Fri 19 Jan 2007
Turkish-Armenian Writer, Hrant Dink Assasinated in Istanbul
Author: Uğur Güney | Category: News1 Comment
Turkish-Armenian Writer Hrant Dink Assasinated
Prominent Turkish-Armenian writer and journalist Hrant Dink has been shot dead today while he was leaving the offices of the newspaper Agos which he founded and worked. He was subjected to criticism and harrasement by nationalists.
Source: BIA News Center
19/01/2007 BİA (Istanbul) - Turkish-Armenian writer and journalist Hrant Dink has been shot dead today while leaving the newspaper where he worked.
Dink, 53, was subjected to prosecutions and harrasement by nationalists concerning his views on the Armenian genocide claims and Turkey’s approach to the issue.
He was a public figure in Turkey - one of its most prominent Armenian voices. Despite all harrasement, he always insisted that he’s a Turkish citizen will fight for his right to free speech.
The police is looking for a young man as described by eye witnesses in relation to the murder. Friends tell Dink was receiving threats.
His life
Dink was born in 1954 in Malatya. When his parents divorced after moving to İstanbul in 1961, Hrant and his two brothers were placed in an Armenian orphanage in Gedikpasa.
He was influenced by the socialist movement in his youth. Following his graduation from İstanbul University he married to Rakel who he had met in the orphanage.
While working in the publishing house he established with his brothers, Dink also managed with his wife the Tuzla Armenian Children’s Campus where poor children were placed. The campus was confiscated by the state after 21 years of its establishment.
Dink began his writing career with book reviews for magazines published by ethnic Armenians in Turkey. Criticizing the closeness of the Armenian community, he moved on to establish Agos, a newspaper in Turkish and Armenian in 1996.
Hrant Dink promoted a culture of solidarity and peace between erthnic Armenians and Turks. He also called on the Armenian diaspora to evaluate the events of 1915 without a fixation on genocide but couldn’t avoid being punished for insulting Turkishness at home.(EU)
On November 9, 2005, a stranger approached the ‘Umut’ (which means ‘Hope’) Bookstore in Semdinli, a small town in southeastern Turkey populated mostly by Kurds. He took out two grenades from his pockets, threw them on the floor and fled. Seconds later, the little shop exploded. Seferi Yilmaz, the shop’s owner, -a former Kurdish rebel and political prisoner-, and the apparent target of the attack, saw the stranger and the bombs before the explosion and run after the suspect as the explosion took the life of his neighbor Mehmet Zahir Korkmaz. Following the bombing of the bookstore, townspeople, alerted by Seferi Yilmaz, witnessed that the suspect got into a car which was escaping from the place of incident. People ran after it and caught the car with the perpetrators in it. The suspect got frightened, opened the back of the car, took out a gun, and shouted: “I am a security personal, don’t touch me!” (Report of the Turkish Parliament’s Human Rights Commission on Semdinli Incident - Statements of the witnesses 2005 : 5)