Assassination Of Hrant Dink

[DominO]

ArmoArmeN, keep your personal problems out of this thread.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

ArmoArmeN, keep your personal problems out of this thread.

 

personal problems, such as?

 

[Yervant1]

Now, here is a sad possible scenario

 

His father gave him away, it was planned, he is 17 years old, so a minor, so the sentence will be a joke. They pied his family, the little price to pay (he will practically not have any prison sentence, he is a minor) is nothing compared to the financial gains after he get out of this situation. This is why he did not care much of being catched. They gave him the gun, the gun was new because a used one could lead to those who planned it. He shut, and said he shut the Armenian, doing anything to direct the attention on him.

 

It is very lucratif for his age, and given that he is a minor, he had no problem doing it and giving himself away, this was better than runing away for years and hidding.

 

The investigation should continue, as possibly his father is a member of some group, the kid was only used because he was a minor.

I doubt very much that 17 will be a minor in Turkey for murder.

[DominO]

I doubt very much that 17 will be a minor in Turkey for murder.

 

Someone from Turkey said he will. I don't know the Turkish penal code, so I have no option than believing that person.

[DominO]

personal problems, such as?

 

Personal, everything involving you and another member which is the business of no one beside you and that member. So, lets say your last two replies?

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Personal, everything involving you and another member which is the business of no one beside you and that member. So, lets say your last two replies?

 

why don't you insted tell it to the 'other member' whom you been defending for making racial and personal comments? is he your brother, by any chance?

Edited January 21, 2007 by ArmoArmeN

[DominO]

why don't you insted tell it to the 'other member' whom you been defending for making racial and personal comments? is he your brother, by any chance?

 

This is my last answer: Not the other member but you is continuing, as for racial comments, you have said as much about Turks in this very same thread, this thread which is about Dink dead, so please lets talk about that.

[nairi]

If he can't take the pressure he could have left the country.

 

So could all the other Armenians living there. Are you going to call them suckers as well for keeping to themselves and never saying a bad word about Turkey in public, even after they leave the country? I'm not worried one bit that he'll change his tune once that country calms down a bit, removes article 301, burns down every Ataturk poster in sight, and decides to abide by the basic laws of human rights. We saw what happened to Dink. Other Armenians in Turkey realize that that will be their fate if they speak up. They have known this since 1915. He's only trying to keep the one church that is still allowed to be kept alive alive. Yes, it's very easy to speak from the heights of the diaspora.

[nairi]

If we were to make a character profile of you, and compare it with one done for Dink's assassin, there would be little difference I think.

 

Why do you feel insulted every time the truth is told about your country? We've all known for a long time that the BBC is the spokesperson of the British government with no mind of its own. And we've all known for a long time that England only cares about its own interests and that those happen not to coincide with Armenia, but with Turkey. Perhaps because both have similar stories...

[Aratta-Kingdom]

This is my last answer: Not the other member but you is continuing,

 

you mean after i ask him a simple question and got insulted, i have no right to respond? if we gonna play childish, let do it. tell me who started to insult first? also, you didn't anwer to my first question. are in some way related to him?

 

 

 

 

as for racial comments, you have said as much about Turks in this very same thread, this thread which is about Dink dead, so please lets talk about that.

 

 

the assassination of Dink and genocide are racially committed crimes. anyone hating my race and willing hide it deserve no other treatement.

 

any other question?

 

 

 

 

[Yervant1]

So could all the other Armenians living there. Are you going to call them suckers as well for keeping to themselves and never saying a bad word about Turkey in public, even after they leave the country? I'm not worried one bit that he'll change his tune once that country calms down a bit, removes article 301, burns down every Ataturk poster in sight, and decides to abide by the basic laws of human rights. We saw what happened to Dink. Other Armenians in Turkey realize that that will be their fate if they speak up. They have known this since 1915. He's only trying to keep the one church that is still allowed to be kept alive alive. Yes, it's very easy to speak from the heights of the diaspora.

Politics of survival, too bad that most diasporans don't understand it because they have never been in that situation. I hear you Nairi.

[DominO]

So could all the other Armenians living there. Are you going to call them suckers as well for keeping to themselves and never saying a bad word about Turkey in public, even after they leave the country? I'm not worried one bit that he'll change his tune once that country calms down a bit, removes article 301, burns down every Ataturk poster in sight, and decides to abide by the basic laws of human rights. We saw what happened to Dink. Other Armenians in Turkey realize that that will be their fate if they speak up. They have known this since 1915. He's only trying to keep the one church that is still allowed to be kept alive alive. Yes, it's very easy to speak from the heights of the diaspora.

 

Nairi, no, I won't call them suckers, but Mutafian IS a sucker. Did you read all the craps he said? He did NOT just shut, he actually added and added and added and added and added...

[Error 404]

Mutafyan is is a coward and traitor. Dink is a hero and martyr.

 

Astvac hogin lusavori.

[annannimusss]

I watched the movie Screamers on Friday night and there was a part with him in it.I had never heard the man speak before and some of the stuff he was saying made a lot of sense.

[yalpa]

Now, here is a sad possible scenario

 

His father gave him away, it was planned, he is 17 years old, so a minor, so the sentence will be a joke. They pied his family, the little price to pay (he will practically not have any prison sentence, he is a minor) is nothing compared to the financial gains after he get out of this situation. This is why he did not care much of being catched. They gave him the gun, the gun was new because a used one could lead to those who planned it. He shut, and said he shut the Armenian, doing anything to direct the attention on him.

 

It is very lucratif for his age, and given that he is a minor, he had no problem doing it and giving himself away, this was better than runing away for years and hidding.

 

The investigation should continue, as possibly his father is a member of some group, the kid was only used because he was a minor.

 

Fortunately, his sentence no more will be a joke. It is different now, but whatever sentence he gets, it will not be enough in my eyes; what is lost is far too great.

 

The killer is already linked to a far-right wing organization called "nizamı alem ülkü ocağı." However, I would still look for a much bigger plot.

[Dave]

Yeah, I've read that he will probably be judged as a minor (he's 16-17 years old) which would obviously reduce his sentence to prison.

 

This would of course be not enough, unless they find and judge those who are truly behind the assassination.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

http://www.armenews.com/article.php3?id_article=28540

 

"The Pigeon-like Unease of My Inner Spirit" by Hrant Dink AGOS Newspaper 10 January 2007

translated by F.M. Gocek

 

 

samedi 20 janvier 2007, Stéphane/armenews

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did not at first feel troubled about the investigation that was filed against me by the Sisli public prosecutor’s office with the accusation of “insulting Turkishness.”

 

This was not the first time. I had been familiar to the accusation because of a similar lawsuit I had filed against me in Urfa . I was being tried in Urfa with the accusation of “denigrating Turkishness” over the past three years for having stated in a talk I gave at a conference there in 2002 that “I was not a Turk...but from Turkey and an Armenian.”

 

And I was even unaware about how the lawsuit was proceeding. I was not at all interested. My lawyer friends in Urfa were attending the hearings in my absence.

 

I was even quite nonchalant when I went and gave my deposition to the ªiºli public prosecutor. I ultimately had complete trust in what my intentions had been and what I had written. Once the prosecutor [had the chance] to evaluated not that single sentence from my editorial alone which made no sense by itself but the text as a whole, he would understand with great ease that I had no intention to “denigrate Turkishness” and this comedy would come to an end.

 

I was certain that a lawsuit would not be filed at the end of the investigation. I was sure of myself. But surprise ! A lawsuit was filed.

 

But I still did not lose my optimism.

 

So much so that at a television show that I joined live, I even told the lawyer [Kemal] Kerincsiz who was accusing me “that he should not get his hopes too high, that I was not going to be smacked with any sentence from this lawsuit, and that I would leave this country if I received a sentence.” I was sure of myself because I truly had not had in my article any premeditation or intention - not even a single iota - to denigrate Turkishness. Those who read the entirety of my collection of articles would understand this very clearly.

 

As a matter of fact, the report prepared by the three faculty members from Istanbul University who had been appointed by the court as experts stated exactly that. There was no reason for me to get troubled, there would certainly be a return from the wrongful path [of the lawsuit] at one stage of the proceedings or the other.

 

So I kept asking for patience...

 

But there was no such return.

 

The prosecutor asked for a sentence in spite of the expert report. The judge then sentenced me to six months in prison.

 

When I first heard about my sentence, I found myself under the bitter pressure of the hopes I had nurtured all along the process of the lawsuit. I was bewildered... My disappointment and rebellion were at their pinnacle.

 

I had resisted for days and months saying “just you wait for this decision to come out and once I am acquitted, then you will all be so repentant about all that you have said and written.”

 

In covering every hearing of the lawsuit, the newspapers items, editorials and television programs all referred to how I had said that “the blood of the Turk is poisonous.” Each and every time, they were adding to my fame as “the enemy of the Turk.” At the halls of the court, the fascists physically attacked me with racist curses.

 

They bombarded me with insults on their placards. The threats reaching hundreds that kept hailing for months through phones, e-mail and letters kept increasing each time.

 

And I persevered through all this with patience awaiting the decision for acquittal. Once the legal decision was announced, the truth was going to prevail and all these people would be ashamed of what they had done.

 

My only weapon was my sincerity. But here the decision was out and all my hopes were crushed. From then on, I was in the most distressed situation that a person could possibly be in.

 

The judge had made a decision in the name of the “Turkish nation” and had it legally registered that I had “denigrated Turkishness.” I could have persevered through anything except this.

 

According to my understanding, racism was the denigration by anyone of a person they lived alongside with on the basis of any difference, ethnic or religious and there was not any way in which this could ever be forgiven.

 

Well it was in this psychological state that I made the following declaration to the members of the media and friends who were at my doorstep trying to confirm “as to whether I would leave this country as I had indicated earlier :”

 

“I shall consult with my lawyers. I will appeal at the supreme court of appeal and will even go to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary. If I am not cleared through any one of these processes, then I shall leave my country. Because according to my opinion, someone who has been sentenced with such a crime does not have the right to live alongside the citizens whom he has denigrated.”

 

As I voiced this opinion, I was emotional as always. My only weapon was my sincerity.

 

Dark Humor

 

But it so happens that the deep force that was trying to single me out and make me an open target in the eyes of the people of Turkey found something wrong with this press release of mine as well and this time filed a lawsuit against me for attempting to influence the court. The entire Turkish media had given my declaration but what got their attention was what was writ in AGOS alone. And it so transpired that the legally responsible parties in the AGOS newspaper and I started to be tried this time around for attempting to influence the court. This must be what people call “dark humor.”

 

As I am the accused, who has the right more than the accused to try to influence the judiciary ? But look at this humorous situation that the accused is this time tried for trying to influence the judiciary.

 

“In the Name of the Turkish State ”

 

I have to confess that I had more than lost my trust in the concept of “Law” and the “System of Justice” in Turkey .

 

How could I have not ? Had these prosecutors, these judges not been educated in the university, graduated from faculties of law ? Weren’t they supposed to have the capacity to comprehend [and interpret] what they read ?

 

But it so transpires that the judiciary in this country, as also expressed without compunction by many a statesman and politician, is not independent.

 

The judiciary does not protect the rights of the citizen, but instead the State.

 

The judiciary is not there for the citizen, but under the control of the State.

 

As a matter of fact I was absolutely sure that even though it was stated that the decision in my case was reached “in the name of the Turkish nation,” it was a decision clearly not made “on behalf of the Turkish nation” but rather “on behalf of the Turkish state.” As a consequence, my lawyers were going to appeal the Supreme Court of Appeals, but what could guarantee that the deep forces that had decided to put me in my place would not be influential there either ?

 

And was it the case that the Supreme Court of Appeals always reached right decisions ? Wasn’t it the same Supreme Court of Appeal that had signed onto the unjust decision that stripped minority foundations of their properties ? [And had done so] in spite of the attempts of the Chief Public Prosecutor. And we did appeal and what did it get us ? Just like the report of the experts, the Chief Public Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals stated that there was no evidence of crime and asked for my acquittal but the Supreme Court of Appeals still found me guilty. The Chief Public Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals was just as certain about what he had read and understood as I had been about what I had written, so he objected to the decision and took the lawsuit to the General Council.

 

But what can I say, that great force which had decided once and for all to put me in my place and had made itself felt at every stage of my lawsuit through processes I would not even know about was there present once again behind the scenes. And as a consequence, it was declared by majority vote at General Council as well that I had denigrated Turkishness.

 

Like a Pigeon

 

This much is crystal clear that those who tried to single me out, render me weak and defenseless succeeded by their own measures. With the wrongful and polluted knowledge they oozed into society, they managed to form a significant segment of the population whose numbers cannot be easily dismissed who view Hrant Dink as someone “denigrating Turkishness.”

 

The diary and memory of my computer are filled with angry, threatening lines sent by citizens from this particular sector. (Let me note here at this juncture that even though one of these letters was sent from [the neighboring city of] Bursa and that I had found it rather disturbing because of the proximity of the danger it represented and [therefore] turned the threatening letter over to the ªiºli prosecutor’s office, I have not been able to get a result until this day.)

 

How real or unreal are these threats ? To be honest, it is of course impossible for me to know for sure. What it truly threatening and unbearable for me is the psychological torture I personally place myself in. “Now what are these people thinking about me ?” is the question that really bugs me. It is unfortunate that I am now better known than I once was and I feel much more the people throwing me that glance of “Oh, look, isn’t he that Armenian guy ?”

 

And I reflexively start torturing myself. One aspect of this torture is curiosity, the other unease. One aspect is attention, the other apprehension.

 

I am just like a pigeon.....

 

Obsessed just as much what goes on my left, right, front, back.

 

My head is just as mobile... and just as fast enough to turn right away.

 

And Here is the Cost for You

 

What did the Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül state ? The Justice Minister Cemil Çiçek ? “Come on, there is nothing to exaggerate about [legal code 301]. Is there anyone who has actually been tried and imprisoned from it ?” As if the only cost one paid was imprisonment... Here is a cost for you... Here is a cost... Do you know, oh ministers, what kind of a cost it is to imprison a human being into the apprehensiveness of a pigeon ?... Do you know ?.... You, don’t you ever watch a pigeon ?

 

What They Call “Life-or-Death” What I have lived through has not been an easy process... And what we have lived through as a family... There were moments when I seriously thought about leaving the country and moving far away. And especially when the threats started to involve those close to me... At that point I always remained helpless. That must be what they call “Life-or-Death.” I could have resisted out of my own will, but I did not have the right to put into danger the life of anyone who was close to me. I could have been my own hero, but I did not have the right to be brave by placing, let along someone close to me, any other person in danger. During such helpless times, I gathered my family, my children together and sought refuge in them and received the greatest support from them. They trusted in me.

 

Wherever I would be, they would be there as well. If I said “let’s go” they would go, if I said “let’s stay” they would come.

 

To Stay and Resist Okay, but if we went, where would we go ? To the Armenian Republic ? How long someone like me who could not stand injustices put up with the injustices there ? Would not I get into even deeper trouble there ?

 

To go and live in the European countries was not at all the thing for me. After all, I am such a person that if I travel to the West for three days, I miss my country on the fourth and start writhing in boredom saying “let this be over so I can go back,” so what would I end up doing there ? The comfort there would have gotten to me ! Leaving “boiling hells” for “ready-made heavens” was not at all right for my personality make up. We were people who volunteered to transform the hells they lived into heavens. To stay and live in Turkey was necessary because we truly desired it and [had to do so] out of respect to the thousands of friends in Turkey who gave a struggle for democracy and who supported us. We were going to stay and we were going to resist. If we were forced to leave one day however... We were going to set out just as in 1915...Like our ancestors... Without knowing where we were going... Walking the roads they walked through... Feeling the ordeal, experiencing the pain.... With such a reproach we were going to leave our homeland. And we would go where our feet took us, but not our hearts.

 

Apprehensive and Free

 

I wish that we would never ever have to experience such a departure. We have way too many reasons and hope not to experience it anyhow.

 

Now I am applying to the European Court of Human Rights. How long this lawsuit will last, I do not know. The fact that I do know and that somewhat puts me at ease is that I will be living in Turkey at least until the lawsuit is finalized. If the court decides in my favor, I will undoubtedly become very happy and it would mean that I would never have to leave my country. From my own vantage point, 2007 will probably be even a more difficult year. The trials will continue, new ones will commence. Who knows what kinds of additional injustices I would have to confront ? While all these occur, I will consider this one truth my only security. Yes, I may perceive myself in the spiritual unease of a pigeon, but I do know that in this country people do not touch pigeons. Pigeons live their lives all the way deep into the city, even amidst the human throngs. Yes, somewhat apprehensive but just as much free.

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Athens News Agency, Greece

Jan 20 2007

 

Gov't condemns murder of Turkish journalist

 

Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyiannis on Saturday deplored the murder

of Hrant Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian descent.

 

Dink had worked for the fundamental right to freedom of speech,

Bakoyiannis said in a statement.

 

"This cold-blooded murder runs contrary to the Turkish people's

efforts to win a future in Europe," the statement said.

 

"Greece unreservedly condemns any act of violence or terrorism,

and hopes for a swift resolution and punishment for the

perpetrators," it added.

 

Dink, editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, was

shot in broad daylight as he left his office in Istanbul on Friday.

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Focus News, Bulgaria

Jan 20 2007

 

French President Jacques Chirac ---Slaying of Turkish-Armenian Journalist 'abominable act':

 

 

20 January 2007 FOCUS News Agency

 

 

Paris. French President Jacques Chirac on Friday condemned the

assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink as "an

abominable act", AFP reports.

"I can't express strongly enough how I condemn this abominable act,

which deprives Turkey of one of its most courageous and free voices,"

wrote the French leader in a letter addressed to the journalist's

widow.

Dink, the 53-year-old editor of the weekly Agos newspaper, died when

an unidentified gunman shot him three times in the head and neck

outside his office in Istanbul.

"Hrant Dink was a fighter for freedom and defender of human rights,"

wrote Chirac, who also described Dink as an advocate for

reconciliation between Turks and Armenians.

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA

PRESS RELEASE

 

January 19, 2007

 

 

Amnesty International Condemns Murder of Hrant Dink

 

 

 

(Washington, DC) -- Amnesty International deplores the murder today

of the prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. The

organization believes that he was targeted because of his work as a

journalist who championed freedom of expression.

 

"This horrifying assassination silences one of Turkey's bravest human

rights defenders," said Maureen Greenwood-Basken, Amnesty

International USA (AIUSA) Advocacy Director for Europe and Central

Asia. "Writers put their lives on the line when they cover human

rights violations, as the cases of Russian journalist Anna

Politkovskaya, and now Hrant Dink, brutally illustrate.

 

"But legitimate debate about ideas must be protected. The Turkish

government must redouble its efforts to protect human rights

defenders and open its political climate to a range of views. Recent

legal reforms have brought many areas of Turkish law in line with

international human rights standards, but existing limitations on

free speech such as Article 301 must be repealed.

 

"The U.S. government, as one of Turkey's closest allies, should push

for a full and transparent investigation into Dink's murder."

 

AIUSA is a longstanding advocate of freedom of speech in Turkey and

around the world. In an online action in October 2006, AIUSA

activists sent thousands of messages urging repeal of Article 301.

 

Dink, editor of the newspaper Agos and contributor to the influential

daily Zaman, was reportedly shot three times today in Istanbul

outside the Agos offices. He was 53. Dink was a passionate promoter

of the universality of human rights who appeared on different

platforms with human rights activists, journalists and intellectuals

across the political spectrum. Best known for his willingness to

debate openly and critically issues of Armenian identity and official

versions of history in Turkey relating to the massacres of Armenians

in 1915, Dink also wrote widely on issues of democratization and

human rights.

 

"In Turkey there are still a number of harsh laws which endorse the

suppression of freedom of speech," said Nicola Duckworth, Europe and

Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International. "These

laws, coupled with the persisting official statements by senior

government, state and military officials condemning critical debate

and dissenting opinion, create an atmosphere in which violent attacks

can take place."

 

Last year, Dink was prosecuted for the third time on charges of

"denigrating Turkishness" under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal

Code. Amnesty International called for the repeal of that law and

condemned his prosecution as part of a pattern of judicial harassment

against him for peacefully expressing his dissenting opinion. Dink

had already been given a six-month suspended prison sentence in July

2006 following an October 2005 conviction on charges of "denigrating

Turkishness."

 

Amnesty International calls on the Turkish authorities to condemn all

forms of intolerance, to uphold the rights of all citizens of the

Turkish Republic and to investigate Dink?s murder thoroughly and

impartially, to make the findings of the investigation public and to

bring suspected perpetrators to justice in accordance with

international fair trial standards.

 

For further information about Amnesty International's concerns

regarding Article 301 please see Turkey: Article 301: How the law on

"denigrating Turkishness" is an insult to free expression.

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Houston Chronicle, TX

Jan 19 2007

 

 

 

 

The Associated Press

 

Jan. 19, 2007: Hrant Dink, editor of the Turkish-Armenian

newspaper Agos, is slain by a gunman in Istanbul.

 

Dec. 19, 2006: Writer Ipek Calislar acquitted of insulting Turkey's

founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, in a biography in which she said

Ataturk dressed as a woman to escape an assassination attempt.

 

Nov. 1, 2006: Archaeologist Ilmiye Cig acquitted of inciting

religious hatred by claiming that Islamic-style head scarves were

first used more than 5,000 years ago by priestesses initiating young

men into sex.

 

Sept. 21, 2006: Author Elif Safak acquitted of "insulting

Turkishness" for her fictional characters' statements about the

killings of Armenians.

 

July 27, 2006: Writer and journalist Perihan Magden acquitted of

turning people against military service by defending a conscientious

objector in her weekly magazine column.

 

July 11, 2006: A court confirmed a six-month sentence imposed on

Dink for "attempting to influence the judiciary" after his newspaper

ran articles criticizing a law that makes it a crime to "insult

Turkishness."

 

Feb. 7, 2006: A trial adjourned for five prominent Turkish

journalists charged with insulting the country's courts by

criticizing the court-ordered closure of an academic conference on

the Armenian issue. Two nationalist lawyers are removed after a fight

breaks out in the courtroom.

 

Jan. 23, 2006: A court drops charges of "insulting Turkishness"

against author Orhan Pamuk on a technicality. Pamuk was charged after

discussing the deaths of Armenians in Turkey with a Swiss newspaper.

He won the Nobel Prize for literature later in the year.

 

[Takoush]

Now, here is a sad possible scenario

 

His father gave him away, it was planned, he is 17 years old, so a minor, so the sentence will be a joke. They pied his family, the little price to pay (he will practically not have any prison sentence, he is a minor) is nothing compared to the financial gains after he get out of this situation. This is why he did not care much of being catched. They gave him the gun, the gun was new because a used one could lead to those who planned it. He shut, and said he shut the Armenian, doing anything to direct the attention on him.

 

It is very lucratif for his age, and given that he is a minor, he had no problem doing it and giving himself away, this was better than runing away for years and hidding.

 

The investigation should continue, as possibly his father is a member of some group, the kid was only used because he was a minor.

Absolutely. You are on target.

 

My thoughts from the beginning is that this was a plot. They have plotted to kill Dink a while back and probably this is coming from the Turkish government. They thought that this is a good timing, since the AG is underway and they wanted to divert the attention.

 

Like you said before, if we could only have it investigated from outside sources.

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Mediafax, Romania

Jan 19 2007

 

EU''s Olli Rehn ''Shocked'' Over Turkish-Armenian Journalist''s Murder

 

BRUSSELS, Jan 19

 

 

The European Commission voiced shock on Friday at the murder of

Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and urged Turkish authorities

to carry out a full investigation, EUbusiness online reported.

 

"I am shocked and saddened by this brutal act of violence," said EU

Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn in a statement.

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

Dink's Lawyer Fethiye Çetin: Turkish Nation Accepted Hrant Dink As Enemy

20.01.2007

 

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `Turkish nation accepted Hrant Dink as an

enemy. Soon presidential elections will be held in Turkey, and in

order to destabilize the situation in the country assassination method

was chosen and Hrant Dink became the victim,' stated Dink's lawyer

Fethiye Çetin. In her words, currently thousands of people have

gathered near `Agos' editorial office, who speak for freedom of speech

in Turkey. `And they chant `Armenians', of course, not in the sense of

nationality, but for the fact they share his views,' Çetin said,

 

 

[Aratta-Kingdom]

AEFJD: Turkey Kills Hrant Dink

 

20.01.2007

 

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `We condemned this hateful assassination' declared

Hilda Tchoboian, the chairperson of the European Armenian

Federation. `In a country where the system of education and the

political culture moulds the minds of the people with hatred towards

the Non-Turkish citizens of the country and where racism is rampant

with extreme-right organizations occupying a place of honor, this is a

sad reminder that things are far from changing in today's Turkey,'

declared Hilda Tchoboian. The Federation asserts that irrespective of

outcomes of the investigation the Turkish State has an undeniable

responsibility for this murder. AEFJD also condemns the Turkish

authorities for their incapacity in providing adequate security for

journalists and intellectuals.

 

The Federation notes that, among a dozen dissidents to the Turkish

State line, it is precisely the one with an Armenian origin who was

targeted by the murderers. `This deliberate act aims at maintaining

the Armenian community in a climate of terror in order to show them

that freedom of expression can have no place in Turkey, especially

concerning the Armenian Genocide, and that the community should not

overstep its limits', added Hilda Tchoboian.

 

She also stressed that any attempts by the Turkish government of

capitalizing on Hrant Dink's assassination to promote a liberal image

in Europe through public sympathizing would be the height of

cynicism. `The Turkish authorities would be well advised to refrain

from such cheap opportunism which would have no currency whatsoever in

Europe,' concluded Hilda Tchoboian.