aksam said. They were arrested in Istanbul and other regions
in dawn raids yesterday, the culmination of an eight-month operation,
the newspaper said.
The group’s possible links with other unsolved crimes including the
murders of a high court judge and a Catholic priest in 2006 are being
investigated, Aksam said. It’s also suspected of planning attacks on
Kurdish politicians, the newspaper said.
Dink was killed a year ago after becoming a target for nationalists
because he argued that the World War I killing of Armenians on Turkish
territory constituted a genocide.