1110 replies to this topic

[Yervant1]

NEW INTELLIGENCE REPORTS REVEAL GULENIST COVER-UP IN DINK MURDER

13:28, 20 Oct 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

New details have emerged in investigation into the murder of
Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink that shows officials linked to
the shady Gulen Movement hid intelligence on the murder and covered
up their tracks, Daily Sabah reports.

Intelligence reports hidden from investigators inquiring into the
murder of prominent Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink disclosed
a plot to cover up Gulenist involvement in the killing.

Prosecutors investigating the murder found that police chiefs and
intelligence officers linked to the Gulen Movement, members of
which now face terror charges, deliberately ignored intelligence
reports concerning the 2007 murder. Findings show the Gulen Movement,
which has been accused of attempting to overthrow the government,
aimed to wrongly place the blame on a "a gang" for the murder. The
gang in question was Ergenekon, which has seen dozens of military
officers, journalists and dignitaries imprisoned in what they termed
a Gulenist plot.

The inquiry into the murder, which was initially carried out by
prosecutors linked to the Gulen Movement, was restarted last year,
and several suspects in the cover-up were detained and interrogated. As
the inquiry nears its end, new details in the probe reveal a "parallel
structure" operating within the police and courts sought to expand
its influence in the police by distorting facts around the murder.

Among the previously hidden intelligence reports is a document
presented to prosecutors by Engin Dinc, the police intelligence
director in Trabzon at the time of the murder. Trabzon was the
hometown of Ogun Samast, the teenager who shot Dink dead outside his
newspaper's office in Istanbul. The northern city was also the city
where the murder plot was allegedly hatched by a police informant. The
report shows a list made before the murder naming Ogun Samast as a
potential hitman.

A cover-up regarding the links of officers to the murder has long
been suspected by prosecutors. A recent search into the archives of
Trabzon's intelligence service revealed some documents which were not,
but should have been, entered into the national intelligence database.

A document found in the archives contained statements made by Erhan
Tuncel, a police informant. According to the recovered document,
Tuncel said a new assassin was found to kill Dink and named him as
"Ogun." Suspects interviewed by prosecutors said details on the murder
plot were not sent to the general directorate of police intelligence
in a blatant cover-up.

The investigation also found that Ramazan Akyurek, Trabzon police
chief at the time of the murder, ordered the detention of Erhan
Tuncel after the murder for 14 hours. Documents suggesting that the
officers possessed foreknowledge of the murder were destroyed while
Tuncel was in detention.

According to judiciary sources, Akyurek, a suspected Gulenist police
chief, pressured the head of the Trabzon intelligence branch not
to send information about Tuncel to Istanbul police investigating
the murder.

Another allegation accuses officers of creating a plot to remove the
head of the Istanbul's police intelligence department. Ahmet Ä°lhan
Guler, Istanbul director of the intelligence, was suspended from duty
following the murder over allegations of police negligence in the
murder and Ali Fuat Yılmazer, a suspected Gulenist police chief,
was assigned to the coveted post. Following Yılmazer's assignment,
the Ergenekon investigation was launched, leading to a lengthy trial
and detention process for defendants who were only released after
a purge of Gulenists from key posts in the police and judiciary,
and a law abolishing specially-authorized courts hearing the case.

Sabri Uzun, who was the head of the National Police Intelligence
Department, had claimed his subordinates hid tip-offs in the lead up
to Dink's murder. When questioned about the murder, Uzun claimed that
Ali Fuat Yılmazer, his subordinate in the intelligence department,
hid an intelligence report from him regarding the plot to kill Dink.

Yılmazer was already imprisoned for nine months as part of another
case involving alleged crimes committed by Gulenist infiltrators
in the police. He was re-arrested earlier this month on charges of
illegal wiretapping thousands of people in a new inquiry into an
alleged Gulenist infiltration of the police and judiciary.

http://www.dailysaba...-in-dink-murder

http://www.armradio....in-dink-murder/
 

[MosJan]

GULENIST COVER-UP ? hetaqrqira

[Yervant1]

ISTANBUL PROSECUTOR REQUESTS ARREST WARRANTS FOR 25 SUSPECTS IN HRANT DINK MURDER CASE

20:51, 20 Oct 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

ror and Organized Crimes Prosecutor Gökalp Kökcu submitted on Tuesday
an indictment over the Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink's murder
case to Istanbul Public Prosecutor's Office requesting the arrests
of 25 alleged suspects, for forming an organization to commit crimes,
deliberate killing, and forgery on documents, Daily Sabah reports.

Suspects include the former Chief of Istanbul Police Department,
Celalettin Cerrah and former head of Istanbul Police Intelligence
Department, Engin Dinc.

Dink, then editor-in-chief of the Armenian Agos newspaper, was shot
dead by a teenager on Jan. 19, 2007 outside his office in Istanbul.

Dink drew the ire of hardline Turkish nationalists in his lifetime,
as he was one of the most outspoken voices calling for a debate
to start on the controversial Armenian genocide issue. He received
numerous death threats before his murder and faced several lawsuits
for "denigrating Turkishness," an act punishable with prison terms,
for his articles and editorials on Armenian Genocide.

The role of police officers and public officials in the plot to
kill the Dink had come to light as a new investigation focused on
an alleged cover-up of the murder by officials linked to the Gulen
Movement, which is accused of attempts to overthrow the government.

http://www.dailysaba...ink-murder-case

http://www.armradio....nk-murder-case/

[Yervant1]

POLITICAL RESPONSIBILITY WILL NOT END

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Oct 20 2015

Today, it is absolutely certain that Turkish-Armenian journalistHrant
Dink was victim to a murder that could have been easily prevented.

Just like Gabriel García Márquez Marquez's novel "Chronicle of a
Death Foretold," everybody knew who was going to be killed and who
would commit the murder.

According to stories recently published in a pro-government newspaper,
the reason why the murder was not prevented was that "parallel
policemen" were looking to secure important positions in the police
intelligence agency. They wanted this in order to implement the
Ergenekon plan that they had prepared.

It's no secret that the murder of Hrant Dink could have been prevented,
and the authorities in the Trabzon and Istanbul security department
did not raise a finger to prevent his murder.

We have known this from the very first day. At the time, the head of
the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government - which did not
grant permission for an investigation into the authorities in question,
thus preventing the enlightenment of the murder - was Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Investigation into potentially responsible officials was not permitted
and, moreover, those responsible even received promotions. Some
became governors; some became police chiefs; some were promoted to
top positions in the security department. One was even made a cabinet
minister by Erdogan.

I don't remember how many times I wrote in those days to say
investigation permits should be granted in order to solve this murder.

Shortly after this, the wave of Ergenekon cases started and the
"political prosecutor" of them was none other than Erdogan, the person
who had blocked the investigations into the Dink case.

Of course, as he holds power right now, no prosecutor will question
his responsibility in these incidents.

However, it should not be forgotten that his political responsibility
for these incidents will not stop following him wherever he goes.

A very interesting case

Meanwhile, the indictment in the "conspiracy case," in which Fethullah
Gulen is among the defendants, has been accepted by the court and
the proceedings will begin in January.

The prosecutor is claiming that the Dec. 25, 2013, bribery and
corruption investigations were a conspiracy to topple the government.

I wonder why this case is not merged with the Dec. 17, 2013, graft
investigation case, because at the base of both cases is the accusation
that a conspiracy was plotted against the government. Maybe this
merging will take place as the case proceeds; we will see.

The most interesting aspect of the case will be the evidence that the
prosecutor submits, such as the notorious phone conversation about
"zeroing the money." In it, a father tells his son to "zero" the money,
but the son cannot reach the cash after trying to distribute it all
day long. Then the other sibling steps in to help, etc...

At the mentioned hour and day, the signals of the cell phones were
determined. Now, since the office of the prosecutor is claiming that
this was a conspiracy, I am guessing he will submit some documents. It
was also claimed by experts at the time that this wiretap was a
fabricated one.

I had asked before: Would a similar conversation, let's say between
Republican People's Party (CHP) head Kemal Kılıcdaroglu and his son,
be fabricated?

There are other taped phone conversations of course. The bidet to be
installed at the villa, the money for the pool, a businessman who
will be made to sit on laps because he did not bring enough money;
they all need to be proven fake.

It will really be an interesting case. Let us all watch...

October/20/2015

http://www.hurriyetd...D=238&nid=90084
 

[Yervant1]

GULENIST POLICE CHIEFS FACE LIFE SENTENCE OVER DINK MURDER

Daily Sabah, Turkey
Oct 26 2015

DAILY SABAH
ISTANBUL

Two police chiefs linked to the controversial Gulen Movement may
face life sentences for their role in the murder of Armenian-Turkish
journalist Hrant Dink, as a new indictment on police involvement in
the murder case unfolds

Former police chiefs have been indicted by a prosecutor investigating
the 2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink for their
role in the plot to kill Dink, and face life sentences on charges of
premeditated murder.

Ramazan Akyurek and Ali Fuat Yılmazer, affiliated with the shady
Gulen Movement, are among 25 suspects including other top police
officers accused of deliberately neglecting intelligence about the
possible murder of Dink who was shot dead by a teenager in front of
his Istanbul office. Akyurek was the chief of police in Trabzon -
the hometown of Dink's assassin, Ogun Samast, who was convicted of
murder - when Dink was assassinated, and later served as the head of
the National Police's intelligence unit. Yılmazer was deputy director
of the police's intelligence department, and allegedly thwarted an
investigation into the police's role in the murder plot.

Akyurek, the former head of the Turkish National Police's intelligence
unit, who is believed to have ties with the Gulen Movement, was
arrested in February on the order of an Istanbul court one day after
he was detained as part of an inquiry into Dink's murder.

Sabri Uzun, who was the head of the National Police's Intelligence
Department, had claimed his subordinates hid tip-offs warning of
Dink's murder. Questioned about the murder, Uzun said Yılmazer,
his subordinate in the intelligence department, hid an intelligence
report from him regarding the plot to kill Dink. Yılmazer was already
imprisoned for nine months as part of another case involving alleged
crimes committed by Gulenist infiltrators in the police, which was
accused of illegal wiretapping activities. He was re-arrested earlier
this month on charges of illegally wiretapping thousands of people
in a new inquiry into alleged Gulenist infiltration of the police
and judiciary.

The Gulen Movement has long been claimed to be behind the murder
plot and was accused of trying to shift the blame for the murder
to Ergenekon, an alleged gang of generals, journalists and several
prominent figures imprisoned in a trial conducted by Gulenist
prosecutors.

Followers of the movement - headed by the powerful, U.S.-based cleric,
Fethullah Gulen - were found to have infiltrated key posts in the
police and judiciary in an attempt to overthrow the government,
according to several ongoing legal inquiries.

An indictment concerning the murder leaked to the press asks for prison
terms of up to 25 years for several other senior police officers in
Istanbul and Trabzon. Police officers in Trabzon are accused of not
informing higher-ranking authorities about a plot to kill Dink in
Istanbul. An earlier indictment had found key details in the plot,
which were known by a police informant working for the Trabzon police,
and was hidden from officers in Istanbul. Former police intelligence
chiefs in Istanbul are also accused of not taking security measures to
protect Dink despite intelligence reports, even though these reports
were dubious, according to media outlets.

Celalettin Cerrah, who was the head of the Turkish National Police's
Istanbul department at the time of the murder, are among suspects
indicted on charges of abuse of duty for not acting on intelligence
reports.

The indictment is different than previous indictments on the case
as both police chiefs linked to the Gulen Movement and those without
any known ties to the movement are included.

Dink, then editor-in-chief of the Istanbul-based Agos newspaper, was
shot dead by Samast on Jan. 19, 2007. Dink drew the ire of hardline
Turkish nationalists in his lifetime, as he was one of the most
outspoken voices calling for a debate to start on the controversial
Armenian genocide issue. He received numerous death threats before
his murder and faced several lawsuits for "denigrating Turkishness,"
an act punishable with prison terms, for his articles and editorials
on the mass deaths of Armenians in 1915.

Muammer AkkaÅ~_, the first prosecutor assigned to the case, and his
successors, all allegedly linked to the Gulen Movement, had not
investigated the allegations that Akyurek deleted electronic and
telephone logs at the National Police Department that could help shed
light on the murder, according to media reports. Moreover, according
to reports, security camera footage of the murder was not properly
examined and the role of police intelligence officials and gendarmerie
officers both in Istanbul and Trabzon, where the perpetrators allegedly
planned the murder, were not investigated.

http://www.dailysaba...ver-dink-murder
 

[Yervant1]

TURKEY PROSECUTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE: GENDARMERIE INTELLIGENCE AGENTS WATCHED DINK'S MURDER

00:04, 14.11.2015
Region:Armenia, Diaspora, Turkey
Theme: Politics

Intelligence agents of Turkey's Trabzon Gendarmerie, who cooperated
with Hrant Dink's murderer Ogun Samast, were present at the moment of
the Turkish-Armenian journalist's murder, the statement of the Turkish
Prosecutor General's Office reads. The latter returned the indictment
on the case of Dink's murder to the prosecutor investigating the case.

The Prosecutor General's Office explains the return of the
aforementioned indictment by the fact that at the moment of Dink's
murder the video footage shows suspicious persons, who later turned
out to be the intelligence agents of Trabzon and Istanbul gendarmeries,
the Turkish BirGun reports.

One of the attorneys of the Dink family, Hakan Bakırcıoglu, said
that Gökalp Kökcu'ye, the prosecutor dealing with Dink's murder,
works well and it's necessary that exactly he completes the case. The
attorney also noted that the Prosecutor General's Office addressed
a complaint to the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors against
that very prosecutor.

http://news.am/eng/news/296044.html

[Yervant1]

REMEMBERING DINK: TODAY MARKS 9 YEARS SINCE TURKISH-ARMENIAN JOURNALIST'S DEATH

11:55 â~@¢ 19.01.16

Today marks the ninth anniversary of the death of Hrant Dink, the
assassinated editor-in-chief of the Istanbul based bilingual Armenian
weekly Agos.

The late Turkish-Armenian journalist and intellectual, who often
compared himself with a dove, had a firm belief that doves are never
killed in Turkey.

Shortly after his assassination, Ogun Samast, a 17-year-old Turkish
ultranationalist, was detained. Despite the mass protests that
followed the deadly incident, Samast received a hero's welcome by
the Turkish police, with photos that went viral later showing the
assassin photographed with different police officers.

Dink had earlier repeatedly voiced concerns over threats against him,
but the corresponding Turkish government bodies failed to take any
measure to prevent the incident.

Moreover, a recent probe into the criminal case revealed that the
police and intelligence were aware of the plot. It turned out that
Samast was followed by plain-clothed police officers up to the moment
of committing the murder.

The Turkish ultranationalist has been sentenced to 22 years in prison;
Yasin Hayal, who was identified as the mastermind behind the plot,
was given a life sentence.

Nine years after the bloody crime, the probe into it still continues.

Many former police and intelligence officials are still expected to
face court.

Turkey's first ever official address, dedicated to Dink, was made by
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in 2015.

Wishing patience to the assassinated journalist's family and loved
ones, the Turkish official called for efforts towards building bridges
of friendship between the Turks and the Armenians.

Turkey is hosting today different events to commemorate Dink. The
Turkish-Armenian journalist will be remembered also in Istanbul, with
the main event traditionally scheduled outside of his editorial-office
which became the assassination site.

The Turkish police have already issued a statement saying that several
streets in Istanbul will be closed during the events.

http://www.tert.am/e.../dink-9/1903506

[Yervant1]

RACIST NOTE SEEN ON THE WALL OF ARMENIAN SCHOOL IN ISTANBUL

15:41, 19 Jan 2016
Siranush Ghazanchyan

An anti-Armenian phrase appeared on the wall of the Armenian Kalfayan
School in Istanbul on the 9thanniversary of murder of Turkish Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink, Akunq.net reports, quoting Turkish media.

The note reads "suffering to Armenians."

The Kalafyan School was founded in 1866 by Srpuhi and Nshan Kalafyan

http://akunq.net/am/?p=48426

http://www.armradio....ol-in-istanbul/

 

Edited by Yervant1, 20 January 2016 - 09:46 AM.

[Yervant1]

 

RALLY IN ISTANBUL MARKS MURDER OF TURKISH-ARMENIAN JOURNALIST HRANT DINK 9 YEARS ON - VIDEO

20:49, 19 Jan 2016
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Photo: DHA

Several thousand people gathered Tuesday at the site in Istanbul
where Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was gunned down nine
years ago, recalling a notorious killing that only recently led to
charges against Turkey's security forces, Agence France-Presse report.

The crowd -- estimated at around 2,000 people according to an AFP
journalist -- marched to the offices of the bilingual Agos weekly in
downtown Istanbul where Dink was editor-in-chief.

With Turkish riot police out in force, the crowd chanted
anti-government slogans: "Murderer state will account for this,"
"Shoulder to shoulder against fascism."

"We are all Hrant Dink," "We are all Armenians" read black-and-white
placards written in Armenian on one side and Turkish on the other.

"We won't forget, we won't forgive" read another at the memorial
rally that has become an annual event since the murder of Dink on
January 19, 2007.

Dink, 52, was shot dead with two bullets in the back of the head in by
a teenage ultranationalist in broad daylight on a busy street outside
Agos, but questions still linger about the circumstances of his death.

Ogun Samast, then a 17-year-old jobless high-school dropout, confessed
to the murder and was sentenced to nearly 23 years in jail in 2011.

Dink's assassination sent shockwaves through Turkey and grew into a
wider scandal after it emerged that the security forces had known of
the murder plot, but failed to act.

An Istanbul court last month finally accepted an indictment against
25 public officials, including former police and intelligence chiefs,
on charges of "forming a criminal organisation," as well as voluntary
manslaughter and negligence.

The accused, including former Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah,
may face a trial.

Every year since Dink's murder thousands have rallied to remember
the journalist, whose life-long campaign for reconciliation between
Turks and Armenians won him as many enemies as admirers.

Turkish nationalists especially resented that he qualified the
massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in the final years of
the Ottoman empire, the precursor of modern Turkey, as a genocide,
a term Ankara has always rejected.

Almost a decade after Dink's death, activists express growing alarm
over the limits on freedom of expression under President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan.

Prosecutors last week began a vast investigation into over 1,200
academics for engaging in "terrorist propaganda" by signing a petition
condemning the military crackdown in the Kurdish-dominated southeast.

Memorial rallies were also held in Ankara as well as Armenian capital
of Yerevan and a few European cities on Tuesday.

http://www.armradio....ist-9-years-on/
 

[Yervant1]

ARMENIA REMEMBERS YOU: YEREVAN CITIZENS PAY TRIBUTE TO HRANT DINK

19:48, 19 January, 2016

YEREVAN, JANUARY 19, ARMENPRESS. Remembrance event dedicated to
the 9th anniversary of the murder of Istanbul-Armenian journalist,
founder and editor in chief of "Agos" newspaper Hrant Dink took place
in Yerevan. "A New Awakening" NGO operating in Istanbul and "Hrant
Dink" foundation conducted a petition at the Yerevan Municipality
aimed at naming one of Yerevan streets after Hrant Dink.

Dozens of citizens joint the petition. After conducting a silent
assembly for nearly one hour at the Yerevan Municipality, the
organizers submitted a request to the Yerevan Municipality calling
to name one of the streets of Yerevan after Hrant Dink.

In an interview with "Armenpress", Yerevan representative of "A New
Awakening" NGO Nshan Kyuregh mentioned with sorrow that no large-scale
events or protests are conducted in Armenia on the remembrance days of
Hrant Dink. "It would be very desirable if the political parties of
Armenia organize events or protests dedicated to the memory of Hrant
Dink on these days, like it happens in Istanbul. Now our goal is to
success in naming one of Yerevan streets after Hrant Dink, because
we do not hear the name of Hrant Dink very frequently in Armenia. I
would like very much that in 2017, which is the 10th anniversary of
Dink's death, political parties of Armenia become more active and
organize large-scale activities", he said.

After submitting the results of the petition and the request to
the Municipality, the participants walked in the direction of the
Republican Square. Participants of the event reached Mashtots
Avenue chanting "Armenia remembers you", "We are all Hrant",
"Street, struggle, freedom" from where they took the direction to
the Republican Square from Amiryan Street. Petition went on at the
Republican Square. Numerous citizens joint it.

The event dedicated to the memory of Hrant Dink ended at the Republican
Square with a candle-lighting ceremony.

http://armenpress.am...hrant-dink.html
 

[Yervant1]

TURKISH INTELLIGENCE AGENCY CATALOGUED HRANT DINK CASE UNDER 'ETHNIC SEPARATIST ACTIVITIES'

by MassisPost March 4, 2016, 12:53 pm 0

ISTANBUL -- A confidential National Intelligence Organization
(MIT) document published by the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos has
revealed that the intelligence organization had closely monitored
a trial related to the 2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink and regularly recorded the details in a document titled
"ethnic separatist activities." Cihan news agency reports based on
Today's Zaman article.

The document dates back to 2011 and is titled "Other ethnic separatist
activities" with a subtitle "Armenianism." The details about the Dink
trial are written under this subtitle.

The document, which is included in a new indictment recently
prepared on the murder of Dink, also reveals that MIT regularly
monitored non-Muslim minorities in addition to Armenians and that
the intelligence agency documented their activities similar to the
way they documented Dink's murder case.

According to the Agos report, the document in question was sent by MIT
to police departments across Turkey and to police intelligence units
in order to contribute to police activities. The document recorded
certain activities of Armenians, Greeks, Syriac Christians and the
other non-Muslim minorities living in Turkey between March 1 and
30, 2011.

The classified MIT document also reveals that the intelligence
organization also regularly monitored and documented the activities of
various civil society organizations and initiatives, such as People's
Houses, Student Collectives, the Mothers for Peace initiative, the
Brotherhood of the Rivers Platform and the Freedom and Solidarity Party
(ODP).

The document also shows that MIT monitored how Dink's family spent
compensation money paid to them by Turkey as a result of a European
Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruling.

The ECtHR delivered its judgment on the Dink v. Turkey case on Sept.

14, 2010. In its ruling, the ECtHR found Turkey in violation of
Articles 2 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

These articles are related to the "right to life" and "freedom of
expression," respectively.

The MIT document states that Turkey paid 105,000 euros in compensation
to Dink's family on March 8, 2011, following the court's ruling. "In
this context, it was learned that the Dink family donated the
compensation in question to the Hrant Dink Scholarship Fund established
by the Community Volunteers Foundation to be used in educational
activities; to Getronagan Armenian High School for the purpose of
supporting the continuation of Armenian culture and education of the
Armenian language in Turkey; and to the Gedikpasa Armenian Protestant
Church to support educational activities for Armenian immigrant
children in Turkey," the confidential document states.

Dink was shot by 17-year-old Ogun Samast on Jan. 19, 2007 in front of
the office of Agos weekly, where Dink was the editor-in-chief. Samast
had links to ultranationalist organizations. Samast was given a
22-year prison sentence, while another suspect, Yasin Hayal, was
sentenced to life in prison for inciting Samast to commit murder.

A retrial began in September 2014 at the Istanbul 5th High Criminal
Court after the Supreme Court of Appeals in May 2013 overturned a lower
court's ruling that acquitted the suspects in the case of charges of
forming a terrorist organization. This decision paved the way for the
trial of tens of public officials on charges of voluntary manslaughter.

In December 2015 the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office
accepted an indictment against a number of public officials on
charges of negligence and misconduct in the Dink murder. Previously,
the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor's Office twice returned the indictment
to prosecutor Gökalp Kökcu, who is overseeing the investigation,
allegedly for including the names of pro-government police officers as
suspects, such as National Police Department Police Chief Engin Dinc,
and demanding a prison sentence of up to 25 years for him.

Dinc was the head of the Trabzon Police Department's intelligence
unit at the time of the murder.

https://urldefense.p...Hl9u_ndayYtA&e=

[Yervant1]

THE DOVES ARE NO LONGER SAFE IN TURKEY

Mirror Spectator
Editorial 3-19 March 2016

By Edmond Y. Azadian

Hrant Dink, the courageous journalist who believed that he could
promote democracy in Turkey by getting the people to face the dark
history of that country, was assassinated on January 19, 2007 in
front of the editorial offices of Agos, the bilingual weekly which
he had founded with the hope of engaging Turks and Armenians in a
cathartic dialogue.

He used to believe that Armenians in Istanbul lead a very isolated
life and that if those in Turkey knew the Armenians better, all
prejudices would vanish.

By the same token, by exposing facts about the Armenian Genocide, he
believed that he was not only serving a historic truth, but that he
was also promoting human rights to cleanse Turkey of its grisly past,
and pave the way for democracy.

In view of his bold statements about Turkey's human rights abuses and
denial of the Armenian Genocide, people were always worried about his
security. He, however, always comforted them, believing that Turkish
society was changing and maturing. He also believed that he was
living like a dove and people always protected doves. Unfortunately,
he was wrong.

In the process of the investigation of Dink's murder, a document
dating back to 1997 has surfaced labeled "confidential." In addition to
Dink's name, the name of the then-vicar of the Armenian Patriarchate
of Istanbul, Mesrob Mutafyan, was also used. The document stated,
"an individual named Firant Dink is among our targets due to his
pro-Armenian activities. He is the editor-in-chief of Agos periodical,
published in Istanbul by Armenians and is in close ties with the
vicar of the Patriarchate, Mesrob Archbishop Mutafyan, famous for
his Armenian nationalist inclinations."

It turns out that the "deep state" in Turkey had targeted Hrant Dink
long ago, as revealed by recent court documents.

Indeed, in October 2014, Istanbul's 5th High Criminal Court made a
decision to begin Hrant Dink's trial from zero. Prosecutor Gokalp
Kokcu filed a lawsuit against 26 former and current officials who
are believed to be implicated in the assassination.

Contrary to the statement in the above documents, Dink and the
Patriarch were never close and their antagonism toward each other was
very public. Only after Dink's assassination did the Patriarch realize
how close their destinies had been and he tearfully acknowledged that
fact in his eulogy at Dink's funeral.

It almost feels like that moment was the beginning of the end for
the Patriarch.

Perhaps it would be impossible to prove medically that Patriarchy
Mesrob developing dementia at a relatively young age was the result
of the fear he experienced after so many death threats and actual
bombs thrown at his headquarters in Kumkapu.

At this time, the Patriarch has been reduced to a shell of his
former shelf. An Istanbul court recently appointed the Patriarch
's 78-year-old mother, Mari Mutafyan, as his custodian. She will be
entitled to represent her son by court order.

In the meantime, the Patriarch's health has put the Armenian community
in an impasse. The Turkish authorities cynically do not allow for
the election of a new Patriarch as long as the incumbent is alive,
never mind that he is in a vegetative state.

In any civilized country, such religious matters would be handled by
the respective community it is affecting, but not in Turkey.

The fear that pushed the Patriarch over the edge and into his current
state is shared by the entire Armenian community in Turkey and that
fear is fanned by the government itself.

In a recent press conference in Armenia, a specialist in Turkish
studies, Tiran Lokmagyozyan, stated: "Armenians have double fear in
such cases. The first one is that the security of the state is under
threat. In addition, there are individual fears for being Armenian .

It is a well-known fact that whenever such incidents take place in
Turkey, minorities, including Armenians, become the first target. We
witnessed that when Turkey took measures against the Kurds, the name of
the Armenians was heard more often, as if the battle was against the
Armenians in the first place. The police made announcements through
loudspeakers calling Kurds Armenians to insult them."

No only do the police use the name of Armenians as an insult, but
officials, beginning with the prime minister himself, Ahmet Davutoglu,
justify also the Genocide, which at last count, they had said they
did not commit. In a recent speech decrying the Kurds, who had opened
an office in Moscow, Davutoglu said that the Kurds are colluding with
Russians as "Armenian gangs did during World War I."

Armenians have always lived in fear for a reason. The Turkish
government has regularly encouraged the hatred and distrust of
Armenians and from time to time, has terrorized them officially,
even after the Genocide. In 1942, they instituted the confiscatory
"wealth tax" (varlik vergisi) to bankrupt the community and to send
affluent Armenians to the labor camp of Askale, where many perished
under harsh conditions.

The pogrom of September 6-7, 1955, was directed against the Greeks,
while Armenians would also share their plight.

The pogrom was instigated by a false-flag operation concocted by
Ankara to incite the mob. Turkish agents were sent to Salonika to
bomb the house where Ataturk had been born. That was enough cause to
begin a rampage in Istanbul against Greeks and Armenians.

The Turks are masters of such intrigues; during the war in Syria, a
plot was discovered, whereby the head of the Turkish security services
(MIT), Fidan Hakan, was ready to bomb the tomb of the father of Fatih
Sultan Muhammed (the conqueror of Byzantium) in Syria to justify
an invasion.

Even recent bombings in Ankara are believed to be false-flag
operations to justify the murderous rampage against the Kurds in the
country's eastern region or Western Armenia. Although Prime Minister
Davutoglu said that his government was "almost certain" that this
week's explosion was the work of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),
the facts suggest otherwise. Indeed, a news item which was published
in Nokta newspaper on March 13 states: "It appears that the Turgev
Foundation established by President Erdogan and his family had already
sent a message to its members BEFORE the Ankara bombing around noon,
warning them to stay away from the bombed area. So the governing
party had warnings about the bomb but shared the information with
'his' people rather than all his citizens."

Turkey has become a dangerous place. Mr. Erdogan has unleashed the
violence, with the hope and belief that he can control it to the
very end.

After the most recent Ankara bombing, President Obama repeated his
mantra that the US will stand by Turkey, however, no word or concern
was expressed about the victims of the government onslaught.

Criticism in the western press is getting louder and louder, asking
the West to abandon Turkey as a NATO ally. One of the last such
articles was signed by Dough Saunders in Toronto's Globe and Mail,
with the following conclusion: "Mr. Erdogan has destroyed the unified
and open Turkey he earlier helped create. And he has done so using the
tools not just of an authoritarianism but now by silencing the media,
of totalitarianism. It is time to stop treating Turkey as an ally,
but as a country that has stepped beyond the pale."

To figure out the irony of the situation, it suffices to refer to
a news item which reports that Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin met
with Armenian, Jewish, Greek and Muslim religious leaders and at
the conclusion of that meeting he said to them that Istanbul has
been a city where people from different religions live and that all
the religious communities have been living in peace "in the city of
harmony and fellowship."

And this, when the eastern region of the country is a war zone,
where Kurds cannot rescue even their dead from the streets and when
the minorities are stricken by fear in the entire country.

Had Hrant Dink been warned early enough that the doves are no longer
safe in Turkey, perhaps he would be alive today.
 

[Yervant1]

Hrant Dink: An Armenian voice of the voiceless in Turkey

18:45, 27 Apr 2016
Siranush Ghazanchyan

By Thomas de Waal
Carnegie Europe

“After a decade of unprecedented opening up to the world, Turkey is
closing down again. Journalists and academics are persecuted.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has gone to war once more with the
militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), disavowing a peace
process he himself launched. Erdoğan rails against so-called
terrorists in language reminiscent of the military men of the 1980s he
fought hard to weaken, labeling almost anyone who sympathizes with the
Kurdish cause a terrorist by association.

It is all a painful contrast with the first years of Erdoğan’s
leadership in the mid-2000s, when there was talk of minority rights,
media freedom, and EU accession. The regression of the last decade can
be summed up as Turkey’s leaders spurning the legacy of Hrant Dink.

One day in Istanbul a little over nine years ago, there was a moment
of tragedy that also said much about the hopes of that period. Hrant
Dink, an Armenian-Turkish editor and civil rights leader, was
assassinated on January 19, 2007, by a teenage nationalist radical.
Four days later, in revulsion at the killing, thousands of ordinary
Turkish citizens marched through Istanbul in Dink’s funeral procession
carrying placards that read “We are all Hrant Dink” and “We are all
Armenian.”

It was not just a popular outcry. Erdoğan strongly condemned the
assassination, and Turkish ministers attended the funeral. Ahmet
Davutoğlu, now Turkey’s prime minister, has consistently praised Dink
as a man of courage and peace.

Yet now, Davutoğlu’s government is not only fighting the Kurds again
but also laying claim to the Armenian church in the Kurdish-majority
city of Diyarbakır, which the local municipality had restored to the
Armenian community as a place of worship.

Repressive policies against the Kurds mirror policies of intolerance
practiced throughout the history of the Turkish Republic against the
country’s much smaller Christian minorities: the remaining Armenians,
Assyrians, and Greeks who survived the campaigns by the last Ottoman
regime to destroy them.

In Turkey (and not just there), an unexamined past legitimizes an
intolerant present. Dink did more than any single individual to tackle
the injustices of both past and present. He seized the moment to speak
up for Istanbul’s tiny and timid Armenian minority—and not only for
them. Straightforward, eloquent, and courageous, he encapsulated
thoughts that others could not utter—or were too afraid to—while all
the time understanding Turkey’s vulnerabilities as well. On the legacy
of the 1915Armenian Genocide, for example, he memorably said, “Turks
and Armenians and the way they see each other constitute two clinical
cases: Armenians with their trauma, Turks with their paranoia.”

Dink was a hero in Turkey. Now, finally, the English-language reader
gets to read about him, with the publication of the English version of
Tuba Çandar’s magnificent 2010 biography.

The English subtitle is An Armenian Voice of the Voiceless in Turkey.
Çandar’s brilliant method is to make this a book of voices. It is a
sound tapestry consisting of dozens of voices of Dink’s family,
friends, and colleagues, a biography as a polyphonic oral history.
Dink’s personal evolution proceeds in parallel with a history of
modern Turkey. The book begins with the austerity of provincial life
in the 1950s. Dink comes of age as a leftist amid the turbulence of
the political clashes of the 1970s. He, along with many other civil
rights activists, is jailed and tortured after Turkey’s 1980 coup
d’état. Here, the polyphony becomes a cacophony as Dink and his
cellmates take part in what he calls a “magnificent toilet choir” in
jail, singing the Turkish national anthem loudly to avoid a beating
from the guards.

The English-language reader can get lost, even when provided with a
glossary and chronology and despite a beautiful translation by Maureen
Freely. The blizzard of names and references is hard to navigate for
anyone unfamiliar with the story of modern Turkey.

But it is worth sticking with. Dink’s personal life story is worthy of
a nineteenth-century novel. He was a street child, student, radical,
father, prisoner, businessman, gambler. All of these vividly humanize
the hero before the reader comes to his public persona as the editor
of the Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos.

Agos was more than just a newspaper. It was also, as one voice in the
book says, “a civil society hub” and, as one chapter calls it, a
“world” in which many people were able to express for the first time
the issues that concerned them.

In Çandar’s book, a fellow Istanbul Armenian, Etyen Mahçupyan, says:

Doors opened in both print and broadcast media, paving the way for a
living debate on identity. And through those doors came Hrant, with
his warm, sincere voice. And he made the Armenian issue into something
that people could hear. By now, he occupied the far-seeing
perspectives of a multicultural world of multiple identities. During
those last few years, he was no longer talking about the Armenian
issue. He spoke out about the Alevis and the Kurds. He was on the side
of the girls wearing headscarves when universities refused to admit
them on account of their headscarves.

As Dink foresaw, Turkey’s retreat from democracy has also diminished
the Turkish state’s willingness to come to terms with its history and
with the minorities who suffered from that history. That in turn has
hardened parts of the Armenian diaspora against Turkey and perpetuates
a cause that exasperated Dink: the international recognition of
genocide. In his view, battering Turkey from abroad on the Armenian
issue had little effect, and he commented, “I have a hard time
accepting the imprisonment of human experience inside a legal term
[genocide] that is itself designed to produce a political outcome.”

For Dink, having one foot in the Turkish world and one in the Armenian
world was an awkward privilege. One of the voices in the book
recounts, “Sometimes, he reminded me of a child struggling to find a
way to bring together two sides of an estranged family.” Çandar’s book
is a reminder of how badly that vision is missed inTurkey.

https://urldefense.p...DQ3sfNOqShP0&e=


https://urldefense.p...Ca8E6AMCrWck&e=
 

[MosJan]

[Yervant1]

All of a sudden they found out the people who killed Hrant, since they are connected to Gulenists. They knew all along but protected them!

Sabah, Turkey

Aug 10 2016


Former gendarmerie officer arrested in connection to murder of Hrant Dink

DAILY SABAH
ISTANBUL


The lengthy trial into 2007 murder of prominent Turkish Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink continues, with new hearings focusing on
allegations that intelligence and gendarmerie officers covered up
evidence. A former non-commissioned officer in the gendarmerie, a
paramilitary unit responsible for security predominantly in rural
areas, was arrested yesterday, while the ninth hearing in the trial is
underway.

Dink was gunned down in 2007 by a 17-year-old teenager in Istanbul
outside the office of Agos, a Turkish-Armenian weekly where he was
editor-in-chief. His murder was blamed on ultranationalists, but a new
investigation has revealed that former police chiefs and gendarmerie
intelligence officers were aware of the murder plot and did not act to
prevent it. Those police chiefs, linked to the Gülenist terror cult,
were arrested on charges of cover-up and negligence. Gülenists are
accused of plotting the murder, in an attempt to blame it on critics
of the cult.

Non-commissioned officer Emre Cingöz, a former officer in a
gendarmerie intelligence unit, was detained along with four other
former officers. Other suspects were released under judicial
observation, while Cingöz was remanded to custody. The gendarmerie
intelligence officers are accused of involvement in a cover-up related
to Dink's murder. Ogün Samast, the convicted assassin of Hrant Dink,
was under surveillance by gendarmerie intelligence, and security
camera footage of the crime scene revealed intelligence officials were
present at the scene, both before and after murder.

Ali Fuat Yılmazer and Ramazan Akyürek, two former police chiefs who
served as senior officials in police intelligence, are the two most
prominent figures in the case. They are accused of having links to the
Gülenist terrorist cult, considered responsible for a string of
offenses from illegal wiretapping to sham trials to imprison their
critics, and finally the attempted coup on July 15.

Yesterday's hearing at an Istanbul court heard testimony from Ercan
Demir, a suspect released pending trial in an earlier hearing. Demir
was deputy police chief in charge of intelligence in Trabzon at the
time of the murder. Ogün Samast and two of his friends accused of
masterminding the murder plot lived in Trabzon. Samast's friends were
on police payroll as informants on the ultranationalist scene. Demir
denied charges that he ignored intelligence tips regarding Samast's
involvement in a murder plot. He insisted that the intelligence on the
plot was not covered up, but admitted the murder "happened anyway,"
and claimed that after intelligence reports, Dink should have been
granted protection in Istanbul.

https://urldefense.p...S83uNDFkRncg&e=

 

[Yervant1]

Hurriyet, Turkey
Aug 11 2016


Five more gendarmerie officers arrested in Dink probe

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

Five former gendarmerie intelligence officers have been arrested while
there others were freed on probation as part of the probe into the
2007 assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

The arrested suspects, all of whom were on duty in the northern
province of Trabzon at the time of Dink’s murder, are also facing
charges of attempting to abolish the constitutional order and
membership of an armed terrorist organization, as the Istanbul Peace
Court stated Volkan Şahin, Şeref Ateş, Okan Şimşek, Hüseyin Yılmaz and
Gazi Günay had contact with the prime suspect in Dink’s killing and
some had been spotted around Dink’s home and office some four months
before the incident, despite the fact none of them had any documents
showing they had been assigned to a post in the area.

In its arrest decision, the court also said that the suspects, along
with others, acted with common ideas and despite knowing that the
crime was going to be committed, acted to serve the murder in line
with the aims of the organization which was to seize the duties and
cadres of the Istanbul Police Department’s Intelligence Chief Bureau.

The arrests brought the number of gendarmerie officers arrested as
part of the probe to nine. Previously, Specialized Sgt. Abdullah Dinç,
former Specialized Gendarme Yusuf Bozca, former Trabzon Gendarmerie
Intelligence Chief Bureau Officer Ergün Yorulmaz and former Sgt. Emre
Cingöz had been arrested.

With the recent arrests of gendarmerie and security officers in the
probe, prosecutors also brought charges against the suspects related
to the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ), as the prosecutor of
the probe, Gökalp Kürkçü, said in one of his arrest demand letters
that it would be “far from a legal definition” to identify the acts of
the suspects as only membership or leadership of an armed terrorist
organization and participation in deliberate murder at the point
reached in the wake of the failed July 15 coup attempt, and that the
Dink murder was the “first bullet fired” in the process which led to
this attempt.

Dink, 52, was shot dead with two bullets to the head in broad daylight
outside the offices of Agos in central Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007.

Ogün Samast, then a 17-year-old jobless high-school dropout, confessed
to the murder and was sentenced to almost 23 years in jail in 2011.

But the case grew into a wider scandal after it emerged that security
forces had been aware of a plot to kill Dink but failed to act.

Relatives and followers of the case have long claimed government
officials, police, military personnel and members of Turkey’s National
Intelligence Agency (MİT) played a role in Dink’s murder by neglecting
their duty to protect the journalist.

Turkey’s top court in July 2014 ruled that the investigation into the
killing had been flawed, paving the way for the trial of police
officials.

August/11/2016

https://urldefense.p...h2L39IMGTczI&e=
 

[Yervant1]

Hurriyet, Turkey

Sept 6 2016

 

Footage reveals further evidence in Dink probe against arrested gendarmerie officers

ISTANBUL

 

 

 

 

Footage published by a Turkish broadcaster appears to show that six former gendarmerie intelligence officers who are currently being tried over links to the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ) were complicit in the 2007 assassination of journalist Hrant Dink. In the images published by A Haber, they can be seen near the scene at the time of the murder of the Armenian-origin Turkish journalist in 2007. 

 

In the footage, unearthed as part of a probe trying former gendarmerie officials suspected of having links to FETÖ and being involved in the July 15 coup attempt, investigators observed that six gendarmerie intelligence officers currently under arrest were present close to the scene when Dink’s murder took place on the afternoon of Jan. 19, 2007, strengthening the suspicion that they were in close contact with the assailant of the murder, Ogün Samast. 



The prosecutor in the case has accused the Fetullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ) of staging the assassination.

In his demand for the arrest of the suspects, Dink probe prosecutor Gökalp Kökçü said it would be “far from a legal definition” to identify the acts of the suspects as mere membership or leadership in an armed terrorist organization in light of the failed July 15 coup attempt, which has been blamed on FETÖ. Kökçü claimed that the Dink murder was the “first bullet fired” on the road to the coup.

Dink, 52, was shot dead with two bullets to the head in broad daylight outside the offices of Agos in central Istanbul.   

Samast, then a 17-year-old jobless high-school dropout, confessed to the murder and was sentenced to almost 23 years in jail in 2011.  

But the case grew into a wider scandal after it emerged that security forces had been aware of a plot to kill Dink but failed to act.

Relatives and followers of the case have long claimed government officials, police, military personnel and members of Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency (MİT) played a role in Dink’s murder by neglecting their duty to protect the journalist.

Turkey’s top court in July 2014 ruled that the investigation into the killing had been flawed, paving the way for the trial of the police officials.

In January 2016, Supreme Court of Appeals ruled to tie the main case into Dink’s murder and prosecution into the public officers’ negligence to prevent the killing of Dink. Indictments for 26 people are now included in the merged case.

September/06/2016

http://www.hurriyetd...8&NewsCatID=509

[MosJan]

[Yervant1]

The International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, A Division of the Zoryan Institute, invites you to attend the 2017 Tribute to Hrant Dink.

 

January 21, 2017 in Montreal
January 22, 2017 in Toronto

     

Hrant Dink was the most prominent advocate of mutual respect between Turkey's majority population and its minorities. He was assassinated in 2007 outside the Istanbul offices of Agos, the Turkish-Armenian weekly newspaper that he edited.

  The keynote speaker will be Mr. Cem Özdemir, a German parliamentarian of Turkish descent. He was the driving force behind the German parliament’s Armenian Genocide resolution on June 2^nd, 2016. Mr. Özdemir champions the cause of overcoming historical obstacles to eliminate the “us vs. them” mentality.

In an interview leading up to the June 2nd decision, Cem Özdemir was asked if this resolution was coming at the wrong time. His response was: "Well it's always at the wrong time. Since 101 years it's the wrong time to talk about our responsibility and our guilt...So I think it's time as friends of Turkey to tell Turkey, this is the wrong path."

 

Özdemir's decision to present the bill in 2016 was influenced by the work of German scholar, Wolfgang Gust. 

The Zoryan Institute partnered with Gust to collect, restore, translate and publish thousands of historical documents from the German Foreign Office Archive that revealed the extent of the Ottoman policy and planning of the 1915 Genocide.  To learn more about the book or to purchase, please contact zoryan@zoryaninstitute.org 

[Yervant1]

January 16, 2017

Cem Ozdemir to Deliver Keynote Addresses at Hrant Dink Commemorations in Canada

 

The co-leader of Germany’s Green Party Cem Ozdemir—a German Member of Parliament of Turkish origin and one of the initiators of the Armenian Genocide resolution that was approved by Germany’s Parliament (Bundestag) on June 2, 2016—will be the keynote speaker at events in Toronto and Montreal, commemorating the 10th anniversary of Turkish-Armenian editor, journalist and columnist Hrant Dink’s assassination.

Several community organizations in Toronto have come together for the past 10 years to remember the former editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos and to honor his legacy.

Chair of the organizing committee Raffi Bedrosyan said that the commemorations are not merely a remembrance, but rather a way for the community to continue Dink’s pursuit for justice. “Remembering Hrant Dink on the anniversary of his assassination is not simply commemorating a slain Armenian journalist. By remembering, we continue his journey toward reconciliation and justice regarding the Armenian Genocide. We also help realize his vision of dialogue between Armenian and Turkish people—a dialogue that is based on truth and a common body of knowledge,” Bedrosian said.

Many influential figures have attended commemorations in Toronto honoring Dink over the years, including Turkish-German scholar Taner Akcam; lawyer, writer, and human rights activist Fethiye Cetin; and prominent Turkish journalist and writer Hasan Cemal. “These people share Hrant’s vision and break all taboos in Turkey. They stand against the denial of the truth about the Armenian Genocide,” Bedrosian explained.

Dink was assassinated outside of his Istanbul office on Jan. 19, 2007. He had written and spoken about the Armenian Genocide extensively, and was well known for his efforts for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians, as well as advocating for human and minority rights in Turkey. At the time of his murder, Dink was under prosecution for violating Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code and “denigrating Turkishness.” His assassination sparked huge national protests and outrage both in Turkey and internationally.

This year’s keynote Cem Ozdemir was a leading force behind the German Parliament’s June 2016 resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide and acknowledging German responsibility in not preventing the genocide committed by Ottoman Turkey—Germany’s WWI ally. Born in Bad Urach, West Germany, Ozdemir is ethnically Turkish—his family emigrated from Turkey to Germany as “guest workers.”

Ozdemir delivered a passionate speech in the Bundestag prior to the Armenian Genocide vote, during which he directly addressed the Armenian guests attending the Bundestag’s session: “Just because we were complicit in this horrible crime in the past does not mean that we are going to side with the deniers today.” During that speech, Ozdemir also quoted his good friend Hrant Dink: “If Armenians lived in Van today, that city would be the Paris of the Orient.”

“Despite all the risks and consequences, Ozdemir and his parliamentarian colleagues defended and passed the resolution. He was Hrant’s good friend,” Bedrosian explained.

Before introducing Ozdemir to audiences, Bedrosian will present Wolfgang Gust’s book Armenian Genocide: Evidence from German Archives.  “He and his German parliamentarian colleagues were greatly influenced by the German historian’s book, which was financed by the Zorian Institute of Toronto,” Bedrosian said.

The Zorian Institute partnered with Gust to collect, translate, and restore thousands of historical documents from the German Foreign Office Archives that reveal details about Ottoman policy during the Armenian Genocide. Zorian also assisted in the translation, editing, and publishing of the book in English, Turkish, and German. A representative of the Zorian Institute will contextualize the historical meaning of Hrant Dink’s murder during the commemoration event in Toronto.

In his keynote addresses, Ozdemir will explain Hrant’s role in his decision to get involved in the Armenian Genocide resolution, and his journey as one of the most prominent human rights advocates in Europe.

“These commemorations and—more critically—the German Armenian Genocide recognition resolution, demonstrate that the genocide issue is not a historical issue of the past; not just something that happened a hundred years ago. It is, indeed, a current issue, deeply affecting relations between different peoples and different states, sometimes with serious consequences,” Bedrosian said.

The commemoration events will take place in Montreal on Jan. 21, at 8 p.m. at the Montreal Armenian Community Center, Homenetmen “Gamk” Hall, and in Toronto on Jan. 22, at 3 p.m. at the Armenian Community Center of Toronto.

-In Montreal the event is organized by The United Organizations of the Armenian Community of Quebec comprising of 22 Armenian organizations, churches & political party's 

-In Toronto the  event is  organized by the Bolsahay Cultural Association, the Hamazkayin Cultrual and Educational Society, the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), the Nor Serount Cultural Association, the Armenian Association of Toronto, the Canada-Armenia Business Council, the Tekeyan Cultural Association, and the Mekhitarian Alumni Association.

http://www.horizonwe...s/details/98286