HUNDREDS COMMEMORATE SLAIN TURKISH-ARMENIAN JOURNALIST DINK
Journal of Turkish Weekly
Jan 20 2009
Turkey
ISTANBUL – Hundreds of Turkish people commemorated Monday slain
Turkish-Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, in Istanbul on the second
anniversary of his murder.
People gathered in front of the weekly Turkish and Armenian language
newspaper Agos in the central Sisli neighbourhood of Istanbul, where
Dink was killed.
Dink, editor in chief of Agos newspaper, was shot dead outside the
offices of the paper in Istanbul in January 2007. It is argued that the
Turkish deep state Ergenekon encouraged a young Turkish nationalist
to murder Dink. USAK experts say that the main reason was not the
Armenian issue but the Turkish secret state. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ihsan
Bal for instance told the JTW "Dink was not murdered because of the
Armenian issue. He was targeted to as a victim by a secret organization
to polarize Turkey and to cut international support to the current
Turkish Government".
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sedat Laciner similarly sees the Dink Murder
as a typical deep state business: "Their aim is to continue the
militarist understanding in Turkish politics. They try to prepare
society for a possible military coup and the Armenian issue
gives them a good tool. Inside they make efforts to polarize the
people as Turkish-Kurdish, leftist-rightist, religious-secularist,
nationalists-others etc. Outside their main aim is to cut international
support to the AK Party Government. The AK Party has good relations
with the European Union and the United States and the Dink Murder
was done to spoil Turkey’s foreign relations".