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Assassination Of Hrant Dink

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#1081 Yervant1

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Posted 11 November 2018 - 09:04 AM

Panorama, Armenia
Nov 10 2018
 
 
f5be686952a129_5be686952a167.thumb.jpg
Society 11:19 10/11/2018 World
Valérie Manteau’s novel paying tribute to Hrant Dink wins Renaudot 2018 award

Valérie Manteau, a former journalist of Charlie Hebdo, received the Renaudot 2018 award for her novel "Le Sillon" (“Agos”) which is a tribute to the Istanbul-based Turkish-Armenian writer, publicist and journalist Hrant Dink who was murdered in Turkey. This is the author’s second novel which was published in August, 2018.

The 33-year-old writer received the award Wednesday November 7 in Paris. In her speech she noted that she was fascinated by Hrant's ideology, and it struck her to write a book about him when reading Dink's biography.

"Dink's political stance was very interesting. His goal was not just to prove his own right, but to face people as well as to ensure their progress, "said Manteau.
The prize she received for her book came as a surprise to her, as it had not been included in the list of the top five books.

https://www.panorama...enaudot/2031347



#1082 Yervant1

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Posted 23 December 2018 - 10:54 AM

Panorama, Armenia
Dec 22 2018
 
 
Istanbul court releases two suspects in reopened Hrant Dink murder case

 

An Istanbul court has ordered the release of two suspects in the reopened murder case of Hrant Dink, the editor-in-chief of the Istanbul-based Armenian weekly Agos.

The 87th hearing of the case, in which public officers are being tried on the allegation of negligence, was held on Friday, Bianet reported.

85 defendants are being tried, six of them are arrested. Apart from Ali Fuat Yılmazer, the then Police Intelligence Bureau Director, all arrested defendants have requested release.

The 14th Heavy Penal Court ruled to release defendants Hamza Celepoglu, Intelligence Assessment and Analysis Center Adjutant of the Gendarmerie General Command, and Yavuz Karakaya, a non-commissioned officer at the Istanbul Gendarmerie Intelligence Bureau Directorate.

As a justification for the verdicts of release pronounced by the court have been cited the period, when the defendants were arrested, and the fact that they were not arrested on another charge.

The requests for release raised by the other arrested defendants Ramazan Akyurek, Muharrem Demirkale and Ercan Gun have been dismissed on the grounds that witness statements have not yet been completed and the gravity of the offenses, for which they were arrested.

Presiding Judge Emre Efe Simsek has ruled that Intelligence Bureau Director Vice Chair Vedat Yavuz, Department of Personnel Deputy Manager Aydın Patan, Ozcan Ozkan and Necmettin Emre shall be listened to as witnesses in the next hearing scheduled for March 2019.

Hrant Dink was shot dead at the age of 52 in broad daylight outside his office in central Istanbul on January 19, 2007.

https://www.panorama...er-case/2051447

 


#1083 Yervant1

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Posted 20 January 2019 - 10:58 AM

News.am, Armenia
Jan 19 2019
 
 
Garo Paylan on Hrant Dink: We are not giving up, Ahparig!
18:05, 19.01.2019
                  
 
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Istanbul Armenian MP and vice-chairman of the opposition pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), Garo Paylan, has posted a photo on his Facebook page.

“We are not giving up, Ahparig [“brother,” in Armenian]!” Paylan wrote below this photo.

It seems he is in attendance to Saturday’s traditional commemoration event devoted to slain Istanbul Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

Hrant Dink, the founder and chief editor of Agos Armenian weekly of Istanbul, was gunned down on January 19, 2007 outside the then office of Agos.

In 2011, the perpetrator, Ogün Samast, was sentenced by a juvenile court to 22 years and ten months for the murder.

After long court proceedings and appeals, however, a new probe was ultimately launched into this murder case, and regarding numerous former and serving senior Turkish officials’ complicity in this assassination.

https://news.am/eng/news/491594.html



#1084 Yervant1

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Posted 20 January 2019 - 11:00 AM

Public Radio of Armenia
Jan 19 2019
 
 
Turkish Parliament Rejects Paylan’s Demand to Investigate Dink’s Murder
2019-01-19 13:20:06

The Turkish Parliament rejected a proposal to investigate and contribute to disclosing the case of murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, Asbarez reports. 

Garo Paylan, an Armenian member of the Turkish Parliament representing the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) urged the Turkish parliament to take up the case of the Armenian editor Hrant Dink, who on January 19, 2007 was gunned down in front of the offices of the Agos newspaper, which he founded.

“After being murdered, Hrant Dink became a symbol of equality, pluralism, democracy and justice in Turkey. Twelve years have passed since his murder, but this case is still not resolved,” Paylan said in remarks in Parliament.

Presenting the details of Dink’s murder, the lawmaker said the state also has its share of guilt.

“Hrank Dink has been targeted by nationalists after publishing an article in 2004 about Ataturk’s daughter and first female fighter pilot Sabiha Gokcen, which revealed that Gokcen had an Armenian origin. At that time the Turkish General Staff issued a statement on this article, Dink also received warning from the Istanbul Governor’s Office,” Paylan explained.

He also emphasized that Turkish officials and media also contributed to the intensification of nationalist moods against Dink.

The Turkish parliament, however, rejected Paylan’s demand and proposal to investigate and contribute to disclosing the case.

http://www.armradio.am/en/4939



#1085 Yervant1

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Posted 20 January 2019 - 11:05 AM

Armenpress.am
 

Turkish playwright writes exciting letter on Hrant Dink’s death anniversary

 
 
 
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961376.jpg15:25, 19 January, 2019

YEREVAN, JANUARY 19, ARMENPRESS.  Turkish novelist and playwright Adalet Ağaoğlu sent an exciting letter to Hrant Dink’s family and “Agos” newspaper on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of Dink’s murder. ARMENPRESS presents the letter pusblished in Agos.

‘'Family of my much beloved Hrant Dink, 'Agos' periodical…

Hrant Dink, my brother, I do not forget you even for a second. I remember you alive during the conferences on peace, standing together with us. It was important that an open-minded person, who is opposed to violence and stands for peace like you talked about such topics. I do not forget for a minute. You talked so beautifully that, believe me, every time I wanted to hug you with enthusiasm. It's a pity, great pity. Violence took you away from us. I have always been against violence, but when we lost you as a result of violence, my convictions reinforced.

Dear Hrant, when once I heard that you were taken to the court I immediately came in front of ‘Agos’. I was shouting ‘I will not give you to anyone’. We together were trying to prevent your imprisonment. What a pity you fell victim to violence. I miss you very much, Hrant Dink.

My Hrant Dink. I and my husband bowed in front of your memory and greatness. I lost my husband who respected you very much in July. So I became even smaller, but I still resist. The best thing I can do for the memory of both of you is that I do not abandon my own ideas and moving forward along my own path’'.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

 

 

https://armenpress.a...6BPQdFlK5mpaApo



#1086 Yervant1

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Posted 20 January 2019 - 11:06 AM

Armenpress.am
 

Commemorative event on 12th anniversary of Hrant Dink’s death kicks off in Istanbul

 
 
 
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961384.jpg17:23, 19 January, 2019

YEREVAN, JANUARY 19, ARMENPRESS.  A commemorative event dedicated to the 12th anniversary of the murder of founder and editor-in-chief of “Agos” periodical Hrant Dink takes place in front of “Agos” periodical, where he was killed in 2007.

ARMENPRESS reports a lot of people have gathered in the place where 12 years ago the Istanbul-Armenian intellectual was murdered. Like every year since 2007, today also people have gathered with posters reading “For Hrant, for justice”, “We are all Hrant, we are all Dink”.

Armenian Member of the Turkish parliament Garo Paylan is also present at the commemorative event.

Commemorative events will be organized also in other Turkish cities, as well as in Germany, USA and Belgium.

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In May 2017 an Istanbul Court has launched proceedings on the new indictment on Hrant Dink’s murder case.

Previously the court had sent back the indictment to the prosecutor twice, based on irregularities.

50 people, including Fethullah Gülen and the former prosecutor Zakarya Oz, are charged with being involved in the murder of the Istanbul-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was shot dead outside the Agos office in 2007.

After the failed military coup in Turkey, authorities are attempting to accuse Fetullah Gulen and the Gulen movement in plotting Hrant Dink’s murder.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

 

 

https://armenpress.a...m_CQxYXZUU5pRjM


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#1087 MosJan

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Posted 21 January 2019 - 11:40 AM

Astvats Hogid Lusavpori mets Hye 



#1088 MosJan

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Posted 26 July 2019 - 03:34 PM

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https://lurer.com/?p...pjNh_oOZu72mIBo



#1089 Yervant1

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Posted 19 January 2020 - 10:05 AM

Anadolu Agency, Turkey
Jan 18 2020
 
 
 
'Memory site' captures heart, soul of slain Armenian-Turkish journalist This week marks the 13th year since the murder of Hrant Dink, slain Turkish-Armenian journalist
Murat Paksoy, Handan Kazanci   |18.01.2020
 
thumbs_b_c_9022d0440bb75837c52949e00c532

ISTANBUL 

Thirteen years since his assassination on the steps of an Istanbul-based newspaper he once ran, Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink's office has at long last been reopened to the public as a memorial.

Founder and editor of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, Dink was gunned down in broad daylight in front of his Istanbul office in 2007 on Jan. 19.

The final result of Dink's murder case has long been awaited, with his family and friends continuing on the quest for justice. A total of 76 suspects are on trial as part of the case.

Every year on Jan. 19, thousands gather in front of the building, where Dink was killed to commemorate the slain journalist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Due to the "symbolic significance of the site and its place in the collective memory," the Hrant Dink Foundation -- founded after his assassination -- turned the building into the 23.5 Hrant Dink Site of Memory, named after an article penned by Dink in Agos on April 23, 1996.

Agos continues to circulate in Turkey in both languages, albeit from a different location where it moved in 2015.

"We gave this name [to the site] inspired by Hrant's article, in which he talked about April 23 and 24 and said: 'I wish we could combine these two days and promise a future encouraging hope at the end of these two days'," Sibel Asna, a board member at Hrant Dink Foundation, told Anadolu Agency.

20200118_2_40385717_51298758.jpg
 

"April 23 is a holiday for sovereignty and April 24 is a tragedy for us all," Asna said, adding: "The site was opened between these two days, and is called 23.5, which promises hope and kindness."

April 24 is the international day of mourning of the events of 1915.

The year 1915 saw mass relocations, which then-Prime Minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed condolences for in 2014.

An important figure in the Armenian community in Turkey, Dink had sought to kickstart public discussion on the issue and was an advocate of democratization and human rights.

He was repeatedly prosecuted for "denigrating Turkish-ness" over articles he wrote about Armenian identity and mass deportations of Armenians in 1915.

A plaque that reads: "Hrant Dink was murdered here, January 19, 2007, at 15:05" was embedded in the sidewalk in front of the building where Dink was killed, serving as a stark reminder for visitors and passers-by alike in Istanbul's teeming Sisli district. 

Hrant's story

Nayat Karakose, a program coordinator at the site, told Anadolu Agency that Hrant Dink himself was given voice to impart his story on to visitors at the memory site.

"Those who come here learn the whole story from his own peaceful and dialogue-based language," Karakose said, adding that guests could "explore all the rooms through his story." 

Noting that Dink's room was preserved as it was on the day of his murder, Karakose said: "In many museums, such rooms are protected by red cordons, we have not done so. We wanted the people coming here to feel good, and touch [the objects]," she added.

Among the venue's many parts, it features the tirttava room, which focuses on the discrimination Dink faced during his military service; the Atlantis civilization room, highlighting Dink's childhood years in Camp Armen Armenian orphanage in Istanbul; and the quest for justice room, which features videos, documents and first-hand accounts shedding light on the ongoing Hrant Dink murder trial.

There is also a piece of artwork titled, Establishing an Embassy Project, by German artists Horst Hoheisel and Andreas Knitz, which draws attention to the short-lived normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia.

There are also several screens running videos of Dink's past speeches. Karakose underlined that each video at the site began with a question and that the answers were given by Dink himself.

"We are not only shedding light on Hrant Dink's life. We are also trying to raise awareness on universal values such as democracy, peace, human rights, justice and equality that he was advocating," she added. 

Hrant's hope

The idea of a memorial to honor Dink emerged in 2008 and it "was not easy" to achieve it Asna said. She added: "We had to prepare a site hopeful for the future, not worrying […] over a murder that tears everyone's heart out.

The site was opened after long preparations, she added.

"We describe the trauma of the Republic of Turkey through the life of Hrant," Asna said.

"This place needed to reflect Hrant's view of hope, future -- his discourse and his belief in justice, humanity and love."

People from all walks of life contributed to the funding of the site's preparation, Asna said, highlighting that designers, architects and researchers had voluntarily helped in setting the venue up.

Those who visit will see how this murder was conducted, the process experienced thus far and what Turkey has gone through over Hrant's life, she said.

It weighs heavily on the conscience to witness a murder through a memory site, some visitors leave in tears and others lost in thought, Asna added.

The venue is trilingual -- Turkish, Armenian and English -- and is open for visitors throughout every day of the week except Monday.

 


#1090 Yervant1

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Posted 19 January 2020 - 10:06 AM

HurriyetDailyNews.com
 
  • January 18 2020 13:14:16
'Memory site' captures heart, soul of slain Turkish-Armenian journalist ISTANBUL-Anadolu Agency 5e22da7418c7731c84b10bf0.jpg

Thirteen years since his assassination on the steps of an Istanbul-based newspaper he once ran, Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink's office has at long last been reopened to the public as a memorial.

Founder and editor of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, Dink was gunned down in broad daylight in front of his Istanbul office in 2007 on Jan. 19.

The final result of Dink's murder case has long been awaited, with his family and friends continuing on the quest for justice. A total of 76 suspects are on trial as part of the case.

Every year on Jan. 19, thousands gather in front of the building, where Dink was killed to commemorate the slain journalist.

Due to the "symbolic significance of the site and its place in the collective memory," the Hrant Dink Foundation -- founded after his assassination -- turned the building into the 23.5 Hrant Dink Site of Memory, named after an article penned by Dink in Agos on April 23, 1996.

Agos continues to circulate in Turkey in both languages, albeit from a different location where it moved in 2015.

"We gave this name [to the site] inspired by Hrant's article, in which he talked about April 23 and 24 and said: 'I wish we could combine these two days and promise a future encouraging hope at the end of these two days'," Sibel Asna, a board member at Hrant Dink Foundation, said.

"April 23 is a holiday for sovereignty and April 24 is a tragedy for us all," Asna said, adding: "The site was opened between these two days, and is called 23.5, which promises hope and kindness."

April 24 is the international day of mourning of the events of 1915.

The year 1915 saw mass relocations, which then-Prime Minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed condolences for in 2014.

An important figure in the Armenian community in Turkey, Dink had sought to kickstart public discussion on the issue and was an advocate of
democratization and human rights.

He was repeatedly prosecuted for "denigrating Turkish-ness" over articles he wrote about Armenian identity and mass deportations of Armenians in 1915.

A plaque that reads: "Hrant Dink was murdered here, January 19, 2007, at 15:05" was embedded in the sidewalk in front of the building where Dink was killed, serving as a stark reminder for visitors and passers-by alike in Istanbul's teeming Şişli district.

 

 

http://www.hurriyetd...rLEQeYwy2xwp1EU

 


#1091 Yervant1

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Posted 14 March 2020 - 08:36 AM

HurriyetDailyNews.com
 
  • March 13 2020 12:59:50
  • Suspect in slain journalist’s case assassinated
ISTANBUL 5e6b5990c9de3d009c3320f9.jpg

A retired gendarmerie intelligence officer, allegedly involved in the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007, has been murdered in the Black Sea province of Düzce.

Former intelligence officer Şeref Ateş was released from prison in December 2017 after being arrested as part of the case into the murder of the journalist.

The prosecutor’s office had claimed that Ateş was in contact with people who had been scouting around Dink’s home and publishing house for the planning and implementation of his murder.

He was targeted by an armed attack while driving his car in the Çavuşlar neighborhood on March 11, according to reports.

The emergency teams dispatched to the scene determined that Ateş had been shot dead and found body drenched in blood in his car.

The car belonging to the suspects reported by the residents was detected by the security forces a few hours after the assassination.

While the three people in the vehicle were taken into custody, the vehicle was taken to the Düzce Police Department for examination.

Dink, the editor-in-chief of the Istanbul-based Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, was shot dead at the age of 52 in broad daylight by an ultranationalist outside his office in central Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007.

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

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.

 

 

https://www.hurriyet...AhpAWzdh_9I-ZPs



#1092 Yervant1

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Posted 30 May 2020 - 07:32 AM

Public Radio of Armenia
May 29 2020
 
 
 
 
Rakel Dink receives death threats

 

 

Hrant Dink Foundation reports that on 27-28 May 2020 it received a written death threat via email. The Foundation has notified the Sisli Police Headquarters and the Istanbul Governorship in writing.

“The email included the phrase “We may turn up one night, when you least expect it,” a slogan used boastfully in certain circles, and the very same slogan we were well used to hearing before Hrant Dink was so publicly assassinated, and with the knowledge of official bodies, on 19 January 2007. The threat accuses the Hrant Dink Foundation of telling ‘tales of fraternity’, demands us to leave the country and threatens Rakel Dink and the foundation’s lawyer with death,” the Foundation said in a statement.

“The recent rise in unconstrained hate speech and racist, discriminatory discourse only serves to trigger, encourage and instigate such horrendous attitudes. It is the duty and responsibility of all actors engaged in politics in Turkey to work towards ensuring equality, freedom and justice for all citizens. We therefore believe that it is our duty to share this statement with the public to remind the authorities of their responsibilities and to emphasize the serious nature of the climate that has been created,” the statement reads.

 
 
 


#1093 Yervant1

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Posted 31 May 2020 - 07:56 AM

DailySabah.com
 
"Provocateur" immediately arrested after attempt to threaten Hrant Dink Foundation: Interior Minister
BY DAILY SABAH  ISTANBUL MINORITIES
MAY 30, 2020 5:14 PM GMT+3
 
pngwuZyypDQrb.png
A man suspected of having threatened Turkish-Armenian foundation was arrested in his Konya home before being immediately taken to Istanbul for questioning (DHA Photo)
 

A resident of the central city of Konya has been arrested at his home on suspicion of sending threatening messages to the Hrant Dink Foundation, Turkey's Interior Minister announced Saturday.

The professional tiler, 25, has had the cell phone he used to deliver the threats confiscated for examination and been taken to Istanbul for further questioning.

The foundation, which focuses on fostering Turkish-Armenian cultural relations and was established following the assassination of namesake journalist Hrant Dink, contacted authorities after receiving an anonymous warning that: "Let's just say you'll have to flee or you'll have to die – and this time it will be Rakel Dink and that lawyer who get it."

Police immediately sprung into action and determined that the message had been sent from the central city. The local police's anti-terror branch was then contacted, before dispatching teams on Saturday morning to apprehend the suspect at his home in the city's Bosna Hersek neighborhood.

 

 

In reference to another incident in which a "provocateur" looking to incite tension among Turkey's multifaith communities had been swiftly reprimanded, Turkey's Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced the arrest of the suspect on social media, stating that: "The provocateur who broke the cross off a church in Kuzguncuk was caught in 24 hours, the provocateur who mailed threats to the Hrant Dink Foundation was caught immediately. We will allow for zero provocations! Have faith in the Turkish Police."

 

 

https://www.dailysab...e=undefined#big

 


#1094 Yervant1

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Posted 24 December 2020 - 08:23 AM

CPJ - Committee to Protect Journalists
Dec 21 2020
 
 
To finally solve the Hrant Dink murder, Turkey must ‘face itself’

By Özgür Öğret/CPJ Turkey Representative on December 21, 2020 11:44 PM EST

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After nearly 14 years and multiple court cases, the 2007 murder of Hrant Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin, remains largely unsolved even as the extended main trial appears to be set to draw to a close. Dink’s teenage killer and his immediate accomplices are behind bars, but prosecutors in the retrial, ordered by Turkey’s supreme court in 2013, have yet to pin down a broader conspiracy that Dink’s family and colleagues insist led to his death. The long-running case, in which the defense is due to begin closing arguments on December 22, shows how lack of political will to probe every lead – or worse, political interference in an investigation – can stymie the pursuit of justice for murdered journalists.

“Those who gave the kill order have yet to be found,” Yetvart Danzikyan, editor-in-chief of Agos, the Turkish-Armenian newspaper that Dink founded in 1996, told CPJ by phone in September. “That is why we do not know why [Dink] was killed.” 

Prosecutors offered their closing arguments on December 14, after which the Istanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court gave lawyers for Dink’s family just two days to prepare their response. The lawyers deemed that amount of time woefully insufficient, and declined to give a statement at the December 17 hearing, according to independent news site Bianet.   

That court decision followed another which lawyers for the family said impeded the search for truth. In September, judges reversed a decision to hear testimony from a senior official with the Turkish National Intelligence Agency, the MİT, according to reports. Lawyers for Dink’s family see such testimony as key to determining whether authorities covered up a plot to kill the journalist. But Turkey’s government and judiciary have all but blocked the agency’s participation in the proceedings. In 2010, then-Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan denied permission for an investigation into the agency. And in 2011, prosecutors dropped their investigation of two agents who spoke with Dink about his reporting in 2004, a conversation Dink believed to be a veiled threat. The agents have also been prevented from serving as witnesses, as Bianet reported

Meanwhile, changes in Turkey’s political atmosphere have continued to impact the trial, as CPJ has previously documented. When Dink was killed, powerful figures in Turkey initially blamed Ergenekon, an alleged ultranationalist conspiracy to topple the Turkish government, as behind the murder. But in recent years, blame has shifted to the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organization, or FETÖ. That is the Turkish government’s name for the movement of self-exiled Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, a former ally of Erdoğan whom the president contends was behind an attempted coup in 2016. Prosecutors in the Dink case brought charges against Gülen in 2017. Today, there are 76 defendants in the main trial, reports said.

Dink’s reporting on the Armenian plight – and specifically the atrocities against ethnic Armenians under Ottoman rule that Turkey refuses to recognize as genocide – had long made him a subject of official scrutiny. In 2004, that scrutiny reached new heights when Agos reported Sabiha Gökçen, Turkey’s first female pilot and the adopted daughter of founder of modern Turkey Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, may have been of Armenian descent. The general staff secretariat of Turkey’s military reacted with fury, declaring that “opening a national symbol like this up to discussion, for whatever reason, is a crime against national integrity and social peace.”

Shortly after, Dink was summoned to the Istanbul governor’s office where the two MİT agents allegedly warned him about his reporting, though MİT later claimed it knew of no greater plot. Next, Dink was tried for “denigrating Turkish identity” over a column in which he had actually advocated for Turkish-Armenian reconciliation. Dink was found guilty in 2005 and his appeal was denied. In his final column, republished by the Turkish foundation that bears his name, he described the growing threats against him. “In the hallways of the courthouse, fascists rained racist curses on me. They insulted me with placards and banners, and day by day the flood of threatening telephone calls, e-mails and letters was on the rise.” Nine days after the column’s original publication, on January 19, 2007, 17-year-old gunman Ogün Samast shot Dink multiple times outside of the Agos office, killing him. 

In July 2007, Samast and several accomplices initially went on trial together, but Samast was later convicted of murder in a separate juvenile court. His accomplices were convicted on various charges in 2012, but a year later Turkey’s supreme court ordered a retrial (while upholding Samast’s conviction) on the basis that the original trial failed to acknowledge the murder as the result of organized crime. At the time, Dink’s supporters told CPJ that the supreme court ruling did not go far enough because it did not describe the perpetrators as part of an alleged terrorist organization, the classification of which would have allowed for a much deeper investigation. The retrial has morphed in the ensuing years, as Samast and his accomplices were spun off into a separate trial and another trial, that of law enforcement officers who allegedly knew of threats to Dink, was folded into the main one. 

Danzikyan contends that the police and gendarme intelligence divisions of the northern province of Trabzon, Samast’s hometown, the Istanbul police, and even officials in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, were all aware of the risks facing Dink. “The picture we have before us is such: Hrant Dink was made a target; the state learned that an action was to be taken against Hrant Dink [and] did nothing; the [judiciary] did whatever it could to make Hrant Dink seem guilty; that is how Hrant Dink was killed.” 

He acknowledged that Dink’s supporters have a hard path ahead, even as the trial is now reaching its final stages: “Solving this case in a way that reveals everybody involved and satisfies public opinion would mean the state facing itself.” 

Özgür Öğret is a Turkish freelance journalist and CPJ’s Turkey representative. He was lead researcher for the 2012 CPJ special report, “Turkey’s Press Freedom Crisis.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


#1095 Yervant1

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Posted 20 January 2021 - 09:14 AM

Panorama, Armenia
Jan 19 2021
 
 
 
 
‘We will continue to fight to make your dreams come true’, Garo Paylan says on anniversary of Hrant Dink’s murder

Istanbul-Armenian MP Garo Paylan, representing the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), took to Facebook  to pay tribute to slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink on Tuesday marking the 14th anniversary of his assassination.

"14 years have passed my brother…

“We made a lot of efforts, but we could not hold to account those responsible for your murder.

“The darkness that took you away from us continues to commit crimes.

“But we will continue to fight to make your dreams come true,” he wrote. 

https://www.panorama...nt-Dink/2438128



#1096 Yervant1

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Posted 22 January 2021 - 09:08 AM

Asia news, Italy
Jan 20 2021
 
 
 
Istanbul Mayor İmamoğlu backs youth centre in memory of Hrant Dink
by Marian Demir

The mayor himself, an opponent of Erdoğan, made the announcement on social media. The authorities expropriated the orphanage, which was set for demolition in 2015. It will now be a place for youth socialisation in memory of the Armenian journalist killed by a young extremist.

 
 
 

Istanbul (AsiaNews) – Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's main rival for the future leadership of Turkey, plans to turn the Armenian orphanage in Tuzla where slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink grew up, into Kamp Armen youth centre.

The mayor of Turkey’s business capital made the announcement on social media, praising the great Armenian journalist who was chief editor of the Agos weekly paper, killed 14 years ago.

In his message, Mayor İmamoğlu said that the Municipal Council of Istanbul gave the green light to redevelop the orphanage in Tuzla, a town south of Istanbul. Dink grew up at the facility. Now plans are to turn it into the Kamp Armen youth centre.

Hrant Dink studied at the orphanage. In 2005, the Armenian journalist was convicted for writing about the Armenian genocide. On 19 January 2007, he was shot and killed by an 18-year-old man. At the time, the murder was seen as a terrorist act to prevent Turkey from joining the European Union.

Since then, Dink has become a symbol of the struggle against fascism and the obscurantism of the Turkish government, embodied by President Erdoğan’s policy of “nationalism and Islam“.

The orphanage began as a shelter in the early 1950s for poor or Armenian orphans from all over Anatolia, on the ground floor of the Armenian Protestant church of Gedikpaşa.

At the time, as the number of children staying increased, the future journalist Hrant Dink with a group of 30 friends aged 8 to 12 built a youth camp on land near the church.

Turkish authorities seized the orphanage in 1987 following a decision by the Turkish Supreme Court.

In 2015 the owner of the land tried to demolish the camp, but the plan was stopped. Today, many hope to see it turned into a youth centre dedicated to Dink’s memory.

  http://www.asianews....qF3CxbHtUxm2ZPQ  

 
 
 
 

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#1097 Yervant1

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Posted 12 March 2021 - 09:45 AM

png_LjswS20g7.png
March 11 2021
 
 
Was the Turkish state involved in journalist Hrant Dink’s assassination?
  
 
By Deutsche Welle
2021/03/04 21:00
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Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink

On January 19, 2007, Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was assassinated on a crowded street in Istanbul, Turkey, in front of the offices of the weekly Agos newspaper which he had founded in 1996 and of which he was editor-in-chief. Sorrow and anger spread around the country and well beyond its borders.

Dink had often come under attack for his articles and speeches warning about the rise of nationalist forces. He had even been prosecuted several times. In 2002, he took part in a symposium where he told those in attendance he refused to define himself as a Turk. "I am not a Turk, but an Armenian of Turkey," Dink said. He was subsequently convicted of "insulting and denigrating Turkishness."

Widespread criticism

Two years later, Dink was widely criticized for an article he wrote which included passages from an interview he did with a woman purporting to be a relative of Sabiha Gokcen, the famous adopted daughter of the founder of the modern Turkish state, Kemal Ataturk. The article asserted that Gokcen was an Armenian orphan. Gocken was the world’s first female fighter pilot and is considered an untouchable national icon. Many Turkish nationalists, particularly those with links to the military, claimed that Ataturk's legacy had been smeared.

Ultranationalists repeatedly gathered in front of the building where Agos had its offices, chanting slogans including "love this country or leave it" and making threats such as "we could turn up suddenly one night."

In response, Dink published an article in his own newspaper titled 'Why I was targeted.' He reported receiving regular hostility and threats. "I have always faced danger in my life, and now I am, once again, on the edge of a cliff," he wrote.
A week later, he was murdered.

 
 
'We are all Armenians'

On Friday, January 19, 2007, Dink was shot dead as he stepped out of the Agos building to run an errand. Learning of his death, people poured onto the streets to show their solidarity. Outrage swept through much of the Turkish public. The slogan: "We are all Hrant, we are all Armenians," quickly spread through the streets.

Three men were taken into custody and later convicted: 17-year-old Ogun Samast, who allegedly pulled the trigger, as well Erhan Tuncel who supplied the weapon and Yasin Hayal, who is believed to have instigated the killing.

Was the 'Deep State' in the know?

The investigation into Dink's death later showed that certain state officials were aware of the assassination plans but did not take any steps to protect Dink.

To this day, his relatives vehemently demand the state officials be prosecuted. "Despite the threats against Hrant Dink and concrete evidence he could be murdered, they did not implement any measures to protect him," the family's lawyer Hakan Bakircioglu said. "The group which carried out the murder was not prevented from operating. But according to the original charges, no state official was involved in the murder."

What role did the Turkish state play?

The murder trial opened in Istanbul in July 2007. I was not until 2011 when self-confessed killer Ogun Samast, who was a minor at the time of the crime, was sentenced to 22 years and 10 months in jail. A year later, in a separate trial, Yasin Hayal was given a life sentence for ordering Dink's murder, while Tuncel, along with 17 other defendants, were acquitted.

In July 2016, dozens of police officers as well as members of the paramilitary gendarmerie of the Black Sea province of Trabzon and Istanbul were charged with being complicit in organizing the murder. The verdict in that case is due on March 5, 2021.

A free and fair decision

However, relatives do not expect a fair ruling when a judgement is handed down on Friday. Bakircioglu, the Dink family's lawyer, said that the case had not been examined properly and that at the last hearing on February 10, 2021, defendants against whom there were serious charges had not been sufficiently questioned. He also claimed that the "Istanbul governorship and officials of the state intelligence service MIT had not been investigated at all" although they were suspected of being involved in the murder.

Dink's legacy lives on in the newspaper that he founded. "He gives us strength even after his death," said Agos editor-in-chief Yetvart Danzikyan. "Especially to Armenians in Turkey who are beginning to lose hope for peace and justice."

This article was translated from German.

https://www.taiwanne...en/news/4142630 



#1098 Yervant1

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Posted 27 March 2021 - 07:36 AM

The real killers are still free!!!!!!!!!!! 

Deutsche Welle, Germany

March 26 2021
 
 
 
Hrant Dink murder: Turkish court sentences several people to life in prison

After 14 years of drawn-out legal proceedings, a Turkish court has sentenced several people to prison for their role in the murder of journalist Hrant Dink.

    

 

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An advocate for Armenians in Turkey, Hrant Dink was frequently targeted until his 2007 murder

A court in Istanbul sentenced several former top security officials to prison over the 2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

The long-awaited decision comes after 14 years of drawn-out legal proceedings, and amid accusations senior security officials failed to act to prevent his death.

What did the court rule?

The court in Istanbul sentenced handed down several sentences for the 76 defendants in the case — only a handful of whom are in custody. 

Judges handed life sentences to two former police chiefs and two top ex-security officers.

The sentenced the city's former police intelligence chief Ramazan Akyurek and his former deputy Ali Fuat Yilmazer to life in prison for "premeditated murder", state news agency Anadolu reported. They were also handed an additional 7.5 years for forgery and destroying official documents.

Former top Interior Ministry officers Yavuz Karakaya and Muharrem Demirkale were also handed life sentences. 

A former Interior Ministry commander, Ali Oz, was sentenced to 28 years in prison. He commanded the region of Trabzon where the gunman who shot Dink came from.

The court dropped charges against several other people involved, as the statute of limitation had expired.

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Hrant Dink was editor-in-chief of Aremnian newspaper Agos, and a passionate advocate for better ties between Turkey and Armenia

Among those accused is US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, with prosecutors probing alleged links between the exiled preacher and the suspects in the case.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames Gulen for orchestrating an attempted coup in 2016.

On Friday, the court did not rule on Gulen and 12 others considered fugitives in the case — but instead said several suspects were linked to Gulen's movement.

What has the reaction been?

Outside the courthouse on Friday, Dink's supporters slammed the decision as "insufficient," saying that the masterminds behind his killing remained free.

Dink's family said they plan to appeal the court's decision, Anadolu reported. 

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) also said that at least 20 officials should have been added to the long list of defendants in the case.

The series of trials over Dink's murder have been held "without a clear and satisfactory conclusion," RSF said. Links between the shooter and authorities "have proved to be very complex and subject to political manipulation."

Who was Hrant Dink?

Hrant Dink was a prominent voice for Turkey's Armenian community.

He worked as the editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian bilingual newspaper Agos, and was a passionate advocate for better ties between Turkey and Armenia.

In January 2007, while on the street in front of the newspaper's editorial office in Istanbul, was fatally shot twice in the head. He was 53. 

Dink's murder plunged Turkey's small Armenian community into morning and sparked a drawn out trial which has lasted over a decade. 

In 2011, Ogün Samast was found guilty of killing Dink and was sentenced to nearly 23 years in prison. He was 17-years-old at the time of the murder.

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In 2010, the ECHR ordered the Turkish government to pay Dink's widow, Rakel Dink, and the rest of his family damages

Drawn out trial

The reason for Dink's murder has never been settled as trials continue for others charged in the willful killing. 

At one point it came to light that Turkish security had knowledge of the plotbut failed to take action and has led to a protracted legal process. 

In September 2010 the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in that the Turkish state had failed to protect Dink's life and his freedom of _expression_. The Turkish government was ordered to pay compensation to his family.

"Some of those responsible for this assassination, including the sponsors, have still not been prosecuted," said Erol Onderoglu, Turkey representative for Reporters Without Borders (RSF), who has closely followed the trial. 

The trial carries the weight of history as well. Ankara does not recognize the contentious term genocide when it comes to the expulsion and killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians. 

jm/rs (AFP, dp)

 

 


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#1099 Yervant1

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Posted 02 April 2021 - 07:37 AM

Christianity Today
March 31 2021
 
 
Convictions in Case of Christian Journalist Murdered in Turkey Fail to Satisfy
Family of Hrant Dink, proponent of reconciliation between Turks and Armenians who riled government officials through his genocide advocacy, say justice has not gone deep enough.
JAYSON CASPER|MARCH 31, 2021 12:02 PM
 
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Image: Courtesy of AMAA
Hrant Dink

Fourteen years later, there is some resolution for the family of the assassinated Turkish-Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink.

 
 

But not enough.

“The judgment given today is quite far from the truth,” said the family in its official statement on March 26.

“Not the evil itself but its leakage was punished.”

In 2007, Dink was shot four times in front of the Istanbul office of his bilingual newspaper, Agos. A proponent of reconciliation between Turks and Armenians, he aroused official opposition through his passionate focus on the 1915 genocide. Two years earlier he had been arrested and convicted of “insulting Turkishness.”

The killer, a 17-year-old unemployed youth, was given a 23-year sentence in 2011.

But one week before his death, Dink had written an article stating he felt “like a pigeon,” targeted by the deep state “to make me know my place.“

Around 100,000 people attended his funeral, chanting, “We are all Armenians.”

Last week, the Turkish judiciary put 76 people on trial, convicting 26 and handing out 4 sentences of life imprisonment. Two were given to the former director of police intelligence and his deputy, for murder and the subsequent cover-up.

The family is not convinced this includes the entire “mechanism.”

“Some officials are still at large,” said Erol Önderoglu, the representative of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in Turkey.

“This partial justice … leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.”

RSF ranks Turkey No. 154 out of 180 nations in its 2020 index on respect for press freedom.

Soner Tufan, spokesman for the Association of Protestant Churches in Turkey, said the verdict was “not surprising.” It fits the pattern of accountability whenever a crime is directed at the Christian minority.

“There were so many connections to the murder, with penalty given only to some,” he said. “This is not real justice.”

Born, married, and buried in the Armenian Apostolic Church, Dink was also a member of the Gedikpaşa Armenian Evangelical church. At age 7, he and his two younger brothers were sent from rural Anatolia to be raised in its Istanbul orphanage.

“I praise the Lord for that church,” Dink told the United Armenian Congregational Church in Hollywood, California, in 2006. “To this day, I consistently apply what I learned there.”

Born in 1954, Dink helped build the church’s Tuzla summer camp in the 1960s. He met his wife, Rakel, at the orphanage, and together they raised their children while serving on the camp staff. In 1978, he took over leadership when the camp founder, Hrant Guzelian, was arrested on charges of “raising Armenian militants.”

For five years he kept the facility open, preaching on Sundays. But in 1983, the state confiscated the property, which became the site of luxury beachfront villas on the Asian side of Istanbul’s Marmara Sea.

“[This] left such a deep scar on the psyche of Hrant,” said Zaven Khanjian, executive director of the Armenian Missionary Association of America, in a 2015 speech commemorating both Hrants.

“[It] went on to be the driving force in his struggle for justice, for fairness, freedom of _expression_, minority rights, and true democracy for all Turkish citizens under Turkish law.”

The camp was returned to the evangelical church in 2015, after decades of pressure and lawsuits. Today, plans exist to rebuild a cultural center there for Armenian youth.

Khanjian’s friendship with Dink began only four months before his murder.

Armenian evangelicals, he said, received Dink with “total enthusiasm.” But in Turkey, there were no expectations the trial would bring closure.

“Since the premeditated genocide of Armenians living peacefully in their ancestral home,” said Khanijan, “justice has never seen the light of day in Turkey.”

Dink worked to make it so, respectful of all.

Agosnamed after the Turkish and Armenian word used to describe the tilled soil where a seed can be planted, was the nation’s first bilingual publication. Dink founded it in 1996, as accusations stirred that the Armenian community was allying with the Kurdish PKK, designated a terrorist organization.

Created to forge solidarity between the two ethnicities, Agos advocated for neighborly relations between Turkey and Armenia, and in support of ongoing democratization.

Of the genocide, Dink shifted the discussion from an accusatory focus on raw numbers to an empathetic memory that recognized the trauma of the period for both sides. He received criticism from Armenians in the diaspora for his strong opposition to France’s law that criminalized genocide denial.

April 24 is Genocide Remembrance Day in Armenia and its worldwide diaspora.

Upon Dink’s assassination, journalist Robert Fisk labeled him the genocide’s 1,500,001st victim.

Early investigations into the assassination focused on the nationalist Ergenekon organization, suspected of linkage with Turkish security. Accused of plotting a coup in 2003, in 2013 hundreds of alleged members were imprisoned. Led by current president Recep Erdoğan’s AKP party, support was lent by the network of popular Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen.

Since then, the two allies have clashed. Gülen took exile in Pennsylvania, and his network was branded the FETO terrorist organization and accused of plotting the 2016 attempted coup. Hundreds of alleged members have been imprisoned.

At Dink’s trial, public prosecutors stated that the clues point to FETO involvement. A new case was opened against four defendants.

“The FETO link is the joke of the trial,” said Khanjian. “A ridiculous and comical end to 14 years of deceitful coverups.”

Dink’s family will appeal the verdict.

Meanwhile, the hearts of many Turks and Armenians go out to them.

“I’m so sad,” said Tufan. “How can his wife and family live here, waiting so long for justice, without result?”

But Rakel, his wife, is resolute.

“A climate and ideology similar to when Hrant Dink was murdered prevails today,” said the family statement. “We will never give up our legal struggle, until the whole mechanism is exposed.”

 


#1100 Yervant1

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Posted 16 July 2021 - 08:01 AM

News.am, Armenia
July 15 2021
 
 
Istanbul court charges Gulen's supporters with murder of Hrant Dink
17:47, 15.07.2021
 
 
 

An Istanbul court has charged Fethullah Gulen’s supporters with the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, Bianet English reported.

In its 4,532-page verdict, the 14th Criminal Court of Istanbul ascribed the murder to Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, as well as former police chiefs Faruk Sari, Ramazan Akyurek and Ali Fyuat Yilmazer.

The document also states that Akyurek and Yilmazer “developed a conspiracy for murder and obstructed the inquest, advancing the interests of Gulen’s movement”.

https://news.am/eng/news/653836.html






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