Turkish-Armenian editor shot dead in Istanbul

[maddezmom]

ISTANBUL, Jan 19 (Reuters) - A Turkish-Armenian editor, who was convicted last year for insulting Turkey's identity, was shot dead outside his newspaper in Istanbul on Friday, a colleague and Turkish television said.

No further details were immediately available.

Hrant Dink had been tried under Turkey's criticised freedom of expression laws, for controversial comments about an alleged Armenian genocide during World War One, which Ankara and many Turks deny occurred.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1968420.htm

Turkish-Armenian journalist gunned down

ISTANBUL, Turkey - An Armenian-Turkish journalist who stood trial for speaking out about the mass killings of Armenians by Turks at the beginning of the 20th century was shot to death Friday outside his newspaper's offices, according to news reports.

Hrant Dink, a 53-year-old Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, had received threats from nationalists, who viewed him as a traitor to Turkey.

And editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, Dink was one of Turkey's most prominent Armenian voices.

In an earlier interview with the Associated Press, Dink cried as he talked about some of his fellow countrymen's hatred for him, saying he could not stay in a country where he was unwanted.

more;http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070119/ap_on_re_mi_ea/turkey_journalist_killed

[bdamomma]

1. that is terrible, again another voice has been silenced about

the genocide that claimed a million and one half Armenians, the Turks will still not acknowledge this deadly and horrific act, but ask any Armenian about it they will never forget.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Two people have been arrested

from the AP article on Yahoo:

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Dink's death as an attack against Turkey's unity and promised to catch those responsible. He said he had appointed top officials from the Justice and Security ministries to investigate the killing, and that two suspects had been arrested. He gave no details on the suspects.

[ohio2007]

15. Teenager was arrested nt

[ohio2007]

16. Six more arrested,including one convicted in the bombing of a McDonald's restaurant i

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070121/ap_on_re_mi_ea/turkey_journalist_killed

[damntexdem]

3. Will Turkey now deny that he was shot dead?

Another voice for truth is lost.

[Posteritatis]

7. Why, clearly he *ingested* that lead

What? Makes about as much sense as their denials of the Armenian question. ;P

[Malmo Blue]

4. I'm half-Turkish myself...

...and I'm apalled that Turkey hasn't recognized what they did against the Armenians during WW1. I've even got some flack from pro-Azerbaijani people for demanding Turkey's recognizition of the Armenian Genocide. And now, a voice of truth has been shot dead. Turkey needs to wake up from the denial.

[Igel]

12. If they admitted what they did to the Armenians,

they'd next be called upon to admit what they did to the Muslim Kurds and to the non-Muslim Greeks. It wasn't as splashy, of course. But most varieties of genocide and ethnic cleansing aren't, whether motivated by ethnic or religious hatred.

They might be called upon to apologize for enslaving non-Muslims over the centuries and calling it good and for fanning the flames of ethnic hatred in order to make governing a bit easier.

[ohio2007]

17. Turkey wants to enter the EU so they are under pressure

to make a speedy arrest,conviction and execution

[athena]

20. You need to brush up your history.

Saying something doesn't make it so. The Ottoman empire was one of the most liberal in its treatment of religious minorities -- especially compared to its Christian contemporaries. The Greeks in Turkey were treated no worse than the Turks in Greece after WWI. As for the Kurds, more than a third of Turkey's presidents have been at least half-Kurdish, and the Kurds are over-represented in parliament.

[struggle4progress]

5. Editor Who Spoke for Armenians in Turkey Is Slain (NYT)

By SEBNEM ARSU
Published: January 20, 2007

ISTANBUL, Jan. 19 —A prominent newspaper editor, columnist and voice for Turkey’s ethnic Armenians who was prosecuted for challenging the official Turkish version of the 1915 Armenian genocide, was shot dead as he left his office on a busy street in central Istanbul on Friday ...

Mr. Dink, 53, a Turk of Armenian descent, often provoked widespread anger in Turkey for his comments on the genocide — which Turkey denies, saying the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians resulted from hunger and other suffering in World War I. He also angered some ethnic Armenians for opposing their demand that Turkey recognize the genocide as a condition of entry to the European Union. He viewed entry into the Union as the clearest route to strengthening democracy in Turkey ...

Several thousand people marched from Mr. Dink’s office to Taksim Square on Friday evening to protest the killing. People held pictures of Mr. Dink, decorated his office door with flowers, waved black flags and chanted, “Shoulder to shoulder against fascism,” and, “We are all Hrant; we are all Armenians.” ...

Mr. Dink was one of a number of intellectuals convicted under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which penalizes remarks against the state or the Turkish identity. It been harshly criticized by the European Union as a violation of freedom of expression, as Turkey moves toward membership ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/20/world/europe/20turkey.html?hp&ex=1169269200&en=e5c15adbadabf540&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Faygo Kid]

6. Find an Armenian family without an ancestor killed in the genocide. Or try.

I was a counselor at a summer camp for Armenian kids way for four straight summers way back in the early '70s. I learned all about the genocide, and not through academic study - but through every single kid who came to camp who had lost a grandparent or aunts and uncles; numerous family members. By name, by photos, they were identified, and they had all been killed by the Turks. The stories that the kids knew that were passed to them from family members were horrifying. The Turks have a moral obligation to admit to this, which so clearly happened. Instead, they dig in their heels worse year after year. I don't get it, when they could gain so much by clearing the air.

[ohio2007]

19. One million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed ---

"One million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in these lands but no one dares talk about it."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/20/wturkey20.xml

Well? why won't they talk about it?

[maddezmom]

8. Turkey probes journalist's murder amid huge public outcry

ISTANBUL (AFP) - Turkish police were questioning eight people over the murder of journalist Hrant Dink, one of Turkey's most prominent ethnic Armenians and a target of nationalist threats, as the government came under fire for failing to protect him.

Five more people have been taken into custody in addition to three detained earlier in connection with the attack on Dink, 53, outside the office of his Agos newspaper in downtown Istanbul Friday afternoon, Anatolia news agency reported Saturday.

Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu and Justice Minister Cemil Cicek were personally overseeing the investigation.

"We are very close to solving the case. We have definitive evidence," Istanbul governor Muammer Guler told reporters late Friday.

The assassination sent shock waves throughout the country, where Dink was one of the taboo-breaking critics of the official line on the mass massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire during World War I and was last year given a suspended six-month jail sentence for insulting "Turkishness."

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070120/ts_afp/turkeyarmeniamedia_070120094246

[Eugene]

9. AP: Teen held in killing of Turkish editor

Teen held in killing of Turkish editor

By BENJAMIN HARVEY, Associated Press Writer

51 minutes ago

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Police on Saturday detained a teenager suspected of slaying
an ethnic Armenian journalist, acting on a tip from the boy's father after his
picture was broadcast on Turkish television, senior officials said.

Ogun Samast, who is either 16 or 17 years old, was caught on a bus in the Black
Sea city of Samsun, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. He was apparently
traveling from Istanbul back to his hometown of Trabzon, Istanbul Gov. Muammer
Guler said.

Samast was wanted in connection with the killing of Hrant Dink, a 52-year-old
editor of the Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos who was gunned down outside his
newspaper's office in Istanbul on Friday.

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.

-snip-

Full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070121/ap_on_re_as/turkey_journalist_killed

[villager]

10. Editor hated by Turkish right gunned down

The right wing, same the world 'round...

Editor hated by Turkish right gunned down

Gareth Jenkins, Istanbul

THE daughter of a murdered Turkish-Armenian editor cried out to his fleeing killer from the balcony of the Agos newspaper offices in Istanbul where they both worked.

As the body of Hrant Dink lay below, Sera Dink shouted: “They have killed my father. Is his blood any cleaner now?” Dink’s colleagues said he had received a phone call shortly before 3pm on Friday and left the office at once.

Witnesses said that as Dink, who had received numerous threats, emerged he was shot three times in the nape of the neck by a young man. His murderer fled, shouting, “I have killed an Armenian”, and levelled his pistol at passers-by who tried to stop him. Video footage from a shop next to the offices showed the assailant in the moments before the attack, his gun in his right hand.

<snip>

In recent years Dink, 52, had become a figure of hate for Turkey’s ultra-nationalist right, particularly over the fate of the Armenians in the first world war, when between 1m and 1.5m were driven from their homes. Many were killed straight away with others abandoned in the Syrian desert. Some estimates put the total at 600,000, although it was almost certainly higher.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2557947,00.html

[struggle4progress]

11. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2695137

[msmcghee]

13. Just saw a good movie that dealt with this horrible topic . . .

. . in a very filmy artictic way. Ararat. If it wasn't for NetFlix I never would have found it. A strange movie but haunting - recommended. I saw it two weeks ago but keep thinking about it. Just a note of caution - If you get it - pay close attention to the first 10 minutes as there are some convoluted story lines that get established early on.

[ohio2007]

14. ? " insulting Turkey's identity" WTF ??

insulting Turkey's identity.
Is that like saying Canada is full of bacon eaters ?

[ohio2007]

18. teenager wearing a white cap and jeans. "He shouted 'I shot the infidel' !

So the UK Telegraph has a spin that few others are willing to touch;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/20/wturkey20.xml

Seems to be a mental illness in some of the youth today