Assassination Of Hrant Dink

[MosJan]

Council Of Europe Urges Turkish Law Change

 

Reuters

 

A European rights watchdog urged Ankara on Thursday to change a law that many Turks say fuels hardline nationalism and contributed to the murder of a prominent Armenian editor.

 

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe said Turkey should scrap article 301 of its penal code which makes it a crime to insult Turkey's identity, state institutions and security forces. "The existence of this measure, which judicially limits freedom of expression, only validates legal and other attacks against journalists," a resolution passed by the assembly said.

 

Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was gunned down last week by a Turkish youth who said Dink had insulted Turks.

 

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said on Wednesday he supported changes to the law. The European Union has also called on Turkey, an EU candidate, to abrogate the law.

 

Dink, like dozens of other Turkish intellectuals, had been prosecuted under article 301 for his writings on the massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One -- a highly sensitive issue in Turkey. Dink's murder shocked the country and brought more than 100,000 people onto the streets of Istanbul on Tuesday. His death has put the ruling AK Party again on the defensive over article 301.

 

Analysts say the government is dragging its feet despite repeated promises because the AK Party does not want to look soft amid a rise in nationalism during an election year.

 

Turkish media reported on Thursday that five people were charged in Dink’s murder. Istanbul's chief prosecutor Aykut Cengiz Engin charged Ogun Samast, a 17-year-old unemployed man from the Black Sea coast, with premeditated murder and membership of an armed group. Four others were charged with forming an armed organization and incitement to murder.

 

Samast, who is reported to have been close to an ultranationalist group in his home town Trabzon, has admitted to shooting Dink in daylight as he left his newspaper Agos in Istanbul last Friday.

 

"From the quality and the nature of the crimes attributed to the suspects it is clear the result emerges that they formed an armed group," Engin told reporters late on Wednesday in comments reported by the NTV Web site. Engin said the fact that the suspects were remanded in custody did not mean that a case would be opened soon. Prosecutors will now prepare an indictment against the suspects.

 

Yasin Hayal, a known nationalist militant, has admitted to inciting his friend Samast to kill Dink, the police said. Hayal served 11 months in jail for the 2004 bombing of a McDonald's restaurant in Trabzon.

 

Dink, who worked for reconciliation between Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks, had been prosecuted for his views on the massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915. He was among intellectuals, including Nobel Literature Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, who have been prosecuted under laws restricting freedom of expression in Turkey.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Dink killed by same bloody hand that claimed lives of millions of his ancestors

 

 

 

24.01.2007

 

 

 

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Swedish officials, the Armenian community as well as representatives of Turkish intelligentsia and the Turkish Central Federation of Sweden condemned the assassination of editor of Agos Armenian-Turkish newspaper Hrant Dink. As chairman of the Association of Armenians of Europe Karo Hakobian told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, Sweden joins the international community in condemning Dink’s killing. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, members of political parties and NGOs also condemned the outrageous crime. A protest action initiated by the Turkish Central Federation of Sweden (TCFS) – the biggest organization of national minorities – was held in Stockholm on Tuesday with participation of the Armenian, Kurdish and Assyrian communities as well as members of Swedish state and public organizations. When addressing the attendees, head of the TCFS resumed his speech with the slogan “We are all Hrant Dinks, we are all Armenians.” The action participants with a minute of silence commemorated Hrant Dink, who was killed by the same bloody hand that claimed lives of millions of his ancestors. Representatives of Turkish and Kurdish organizations laid a black wreath to the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm.

 

The Coordination Center of Armenian Unions will organize a mass rally with participation of national minorities, political and public figures in Stockholm January 27.

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

1915-2007: Nothing much has changed, it seems

 

 

 

 

 

25.01.2007

 

 

 

 

 

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Nothing much has changed, it seems. They were killed both in 1915 and in 2007,” Turkish writer and journalist Ahmet Altan says in his “1915-2007” article, which was published in "Gazetem.net" site just the other days. Independent French journalist Jean Eckian retold the PanARMENIAN.Net corespondent Ahmet Altan’s article. “They killed us, and we killed them back. What are we going to say about the murder of Hrant then? That "Hrant killed us, and we killed Hrant back?" Now that is not what we say, is it? We say "traitors killed Hrant." We do not see the murderers of Hrant as one of "us." Why is it that "we" are the ones who ninety years ago killed hundreds of thousands of people, without forsaking children, women, elderly and babies, who decimated the Armenians, but we are not the ones who killed Hrant? What is the difference between the two? The difference is that this time we saw the murder, that we have an idea about the intentions of the murderer. This time they did not "tell us" how the murder was committed, we personally witnessed it ourselves. If those who in this country "write" the history of 1915 had also written the murder of Hrant, the children in this country would have said fifty years later that "Hrant had killed us, and we killed Hrant back. The truth would have changed shape in the hands of the liars.”

 

We did not kill Hrant. Most probably some people who have ferreted their way into the state had Hrant killed. Their intention was for the world to react negatively to Turkey, which would have escalated nationalism within the country in response, leading to a break off from Europe. In 1915 as well, "we" did not kill the Armenians. Those poor people were not killed by "the ones ferreted inside the state," but directly by the state itself. A great massacre that was organized by the Unionists in government was actualized. The Armenians who were killed were Ottoman subjects. They were a part of the Ottoman nation. A part of the nation was utterly destroyed by the state. "We" are the nation. The ones who were killed were a part of "us." Since each Turk who lives in this country see themselves not as a "part of the nation" but rather a "part of the state," however, they also own this massacre executed by the state. "They killed us, we killed them," they say. Now that is a lie. The Ottoman State, under the government of the Unionists killed, in an organized manner, with the planning of the intelligence unit entitled Special Organization (Teskilat-? Mahsusa), a "part of us." The murdered Armenians are a part of "us." It is actually our duty to ask them to account for that murdered part of us. "We" ought to face this state and ask them "are you a continuation of the Ottoman state," ask them "why do you own up to the murder committed by a state you destroyed," ask them "why don't you yourself seek accountability for this destruction by the state of a part of its nation and instead leave this task to others. "Because "we" did not ask this, one of "us," Hrant Dink, has now been murdered. On top of it all, he, while still mourning for his ancestors, wanted Turkey not to be trapped solely within the term "genocide," not to have the entire debate forced into a single word; he wanted Turkey to be permitted to become democratized through uniting with the world. Hrant Dink was declared "an enemy of the Turks." He was no one's enemy, he was not someone who could have been a foe. He was a friend. And he was a friend to everyone. Why is it that in this country those who are "for murders and massacres" are accepted as a Turk while "those for friendship, peace, justice and humanity" are regarded as foe. The Turkish populace owns up to the crimes of the old and new "state" because it cannot grasp that it is the "nation." As it cannot grasp that it itself is the nation, it identifies itself with the murderers instead and says "us." My heart could never bear to have the sorrowful deaths of those hundreds of thousands of people, the bloody tragedy that was experienced to be lost within the vortex created by the term "genocide." Yet because we have not been able to move beyond that word, people like Hrant are still being killed. I think that now, in order to prevent new murders, in order to stop this country from being dragged to a dead end, it is up to us to move beyond that word. The Ottoman State killed hundreds of thousands of people solely because they were "Armenians." And today a hidden force kills Hrant for "being an Armenian." What are we going to call it if a person is being killed solely because of their race or their religion? It is up to "us," to this nation to ask for an accounting of those who were killed. Hrant's death hurts you all deeply. If you had witnessed what had happened in 1915, you would have been likewise deeply hurt. And you would not have said "they killed us, we killed them." You would have been ashamed. Just as you wanted Hrant's murderers to be found, you would have wanted the murderers of those Armenians found as well.

 

With his death, Hrant made us remember that we are a nation, that we should not identify ourselves with the murderers. Then let us do what befits being a nation. Who killed Hrant? Who killed the Armenians in 1915? They do not have to account for their actions to "others," they have to account to "us." For we are the ones who have died. The ones who died are a part of us".

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

In Turkey, Hopes for Reconciliation Fade

 

 

 

By SELCAN HACAOGLU

Associated Press Writer

 

January 25, 2007,

 

 

 

ANKARA, Turkey -- As mourners streamed through the streets this week to honor slain ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, many liberal Turks were swept up in a sense that an unprecedented chance for ethnic and political reconciliation was at hand.

 

But a darker reality already has set in: Many Turks are rejecting the appeals for solidarity and democratic reform.

 

They say the tens of thousands who joined Dink's funeral procession in Istanbul on Tuesday were mainly urban intellectuals, hardly representative of a nation of more than 70 million people where conservative Islamic values are deep-seated and nationalist pride in "Turkishness" is strong.

 

Many support the views of nationalists who are becoming increasingly strident in their condemnation of Western values that they feel are being imposed on them by the European Union, which is considering Turkey's membership bid.

 

Dink had been forced to stand trial by nationalists angered by his calls to recognize the killings of Armenians in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire as genocide. He was shot down Friday, allegedly by a teenager who incited to the crime by four ultrarightists also charged in the case.

 

During his funeral procession, mourners chanted "We are all Armenians," urged liberal reform and called for the repeal of the law used to convict Dink on charges of "insulting Turkishness."

 

The pleas fell on deaf ears, with most Turks interviewed by The Associated Press on Thursday voicing opposition to making concessions to Armenians on the sensitive issue of the killings.

 

"They should speak for themselves, they cannot speak on behalf of Turks," Filiz Un, 32, said of the marchers honoring Dink. "I am sorry for him as a human, but they cannot pretend that all the Turkish public is behind them."

 

A headline in the right-wing newspaper Tercuman said anyone who isn't proud to be Turkish "should clear off and leave."

 

Turkey's largest nationalist party responded to the mourners' chants by posting its own slogan -- "We are all Turks" -- on a digital display outside a local party branch in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya.

 

And in a chilling sign that the suspects in Dink's killing have their supporters, a fake bomb was left outside the Turkish parliament building Thursday saying they should be set free, private CNN-Turk television reported.

 

That came a day after one of the men charged in the slaying issued a threat against Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, a Nobel literature prize-winner who also has been charged with insulting Turkey.

 

The defiant tone from nationalists alarmed mainstream politicians.

 

"You don't recognize any laws, you go and kill defenseless people? That's not nationalism," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. "If you do that, you are murderers and monsters. No one but God can take a life." (this is the same nationalist Erdogan who is behind 301...and accused Dink while he was alive)

 

Turkey's expulsion of ethnic Armenians during World War I -- which Armenians say claimed 1.5 million lives -- is a dark chapter rarely discussed publicly in Turkey or taught in its schools.

 

Turkey vehemently denies that many died or that it was genocide, saying the bloodshed came during the chaos of a disintegrating empire. It is battling Armenian diaspora groups that are pushing European governments and the United States to declare the killings genocide.

 

"There is a fault line passing right through the middle of society," wrote Turker Alkan, a columnist for the center-left newspaper Radikal.

 

"Those who cannot reconcile Hrant Dink's murder with humanity, consciousness and moral values are on the one side; those who don't really oppose the murder because of their nationalist sentiments and their religious beliefs are on the other," he added.

 

Selami Ince, news editor of the Istanbul-based Su TV, run by the Alawite Muslim sect, answered by saying few of the funeral marchers were Turks with roots in the Anatolian heartland.

 

"Unfortunately, they do not represent the Turkish public," Ince said. "The Turkish public has not filled the streets with demands of democracy and freedom. They were leftists, Armenians, Kurds and those intellectuals who favor multiculturalism."

 

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticl...oryId=L25642347

 

 

Police blow up package outside Turkish parliament

 

 

Thu 25 Jan 2007

 

 

ANKARA, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Turkish police blew up a suspicious package outside parliament on Thursday which carried a note calling for the release of two suspects in the murder of a prominent Turkish-Armenian editor, police said.

 

The package contained a timer but no explosives, police told Reuters.

 

The note, from a shadowy ultra-nationalist group TIT, called for the release of suspects Ogan Samast and Yasin Hayal. Five men, including Samast and Hayal, have been charged in connection with the murder of Hrant Dink.

 

[neko]

Istanbul church vandalised with grafitti saying "One Hrant dead, Tomorow more Hrants. Slaughter the filthy Armenians".

 

 

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2007/01/22/ist...rch-vandalized/

 

(The translation theygive is not right, btw. pis doesn't mean "ugly", and geber doesn't mean simply "kill" (it is a word used when you are killing something that is not human).

Edited January 25, 2007 by neko

[Aratta-Kingdom]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/25/opinion/edturk.php

 

 

 

Paranoia in Turkey

 

 

 

 

 

International Herald Tribune

January 25, 2007

 

 

 

There was a huge turnout in Istanbul on Tuesday for the funeral of the assassinated journalist Hrant Dink. Mourners held up placards saying, "We are all Armenians" and "We are all Hrant Dink." It was a heartening display of support for values that the slain editor of the bilingual paper Agos defended at the cost of his life: free speech, acknowledgment of the 1915 genocide of Armenians in Turkey, and reconciliation between Turks and the 60,000 Armenians who remain in Turkey.

 

Encouraging as that affirmation of tolerance and pluralism may be, Dink's murder and his funeral illuminate a dangerous conflict that pervades state and society in Turkey.

 

Dink was killed by a 17-year-old who had been given a gun and told to carry out the murder by an ultranationalist who had served 10 months in prison for bombing a McDonald's. The assassin told the police he had seen something on the Internet alleging that Dink had said, "Turkish blood is dirty." This was an allusion to the Armenian-Turkish editor's conviction under an odious law that makes it a crime to insult Turkish identity.

 

For the people who marched in Dink's funeral cortège, there is a clear connection between the nationalist paranoia that produced such a law and the murder of intellectuals who are branded as disloyal.

 

That nationalism has been nourished on political myths that are rooted in the ideology propounded by the founder of the post-Ottoman Turkish state, Kemal Ataturk.

 

 

Turkey's military and security services have interpreted Kemalism in a way that defines cultural and linguistic autonomy for Kurds and other minorities as a rebellious challenge to the ideal of Turkishness. The secular ideology derived from Kemalism has been equally intolerant of outward shows of religious piety, prohibiting women and girls from wearing head carves in school.

 

To gain entry to the European Union, Turkey's political leaders will have to conduct a broad educational campaign, uprooting myths about the mass murder of Armenians and the military's dirty war against the Kurds. Before Turks can take on a new European identity, they will have to redefine what it means to be Turkish.

 

 

 

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeniarepor...B2B089416D1.ASP

 

 

Police Guard Turkish-Armenian Paper After Death Threats

 

 

 

Ruben Meloyan in Istanbul and Emil Danielyan

 

A Turkish-Armenian newspaper whose prominent editor Hrant Dink was gunned down last week was placed under police protection on Thursday after reporting death threats from a shadowy ultranationalist group.

 

Employees of the bilingual “Agos” weekly said they received a letter late Wednesday that described Dink as an “enemy dog” and warned that anyone calling World War One-era massacres of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey a genocide will meet his fate.

 

“If you fail to exercise caution, many of your other dogs will also die,” read the letter signed by the obscure Turkish Revenge Brigade (TIT). “We have enough explosives to send the ‘Agos’ building skywards.”

 

“If you claim to have endured a genocide in 1915, then you don’t know what a genocide is. A real genocide will begin now,” it said.

 

“Agos” journalists said the letter came while Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was meeting with Dink’s widow and three children to offer his government’s condolences. They said they immediately informed the Turkish police about the threats.

 

“We don’t take such threats seriously,” one of them told RFE/RL. “They seem a bit childish. In any case, the newspaper will continue to publish and follow Hrant’s path.”

 

The building housing the “Agos” offices was surrounded and searched by security forces on Thursday morning. Although they found no explosives there, two police officers stayed on to guard the entrance to the building.

 

Later in the day, police in Ankara blew up a suspicious package outside the Turkish parliament which carried a TIT note calling for the release of the two main suspects in the February 19 shooting of Dink. The package contained a timer but no explosives, police told Reuters news agency. The note warned that real explosions will follow unless Ogun Samast and Yasin Hayal are released.

 

Turkish law-enforcement authorities are probing a possible link between ultranationalist groups and these and three other young men charged in connection with the crime which shocked many people in and outside the country. Hayal is a known nationalist militant who has admitted to inciting the 17-year-old Samast to gun down Dink in broad daylight.

 

Hayal issued a stern warning to Nobel Literature Prize winner Orhan Pamuk as he was taken to an Istanbul court house on Wednesday. "Orhan Pamuk should be careful" he shouted to journalists.

 

Like Dink, Pamuk has challenged the long-standing Turkish denial of a premeditated effort to exterminate the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. Both men were controversially prosecuted under an article of the Turkish criminal code that envisages tough penalties for “insulting Turkishness.”

 

Meanwhile, a Russian news agency released on Wednesday what it described as Dink’s last media interview that was given two days before his violent death. The 52-year-old editor was quoted as repeating that he “constantly” gets hate mail and threats deaths relating to his public references to the Armenian genocide. “I am dogged by fear every day,” he told two correspondents for Ria-Novosti, again comparing himself to a pigeon who “always turns its head, flinches at any rustle and is always ready to fly away.”

 

“I think I’m not like many Armenians [in Turkey] who prefer to hide their heads when things get dangerous,” Dink said. “But I can’t hide all the time … It’s not easy for my wife and children to know that their father constantly gets death threats, both by phone and e-mail.”

 

Dink also revealed that he had tried unsuccessfully to make a career in the Turkish armed forces after finishing his compulsory military service in the early 1960s. “I realized at the time that you can’t become an army officer in secular Turkey if you are not a Muslim,” he said. “That’s when I really felt what it’s like to be an Armenian in Turkey.”

 

(AP-Photolur photo: An “Agos” worker cries during the funeral ceremony of Hrant Dink on Tuesday in Istanbul.)

 

 

[MosJan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY2f4CZy8Qc

 

see mid part of the video

[Aratta-Kingdom]

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20070125/59672335.html

 

Hrant Dink: "I have the right to die in the country I was born in"

 

 

RIA Novosti

25/ 01/ 2007

 

 

The journalist's last interview he granted to Ellen Rudnitsky and Mirko Schwanitz, International Organization of Journalists, two days before he was murdered.

 

QUESTION. Mr. Dink, you speak up in your weekly Agos not only for the Armenian minority but also for all minorities there are in Turkey. Are you not afraid?

 

ANSWER. Sure, I am. To be honest, I feel haunted day in, day out. Ever seen a pigeon? Seen how it keeps turning its head? It shudders at the slightest noise, ready to fly away any instant. Can you call that life? The difference is that I can't fly away like a pigeon.

 

Q. In the past few months you have landed in the dock twice for allegedly insulting the Turkish nation. Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk was also indicted-but never convicted, as you were. How is that?

 

A. I had a suspended six months' sentence. The notorious Paragraph 301 stipulates criminal liability for insulting Turkish national identity-and no one knows why some people are convicted and others acquitted. The European Union has every reason to demand that the paragraph be abolished. Its wording gives every judge a free hand. I had no luck with mine. He alleged I said Turks had unclean blood. Absurd.

 

Q. Agos, the weekly you are publishing, has a very small circulation, but some people in Turkey find it dangerous. Why, do you think?

 

A. That's right. Our print run is roughly 6,000 copies, but it is read by many more people than that, both in and outside Turkey. That's what worries certain forces.

 

Q. The Agos is considered the Armenian community's press outlet. Why do you publish it in Turkish, as well as Armenian?

 

A. That's just what makes it so dangerous to certain nationalistic circles in this country. The Agos tells the truth about the Armenian genocide. At the same time, we present it as part of history, and urge our readers to learn the lesson it teaches. We think of the Agos as a tool for education and reconciliation. At the same time, we hold up a mirror to the Turkish public. We say out loud: If Turkey really wants to join the EU, it has to acknowledge its historical responsibility and put an end to coercive assimilation of all minorities. All citizens of this country must have equal rights.

 

Q. Your struggle brought you last year's Henri Nannen free press award, didn't it?

 

A. It makes me proud and sad at once-because one can't be happy about what brought me the award. A country anxious to become part of the EU does not take basic human rights for granted. That's bad. I would like to get my prize for something positive, for example, for Turkey's democratic progress.

 

Q. Is it really so bad to be an Armenian in Turkey?

 

A. You have hardly any problems if you hold your tongue. As for me, I found it hard even in my teens to join the chorus singing how proud we were of being Turks. Certainly, this country has a great deal to be proud of-but I am not a Turk, after all. Community activists often refer to Armenian schools and orphanages in this country, but they never say that children who become involved in politics are expelled from such schools. That was what happened to me.

 

Q. It seems you cause irritation wherever you turn, and not only among Turkish nationalists but also among the Left politicians whom you sympathized with in your young days.

 

A. When I was a young man, I thought class struggle rested on the truth and social rights, not ethnicity. That's where I was wrong. I was shocked to see even the Left forces in Turkey refuse to acknowledge the Armenian genocide. They turn a blind eye to everything that has a bearing on ethnic identity. That's the worst of it all. As for me, I think to work for preserving one's identity, for the right to live according to one's own cultural traditions means to fight for the most important cause. I don't think my Turkish friends would like to see their native language and culture banned-but that's just what Turkish politicians have been doing to Armenians for many decades now, and not to Armenians alone.

 

Q. When did you first feel really discriminated against?

 

A. When I finished my active service, I wanted to go on with my military career and become a commissioned officer. I was married then, and had two children. My wife was expecting our third child. I passed officer examinations with many of my Turkish fellow servicemen. After that, all applicants were called one by one to get their certificates. I was never summoned-the only one on the list. That was when I realized that although Turkey was a secular state, a non-Muslim could never qualify as an officer. That day, I first knew what it truly felt like to be an Armenian in Turkey.

 

Q. You mean it was Turks who, in a way, made you an Armenian rights activist?

 

A. That's right. That day was a turning point in my life. That was when I founded the Agos, Turkey's first and only bilingual newspaper-which it stays to this day. I wanted to give Turks an idea of Armenian problems, and create a forum for discussing those problems. That was a hard job at first because Armenians still felt too hunted-down to speak out. But we knew no other way to fight deep-rooted prejudice. "Armenian" was a derogatory word, and Armenians were thought of as terrorists, on a par with the PKK, Kurdistan Workers Party-so the Agos was to become the Turkish community's mirror.

 

Q. And what was the result?

 

A. We became part and parcel of the changes everyone who has eyes to see notices in Turkey. The Agos is a bridge between the Armenian and Turkish ethnic communities. There are more and more voices in our support. Orhan Pamuk's is one of those voices. There are many other Turkish intellectuals among our readers.

 

Q. You asked in the latest Agos issue: "What makes me a target?" What is it, really?

 

A. The answer concerns Armenians more than Turks. Too many of us try to hide away at the slightest sign of danger. I am not one of them, I daresay. What does hiding lead to? You Germans have firsthand knowledge of it from history, and not you alone. That's what makes me a prospective victim, and I am not the only one. The same applies to my family. How, do you think, my wife and children feel when I receive threats every day, some over the phone, others by e-mail? I compared myself to a pigeon earlier because the bird wants to be free, however frightened it might be. That's what I work for-I want liberty for all of us. I want things to change someday.

 

Q. Could you leave this country?

 

A. You, of all people, saying that? My friends keep telling me the same thing. Enough of that. I want to carry on my cause here. It is not my own personal cause. It concerns everyone who wants to see Turkey a democratic country. If I surrender and emigrate, the shame will be on us all. This is the land of my ancestors. I have my roots here, and I have the right to die in the country I was born in.

 

[Armenak]

Istanbul church vandalised with grafitti saying "One Hrant dead, Tomorow more Hrants. Slaughter the filthy Armenians".

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2007/01/22/ist...rch-vandalized/

 

(The translation theygive is not right, btw. pis doesn't mean "ugly", and geber doesn't mean simply "kill" (it is a word used when you are killing something that is not human).

Pis means dirty or filthy.

[Yervant1]

It took only two days after Hrant was laid to rest, God bless his soul for some Turks to show their true genocidal nature by calling for a new genocide.

They are doing this openly for the whole world to see and yet the world is behaiving like the three monkies, Seen nothing, Heard nothing and said nothing. The world wants us to reconcile with the Turks and find a way out of this, but how can you reconcile with a Turk who wants to commit the same genocidal crime today.

The Turkish state did not expect that Hrant would garnish this kind of support for his vision within Turkey and they are scared that this could have a snowball effect, therefore quickley they are trying to muzzle up the uprising with threats. Some journalists were right to say that nothing will change in Turkey and I think they are correct.

[Boghos]

Where is Twilight Bark?

[neko]

Pis means dirty or filthy.

 

I know!

The original translation said "ugly". Don't know who did that translation. It's the same as "I killed the gavur" being rendered as "I killed the non-Muslim".

[MosJan]

Where is Twilight Bark?

 

 

 

I don't know

 

PM him you might convince him back

[Boghos]

I don't know

 

PM him you might convince him back

 

I will.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

While the Armenians are still in shock after the Dink's assassination, this is what the denialist turks are up to...

 

 

PRESIDENT OF TURKEY CRITICIZES DECISION OF PARLIAMENT OF POLAND

CONCERNING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION

 

ANKARA, JANUARY 24, NOYAN TAPAN - ARMENIANS TODAY. Turkish President

Ahmet Necdet Sezer expressed his country's anxiety on the occasion

of the fact of recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Poland to

President of that country Lech Kaczynski arrived on an official

visit to Ankara. He criticized the decision made by the Parliament of

Poland in 2005 and stated: "Our wish is that the two people know and

understand one another better for what it is necessary to get rid of

prejudices what is a result of not enough awareness."

 

According to the "Turkish Daily News," Kaczyski protected his country's

position in that issue and mentioned that the Genocide issue is rather

delicate in Poland and it is very difficult for politicians of Poland

not to respond issues concerning the genocide: "in 2005 the Parliament

of Poland recognized the Armenian Genocide. That decision was made

not because of sympathy we have towards Armenia," the President of

Poland mentioned.

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

 

From 'The assassination of a Race' to 'The assassination of Hrant Dink'...history repeats itself

 

 

 

 

 

THE ASSASSINATION OF A RACE

 

 

 

Independent Magazine

OCTOBER 18, 1915

 

The Armenians in Turkey before the present onslaught upon them numbered about two millions, but their importance in the empire is not to be measured by their numbers. Intellectually and physically they are vastly superior to the Turks. In education, enterprise, industry and love of home they surpass all the other races. Among all the peoples of Turkey they have been the quickest to catch the spirit of modern education and twentieth century progress. Within the last fifty years in the eastern part of Turkey wholly, and in a measure throughout the empire, they have been the artisans, the leaders in the learned professions and promoters of commercial enterprises. This ancient and proud-spirited race, conscious of its own innate superiority, ambitious to educate its children, Christian in its religion, and eager for an progress, cherished the hope of an independent Armenia reestablished upon the ruins of its ancient kingdom.

 

For thirty years a few of the more hot-headed youth, both within and without the country, have carried on a revolutionary propaganda that was as hopeless of successful achievement as it was foolish in organization. The loud talk of some of these revolutionary leaders frightened Abdul Hamid into a nightmare of massacre and brought untold suffering upon innocent heads. There has been comparatively little of this in more recent years, but the fear of this aggressive, successful, prolific and industrious Christian race never departed from the councils of the Mohammedans.

 

When Turkey entered into this war, the Armenians enlisted in large numbers and showed themselves loyal Ottomans. For some reason not explained--some say because of German prejudice--arms were gradually taken away from them and they were set to other tasks.

 

Early in March the Russians were drawing down toward Van, where, as has already been stated, the Armenians are unusually strong. The Governor of Van was Jevdet Bey, a brother-in-law of Enver *****, who with Tallat Bey, controlled the fate of Turkey. The Armenian men of Van loyally offered their services to the Governor, who, under pretense of gratitude, tried to conduct the leaders into an ambush for their destruction. Three of the five leaders and spokesmen for the Armenians were killed, but two escaped. These rallied their followers while Jevdet called out his troops and enlisted the services of the Kurds to annihilate them. For five weeks they maintained their position, until the Russians entered the city and the Turks fled to the west.

 

This attempt of the Armenians to defend their lives against treachery and open attack seemed to awaken in the Turks a generation of slumbering wrath. From that hour, so far as the leaders at Constantinople were conserned, the Armenians were doomed to extinction throughout the length and breadth of the Empire. Not only were men and boys imprisoned without charge, assassinated, tortured beyond comprehension, and killed, singly or in groups, but the women were revised, girls carried into Moslem slavery, and entire towns--what remained after the slaughter--sent across hundreds of miles of country, without preparation for the journey, to die like animals upon the road thru disease, starvation and repeated attacks by their guards or other ruffians, and ultimately miserably to perish in the deserts of northern Arabia.

 

This process of destruction, begun last March, is now going on, according to indisputable evidence of creditable eye witnesses recently compiled from authentic documents by a special committee designated to that task, and recently made public. Constantinople is threatened, and the 150,000 Armenians in that city may any day be started upon their feat march to the desert.

 

Our Ambassador, Dr. Morgenthau, at Constantinople, is doing all in his power to stay the gruesome tide of death, and we note with gratification that the public sentiment stirred by a knowledge of this tragedy is moving the President to protest in the name of humanity against such crimes against civilization.

 

If the Central Powers win in this war over the Allies. Turkey will become a German province, in which the Armenians would find scant place. Offials at Constantinople have declared that the Greeks also must follow in the same path, so that when Germany becomes master of Asia Minor, no stray races claiming the lands as inherently belonging to them thru centuries of occupation and dreaming of possible independent principalities, will be there to challenge the German right of occupancy. The Kurds could be easily subdued and the Turks would have no spirit to resist. Some have gone so far as to declare that the present attack upon the Armenians is but the first step in the preparation of the Promised Land for the incoming hosts.

 

On the other hand, if Constantinople capitulates to the Allies, and the two men who drove Turkey into war and rule her today with an iron hand and their German advisers are shorn of their power, there is reason to expect that the Turks as a whole will sue for peace, as multitudes of them today keenly desire to do.

 

We can hardly conceive of any power's favoring the perpetuation of Turkey in any form, after this ghastly exhibit of Moslem incapacity to rule alien peoples or even Mohammedans. At once then will and must begin the repatriation of the exiled Armenians and Greeks, for the Greeks also in a measure are suffering the same treatment. This will be an expensive task, but the civilized world must unite to achieve it. There are said to be 300,000 refuge Armenians in Russia and more than half that number in Persia. In their return naturally the most of them will drift back to the land of Ancient Armenia, where in a few years it will be possible to create, under the protection of one or more friendly powers, an autonomous Armenia. In western Asia Minor, where the Greeks predominate, a Greek principality would be the natural outcome.

 

We have reason to expect that following this baptism of fire and blood, Asia Minor, freed from Turkish domination, will become a place in which non-Moslem race may, for the first time in a century, live in peace and enjoy the prosperity due their quiet, constructive industry.

 

Just at the time when it seems that the tyranny of the Turk is about to be broken and submerged Christian peoples given an opportunity to develop a national life of their own, the terrible news comes to us that the Armenians are being massacres, dispersed and enslaved with the object of extirpating the race before the hour of their deliverance has come. In an editorial on another page if this issue we consider what this means to the world. We have also asked one who is better informed on the Armenian problem than any other man in America to explain who the Armenians are and what might be made of them if the red hand of the assassin can be stayed. On account of his official position and close relations with the people now endangered, it is necessary to conceal the name of the author, but we can vouch for his competency, high standing and truthfulness.--THE EDITOR.

 

 

 

[MosJan]

Add his name to this Honor Roll.

http://hyeforum.com/index.php?showtopic=11693&hl=

And please! Mutafoglu, stay out of this sacredly solemn ceremony.

 

 

don

[MosJan]

OPPOSITION CRITICIZES "WE ALL ARE ARMENIANS, WE ALL ARE HRANT" SLOGAN

 

Prime Minister Erdoghan Condemns Nationalists

 

On January 23, over 100 thousand participants of the funeral of the Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink were shouting "We all are Armenians, We all are Hrant" slogan. The Turkish "Star" reported about this in its January 25 issue. Muhusin Yazejeoghli, chairman of "Great Union" party greatly criticized this action of protest on January 24.

 

This party is a more extremist one, that the political union of the "grey wolves," i.e. the Nationalist Movement Party. On the contrary, the Democratic-Republican Party founded by Kemal Ataturk is considered to serve as a guarantee for democratic developments in Turkey.

 

Nevertheless, all these factors do not hinder Onur Oymen, former ambassador and deputy chairman of the party, to remember the 40 Turkish diplomates killed by the Armenian Secret Army for Liberation of Armenia, when holding a speech condemning the murder of Hrant Dink.

 

According to the Turkish Publis TV, Oymen stated that till now they didn’t reveal the murderers of most of their friends. "When Galip Balkar was killed and his body was brought to Turkey, only the family members and the officials from the foreign ministry participated in his funeral, instead of dozens of thousands rally participants. Certainly, we should pay tribute to the murdered and condemn murders, but we shouldn’t forget other victims and find forces in ourselves to shout "We all are Balkar, we all are Erez," he stated.

 

From this viewpoint, Develet Bahcheli, chairman of Nationalist Movement party, shared the ideas of Oymen. According to the January 24 issue of "Sabah," Bahcheli condemned those who demanded to make amendments to the article #301 of the Turkish Criminal Code after the murder of Hrant Dink. In particular, Bahcheli said:"The murder of Dink is a dirty deed. But one shouldn’t call the turksih state a murderer for this recent murder case and demand repsponsibility from those who came out to the streets with black flags immediately after the murder.

 

It is notable that these circles, even representing a part of the Turkish nation, never appear on the funeral of Armenian victims, but always find suitable inventing new slogans. This is a incosisitency that still lacks explanaiton.

 

Bahceli, condemning the "We are all Armenians, we are all Hrant" slogan, also tried to prevent accusing the nationalists for the murder. Even though leader of Turkey’s Nationalistic Movement party gave no name, Prime Minister Erdogan in his accusatory speech defined the addressee. "I can never recognize as nationalisst those people who do respect neither the law or the human rights and who kill guiltless people. No one but God can take a life of a man, given by God," said he.

 

It shoukld also be noted that Mr. Erdogan, so as to express his condolences to the Armenian people and the family of the victim, visited the house of Hrant Dink and the Armenian Patriarchy of Istanbul. On his meeting with the Armenian Patriarch Mesrop II Mutafian the Turkish Prime Minister said that besides punishing the murderer, the uthorities will do eevrything to find the organizers of the assasination.

 

By Hakob Chakrian

[MosJan]

ARMENIAN COSSACK ASSOCIATION AWARDED DINK WITH DUKE MADATOV PRIZE POSTHUMOUSLY

 

*

 

 

Armenian International Cossack Association (AICA) posthumously has awarded ‘Agos’ Armenian-Turkish bilingual weekly editor Hrant Dink, who was gunned down in Istanbul January 19, with ‘Honor and Fidelity’ prize after 1812 war hero Major-General duke Valerian Madatov. ‘Erkramas’ Armenian newspaper in Russia reports that the prize was given to slain Dink’s son and widow by AICA ataman Major-General Sergey Madatyan. The Cossack ataman arrived in Istanbul to attend Hrant Dink’s funeral and posthumously to award him with the above-mentioned prize.

[Stormig]

OPPOSITION CRITICIZES "WE ALL ARE ARMENIANS, WE ALL ARE HRANT" SLOGAN

 

Prime Minister Erdoghan Condemns Nationalists

 

On January 23, over 100 thousand participants of the funeral of the Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink were shouting "We all are Armenians, We all are Hrant" slogan. The Turkish "Star" reported about this in its January 25 issue. Muhusin Yazejeoghli, chairman of "Great Union" party greatly criticized this action of protest on January 24.

 

This party is a more extremist one, that the political union of the "grey wolves," i.e. the Nationalist Movement Party. On the contrary, the Democratic-Republican Party founded by Kemal Ataturk is considered to serve as a guarantee for democratic developments in Turkey.

 

Nevertheless, all these factors do not hinder Onur Oymen, former ambassador and deputy chairman of the party, to remember the 40 Turkish diplomates killed by the Armenian Secret Army for Liberation of Armenia, when holding a speech condemning the murder of Hrant Dink.

 

According to the Turkish Publis TV, Oymen stated that till now they didn’t reveal the murderers of most of their friends. "When Galip Balkar was killed and his body was brought to Turkey, only the family members and the officials from the foreign ministry participated in his funeral, instead of dozens of thousands rally participants. Certainly, we should pay tribute to the murdered and condemn murders, but we shouldn’t forget other victims and find forces in ourselves to shout "We all are Balkar, we all are Erez," he stated.

 

From this viewpoint, Develet Bahcheli, chairman of Nationalist Movement party, shared the ideas of Oymen. According to the January 24 issue of "Sabah," Bahcheli condemned those who demanded to make amendments to the article #301 of the Turkish Criminal Code after the murder of Hrant Dink. In particular, Bahcheli said:"The murder of Dink is a dirty deed. But one shouldn’t call the turksih state a murderer for this recent murder case and demand repsponsibility from those who came out to the streets with black flags immediately after the murder.

 

It is notable that these circles, even representing a part of the Turkish nation, never appear on the funeral of Armenian victims, but always find suitable inventing new slogans. This is a incosisitency that still lacks explanaiton.

 

Bahceli, condemning the "We are all Armenians, we are all Hrant" slogan, also tried to prevent accusing the nationalists for the murder. Even though leader of Turkey’s Nationalistic Movement party gave no name, Prime Minister Erdogan in his accusatory speech defined the addressee. "I can never recognize as nationalisst those people who do respect neither the law or the human rights and who kill guiltless people. No one but God can take a life of a man, given by God," said he.

 

It shoukld also be noted that Mr. Erdogan, so as to express his condolences to the Armenian people and the family of the victim, visited the house of Hrant Dink and the Armenian Patriarchy of Istanbul. On his meeting with the Armenian Patriarch Mesrop II Mutafian the Turkish Prime Minister said that besides punishing the murderer, the uthorities will do eevrything to find the organizers of the assasination.

 

By Hakob Chakrian

 

 

Boo hoo... Must be the patriarchal approach at work, as if they are headmasters scolding pupils. That's not the way the world turns around.

[MosJan]

in that case you tell as how and what happened/ or happening

[Stormig]

In Turkey, Hopes for Reconciliation Fade

By SELCAN HACAOGLU

Associated Press Writer

 

January 25, 2007,

ANKARA, Turkey -- As mourners streamed through the streets this week to honor slain ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, many liberal Turks were swept up in a sense that an unprecedented chance for ethnic and political reconciliation was at hand.

 

But a darker reality already has set in: Many Turks are rejecting the appeals for solidarity and democratic reform.

 

They say the tens of thousands who joined Dink's funeral procession in Istanbul on Tuesday were mainly urban intellectuals, hardly representative of a nation of more than 70 million people where conservative Islamic values are deep-seated and nationalist pride in "Turkishness" is strong.

 

Many support the views of nationalists who are becoming increasingly strident in their condemnation of Western values that they feel are being imposed on them by the European Union, which is considering Turkey's membership bid.

 

Dink had been forced to stand trial by nationalists angered by his calls to recognize the killings of Armenians in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire as genocide. He was shot down Friday, allegedly by a teenager who incited to the crime by four ultrarightists also charged in the case.

 

During his funeral procession, mourners chanted "We are all Armenians," urged liberal reform and called for the repeal of the law used to convict Dink on charges of "insulting Turkishness."

 

The pleas fell on deaf ears, with most Turks interviewed by The Associated Press on Thursday voicing opposition to making concessions to Armenians on the sensitive issue of the killings.

 

"They should speak for themselves, they cannot speak on behalf of Turks," Filiz Un, 32, said of the marchers honoring Dink. "I am sorry for him as a human, but they cannot pretend that all the Turkish public is behind them."

 

A headline in the right-wing newspaper Tercuman said anyone who isn't proud to be Turkish "should clear off and leave."

 

Turkey's largest nationalist party responded to the mourners' chants by posting its own slogan -- "We are all Turks" -- on a digital display outside a local party branch in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya.

 

And in a chilling sign that the suspects in Dink's killing have their supporters, a fake bomb was left outside the Turkish parliament building Thursday saying they should be set free, private CNN-Turk television reported.

 

That came a day after one of the men charged in the slaying issued a threat against Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, a Nobel literature prize-winner who also has been charged with insulting Turkey.

 

The defiant tone from nationalists alarmed mainstream politicians.

 

"You don't recognize any laws, you go and kill defenseless people? That's not nationalism," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. "If you do that, you are murderers and monsters. No one but God can take a life." (this is the same nationalist Erdogan who is behind 301...and accused Dink while he was alive)

 

Turkey's expulsion of ethnic Armenians during World War I -- which Armenians say claimed 1.5 million lives -- is a dark chapter rarely discussed publicly in Turkey or taught in its schools.

 

Turkey vehemently denies that many died or that it was genocide, saying the bloodshed came during the chaos of a disintegrating empire. It is battling Armenian diaspora groups that are pushing European governments and the United States to declare the killings genocide.

 

"There is a fault line passing right through the middle of society," wrote Turker Alkan, a columnist for the center-left newspaper Radikal.

 

"Those who cannot reconcile Hrant Dink's murder with humanity, consciousness and moral values are on the one side; those who don't really oppose the murder because of their nationalist sentiments and their religious beliefs are on the other," he added.

 

Selami Ince, news editor of the Istanbul-based Su TV, run by the Alawite Muslim sect, answered by saying few of the funeral marchers were Turks with roots in the Anatolian heartland.

 

"Unfortunately, they do not represent the Turkish public," Ince said. "The Turkish public has not filled the streets with demands of democracy and freedom. They were leftists, Armenians, Kurds and those intellectuals who favor multiculturalism."

 

 

To summarise the effects of what has happened as "hopes for reconciliation" undermines the real process. Dink strove for freedom of expression so that people like him could express their experiences and the experiences of their families without fear. Reconciliation will come after that, if it can. To expect reconciliation to start at this point and bear fruit is precocious and works against itself. The above shows examples of deviation. Do not be fooled!

[Stormig]

Rakel Dink's speech at her husband's funeral:

 

http://lraper.org/main.aspx?Action=Display...803&Lang=TR

 

Çutağıma (kemanıma) eş olmak bana verildi. Bugün çok acılı ve onurlu olarak buradayım. Ben, çocuklarım, ailem ve sizler çok acılıyız. Bu sessiz sevgi biraz olsun bize güç katıyor, kederli bir sevinç yaşatıyor.

 

İncil’den Yuhanna 15:13’te “Hiç kimsede, insanın dostları uğruna canını vermesinden daha büyük bir sevgi yoktur” der.

 

Sevgili dostlar, bugün bedenimin yarısını, sevgilimi, çocuklarımın babasını, sizin kardeşinizi uğurluyoruz. Sağdakine, soldakine, öndekine, arkadakine rahatsızlık, saygısızlık vermeden, sloganlar atmadan, pankartlar açmadan, sessiz bir saygı yürüyüşü gerçekleştiriyoruz.

 

Bugün sessizlik ile büyük bir ses yükselteceğiz. Bugün derinliklerin ışığa yükseldiği günün başlangıcıdır. Yaşı kaç olursa olsun 17 veya 27. Katil kim olursa olsun, bir zamanlar bebek olduğunu biliyorum. Bir bebekten bir katil yaratan karanlığı sorgulamadan hiçbir şey yapılamaz kardeşlerim.

 

Kardeşlerim,

 

Onun doğruluğa olan sevgisi, şeffaflığa olan sevgisi, dostuna olan sevgisi onu buraya getirdi. Korkuya meydan okuyan sevgisi onu büyüttü. "O büyük bir adamdı'' deniliyor. Size sorarım, “o büyük mü doğdu?” Hayır. O da bizim gibi doğdu. O gökten değildi. O da topraktandı. Bizim gibi çürüyen bir beden, fakat yaşayan ruhu, yaptığı iş, kullandığı üslup, gözlerindeki, yüreğindeki sevgi onu büyük yaptı.

 

İnsan kendiliğinden büyük olamaz. İnsanı yaptıkları büyük yapar. Evet, o büyük oldu. Çünkü büyük düşündü, büyük söyledi. Bugün buraya gelerek hepiniz büyük düşündünüz, sessizce büyük konuştunuz. Siz de büyüksünüz. Bugünle kalmayın, bu kadarla yetinmeyin.

 

O bugün Türkiye'de milat yaptı. Sizler de mührü oldunuz. Onunla manşetler, onunla konuşmalar, onunla yasaklar değişti. Onun için dokunulmazlar veya tabular yoktu. Kelam’da denildiği gibi, yüreğinden taştı. Büyük bir bedel ödedi. Bedellerin ödendiği gelecekler Hrantlar'ı severek, Hrantlar'a inanarak olur.

 

Nefretle, hakaretle, kanı kandan üstün tutarak olmaz. Bu yükseliş karşısındakini kendin gibi görerek, kendin gibi sayarak olur.

 

Hisus’un yardımıyla yarattığı ev cennetinden ayırdılar. Göksel ve ebedi cennete kanat açtırdılar. Gözleri daha yorulmadan, bedeni daha yaşlanmadan, daha hasta olmadan, sevdiklerine doymadan kanat açtırdılar göksel cennete. Biz de geleceğiz sevgilim.

 

Biz de geleceğiz o eşsiz cennete. Oraya yalnız ve yalnız sevgi girer. İnsanların ve meleklerin dillerinden üstün olan, peygamberlikten üstün olan, bütün sırları bilmekten üstün olan, dağları yerinden oynatacak imandan üstün olan, varını yoğunu sadaka vermekten üstün olan, bedenini yakılmaya teslim etmekten daha üstün olan yalnız ve yalnız sevgi girecek o cennete. Orada gerçek sevgi ile bir arada ebedince yaşayacağız. Kimseyi kıskanmayan sevgi, kimsenin malında gözü olmayan sevgi, kimseyi öldürmeyen sevgi, kimseyi aşağılamayan sevgi, kardeşini kendinden üstün tutan sevgi, kendi hakkından vaz geçen sevgi, kardeşinin hakkını arayan sevgi, Mesih’te bulunan sevgi. Ve bize dökülmüş olan sevgi.

 

Yaptıklarını, konuştuklarını kim unutabilir sevgilim? Hangi karanlık unutturabilir sevgilim? Olmuşları, olanları kim unutturabilir? Korku unutturabilir mi sevgilim? Yaşam mı, zulüm mü, dünyanın zevkü sefası mı sevgilim? Yoksa ölüm mü unutturacak sevgilim? Hayır, hiçbir karanlık unutturamaz sevgilim.

 

Ben de sana yazdım aşk mektubunu sevgilim. Bana da ağır oldu bedeli sevgilim. Bunları yazabilmeyi, Hisus’a borçluyum sevgilim. O’nun da hakkını O’na verelim sevgilim. Herkesin hakkını herkese geri verelim sevgilim.

 

Sevdiklerinden ayrıldın,

 

çocuklarından,

 

torunlarından ayrıldın,

 

burada seni uğurlayanlardan ayrıldın,

 

kucağımdan ayrıldın,

 

ülkenden ayrılmadın, Sevgilim!