TIME Magazine
Jan 22 2007
Teen Admits Killing Turkish Editor
Monday, Jan. 22, 2007 By AP/BENJAMIN HARVEY
(ISTANBUL, Turkey) – The teenage boy suspected of fatally shooting an
ethnic Armenian journalist confessed during initial questioning that
he killed the man, a local prosecutor told a state-run news agency on
Sunday.
An Assassination Shocks Istanbul
The death of a journalist tests Turkey’s readiness to join Europe
Ahmet Cokcinar – a prosecutor in the city of Samsun, where the boy
was caught – told the Anatolia news agency that the teenager
confessed to killing Hrant Dink.
Ogun Samast, who is either 16 or 17 years old, was caught Saturday
after police acted on a tip from the boy’s father after his picture
was broadcast on Turkish television, senior officials said.
Samast was caught on a bus as he was apparently traveling from
Istanbul, where the shooting took place, back to his hometown of
Trabzon, Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler said.
Dink, the 52-year-old editor of the Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos,
was gunned down outside his newspaper’s office on Friday.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Samast was arrested with the
gun believed to have been used in the killing. Video footage showed
paramilitary police at the Samsun bus station inspecting a pistol and
then placing it into an evidence bag.
Guler said Samast’s father had turned him in.
Most Turks assume Dink was targeted for his columns saying the
killing of ethnic Armenians by Turks in the early 20th century was
genocide. Nationalists consider such statements an insult to Turkey’s
honor and a threat to its unity, and Dink had been showered with
insults and threats.
Turkey’s relationship with its Armenian minority has long been
haunted by a bloody past. Much of its once-influential Armenian
population was killed or driven out beginning around 1915 in what an
increasing number of nations are calling the first genocide of the
20th century.
Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of Armenians died but
vehemently denies it was genocide, saying the overall figure is
inflated and the deaths occurred in the civil unrest during the
collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Samast was caught after television stations across Turkey broadcast
on Saturday a purported photograph of him caught by a security camera
about two blocks from the scene of the crime in Istanbul.
Guler said earlier that Dink’s secretary had identified the young man
in the photograph as the same person who had requested a meeting with
Dink the day he was killed, the Anatolia news agency reported. The
man said he was a student at Ankara University, Guler said.
The request was refused, and the secretary said she saw him waiting
in front of a bank about an hour before Dink was killed, Anatolia
reported.
Guler said Samast was born in 1990, but did not release his exact
age. He said the teen was being brought back to Istanbul for
questioning along with six other suspects from Trabzon.
Police were investigating whether the teen acted alone or had ties to
a group.
The suspect’s uncle Faik Samast told private NTV television that he
didn’t think his nephew was capable of acting alone.
"He didn’t even know his way around Istanbul," Samast said. "This kid
was used."
Threats and violence against Turkish editors and reporters is not
uncommon. Well-known journalists commonly receive police protection
and travel around Istanbul with bodyguards. Dink was alone when he
was killed.
Guler rejected accusations the government did not do enough to
protect Dink.
"Because he didn’t request protection, he didn’t get close
protection," he said Saturday. "Only general security precautions
were taken."
Mourners held a vigil at the spot where Dink was gunned down. Many in
the crowd, which included Turks and members of Istanbul’s small
Armenian community, had pictures of the slain journalist pinned to
their chests.
"We’re here to pay our respects," said Sabri Nas, 47, an
Armenian-Turk. "We are against this violence, whatever the
motivation."