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January 20, 2007

Turkey: "I shot the infidel" said Islamist killer

News from Telegraph, Associated Press, LA Times, and the Telegraph again:

Yesterday, the 53-year old editor of Turkey's only Armenian-language magazine, Agos, was shot dead in the street as he left his offices. He was hit three times in the head and neck, and died on the sidewalk. His killer, a teenaged young man in a white cap, shouted "I shot the infidel" as he ran off.

The editor, Hrant Dink, also owned the magazine. Two people were arrested yesterday after the killing in central Istanbul, but were later released. Three more people were arrested in the night.

Earlier, Hrant Dink was sentenced on 7 October 2005 to a six-month suspended sentence by the Sisli Court of Second Instance in Istanbul for breaking article 301 of the Turkish penal code, and "insulting Turkish identity". Dink's crime was to report in Agos of the effects the Armenian massacre from the time of World War 1 made upon members of the Armenian diaspora. Turkey denies that there was a genocide and claims that in 1915, no more than 30,000 Armenians and Kurds died, mostly of starvation. The Armenians were removed from their homes in eastern Turkey by force, accused of collaborating with invading Russian forces.

Dink appealed against the conviction of "insulting Turkish identity" but it was upheld by a court in 2006. He was facing trial over comments he made at a conference in 2002. That trial was initiated in 28 April 2005 at a court in the southeastern city of Sanliurfa.

Following his death, protesters gathered at the scene of the shooting. One said: "Anyone who pretends this is a democracy is a liar. A government that makes laws that target brave people like Mr Dink should be ashamed to talk about freedom of speech - they are all liars."

The Islamist prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said: "A bullet has been fired at Turkish democracy and free speech."

Mr Dink was aware that he was a potential target for assassins. In his last article, which is translated into English by the French-based Collectif VAN he compared himself to a pigeon, whose head swiveled about as he walked through Istanbul.

This is a section from the end:

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 Sisli 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 is 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.

While Article 301, the offense of "insulting Turkishness" remains on Turkey's statute books, cynically invoked by Erdogan and his cronies in the Justice Department, Turkey has no place in the democracy of Europe, where free speech should be the order of the day.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at January 20, 2007 6:32 AM

Comments

Posted by: learner at January 20, 2007 11:55 AM

Posted by: Catawhumpus at January 21, 2007 10:36 AM

Posted by: Catawhumpus at January 21, 2007 10:38 AM

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