REP. CROWLEY UNVEILS RESOLUTION CONDEMNING SHOOTING OF TURKISH-ARMENIAN JOURNALIST
Legislation Urges Repeal of Article 301 to Protect Human Rights, Freedom of Speech and Expression
Washington, DC – 29 January 2007 - One week after more than 100,000 mourned slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in Istanbul, US Congressman Joseph Crowley (D-Queens & the Bronx) introduced legislation (H. Res. 102) in the US House of Representatives condemning the Agos newspaper editor’s assassination, and calling on Turkish authorities to continue investigating the circumstances and fully prosecute those involved in the murder.
“Today, as members of the US House of Representatives, we join the people of Turkey and Armenia in mourning the loss of Hrant Dink, and condemn the senseless murder of an outstanding individual who truly led a courageous life,” Crowley said. “Hrant Dink was a man of conviction and principle who fought for freedom of the press and speech, and for tolerance and understanding. Through his illustrious career as a journalist he tried to bridge the divide between Turkish and Armenian people by fostering a dialogue in the newspaper he founded, Agos.”
Hrant Dink founded the bilingual weekly newspaper Agos in April 1996, to foster a dialogue and encourage understanding between the Turkish-Armenian community and the larger Turkish population. He served as its editor until Jan. 19, 2007, when he was shot dead outside of Agos’ main office in downtown Istanbul. H. Res. 102 is expected to be voted in the House as an up or down vote within the next two weeks.
Journalists and the media community around the world recognized and honored Hrant Dink for his courage and principles, and he was awarded the prestigious Bjornson Prize for Literature for his publications on the Armenian genocide. Hrant Dink’s support for human rights and outspokenness of injustices in Turkey against ethnicArmenians won him notoriety with authorities, who prosecuted and convicted him in court for insulting Turkishness in Turkey under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. Congressman Crowley’s resolution also urges the government of Turkey to
repeal this section of Turkish law that prohibits free speech and is used
to silence critics.
Congressman Crowley stated, “We ask that the government of Turkey remove Article 301, which is an outright attack on the fundamental right to freedom of speech. Authorities should do all in their power to stop acts of intolerance, intimidation and violence against individuals who exercise this fundamental right from happening.”
* EDITORIAL IN THE BOSTON GLOBE
Murder and paranoia in Turkey
January 25, 2007
THERE WAS a huge turnout in Istanbul 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.
Speaking at the slain editor's graveside, the Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II said: "We continue to hope that the Turks will recognize that Armenians are Turkish citizens who have been living on this soil for millennia and are neither foreigners nor potential enemies." What is shocking about this plea for understanding is that it needed to be made. The patriarch's hope for Turkish acceptance of Armenians as full
citizens who can be loyal to Turkey reflects a deeply rooted confusion about something called Turkish identity.
Dink was killed by a 17-year-old who had been given a gun and told to carry out the murder by an ultra nationalist from his home town who had served 10 months in prison for bombing a McDonald's. The assassin told 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 cortege, there is a clear connection between the nationalist paranoia that produced such a law and the murder of writers and 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 -- what some Turkish liberals call a "deep state" that acts independently of elected governments -- 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.
(c) Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
January 25, 2007
THERE WAS a huge turnout in Istanbul 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.
Speaking at the slain editor's graveside, the Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II said: "We continue to hope that the Turks will recognize that Armenians are Turkish citizens who have been living on this soil for millennia and are neither foreigners nor potential enemies." What is shocking about this plea for understanding is that it needed to be made. The patriarch's hope for Turkish acceptance of Armenians as full
citizens who can be loyal to Turkey reflects a deeply rooted confusion about something called Turkish identity.
Dink was killed by a 17-year-old who had been given a gun and told to carry out the murder by an ultra nationalist from his home town who had served 10 months in prison for bombing a McDonald's. The assassin told 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 cortege, there is a clear connection between the nationalist paranoia that produced such a law and the murder of writers and 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 -- what some Turkish liberals call a "deep state" that acts independently of elected governments -- 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.
(c) Copyright
* STATEMENT BY AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE
AJC Calls on Turkey to Ensure Freedom of Expression
January 25, 2007 – New York – The American Jewish Committee is joining in the call for abolition of Turkish legislation, Law 301, which makes it a crime to “insult the Turkish identity.”
We join with our friends in the American Turkish community, as expressed by the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, in this effort. Law 301 is widely believed to have created the atmosphere that encouraged those responsible for the murder of Hrant Dink, the Turkish Armenian editor of Agos, who was shot at his Istanbul office last Friday.
AJC condemned the killing of Dink, and sent condolences to his family and those who advocate for the full freedom of expression in Turkey. The outpouring of grief, illustrated by the more than 100,000 mourners who walked with his coffin on Tuesday, sends a strong message to Prime Minister Erdogan and his administration that they should take steps to guarantee the full rights of expression in the media and other public forums.
AJC, the oldest human relations organization in the United States, has long championed Turkey as a secular and democratic state, and is concerned that Dink’s murder will stand as a blot on Turkey’s admirable progress and could hinder the country’s accession to the European Union.
”Abolishing Law 301 will be a significant step to bring Turkey into conformity with the policies of the European Union and Western democracies in guaranteeing the full rights of expression,” said Barry Jacobs, AJC’s director of strategic studies, who had met Dink on several occasions. “It is time for demagogues to stop using the theme of Turkish ‘minorities’ as political slander.”
For further information telephone or email Barry Jacobs at (202) 785-5462; jacobsb@ajc.org
January 25, 2007 – New York – The American Jewish Committee is joining in the call for abolition of Turkish legislation, Law 301, which makes it a crime to “insult the Turkish identity.”
We join with our friends in the American Turkish community, as expressed by the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, in this effort. Law 301 is widely believed to have created the atmosphere that encouraged those responsible for the murder of Hrant Dink, the Turkish Armenian editor of Agos, who was shot at his Istanbul office last Friday.
AJC condemned the killing of Dink, and sent condolences to his family and those who advocate for the full freedom of expression in Turkey. The outpouring of grief, illustrated by the more than 100,000 mourners who walked with his coffin on Tuesday, sends a strong message to Prime Minister Erdogan and his administration that they should take steps to guarantee the full rights of expression in the media and other public forums.
AJC, the oldest human relations organization in the United States, has long championed Turkey as a secular and democratic state, and is concerned that Dink’s murder will stand as a blot on Turkey’s admirable progress and could hinder the country’s accession to the European Union.
”Abolishing Law 301 will be a significant step to bring Turkey into conformity with the policies of the European Union and Western democracies in guaranteeing the full rights of expression,” said Barry Jacobs, AJC’s director of strategic studies, who had met Dink on several occasions. “It is time for demagogues to stop using the theme of Turkish ‘minorities’ as political slander.”
For further information telephone or email Barry Jacobs at (202) 785-5462; jacobsb@ajc.org
* VICKEN CHETERIAN'S ARTICLE AT WWW.OPENDEMOCRACY.NET
The pigeon sacrificed: Hrant Dink, and a broken dialogue
Vicken Cheterian
23 - 1 - 2007
The assassination of Hrant Dink has destroyed a bridge between Turks and Armenians, says Vicken Cheterian.
The assassination of Hrant Dink in Istanbul on 19 January 2007 has had the effect of a tsunami. Never before has the killing of a journalist caused so much uproar in Turkey. Never before has such an event mobilised so many people; several thousand of them gathering spontaneously on the same day in downtown Istanbul, near the offices of the newspaper Agos where Hrant worked. Several thousand others demonstrated in Ankara, Izmir, and Malatya, the eastern town where Hrant Dink was born in 1954. The journalist's funeral in Istanbul on 23 January was attended by even larger crowds, united in grief and solidarity.
Only thirty-two hours after the murder, Turkish police arrested a teenager, born in 1990, identified as Ogün Samast, a school dropout from the city of Samsun on the Black Sea coast. Samast is reported to have confessed his crime: he had planned the assassination months before because he considered Hrant Dink to have insulted "the Turkish race". "I shot him after saying the Friday prayers. I'm not sorry ... I read news on the internet. He said 'I'm from Turkey but Turkish blood is dirty' and that's why I decided to kill him" (AFP, 21 January 2007).
Freedom's price
Yet, this teenager was not alone in killing Hrant Dink. To the friends of Hrant, there is something bigger involved: the political context in Turkey that created the pressure leading to this tragic death. Orhan Pamuk, Nobel prize winner and a friend of Hrant Dink, had the following to say: "In a sense, we are all responsible for his death. However, at the very forefront of this responsibility are those who still defend Article 301 of the Turkish penal code. Those who campaigned against him, those who portrayed this sibling of ours as an enemy of Turkey, those who painted him as a target, they are the most responsible in this."
Who was Hrant Dink? And who murdered him?
He was a citizen of Turkey of Armenian heritage. He was from a new generation of Armenians who did not fear Turkey, who wanted to live on the land of their ancestors and exercise all their rights, and who wanted to see Turkey a land where human rights and freedoms flourished. He firmly believed in, or hoped for, Turkey's integration into Europe, its values and institutions.
Hrant did not merely talk about freedom of speech, he exercised it. In 1996, he and a group of enthusiasts were instrumental in the creation of Agos, a bilingual weekly in Armenian and Turkish. In only a few years the circulation of Agos increased to 6,000. But its influence carried further; it was the place where Turkish and Armenian intellectuals and journalists met and engaged in dialogue.
Soon, Hrant's exercise of freedom of speech forced him into a clash with Turkey's political system of "official truth". He was brought to trial twice under the infamous Article 301 of Turkish civil code for having "insulted Turkishness". By the time of his assassination a third court case against him for having qualified the repression of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915-18 by its name: genocide.
A great sympathy and solidarity was expressed in Turkey in the wake of Hrant's death. Many who demonstrated chanted: "We are all Hrant Dink!" or "We are all Armenians!" - slogans reprinted on placards and banners displayed at the writer's funeral. But others saw in this assassination "dark hands" that plot against Turkish national interests.
Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had this to say: "It is very meaningful that the murderers have chosen Dink as their victim this time. We find it very meaningful that this murder has been committed at a time when Armenian claims of genocide were brought to the spotlight especially in some countries." Others have gone further to make the fantastical suggestion that the criminal was ... of Armenian origin. In the mind of some Turkish officials, the victim and the perpetrator have exchanged places.
A distorting mirror
Turkey has a difficulty with its past. For the last nine decades officials in Turkey have faced questions on the fate of its former Armenian community by negating the historical facts. When confronted with the question of genocide, the official Turkish response is threefold:
there was no intention to destroy the entire Armenian nation, only to transfer civilians from war-zones to more "secure" regions (the Syrian desert ...) the numbers of the victims are exaggerated - that it is not 1.5 million Armenians who died, but just a few hundred thousands (official Turkish sources often suggest as few as 300,000) the Armenians deserved it since they collaborated with the enemies of the Ottoman empire.
As Turkey came under increasing foreign pressure and internal questioning about its past, its negation has become increasingly deformed. In the city of Van (once a thriving centre of Armenian culture, and which had a large Armenian population until the genocide), the city museum has a section on genocide. But the bones displayed there - so the official captions explain - are of Turkish victims who were slaughtered by Armenians.
In 1997, the Turkish government erected a huge genocide monument in the town of Igdir, on the border with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran, to commemorate the Turkish victims who, according to the Turkish official narration, were killed by Armenians. The monument is depicted by a sword, directed towards Armenia, under the shadow of Ararat. Again, victim and perpetrator are mistaken, and have exchanged places. After such state-sponsored distortion, how would many young men feel if they are told the truth by a dissident journalist?
A blockade of the mind
This official policy concerns more than Turkey's Armenian minority, which is estimated to number between 60,000-70,000. Turkey has equally difficult relations with its eastern neighbour, Armenia itself. For the last fourteen years, Turkey has refused to open its borders with Armenia, until a solution is found to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
It has also refused to have diplomatic exchanges with Yerevan. The result is that Armenia, a poor and landlocked country, pays a heavy price: experts gathered in Yerevan to discuss Turkish-Armenian relations have estimated this blockade to cost Armenia the equivalent of 10-15% of its GDP. Even more important for Armenians, is that this policy is a constant reminder of a threat: that the past is not over, that relations with Turkey are not normalised.
The killing of Hrant Dink will not silence the questions he posed, nor put an end to the ongoing debate within Turkish society itself. Turkish officials have themselves chosen to seek to join the European Union, and as a consequence they have to face difficult questions, asked both by outsiders and by voices from within Turkish society:
can freedom of speech coexist with the official negation and distortion of Turkey's past?
what is the shortest way to reconciliation?
Hrant Dink was the bridge linking Turkey with Armenia, and the Turkish-Armenian community with Armenians and others abroad. This bridge is now broken. But the presence of Armenian dignitaries at Dink's funeral suggests that it can be rebuilt. The way forward remains clear.
Copyright © Vicken Cheterian, Published by openDemocracy Ltd
Vicken Cheterian
23 - 1 - 2007
The assassination of Hrant Dink has destroyed a bridge between Turks and Armenians, says Vicken Cheterian.
The assassination of Hrant Dink in Istanbul on 19 January 2007 has had the effect of a tsunami. Never before has the killing of a journalist caused so much uproar in Turkey. Never before has such an event mobilised so many people; several thousand of them gathering spontaneously on the same day in downtown Istanbul, near the offices of the newspaper Agos where Hrant worked. Several thousand others demonstrated in Ankara, Izmir, and Malatya, the eastern town where Hrant Dink was born in 1954. The journalist's funeral in Istanbul on 23 January was attended by even larger crowds, united in grief and solidarity.
Only thirty-two hours after the murder, Turkish police arrested a teenager, born in 1990, identified as Ogün Samast, a school dropout from the city of Samsun on the Black Sea coast. Samast is reported to have confessed his crime: he had planned the assassination months before because he considered Hrant Dink to have insulted "the Turkish race". "I shot him after saying the Friday prayers. I'm not sorry ... I read news on the internet. He said 'I'm from Turkey but Turkish blood is dirty' and that's why I decided to kill him" (AFP, 21 January 2007).
Freedom's price
Yet, this teenager was not alone in killing Hrant Dink. To the friends of Hrant, there is something bigger involved: the political context in Turkey that created the pressure leading to this tragic death. Orhan Pamuk, Nobel prize winner and a friend of Hrant Dink, had the following to say: "In a sense, we are all responsible for his death. However, at the very forefront of this responsibility are those who still defend Article 301 of the Turkish penal code. Those who campaigned against him, those who portrayed this sibling of ours as an enemy of Turkey, those who painted him as a target, they are the most responsible in this."
Who was Hrant Dink? And who murdered him?
He was a citizen of Turkey of Armenian heritage. He was from a new generation of Armenians who did not fear Turkey, who wanted to live on the land of their ancestors and exercise all their rights, and who wanted to see Turkey a land where human rights and freedoms flourished. He firmly believed in, or hoped for, Turkey's integration into Europe, its values and institutions.
Hrant did not merely talk about freedom of speech, he exercised it. In 1996, he and a group of enthusiasts were instrumental in the creation of Agos, a bilingual weekly in Armenian and Turkish. In only a few years the circulation of Agos increased to 6,000. But its influence carried further; it was the place where Turkish and Armenian intellectuals and journalists met and engaged in dialogue.
Soon, Hrant's exercise of freedom of speech forced him into a clash with Turkey's political system of "official truth". He was brought to trial twice under the infamous Article 301 of Turkish civil code for having "insulted Turkishness". By the time of his assassination a third court case against him for having qualified the repression of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915-18 by its name: genocide.
A great sympathy and solidarity was expressed in Turkey in the wake of Hrant's death. Many who demonstrated chanted: "We are all Hrant Dink!" or "We are all Armenians!" - slogans reprinted on placards and banners displayed at the writer's funeral. But others saw in this assassination "dark hands" that plot against Turkish national interests.
Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had this to say: "It is very meaningful that the murderers have chosen Dink as their victim this time. We find it very meaningful that this murder has been committed at a time when Armenian claims of genocide were brought to the spotlight especially in some countries." Others have gone further to make the fantastical suggestion that the criminal was ... of Armenian origin. In the mind of some Turkish officials, the victim and the perpetrator have exchanged places.
A distorting mirror
Turkey has a difficulty with its past. For the last nine decades officials in Turkey have faced questions on the fate of its former Armenian community by negating the historical facts. When confronted with the question of genocide, the official Turkish response is threefold:
there was no intention to destroy the entire Armenian nation, only to transfer civilians from war-zones to more "secure" regions (the Syrian desert ...) the numbers of the victims are exaggerated - that it is not 1.5 million Armenians who died, but just a few hundred thousands (official Turkish sources often suggest as few as 300,000) the Armenians deserved it since they collaborated with the enemies of the Ottoman empire.
As Turkey came under increasing foreign pressure and internal questioning about its past, its negation has become increasingly deformed. In the city of Van (once a thriving centre of Armenian culture, and which had a large Armenian population until the genocide), the city museum has a section on genocide. But the bones displayed there - so the official captions explain - are of Turkish victims who were slaughtered by Armenians.
In 1997, the Turkish government erected a huge genocide monument in the town of Igdir, on the border with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran, to commemorate the Turkish victims who, according to the Turkish official narration, were killed by Armenians. The monument is depicted by a sword, directed towards Armenia, under the shadow of Ararat. Again, victim and perpetrator are mistaken, and have exchanged places. After such state-sponsored distortion, how would many young men feel if they are told the truth by a dissident journalist?
A blockade of the mind
This official policy concerns more than Turkey's Armenian minority, which is estimated to number between 60,000-70,000. Turkey has equally difficult relations with its eastern neighbour, Armenia itself. For the last fourteen years, Turkey has refused to open its borders with Armenia, until a solution is found to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
It has also refused to have diplomatic exchanges with Yerevan. The result is that Armenia, a poor and landlocked country, pays a heavy price: experts gathered in Yerevan to discuss Turkish-Armenian relations have estimated this blockade to cost Armenia the equivalent of 10-15% of its GDP. Even more important for Armenians, is that this policy is a constant reminder of a threat: that the past is not over, that relations with Turkey are not normalised.
The killing of Hrant Dink will not silence the questions he posed, nor put an end to the ongoing debate within Turkish society itself. Turkish officials have themselves chosen to seek to join the European Union, and as a consequence they have to face difficult questions, asked both by outsiders and by voices from within Turkish society:
can freedom of speech coexist with the official negation and distortion of Turkey's past?
what is the shortest way to reconciliation?
Hrant Dink was the bridge linking Turkey with Armenia, and the Turkish-Armenian community with Armenians and others abroad. This bridge is now broken. But the presence of Armenian dignitaries at Dink's funeral suggests that it can be rebuilt. The way forward remains clear.
Copyright © Vicken Cheterian, Published by openDemocracy Ltd
* HUGH POPE'S OP-ED IN THE L.A. TIMES
Armenia haunts the Turks again
The killing of a prominent Armenian journalist last week further widens the gap between Turkey and Europe.
By Hugh Pope, HUGH POPE is the author of "Sons of the Conquerors: the Rise of the Turkic World." He lives in Istanbul.
January 23, 2007
IS THERE A CURSE hanging over Turkey? Each time the country achieves sustained development, something trips it up. This time it was the assassination on Friday of Hrant Dink, a newspaper editor, peacemaker and one of Turkey's most prominent Armenians.
Turkey is trying to rise to the challenge, as its credibility in talks on membership in the European Union is at stake. Denunciations of the slaying - from the government, from Islamic leaders, from the army - fill the airwaves. Thousands of Turks marched through the streets of Istanbul hours after the editor was shot, shouting, "We are all Armenians! We are all Hrant Dink!"
Police have arrested a suspect who has confessed to pulling the trigger, but no murkiness must remain about the people and the thinking behind the killing. The alleged killer is under 18 and is close to right-wing nationalists. Dink, who was repeatedly threatened by such nationalists, was left unprotected, but not just by the Turkish police. Bad laws, malevolent prosecutions and a growing nationalist hysteria helped create a lynch mob atmosphere.
What killed Dink, in short, is the Turkish republic's inability to deal with the Armenian issue - the charge that its predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire, killed 1.2 million Armenian men, women and children in a genocide that began in 1915.
Official Turkey is stuck in a rut of denial. Discussing the great omissions on the subject in Turkey's public education remains taboo. Efforts to open archives and to "leave it to the historians" lead to dead ends, partly because a scholarly debate won't assuage diaspora Armenians who demand formal acknowledgment of the genocide, and partly because of Turkey's anti-free-speech laws - most notoriously Penal Code Article 301, with its catchall penalties for "denigrating Turkishness."
The Turks have reasons to feel victimized. Christian powers don't apologize much for ethnic cleansing carried out between 1821 and 1923, when they rolled back the borders of the Ottoman Empire. Millions of Muslims were killed. In 1915, World War I was raging. Turkey was again under attack from Russia in the east and Britain and France in the west. The Armenian leadership openly sided with Turkey's enemies, demanded a state on Ottoman land and formed anti-Ottoman militias. Many Turks were killed by these Armenian groups.
Turkey fears an official apology for the Armenian deaths would trigger claims on its land or on seized Armenian assets. Turks cannot believe the sincerity of foreign parliaments which, usually ill-informed about the Turkish case, give in to Armenian diaspora lobbying for genocide declarations. (One such bill looks likely to pass the U.S. Congress in April.) Politics often seems to trump history. Would the French Parliament have made it a crime last year to deny a "genocide" by the Turks if an unrelated desire to keep Turkey out of the European Union had not been prevalent?
Dink didn't take this maximal view of Turkish evil. He once wrote that diaspora Armenians should commit their energy to independent Armenia and not "let hatred of the Turks poison their blood." Idiotically, it was that very column that led to his trial for violating Article 301, on the pretext that he had said Turks were poisonous. The misquote is the motive the assassin has given to police for his act - yet the Turkish media keep recycling this libel. Commentators are subtly shirking responsibility by labeling the murder a "provocation" or blaming "outside forces."
Brave new Turkish novels, films, exhibitions and conferences have tried to reassess the Armenian issue in recent years. But the nationalist upsurge has slowed if not stopped that progress.
Neither Turks nor Armenians should go on like this. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan could try a grand gesture. He might open the border with Armenia, closed since the early 1990s. He could advocate an international conference, where Turkey could argue its case that there was no centralized attempt to wipe out the Armenians. After all, Turkey already officially accepts that 300,000 people died. Best of all, Erdogan could abolish Article 301, which makes intellectuals like Dink a target.
None of this, however, is likely to happen. Turkey has presidential and parliamentary elections this year, and ultranationalists pose the main challenge to Erdogan's centrist, pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party, or AKP. Europe - whose support is critical in making a Turkish regime feel safe to reform - seems in no mood to extend lines of political credit to Turkey. Dink was a rare Armenian ready to compromise with Turkey, and his assassination will deter replacements.
So the gap between Turkey and Europe will widen again. Muddled thinking and inward-looking nationalism will continue to plague Turkey, and not only in its approach to the Armenian problem. After all, Dink's death is the symptom of negative currents that persist, not their cause. And that, of course, is why Turkey's curse keeps returning to strike with such tragic ease.
The killing of a prominent Armenian journalist last week further widens the gap between Turkey and Europe.
By Hugh Pope, HUGH POPE is the author of "Sons of the Conquerors: the Rise of the Turkic World." He lives in Istanbul.
January 23, 2007
IS THERE A CURSE hanging over Turkey? Each time the country achieves sustained development, something trips it up. This time it was the assassination on Friday of Hrant Dink, a newspaper editor, peacemaker and one of Turkey's most prominent Armenians.
Turkey is trying to rise to the challenge, as its credibility in talks on membership in the European Union is at stake. Denunciations of the slaying - from the government, from Islamic leaders, from the army - fill the airwaves. Thousands of Turks marched through the streets of Istanbul hours after the editor was shot, shouting, "We are all Armenians! We are all Hrant Dink!"
Police have arrested a suspect who has confessed to pulling the trigger, but no murkiness must remain about the people and the thinking behind the killing. The alleged killer is under 18 and is close to right-wing nationalists. Dink, who was repeatedly threatened by such nationalists, was left unprotected, but not just by the Turkish police. Bad laws, malevolent prosecutions and a growing nationalist hysteria helped create a lynch mob atmosphere.
What killed Dink, in short, is the Turkish republic's inability to deal with the Armenian issue - the charge that its predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire, killed 1.2 million Armenian men, women and children in a genocide that began in 1915.
Official Turkey is stuck in a rut of denial. Discussing the great omissions on the subject in Turkey's public education remains taboo. Efforts to open archives and to "leave it to the historians" lead to dead ends, partly because a scholarly debate won't assuage diaspora Armenians who demand formal acknowledgment of the genocide, and partly because of Turkey's anti-free-speech laws - most notoriously Penal Code Article 301, with its catchall penalties for "denigrating Turkishness."
The Turks have reasons to feel victimized. Christian powers don't apologize much for ethnic cleansing carried out between 1821 and 1923, when they rolled back the borders of the Ottoman Empire. Millions of Muslims were killed. In 1915, World War I was raging. Turkey was again under attack from Russia in the east and Britain and France in the west. The Armenian leadership openly sided with Turkey's enemies, demanded a state on Ottoman land and formed anti-Ottoman militias. Many Turks were killed by these Armenian groups.
Turkey fears an official apology for the Armenian deaths would trigger claims on its land or on seized Armenian assets. Turks cannot believe the sincerity of foreign parliaments which, usually ill-informed about the Turkish case, give in to Armenian diaspora lobbying for genocide declarations. (One such bill looks likely to pass the U.S. Congress in April.) Politics often seems to trump history. Would the French Parliament have made it a crime last year to deny a "genocide" by the Turks if an unrelated desire to keep Turkey out of the European Union had not been prevalent?
Dink didn't take this maximal view of Turkish evil. He once wrote that diaspora Armenians should commit their energy to independent Armenia and not "let hatred of the Turks poison their blood." Idiotically, it was that very column that led to his trial for violating Article 301, on the pretext that he had said Turks were poisonous. The misquote is the motive the assassin has given to police for his act - yet the Turkish media keep recycling this libel. Commentators are subtly shirking responsibility by labeling the murder a "provocation" or blaming "outside forces."
Brave new Turkish novels, films, exhibitions and conferences have tried to reassess the Armenian issue in recent years. But the nationalist upsurge has slowed if not stopped that progress.
Neither Turks nor Armenians should go on like this. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan could try a grand gesture. He might open the border with Armenia, closed since the early 1990s. He could advocate an international conference, where Turkey could argue its case that there was no centralized attempt to wipe out the Armenians. After all, Turkey already officially accepts that 300,000 people died. Best of all, Erdogan could abolish Article 301, which makes intellectuals like Dink a target.
None of this, however, is likely to happen. Turkey has presidential and parliamentary elections this year, and ultranationalists pose the main challenge to Erdogan's centrist, pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party, or AKP. Europe - whose support is critical in making a Turkish regime feel safe to reform - seems in no mood to extend lines of political credit to Turkey. Dink was a rare Armenian ready to compromise with Turkey, and his assassination will deter replacements.
So the gap between Turkey and Europe will widen again. Muddled thinking and inward-looking nationalism will continue to plague Turkey, and not only in its approach to the Armenian problem. After all, Dink's death is the symptom of negative currents that persist, not their cause. And that, of course, is why Turkey's curse keeps returning to strike with such tragic ease.
* ARTICLE BY RONALD SUNY IN THE NATION
Hrant Dink (1954-2007)
by RONALD GRIGOR SUNY
[posted online on January 22, 2007]
Hrant Dink, the courageous editor of the Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos, was murdered in the middle of the day on Friday, January 19, on a city street in front of his office in Istanbul, by a 17-year-old man he had never met. Shot three times in the nape of the neck, he lay face down on the sidewalk, the blood pooling under him. His killer fled, brandishing his pistol and shouting, "I have killed an Armenian!" Dink was not killed for any deed or personal grudge but for who he was and for his words--words that were thought by nationalist Turks and right-wing opponents to be a threat to the Turkish state and to "Turkishness." He was 52 years old, a man of enormous energy and passion, someone who embraced those who met him, enveloping them both physically and with his charm and charisma. The circles of his admirers extended far beyond the small, beleaguered community of Turkish Armenians.
Thousands gathered in Istanbul's central square, Taksim, in the hours after his killing and chanted, "We are all Armenians! We are all Hrant Dink!" For those who loved him or were moved by his words, it is impossible to believe he is dead.
Whatever the immediate motives of the young assassin from Trebizond to stop Dink's pen, Dink knew that he was extraordinarily vulnerable in the corrosive political atmosphere gathering in Turkey, an atmosphere enflamed by state prosecutions of dissident voices and nationalist media. "My computer's memory," he wrote in his last editorial, "is loaded with sentences full of hatred and threats. I am just like a pigeon.... I look around to my left and right, in front and behind me." Like novelist Elif Shafak and Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, both of whom have raised the issue of the genocidal deportations and massacres of hundreds of thousands of Armenians at the end of the Ottoman Empire, so Dink had been brought before Turkish courts and accused under the infamous Article 301 of "insulting Turkishness." And like the others he had not been jailed but given a suspended sentence, a gesture signaling that the Turkish state was still wavering between adopting the legal norms of Europe and turning its back on the invitation to join the European Union.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other officials from the government condemned the murder, and the culprit--Ogun Samast--was quickly apprehended. But in statements from the authorities some of the blame was placed on those outside Turkey who have brought forth parliamentary resolutions, as in France recently, to recognize the events of 1915 officially as a genocide. For eleven years Dink had edited Agos, a small-circulation newspaper, and though it had but 6,000 subscribers, its resonance was like a bell in a quiet night. In an interview with the Committee to Protect Journalists in February 2006, he remarked, "The prosecutions are not a surprise for me. They want to teach me a lesson because I am Armenian. They try to keep me quiet." When asked who "they" are, he answered as many in the Turkish opposition answer: "the deep state in Turkey," referring to the dark forces within the military and power ministries, as well as nationalist elements, to which even the mildly Islamist Erdogan government must defer.
The paradox of Dink's death is that he was killed in the name of a particularly narrow notion of patriotism while he was himself a fervent Turkish patriot. His vision of his native country was of a modern democratic, tolerant state on the eastern edge of Europe, in which his own people, the Armenians, could live with Turks, Kurds, Jews, Greeks and the other peoples who had coexisted, however uneasily, in the cosmopolitan empire out of which the Turkish Republic had emerged. What he could not tolerate was the denial of the shared history of those peoples, a history that involved mass killing of Armenians and more recent repression of Kurds. Dink was an active participant in the vital civil society in Turkey, key members of which have taken up the question of the Armenian genocide as an opening wedge to investigate the blank spots of Turkey's past. He participated in international meetings that included Armenian and Turkish scholars exploring the causes and consequences of the policies of the Young Turk government during World War I. Last year he spoke at a Turkish academic conference on this theme at Istanbul's Bilgi University, a breakthrough meeting that clearly frightened those nationalists who want to bury the inconvenient past.
While he was vitally interested in setting the record straight on 1915, Dink was more interested in the movement for Turkish democracy than in international recognition of the Armenian massacres as a genocide. Democracy in Turkey, he believed, would easily settle that historical matter. For some Armenians in the diaspora who know Turks far less well than their compatriots who live in Turkey, Dink's lack of fanaticism on this issue made him suspect, though his outspokenness in the face of official sanction gave him a heroic aura. Last year the Norwegians awarded him the Bjornson Academy Prize for protection of freedom of expression. In his speech at Bilgi University last year, he told the largely Turkish audience, "We want this land; not to take it away but to lie under it!"
by RONALD GRIGOR SUNY
[posted online on January 22, 2007]
Hrant Dink, the courageous editor of the Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos, was murdered in the middle of the day on Friday, January 19, on a city street in front of his office in Istanbul, by a 17-year-old man he had never met. Shot three times in the nape of the neck, he lay face down on the sidewalk, the blood pooling under him. His killer fled, brandishing his pistol and shouting, "I have killed an Armenian!" Dink was not killed for any deed or personal grudge but for who he was and for his words--words that were thought by nationalist Turks and right-wing opponents to be a threat to the Turkish state and to "Turkishness." He was 52 years old, a man of enormous energy and passion, someone who embraced those who met him, enveloping them both physically and with his charm and charisma. The circles of his admirers extended far beyond the small, beleaguered community of Turkish Armenians.
Thousands gathered in Istanbul's central square, Taksim, in the hours after his killing and chanted, "We are all Armenians! We are all Hrant Dink!" For those who loved him or were moved by his words, it is impossible to believe he is dead.
Whatever the immediate motives of the young assassin from Trebizond to stop Dink's pen, Dink knew that he was extraordinarily vulnerable in the corrosive political atmosphere gathering in Turkey, an atmosphere enflamed by state prosecutions of dissident voices and nationalist media. "My computer's memory," he wrote in his last editorial, "is loaded with sentences full of hatred and threats. I am just like a pigeon.... I look around to my left and right, in front and behind me." Like novelist Elif Shafak and Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, both of whom have raised the issue of the genocidal deportations and massacres of hundreds of thousands of Armenians at the end of the Ottoman Empire, so Dink had been brought before Turkish courts and accused under the infamous Article 301 of "insulting Turkishness." And like the others he had not been jailed but given a suspended sentence, a gesture signaling that the Turkish state was still wavering between adopting the legal norms of Europe and turning its back on the invitation to join the European Union.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other officials from the government condemned the murder, and the culprit--Ogun Samast--was quickly apprehended. But in statements from the authorities some of the blame was placed on those outside Turkey who have brought forth parliamentary resolutions, as in France recently, to recognize the events of 1915 officially as a genocide. For eleven years Dink had edited Agos, a small-circulation newspaper, and though it had but 6,000 subscribers, its resonance was like a bell in a quiet night. In an interview with the Committee to Protect Journalists in February 2006, he remarked, "The prosecutions are not a surprise for me. They want to teach me a lesson because I am Armenian. They try to keep me quiet." When asked who "they" are, he answered as many in the Turkish opposition answer: "the deep state in Turkey," referring to the dark forces within the military and power ministries, as well as nationalist elements, to which even the mildly Islamist Erdogan government must defer.
The paradox of Dink's death is that he was killed in the name of a particularly narrow notion of patriotism while he was himself a fervent Turkish patriot. His vision of his native country was of a modern democratic, tolerant state on the eastern edge of Europe, in which his own people, the Armenians, could live with Turks, Kurds, Jews, Greeks and the other peoples who had coexisted, however uneasily, in the cosmopolitan empire out of which the Turkish Republic had emerged. What he could not tolerate was the denial of the shared history of those peoples, a history that involved mass killing of Armenians and more recent repression of Kurds. Dink was an active participant in the vital civil society in Turkey, key members of which have taken up the question of the Armenian genocide as an opening wedge to investigate the blank spots of Turkey's past. He participated in international meetings that included Armenian and Turkish scholars exploring the causes and consequences of the policies of the Young Turk government during World War I. Last year he spoke at a Turkish academic conference on this theme at Istanbul's Bilgi University, a breakthrough meeting that clearly frightened those nationalists who want to bury the inconvenient past.
While he was vitally interested in setting the record straight on 1915, Dink was more interested in the movement for Turkish democracy than in international recognition of the Armenian massacres as a genocide. Democracy in Turkey, he believed, would easily settle that historical matter. For some Armenians in the diaspora who know Turks far less well than their compatriots who live in Turkey, Dink's lack of fanaticism on this issue made him suspect, though his outspokenness in the face of official sanction gave him a heroic aura. Last year the Norwegians awarded him the Bjornson Academy Prize for protection of freedom of expression. In his speech at Bilgi University last year, he told the largely Turkish audience, "We want this land; not to take it away but to lie under it!"
* STATEMENT BY THE U.S. COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
USCIRF Calls for Thorough Investigation into Journalist's Killing
WASHINGTON--The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom condemns the killing in Istanbul on Friday of Mr. Hrant Dink, a well-known journalist and editor whom the Commission met on its recent visit to Turkey. The Commission extends its sincere condolences to Mr. Dink's family.
"The Commission is profoundly saddened by the news of Mr. Dink's murder," said Felice D. Gaer, chair of the Commission. "Mr. Dink was a courageous journalist who fought for and defended freedom of expression in his country. We commend the swift and unequivocal statement of Prime Minister Erdogan denouncing this horrendous act and vowing to pursue the person or persons responsible. We urge that the investigation be thorough, transparent, and credible."
Mr. Dink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian ethnicity, had been convicted under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code of insulting the Turkish state, because of his use of the term "Armenian genocide" in his public remarks and written publications. His conviction was converted to a suspended sentence following European Union and other international pressure. Dink wrote in one of his newspaper columns that he had received anonymous death threats. He told members of the commission on their recent visit to Turkey that he continued to receive numerous death threats in the face of his discussion of issues of religious and political freedom considered by the
Turkish state to be controversial.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress.
Visit our Web site at www.uscirf.gov
800 NORTH CAPITOL STREET, NW SUITE 790 WASHINGTON, DC 20002 202-523-3240
202-523-5020 (FAX)
WASHINGTON--The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom condemns the killing in Istanbul on Friday of Mr. Hrant Dink, a well-known journalist and editor whom the Commission met on its recent visit to Turkey. The Commission extends its sincere condolences to Mr. Dink's family.
"The Commission is profoundly saddened by the news of Mr. Dink's murder," said Felice D. Gaer, chair of the Commission. "Mr. Dink was a courageous journalist who fought for and defended freedom of expression in his country. We commend the swift and unequivocal statement of Prime Minister Erdogan denouncing this horrendous act and vowing to pursue the person or persons responsible. We urge that the investigation be thorough, transparent, and credible."
Mr. Dink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian ethnicity, had been convicted under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code of insulting the Turkish state, because of his use of the term "Armenian genocide" in his public remarks and written publications. His conviction was converted to a suspended sentence following European Union and other international pressure. Dink wrote in one of his newspaper columns that he had received anonymous death threats. He told members of the commission on their recent visit to Turkey that he continued to receive numerous death threats in the face of his discussion of issues of religious and political freedom considered by the
Turkish state to be controversial.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress.
Visit our Web site at www.uscirf.gov
800 NORTH CAPITOL STREET, NW SUITE 790 WASHINGTON, DC 20002 202-523-3240
202-523-5020 (FAX)
* STATEMENT BY HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Turkey: Outspoken Turkish-Armenian Journalist Murdered
Prosecutions for Speech Created Hostile Environment for Media
(New York, January 20, 2007) – The Turkish government should fully investigate the murder of the influential and outspoken Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, Human Rights Watch said today. Dink, a commentator and critic of Turkey’s human rights record and the slow progress of its reform efforts, was the editor of Agos (Furrow), a bilingual Turkish- and Armenian-language newspaper.
Dink was best known for his writing and public statements about the massacres of Armenians in southern Anatolia at the end of the Ottoman Empire, which remains one of the most controversial and emotionally charged issues in Turkey today. Dink had faced prosecution for his views and had reportedly also received death threats.
“We are deeply saddened by Hrant Dink’s murder,” said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director for Human Rights Watch. “Dink’s killing robs Turkey of an important voice of conscience on the need for Turkey to come to terms with its past.”
Dink had been prosecuted three times for his statements under article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code for “insulting Turkishness.” Most recently, in July 2006, the Supreme Court upheld a six-month prison sentence against Dink under article 301 for an editorial concerning the 1915 massacres of Armenians in Anatolia. The sentence was suspended, but other speech-related charges were still pending against him at the time of his death.
Turkey continues to prosecute and convict individuals who peacefully exercise their right to free expression. In 2006 alone, more than 50 individuals were indicted for statements or speeches that questioned state policy on controversial topics such as religion, ethnicity, and the role of the army. Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called for the repeal of article 301, as well as other legislation that is used to restrict free expression in Turkey.
These repeated prosecutions, as well as growing political tensions in Turkey in the lead-up to 2007 presidential and parliamentary elections, have created an environment of intolerance and hostility, which increases the risk that such violent attacks will occur.
Human Rights Watch called on the Turkish government to conduct a thorough investigation into the murder of Hrant Dink and to hold accountable those involved in the murder. Human Rights Watch also again called on the Turkish government to abolish article 301 and to drop all charges against journalists, writers, and editors like Dink who face prosecution for their peaceful expression.
Prosecutions for Speech Created Hostile Environment for Media
(New York, January 20, 2007) – The Turkish government should fully investigate the murder of the influential and outspoken Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, Human Rights Watch said today. Dink, a commentator and critic of Turkey’s human rights record and the slow progress of its reform efforts, was the editor of Agos (Furrow), a bilingual Turkish- and Armenian-language newspaper.
Dink was best known for his writing and public statements about the massacres of Armenians in southern Anatolia at the end of the Ottoman Empire, which remains one of the most controversial and emotionally charged issues in Turkey today. Dink had faced prosecution for his views and had reportedly also received death threats.
“We are deeply saddened by Hrant Dink’s murder,” said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director for Human Rights Watch. “Dink’s killing robs Turkey of an important voice of conscience on the need for Turkey to come to terms with its past.”
Dink had been prosecuted three times for his statements under article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code for “insulting Turkishness.” Most recently, in July 2006, the Supreme Court upheld a six-month prison sentence against Dink under article 301 for an editorial concerning the 1915 massacres of Armenians in Anatolia. The sentence was suspended, but other speech-related charges were still pending against him at the time of his death.
Turkey continues to prosecute and convict individuals who peacefully exercise their right to free expression. In 2006 alone, more than 50 individuals were indicted for statements or speeches that questioned state policy on controversial topics such as religion, ethnicity, and the role of the army. Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called for the repeal of article 301, as well as other legislation that is used to restrict free expression in Turkey.
These repeated prosecutions, as well as growing political tensions in Turkey in the lead-up to 2007 presidential and parliamentary elections, have created an environment of intolerance and hostility, which increases the risk that such violent attacks will occur.
Human Rights Watch called on the Turkish government to conduct a thorough investigation into the murder of Hrant Dink and to hold accountable those involved in the murder. Human Rights Watch also again called on the Turkish government to abolish article 301 and to drop all charges against journalists, writers, and editors like Dink who face prosecution for their peaceful expression.
* STATEMENT BY PEN
PEN Alarmed by Murder of Armenian-Turkish Journalist
New York, NY, January 19, 2007—PEN, the international association of writers, is appalled by the news of the murder today of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, who was shot dead outside his office in Istanbul.
“We are horrified,” said Larry Siems, Director of Freedom to Write and International Programs at PEN American Center. “Hrant Dink was one of the heroes of the nonviolent movement for freedom of expression in Turkey—a movement in which writers, editors, and publishers have practiced civil disobedience by defying laws that censored or suppressed important truths in that country. Theirs is one of the most significant human rights movements of our time. Hrant Dink’s countrymen can help cement some of the gains he helped win for them by sending a strong, unified message that those responsible must be brought to justice for his murder.”
Dink, one of the most prominent ethnic Armenians in Turkey, was editor-in-chief of the Armenian-Turkish weekly newspaper Agos, a paper that seeks to provide a voice to the Armenian community and create a dialogue between Turks and Armenians. He was also a well-known commentator on Armenian affairs. In July 2006, Dink was handed a six-month suspended sentence for insulting Turkishness after writing an article which called for Armenians to “now turn their attention to the new life offered by an independent Armenia.” A week later, the Istanbul Public Prosecutor opened a new case against Dink for referring to the 1915 massacre of Armenians as a "genocide" during a July 14 interview with Reuters. Dink was awaiting his next trial for these charges at the time of his death.
Just before his assassination, Dink had complained of death threats he was receiving from nationalists. Early reports note that Dink was shot four times by a young man who appeared to be 18 or 19 years old. Police in riot gear surrounded Dink's office in downtown Istanbul. Forensic teams were combing the pavement outside for clues to the murder.
During the past 24 months, PEN has followed over 60 cases of writers, journalists, and publishers who were brought before courts or faced prosecution for their writings. Around 15 of these are currently facing charges similar to those levied against Hrant Dink. Some recent notable cases include that of Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel laureate charged with insulting Turkishness for a comment published in a Swiss newspaper in 2005 in which he was quoted as saying that “thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it,” Turkish prosecutors later decided not to proceed with a court case against him; five journalists who were accused of “interfering” with the judiciary for their comments on attempts to ban a conference; and publisher Abdullah Yilmaz, who faces trial for issuing a Turkish edition of Greek writer Mara Meimaridi’s novel The Witches of Smyrna. Scenes in that book describing parts of the Turkish quarter of Izmir as dirty have triggered charges of “denigrating Turkish national identity.”
Jiri Grusa, International President of International PEN, the world association of writers, called the murder “a symptom of old hatreds that threaten the relationship of all Turkish people to the democratic values shared in Europe and the world.” PEN calls upon the Turkish government to do all in its power to apprehend Dink’s killer.
For more information, contact: Larry Siems, (212) 334-1660, ext. 105, lsiems@pen.org
New York, NY, January 19, 2007—PEN, the international association of writers, is appalled by the news of the murder today of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, who was shot dead outside his office in Istanbul.
“We are horrified,” said Larry Siems, Director of Freedom to Write and International Programs at PEN American Center. “Hrant Dink was one of the heroes of the nonviolent movement for freedom of expression in Turkey—a movement in which writers, editors, and publishers have practiced civil disobedience by defying laws that censored or suppressed important truths in that country. Theirs is one of the most significant human rights movements of our time. Hrant Dink’s countrymen can help cement some of the gains he helped win for them by sending a strong, unified message that those responsible must be brought to justice for his murder.”
Dink, one of the most prominent ethnic Armenians in Turkey, was editor-in-chief of the Armenian-Turkish weekly newspaper Agos, a paper that seeks to provide a voice to the Armenian community and create a dialogue between Turks and Armenians. He was also a well-known commentator on Armenian affairs. In July 2006, Dink was handed a six-month suspended sentence for insulting Turkishness after writing an article which called for Armenians to “now turn their attention to the new life offered by an independent Armenia.” A week later, the Istanbul Public Prosecutor opened a new case against Dink for referring to the 1915 massacre of Armenians as a "genocide" during a July 14 interview with Reuters. Dink was awaiting his next trial for these charges at the time of his death.
Just before his assassination, Dink had complained of death threats he was receiving from nationalists. Early reports note that Dink was shot four times by a young man who appeared to be 18 or 19 years old. Police in riot gear surrounded Dink's office in downtown Istanbul. Forensic teams were combing the pavement outside for clues to the murder.
During the past 24 months, PEN has followed over 60 cases of writers, journalists, and publishers who were brought before courts or faced prosecution for their writings. Around 15 of these are currently facing charges similar to those levied against Hrant Dink. Some recent notable cases include that of Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel laureate charged with insulting Turkishness for a comment published in a Swiss newspaper in 2005 in which he was quoted as saying that “thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it,” Turkish prosecutors later decided not to proceed with a court case against him; five journalists who were accused of “interfering” with the judiciary for their comments on attempts to ban a conference; and publisher Abdullah Yilmaz, who faces trial for issuing a Turkish edition of Greek writer Mara Meimaridi’s novel The Witches of Smyrna. Scenes in that book describing parts of the Turkish quarter of Izmir as dirty have triggered charges of “denigrating Turkish national identity.”
Jiri Grusa, International President of International PEN, the world association of writers, called the murder “a symptom of old hatreds that threaten the relationship of all Turkish people to the democratic values shared in Europe and the world.” PEN calls upon the Turkish government to do all in its power to apprehend Dink’s killer.
For more information, contact: Larry Siems, (212) 334-1660, ext. 105, lsiems@pen.org
* STATEMENT BY AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Amnesty International Condemns Murder of Hrant Dink
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.
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.
* PAYAM AKHAVAN'S OP-ED IN THE NATIONAL POST
The long shadow
Monday, January 22, 2007
The prominent journalist and voice of Turkey's dwindling Armenian minority, Hrant Dink, was shot dead on Jan. 19 as he left his office in Istanbul. Dink was editor of Agos, the sole Armenian newspaper in Turkey. He had been prosecuted because of his call for recognition of Ottoman Turkey's 1915 massacre of 1.5 million of its ethnic Armenian citizens -- a crime against humanity that the Canadian House of Commons formally acknowledged in April, 2004. His murder starkly demonstrates how Turkish denial of this abomination, the first genocide of the 20th century, amounts to continuing violence against multi-ethnic democracy and pluralism. It is a painful reminder that without redemption for past injustices, the ghosts of history will cast a long shadow on Turkey's future.
Mr. Dink was convicted in October, 2005, of the crime of "insulting Turkishness" under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. In being branded as a criminal for calling attention to the 1915 genocide, he joined the ranks of prominent fellow ethnic Turkish citizens, including the famous novelist Orhan Pamuk, recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, the renowned intellectual Murat Belge, who organized a conference on the Armenian genocide in 2005, and the courageous historian Taner Akcam, author of A Shameful Act which details Turkish responsibility for the events of 1915. These eminent Turks would argue that the greatest insult to "Turkishness" is the continuing denial of this historical tragedy, which brutally ripped Turkey's multiethnic fibre apart, and that the greatest disgrace is the appeasement of ethnic chauvinists who seek to destroy its modest but precious remnants. The truth that Mr. Dink and his fellow citizens upheld transcends ties of blood and soil. This was
poignantly expressed at the candlelight vigil after his murder, where hundreds of Turks held signs reading: "We are all Hrant Dink. We are all Armenians."
The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan, condemned Mr. Dink's murder as a "bullet aimed at free speech." But so long as Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code criminalizes "insulting Turkishness," these remain empty words. Limitations on freedom of speech should apply to hate speech, not to speech against hate. Recognition of past injustice promotes mutual respect and redeems a shared humanity. But its denial sows the seeds of hatred, by perpetuating both the dehumanization of its victims and the moral depravity of its perpetrators. In a world where Holocaust denial is a crime, state-sanctioned denial of genocide is all the more reproachable. It is telling that when the House of Commons recognized the Armenian genocide in 2004, Turkey condemned "narrow minded Canadian politicians" who failed to understand that their decision "will awaken feelings of hatred among people of different [ethnic] roots and disturb social harmony." The murder of Mr. Dink should leave no doubt that social harmony is not achieved through appeasement of ethnic chauvinists.
Mr. Dink's last op-ed, written on Jan. 10, a few days prior to his murder, is a testament to his nobility and heroism. He speaks of death threats against him, but he fears for his family and not for himself. And despite his ordeal, he speaks of his abiding commitment to Turkey and its people: "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." But to stay 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] struggled for democracy and who supported us. We were going to stay and we were going to resist." In an allusion to the recurring trauma of collective destruction and exile, he reveals how strongly he was
clinging to his beloved home: "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." It is in light of this vivid memory of 1915 that the magnitude of his murder becomes apparent, almost as if thoseunspeakable events have continued unabated to the present day.
In his last days, Mr. Dink wrote that he felt the "unease of a pigeon" that must constantly live in fear of being preyed upon. But in an expression of unfailing hope and trust in his fellow Turkish citizens, he remained confident 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." Yet, it was in the busy streets of Istanbul, amidst the human throngs, that he was shot to death. At least if this shocking betrayal awakens the Turkish people to the paramount necessity of atonement for the past, Mr. Dink's confidence in his
fellow citizens may still be vindicated, and the restless ghosts of Ottoman times may finally repose in their sepulchers.
- Payam Akhavan is a professor of International Law at McGill University in Montreal and a former UN war crimes prosecutor at The Hague.
© National Post 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
The prominent journalist and voice of Turkey's dwindling Armenian minority, Hrant Dink, was shot dead on Jan. 19 as he left his office in Istanbul. Dink was editor of Agos, the sole Armenian newspaper in Turkey. He had been prosecuted because of his call for recognition of Ottoman Turkey's 1915 massacre of 1.5 million of its ethnic Armenian citizens -- a crime against humanity that the Canadian House of Commons formally acknowledged in April, 2004. His murder starkly demonstrates how Turkish denial of this abomination, the first genocide of the 20th century, amounts to continuing violence against multi-ethnic democracy and pluralism. It is a painful reminder that without redemption for past injustices, the ghosts of history will cast a long shadow on Turkey's future.
Mr. Dink was convicted in October, 2005, of the crime of "insulting Turkishness" under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. In being branded as a criminal for calling attention to the 1915 genocide, he joined the ranks of prominent fellow ethnic Turkish citizens, including the famous novelist Orhan Pamuk, recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, the renowned intellectual Murat Belge, who organized a conference on the Armenian genocide in 2005, and the courageous historian Taner Akcam, author of A Shameful Act which details Turkish responsibility for the events of 1915. These eminent Turks would argue that the greatest insult to "Turkishness" is the continuing denial of this historical tragedy, which brutally ripped Turkey's multiethnic fibre apart, and that the greatest disgrace is the appeasement of ethnic chauvinists who seek to destroy its modest but precious remnants. The truth that Mr. Dink and his fellow citizens upheld transcends ties of blood and soil. This was
poignantly expressed at the candlelight vigil after his murder, where hundreds of Turks held signs reading: "We are all Hrant Dink. We are all Armenians."
The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan, condemned Mr. Dink's murder as a "bullet aimed at free speech." But so long as Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code criminalizes "insulting Turkishness," these remain empty words. Limitations on freedom of speech should apply to hate speech, not to speech against hate. Recognition of past injustice promotes mutual respect and redeems a shared humanity. But its denial sows the seeds of hatred, by perpetuating both the dehumanization of its victims and the moral depravity of its perpetrators. In a world where Holocaust denial is a crime, state-sanctioned denial of genocide is all the more reproachable. It is telling that when the House of Commons recognized the Armenian genocide in 2004, Turkey condemned "narrow minded Canadian politicians" who failed to understand that their decision "will awaken feelings of hatred among people of different [ethnic] roots and disturb social harmony." The murder of Mr. Dink should leave no doubt that social harmony is not achieved through appeasement of ethnic chauvinists.
Mr. Dink's last op-ed, written on Jan. 10, a few days prior to his murder, is a testament to his nobility and heroism. He speaks of death threats against him, but he fears for his family and not for himself. And despite his ordeal, he speaks of his abiding commitment to Turkey and its people: "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." But to stay 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] struggled for democracy and who supported us. We were going to stay and we were going to resist." In an allusion to the recurring trauma of collective destruction and exile, he reveals how strongly he was
clinging to his beloved home: "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." It is in light of this vivid memory of 1915 that the magnitude of his murder becomes apparent, almost as if thoseunspeakable events have continued unabated to the present day.
In his last days, Mr. Dink wrote that he felt the "unease of a pigeon" that must constantly live in fear of being preyed upon. But in an expression of unfailing hope and trust in his fellow Turkish citizens, he remained confident 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." Yet, it was in the busy streets of Istanbul, amidst the human throngs, that he was shot to death. At least if this shocking betrayal awakens the Turkish people to the paramount necessity of atonement for the past, Mr. Dink's confidence in his
fellow citizens may still be vindicated, and the restless ghosts of Ottoman times may finally repose in their sepulchers.
- Payam Akhavan is a professor of International Law at McGill University in Montreal and a former UN war crimes prosecutor at The Hague.
© National Post 2007
* STEPHEN KINZER’S OP-ED IN THE BOSTON GLOBE
A journalist's dangerous mission
January 20, 2007
THE LAST TIME I met Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian journalist who was murdered in Istanbul yesterday, I felt a sudden need to do more than just exchange pleasantries. This was several months ago, and we were sampling one of Turkey's great delights, dinner aboard a boat cruising the Bosphorus. Life for Dink, however, had become less than delightful. He was being fiercely denounced by the ultra nationalist press, and seemed subdued and preoccupied.
I pulled him aside and told him how important his work was, how much support he had in Turkey and beyond, and what a journalistic hero he had become. "I understand," he
replied simply. "I do not stop."
Dink was in the forefront of a growing number of Turks who want their government to admit that leaders of the crumbling Ottoman Empire directed a mass slaughter of Armenians in 1915. These are the same Turks who want their country to break away from its authoritarian past and complete its march toward full democracy.
Some Turkish nationalists, however, feel deeply threatened by their country's progress toward modernity. During the 1980s, they gunned down the country's leading journalists. In the 1990s they concentrated their fire on Kurdish nationalists, hundreds of whom were killed by death squads that acted with absolute impunity.
In recent years, many Turks had allowed themselves to believe those bad days were over. But with an election campaign approaching, nationalist rhetoric is again surfacing in political speeches and militant newspapers. Much of it contains ugly insinuations that Armenians, Kurds, and members of other minority groups threaten Turkey's national unity and its very survival.
Rare is the government official or military officer who condemns this rhetoric. Some not only encourage it but protect accused killers from prosecution. That has
emboldened radicals and led them to believe that the state tacitly supports them.
By their silence, and by failing to condemn attacks like a bombing evidently staged by army officers in the Kurdish town of Semdinli 14 months ago, Turkish political
leaders and military commanders helped set the stage for yesterday's murder. In his weekly newspaper, Agos, which was published in both Turkish and Armenian, Dink wrote as he pleased, refusing to observe unwritten taboos that shackle the Turkish press. He was charged several times with the Orwellian crime of "insulting Turkishness." On one occasion he was convicted, although his six-month sentence was suspended. Each time he appeared in court, a crowd of ultra nationalists staged a violent scene, showering him with abuse and trying to assault him.
This was the same gang that screamed insults at the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk when he was brought to trial last year. Dink attended Pamuk's trial in a show of solidarity, driving the militants to new heights of fury.
Turkish nationalists believed they won a great victory when, at the end of last year, the European Union suspended talks aimed at making Turkey an EU member. They still hope to turn back the democratic tide that is engulfing their country. Some apparently believe that if they cannot do it by indicting free thinkers, they can do it through murder. This attack has generated revulsion across Turkey. It will undoubtedly galvanize the country's large and increasingly bold corps of human rights advocates.
Their first step may be to intensify their campaign for repeal of the notorious Article 301 of the Turkish penal code, which places a series of restrictions on free press. To achieve that, and to finish reshaping Turkey's political system, will not be easy. Turkey is being torn by an epochal crisis of identity. The old and oppressive political tradition is dying, but its death throes are becoming disturbingly violent.
Political leaders, and their colleagues in uniform, seem to believe they can tolerate and even make use of ultranationalist ideologues. Yesterday's murder shows how dangerous that course is. Reports from Istanbul suggest that the man who committed the murder was very young, perhaps a teenager. His arrest will not calm outraged Turks. Their anger is directed not simply against the man who pulled the trigger, but also against those who created the venomous climate that made this crime possible.
Turkey's violent ultra nationalist fringe, long supported by elements in the police and military, aims not only to kill journalists but also to stop the progress of Turkish history. No government has tried seriously to crush it. Yesterday's murder, and the wave of anger it has set off, gives Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan a chance to do so.
Stephen Kinzer is a former chief of the New York Times bureau in Istanbul and author of "Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds."
January 20, 2007
THE LAST TIME I met Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian journalist who was murdered in Istanbul yesterday, I felt a sudden need to do more than just exchange pleasantries. This was several months ago, and we were sampling one of Turkey's great delights, dinner aboard a boat cruising the Bosphorus. Life for Dink, however, had become less than delightful. He was being fiercely denounced by the ultra nationalist press, and seemed subdued and preoccupied.
I pulled him aside and told him how important his work was, how much support he had in Turkey and beyond, and what a journalistic hero he had become. "I understand," he
replied simply. "I do not stop."
Dink was in the forefront of a growing number of Turks who want their government to admit that leaders of the crumbling Ottoman Empire directed a mass slaughter of Armenians in 1915. These are the same Turks who want their country to break away from its authoritarian past and complete its march toward full democracy.
Some Turkish nationalists, however, feel deeply threatened by their country's progress toward modernity. During the 1980s, they gunned down the country's leading journalists. In the 1990s they concentrated their fire on Kurdish nationalists, hundreds of whom were killed by death squads that acted with absolute impunity.
In recent years, many Turks had allowed themselves to believe those bad days were over. But with an election campaign approaching, nationalist rhetoric is again surfacing in political speeches and militant newspapers. Much of it contains ugly insinuations that Armenians, Kurds, and members of other minority groups threaten Turkey's national unity and its very survival.
Rare is the government official or military officer who condemns this rhetoric. Some not only encourage it but protect accused killers from prosecution. That has
emboldened radicals and led them to believe that the state tacitly supports them.
By their silence, and by failing to condemn attacks like a bombing evidently staged by army officers in the Kurdish town of Semdinli 14 months ago, Turkish political
leaders and military commanders helped set the stage for yesterday's murder. In his weekly newspaper, Agos, which was published in both Turkish and Armenian, Dink wrote as he pleased, refusing to observe unwritten taboos that shackle the Turkish press. He was charged several times with the Orwellian crime of "insulting Turkishness." On one occasion he was convicted, although his six-month sentence was suspended. Each time he appeared in court, a crowd of ultra nationalists staged a violent scene, showering him with abuse and trying to assault him.
This was the same gang that screamed insults at the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk when he was brought to trial last year. Dink attended Pamuk's trial in a show of solidarity, driving the militants to new heights of fury.
Turkish nationalists believed they won a great victory when, at the end of last year, the European Union suspended talks aimed at making Turkey an EU member. They still hope to turn back the democratic tide that is engulfing their country. Some apparently believe that if they cannot do it by indicting free thinkers, they can do it through murder. This attack has generated revulsion across Turkey. It will undoubtedly galvanize the country's large and increasingly bold corps of human rights advocates.
Their first step may be to intensify their campaign for repeal of the notorious Article 301 of the Turkish penal code, which places a series of restrictions on free press. To achieve that, and to finish reshaping Turkey's political system, will not be easy. Turkey is being torn by an epochal crisis of identity. The old and oppressive political tradition is dying, but its death throes are becoming disturbingly violent.
Political leaders, and their colleagues in uniform, seem to believe they can tolerate and even make use of ultranationalist ideologues. Yesterday's murder shows how dangerous that course is. Reports from Istanbul suggest that the man who committed the murder was very young, perhaps a teenager. His arrest will not calm outraged Turks. Their anger is directed not simply against the man who pulled the trigger, but also against those who created the venomous climate that made this crime possible.
Turkey's violent ultra nationalist fringe, long supported by elements in the police and military, aims not only to kill journalists but also to stop the progress of Turkish history. No government has tried seriously to crush it. Yesterday's murder, and the wave of anger it has set off, gives Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan a chance to do so.
Stephen Kinzer is a former chief of the New York Times bureau in Istanbul and author of "Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds."
*STATEMENT BY THE ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA
Washington, DC – 19 January 2007 - The Armenian Assembly of America was shocked and appalled to learn of the tragic murder of one of the most prominent Armenian voices in Turkey, Hrant Dink, who was gunned down outside his newspaper office in Istanbul, Turkey, in what was a blatant political assassination. Dink was frequently and unfairly targeted by Turkish nationalists who labeled him a “traitor” for his public statements on the Armenian Genocide.
The Assembly condemns the Turkish authorities for their failure to provide a safer political environment for Armenians in Turkey, despite repeated calls from the United States, the European Union and human rights groups urging Ankara to improve conditions for minorities in the country. Turkey is currently home to some 60,000 Armenians.
The Assembly also remains deeply troubled by Ankara’s refusal to heed international calls to abolish Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which stifles freedom of speech and criminalizes public discussion of the Armenian Genocide. Hrant Dink himself stood trial several times for his public comments on the genocide and was convicted in October 2006 for “insulting Turkishness” under the much-criticized law. He received a six-month suspended sentence and was set to appear in court again in March 2007 for telling a foreign journalist that the events of 1915 constituted genocide.
When prosecutors in Istanbul announced the new “denigration” charges, Amnesty International expressed dismay, saying “the organization considers that this prosecution is part of an emerging pattern of harassment against the journalist exercising his right to freedom of expression – a right which Turkey, as a State Party to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has a legal obligation to uphold.”
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), “in the last 15 years, 18 other Turkish journalists have been killed for their work, making [Turkey] the eighth deadliest country in the world for journalists.” CPJ research further shows that “journalists, academic, and others have been subjected to pervasive legal harassment for statements that allegedly insult the Turkish identity.”
“It is past time for Turkey to reform its laws and take serious steps to protect the rights of all its citizens,” said Assembly Board of Trustees Chairman Hirair Hovnanian. “No other human being in Turkey should have to pay the price with his life for his government’s lack of resolve to uphold the rule of law and respect for human rights.”
The Armenian Assembly also calls on the United States, as a world leader, to end the vicious cycle of genocide denial in Turkey by adopting a congressional resolution reaffirming this fact of world history.
Bryan Ardouny, Executive Director of the Armenian Assembly, said that “sadly 92 years after the start of the Armenian Genocide, Hrant Dink is now the latest victim of Turkey’s outrageous campaign of denial and intolerance.”
“In light of this terrible tragedy, it is all the more inappropriate for the Administration to oppose congressional reaffirmation of the Armenian Genocide,” added Hovnanian.
“In memory of Hrant Dink, we reaffirm our commitment to fight for universal reaffirmation of the Armenian Genocide,” Hovnanian continued.
The Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. It is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt membership organization.
###
Editor’s Note: For more information, please see the fact sheet below provided by the Armenian National Institute.
Hrant Dink
(1954-2007)
Hrant Dink was one of the most prominent figures of the Armenian community in Turkey. In 1996 Dink founded a newspaper called Agos in order to reach the Turkish-speaking members of the Armenian community. He served as the newspaper’s editor in chief.
On October 7, 2005, Hrant Dink was given a six-month suspended prison sentence after a trial in Shishli Second Criminal Court. He was prosecuted under Article 301 of the new Turkish criminal code which makes criticism of “Turkish national identity” a criminal offense. The Turkish criminal code was adopted as part of Turkey’s EU accession requirement. Hrant Dink appealed the court’s verdict and the suspended sentence and is seeking an acquittal.
On February 24, 2006, the prosecutor’s office at the Appeals Court found fault with the lower court’s decision and ordered a new trial.
On May 1, 2006, despite the prosecutor’s recommendation to overrule the lower court, the Court of Appeals in Istanbul (Supreme Court of Appeals Ninth Bureau) turned down the appeal, thereby upholding the lower court’s verdict.
On May 16, 2006, Dink was in court again to face a new charge of “attempting to influence the judiciary,” which carries a possible sentence of up to three years. Charges were also filed against three other Agos associates, including Serkis Seropyan the publisher of Agos, Aydin Engin a Turkish journalist, and Arat Dink, the son of Hrant Dink. The trial began on July 4, but due to a courtroom melee was adjourned until December. A second indictment under article 301 was filed against Dink in September.
In the meantime, on June 6, 2006, the Supreme Court of Appeals Prosecutor’s Office, the highest prosecutor’s office in Turkey, argued that Dink had not committed any crime and that the Court of Appeals annulment of the suspension was wrong.
Hrant Dink was assassinated on January 19, 2007, in front of the office of the Agos newspaper in Istanbul, Turkey. He was born in Malatya, Turkey, on September 15, 1954.
Armenian National Institute
1140 19th St., NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 383-9009
© 2007
Amnesty International issued the following statement on September 26, 2006.
Turkey: Journalist targeted yet again
Amnesty International is dismayed at today’s news that yet another case has been opened against journalist Hrant Dink on charges of “denigrating Turkishness” under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. The organization considers that this prosecution is part of an emerging pattern of harassment against the journalist exercising his right to freedom of expression -- a right which Turkey, as a State Party to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has a legal obligation to uphold.
The latest charge against Hrant Dink was brought following a statement he made to Reuters news agency, in which he reportedly said of massacres of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire, “Of course I’m saying it’s a genocide, because its consequences show it to be true and label it so. We see that people who had lived on this soil for 4000 years were exterminated by these events.” Amnesty International is particularly concerned at this latest prosecution, the third against Hrant Dink on charges under Article 301, because it seems to constitute a pattern of judicial harassment against the writer for peacefully expressing his dissenting opinion. Furthermore, he has already been given a six-month suspended prison sentence following an October 2005 conviction on charges of “denigrating Turkishness” (upheld by the Court of Appeal in July 2006), and therefore if found guilty again on the same charge would be imprisoned. Should he be, Amnesty International would consider him a prisoner of conscience.
Amnesty International considers this latest prosecution to be particularly disappointing following the welcome acquittal four days ago of another writer, novelist Elif Safak, on charges under Article 301 relating to statements made by characters in her novel The Bastard of Istanbul. The organization had seen this as a positive step for freedom of expression in Turkey but fears this acquittal may prove to be the exception rather than the rule and demonstrates yet again the failure of certain members of the Turkish judiciary and prosecution to internalize international law, as required by Article 90 of the Turkish constitution. The organization reiterates its call for Article 301 to be abolished in its entirety, thereby putting an end to arbitrary implementation of this ill-defined law.
Finally, Amnesty International notes that this prosecution reportedly arises from a complaint lodged by elements of civil society opposed to the abolition of Article 301, who have lodged similar complaints in the past seeking to secure such prosecutions and who have repeatedly staged provocative and sometimes violent protests at trials, creating a threatening atmosphere in the courtroom. The organization calls on the Turkish authorities to ensure that all necessary measures are taken to ensure the protection both of the defendants, their lawyers and supporters in such cases, and of the course of justice itself.
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 (AI Index: EUR 44/003/2006).
###
ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA
1140 19th Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036 • Tel. (202) 393-3434 • Fax: (202) 638-4904 • www.aaainc.org
The Assembly condemns the Turkish authorities for their failure to provide a safer political environment for Armenians in Turkey, despite repeated calls from the United States, the European Union and human rights groups urging Ankara to improve conditions for minorities in the country. Turkey is currently home to some 60,000 Armenians.
The Assembly also remains deeply troubled by Ankara’s refusal to heed international calls to abolish Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which stifles freedom of speech and criminalizes public discussion of the Armenian Genocide. Hrant Dink himself stood trial several times for his public comments on the genocide and was convicted in October 2006 for “insulting Turkishness” under the much-criticized law. He received a six-month suspended sentence and was set to appear in court again in March 2007 for telling a foreign journalist that the events of 1915 constituted genocide.
When prosecutors in Istanbul announced the new “denigration” charges, Amnesty International expressed dismay, saying “the organization considers that this prosecution is part of an emerging pattern of harassment against the journalist exercising his right to freedom of expression – a right which Turkey, as a State Party to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has a legal obligation to uphold.”
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), “in the last 15 years, 18 other Turkish journalists have been killed for their work, making [Turkey] the eighth deadliest country in the world for journalists.” CPJ research further shows that “journalists, academic, and others have been subjected to pervasive legal harassment for statements that allegedly insult the Turkish identity.”
“It is past time for Turkey to reform its laws and take serious steps to protect the rights of all its citizens,” said Assembly Board of Trustees Chairman Hirair Hovnanian. “No other human being in Turkey should have to pay the price with his life for his government’s lack of resolve to uphold the rule of law and respect for human rights.”
The Armenian Assembly also calls on the United States, as a world leader, to end the vicious cycle of genocide denial in Turkey by adopting a congressional resolution reaffirming this fact of world history.
Bryan Ardouny, Executive Director of the Armenian Assembly, said that “sadly 92 years after the start of the Armenian Genocide, Hrant Dink is now the latest victim of Turkey’s outrageous campaign of denial and intolerance.”
“In light of this terrible tragedy, it is all the more inappropriate for the Administration to oppose congressional reaffirmation of the Armenian Genocide,” added Hovnanian.
“In memory of Hrant Dink, we reaffirm our commitment to fight for universal reaffirmation of the Armenian Genocide,” Hovnanian continued.
The Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. It is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt membership organization.
###
Editor’s Note: For more information, please see the fact sheet below provided by the Armenian National Institute.
Hrant Dink
(1954-2007)
Hrant Dink was one of the most prominent figures of the Armenian community in Turkey. In 1996 Dink founded a newspaper called Agos in order to reach the Turkish-speaking members of the Armenian community. He served as the newspaper’s editor in chief.
On October 7, 2005, Hrant Dink was given a six-month suspended prison sentence after a trial in Shishli Second Criminal Court. He was prosecuted under Article 301 of the new Turkish criminal code which makes criticism of “Turkish national identity” a criminal offense. The Turkish criminal code was adopted as part of Turkey’s EU accession requirement. Hrant Dink appealed the court’s verdict and the suspended sentence and is seeking an acquittal.
On February 24, 2006, the prosecutor’s office at the Appeals Court found fault with the lower court’s decision and ordered a new trial.
On May 1, 2006, despite the prosecutor’s recommendation to overrule the lower court, the Court of Appeals in Istanbul (Supreme Court of Appeals Ninth Bureau) turned down the appeal, thereby upholding the lower court’s verdict.
On May 16, 2006, Dink was in court again to face a new charge of “attempting to influence the judiciary,” which carries a possible sentence of up to three years. Charges were also filed against three other Agos associates, including Serkis Seropyan the publisher of Agos, Aydin Engin a Turkish journalist, and Arat Dink, the son of Hrant Dink. The trial began on July 4, but due to a courtroom melee was adjourned until December. A second indictment under article 301 was filed against Dink in September.
In the meantime, on June 6, 2006, the Supreme Court of Appeals Prosecutor’s Office, the highest prosecutor’s office in Turkey, argued that Dink had not committed any crime and that the Court of Appeals annulment of the suspension was wrong.
Hrant Dink was assassinated on January 19, 2007, in front of the office of the Agos newspaper in Istanbul, Turkey. He was born in Malatya, Turkey, on September 15, 1954.
Armenian National Institute
1140 19th St., NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 383-9009
© 2007
Amnesty International issued the following statement on September 26, 2006.
Turkey: Journalist targeted yet again
Amnesty International is dismayed at today’s news that yet another case has been opened against journalist Hrant Dink on charges of “denigrating Turkishness” under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. The organization considers that this prosecution is part of an emerging pattern of harassment against the journalist exercising his right to freedom of expression -- a right which Turkey, as a State Party to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has a legal obligation to uphold.
The latest charge against Hrant Dink was brought following a statement he made to Reuters news agency, in which he reportedly said of massacres of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire, “Of course I’m saying it’s a genocide, because its consequences show it to be true and label it so. We see that people who had lived on this soil for 4000 years were exterminated by these events.” Amnesty International is particularly concerned at this latest prosecution, the third against Hrant Dink on charges under Article 301, because it seems to constitute a pattern of judicial harassment against the writer for peacefully expressing his dissenting opinion. Furthermore, he has already been given a six-month suspended prison sentence following an October 2005 conviction on charges of “denigrating Turkishness” (upheld by the Court of Appeal in July 2006), and therefore if found guilty again on the same charge would be imprisoned. Should he be, Amnesty International would consider him a prisoner of conscience.
Amnesty International considers this latest prosecution to be particularly disappointing following the welcome acquittal four days ago of another writer, novelist Elif Safak, on charges under Article 301 relating to statements made by characters in her novel The Bastard of Istanbul. The organization had seen this as a positive step for freedom of expression in Turkey but fears this acquittal may prove to be the exception rather than the rule and demonstrates yet again the failure of certain members of the Turkish judiciary and prosecution to internalize international law, as required by Article 90 of the Turkish constitution. The organization reiterates its call for Article 301 to be abolished in its entirety, thereby putting an end to arbitrary implementation of this ill-defined law.
Finally, Amnesty International notes that this prosecution reportedly arises from a complaint lodged by elements of civil society opposed to the abolition of Article 301, who have lodged similar complaints in the past seeking to secure such prosecutions and who have repeatedly staged provocative and sometimes violent protests at trials, creating a threatening atmosphere in the courtroom. The organization calls on the Turkish authorities to ensure that all necessary measures are taken to ensure the protection both of the defendants, their lawyers and supporters in such cases, and of the course of justice itself.
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 (AI Index: EUR 44/003/2006).
###
ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA
1140 19th Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036 • Tel. (202) 393-3434 • Fax: (202) 638-4904 • www.aaainc.org
* NABİ ŞENSOY İLE SÖYLEŞİ
Türkiye’nin Washington Büyükelçisi Nabi Şensoy CNN Türk’te Hande Atay Alam’in sorularını yanıtladı.
19 Ocak 2007, Washington, D.C.
Alam: Efendim, öncelikle CNN Türk'e konuşmayı kabul etttiğiniz çok teşekkür ederiz. Bugün biliyorsunuz, çok üzücü bir olay yaşadık. Agos gazetesi Genel Yayın Yönetmeni Hrant Dink’in öldürülmesiyle ilgili sizin hislerinizi ve düşüncelerinizi alabilir miyiz öncelikle?
Şensoy: Tabiatıyla bu havadisi aldığımız zaman bizim üzerimizde herşeyden evvel büyük bir üzüntü, hatta şok etkisi yarattı. Çünkü herşeyden evvel Hrant Dink, Türkiye'nin önde gelen gazetecilerinden bir tanesiydi. Onun için bu saldırıyı şiddettle kınayan seslere gönülden ben de katılıyorum. Tabiatıyla, Türkiye çok yüksek düzeyde bir entellektüeli ve çok iyi bir gazeteciyi kaybetmenin üzüntüsünü bir millet olarak yaşıyoruz. Tabiatıyla, buradan ailesine ve başta Ermeni cemaatimiz olmak üzere bütün Türk toplumuna, bütün Türk halkına başsağlığı diliyorum.
Alam: Bu olay sizce Amerika’da Kongre’de Ermeni soykırımı tasarısını nasıl etkileyecek?
Şensoy: Şimdi Ermeni tasarısı biliyorsunuz, Amerika’da ve başka ülkelerde uzun müddettir gündemde olan bir konu. Biz bu konunun yanlış bir yaklaşım olduğunu düşünüyoruz, çünkü Türkiye ile Amerika arasındaki yahut Türkiye ile Ermenistan arasındaki ilişkilere yararı olmayan bir takım faaliyetler yahut da teşebbüsler olarak gözüküyor. Başka ülkelerle de ilişkilerimizi de etkiledi. Bizim bütün temennimiz bu güne kadar olduğu gibi bu tasarının da, bundan evvelkilerin akıbetine uğrayacağı, Kongre’den sağduyulu Kongre üyelerinin sayesinde, ki bu konuda Bush yönetiminin de tam desteği vardır, böyle bir konunun geçmeyeceğini tahmin ediyorum açıkçası. Temenni ediyorum. Ve herşeyden evvel Türk-Amerikan ilişkilerinin geleceği, selameti, dostluk ve müttefiklik adına böyle bir gelişmenin olmayacağını düşünüyorum. Tabiatıyla, bu acı hadise belki hafızalardan kolay kolay silinmeyecektir. Ama bütün bunun sonucunda tasarıyla ilgili çok değişik bir algılamanın olacağını zannetmiyorum. Kendi ‘merit’leri üzerinden, olayın gerçekleri neyse onun üzerinden milletvekillerinin, Amerikan Kongresi’nin sağlıklı bir karar alacağını ve böyle bir tasarıyı benimsemeyeceğini zannediyorum.
Alam: Peki, biliyorsunuz Temsilciler Meclisi Başkanı Nancy Pelosi de bu tür girişimlere destek veren bir kişi, bu sizce nasıl etkileyecek?
Şensoy: Tabiatıyla söyleyeceğim şudur, kampanya sırasında söylenen sözler her zaman geçerli olmakla birlikte, politikacılar iktidara geldikten sonra yahut da sorumlu mevkilere geldikten sonra tabiatıyla gerçekleri daha iyi görme imkanına kavuşurlar. Ve zaman içinde o görüşlerinde değişiklikler yaparlar. O bakımdan benim de ümidim şu anda Demokrat ağırlıklı bir Kongre söz konusu olduğuna göre, bu göreve, bu yüce görevlere gelen kimselerin, yani Sayın Pelosi’nin ve diğer komite başkanlarının kendi sorumluklarının layıkiyle yerine getireceklerini ve o sorumluluklar tahtında hareket edeceklerini zannediyorum.
Alam: Yani Türk Amerikan ilişkilerinde çok büyük bir değişiklik olmayacağını söylüyorsunuz.
Şensoy: Yani şunu söylemek istiyorum, o mevkiye gelen insanlar her halükarda Türk Amerikan ilişkilerinin önemini bilen ve o mevkiye geldikten sonra da daha iyi kavrayabilen insanlardır. Ona değer verenler, bu ilişkinin devamına değer veren insanlar, tabiatıyla o sorumluluk hissi dahilinde hareket edeceklerdir diye ümid ediyorum. Çünkü Türk-Amerikan ilişkileri sıradan bir dostluk ve müttefiklik ilişkisi değildir, sadece iki ülkeyi ilgilendirmez. Ayrıca bizim işbirliği yaptığımız çok alan vardır, çok bölge vardır, çok ülke vardır. Bütün bunların ilişkilerimizde zaman zaman dikkate alınması lazım. Biz de bunları her zaman dikkate alıyoruz. Amerikalı dostlarımız da bunlara itina etmişlerdir. Bundan sonra da itina edeceklerine eminim.
Alam: Bu Ermeni soykırımı tasarısı geçtiği taktirde Türkiye’nin tavrı ne olur?
Şensoy: Şimdi tabiatıyla, o spekülasyonlara girmek istemiyorum. Bizim bütün amacımız herşeyden evvel böyle bir tasarının geçmemesini sağlamaktır herşeyden evvel. Bu konuda Bush yönetiminin desteği arkamızdadır. Kongre’de bize, bizim gibi düşünen dost milletvekilleri vardır. Eminim ki, onlar da bu çalışmalarda bizlere yardımcı olacaklardır. Ve sonuç itibariyle bu tasarının herhangi bir şekilde Türk-Amerikan ilişkilerine zarar vermemesi için elinden gelen herkesin yapması gerektiği kanaatindeyim.
Alam: Çok teşekkürler efendim.
Şensoy: Ben teşekkür ederim, sağolun.
19 Ocak 2007, Washington, D.C.
Alam: Efendim, öncelikle CNN Türk'e konuşmayı kabul etttiğiniz çok teşekkür ederiz. Bugün biliyorsunuz, çok üzücü bir olay yaşadık. Agos gazetesi Genel Yayın Yönetmeni Hrant Dink’in öldürülmesiyle ilgili sizin hislerinizi ve düşüncelerinizi alabilir miyiz öncelikle?
Şensoy: Tabiatıyla bu havadisi aldığımız zaman bizim üzerimizde herşeyden evvel büyük bir üzüntü, hatta şok etkisi yarattı. Çünkü herşeyden evvel Hrant Dink, Türkiye'nin önde gelen gazetecilerinden bir tanesiydi. Onun için bu saldırıyı şiddettle kınayan seslere gönülden ben de katılıyorum. Tabiatıyla, Türkiye çok yüksek düzeyde bir entellektüeli ve çok iyi bir gazeteciyi kaybetmenin üzüntüsünü bir millet olarak yaşıyoruz. Tabiatıyla, buradan ailesine ve başta Ermeni cemaatimiz olmak üzere bütün Türk toplumuna, bütün Türk halkına başsağlığı diliyorum.
Alam: Bu olay sizce Amerika’da Kongre’de Ermeni soykırımı tasarısını nasıl etkileyecek?
Şensoy: Şimdi Ermeni tasarısı biliyorsunuz, Amerika’da ve başka ülkelerde uzun müddettir gündemde olan bir konu. Biz bu konunun yanlış bir yaklaşım olduğunu düşünüyoruz, çünkü Türkiye ile Amerika arasındaki yahut Türkiye ile Ermenistan arasındaki ilişkilere yararı olmayan bir takım faaliyetler yahut da teşebbüsler olarak gözüküyor. Başka ülkelerle de ilişkilerimizi de etkiledi. Bizim bütün temennimiz bu güne kadar olduğu gibi bu tasarının da, bundan evvelkilerin akıbetine uğrayacağı, Kongre’den sağduyulu Kongre üyelerinin sayesinde, ki bu konuda Bush yönetiminin de tam desteği vardır, böyle bir konunun geçmeyeceğini tahmin ediyorum açıkçası. Temenni ediyorum. Ve herşeyden evvel Türk-Amerikan ilişkilerinin geleceği, selameti, dostluk ve müttefiklik adına böyle bir gelişmenin olmayacağını düşünüyorum. Tabiatıyla, bu acı hadise belki hafızalardan kolay kolay silinmeyecektir. Ama bütün bunun sonucunda tasarıyla ilgili çok değişik bir algılamanın olacağını zannetmiyorum. Kendi ‘merit’leri üzerinden, olayın gerçekleri neyse onun üzerinden milletvekillerinin, Amerikan Kongresi’nin sağlıklı bir karar alacağını ve böyle bir tasarıyı benimsemeyeceğini zannediyorum.
Alam: Peki, biliyorsunuz Temsilciler Meclisi Başkanı Nancy Pelosi de bu tür girişimlere destek veren bir kişi, bu sizce nasıl etkileyecek?
Şensoy: Tabiatıyla söyleyeceğim şudur, kampanya sırasında söylenen sözler her zaman geçerli olmakla birlikte, politikacılar iktidara geldikten sonra yahut da sorumlu mevkilere geldikten sonra tabiatıyla gerçekleri daha iyi görme imkanına kavuşurlar. Ve zaman içinde o görüşlerinde değişiklikler yaparlar. O bakımdan benim de ümidim şu anda Demokrat ağırlıklı bir Kongre söz konusu olduğuna göre, bu göreve, bu yüce görevlere gelen kimselerin, yani Sayın Pelosi’nin ve diğer komite başkanlarının kendi sorumluklarının layıkiyle yerine getireceklerini ve o sorumluluklar tahtında hareket edeceklerini zannediyorum.
Alam: Yani Türk Amerikan ilişkilerinde çok büyük bir değişiklik olmayacağını söylüyorsunuz.
Şensoy: Yani şunu söylemek istiyorum, o mevkiye gelen insanlar her halükarda Türk Amerikan ilişkilerinin önemini bilen ve o mevkiye geldikten sonra da daha iyi kavrayabilen insanlardır. Ona değer verenler, bu ilişkinin devamına değer veren insanlar, tabiatıyla o sorumluluk hissi dahilinde hareket edeceklerdir diye ümid ediyorum. Çünkü Türk-Amerikan ilişkileri sıradan bir dostluk ve müttefiklik ilişkisi değildir, sadece iki ülkeyi ilgilendirmez. Ayrıca bizim işbirliği yaptığımız çok alan vardır, çok bölge vardır, çok ülke vardır. Bütün bunların ilişkilerimizde zaman zaman dikkate alınması lazım. Biz de bunları her zaman dikkate alıyoruz. Amerikalı dostlarımız da bunlara itina etmişlerdir. Bundan sonra da itina edeceklerine eminim.
Alam: Bu Ermeni soykırımı tasarısı geçtiği taktirde Türkiye’nin tavrı ne olur?
Şensoy: Şimdi tabiatıyla, o spekülasyonlara girmek istemiyorum. Bizim bütün amacımız herşeyden evvel böyle bir tasarının geçmemesini sağlamaktır herşeyden evvel. Bu konuda Bush yönetiminin desteği arkamızdadır. Kongre’de bize, bizim gibi düşünen dost milletvekilleri vardır. Eminim ki, onlar da bu çalışmalarda bizlere yardımcı olacaklardır. Ve sonuç itibariyle bu tasarının herhangi bir şekilde Türk-Amerikan ilişkilerine zarar vermemesi için elinden gelen herkesin yapması gerektiği kanaatindeyim.
Alam: Çok teşekkürler efendim.
Şensoy: Ben teşekkür ederim, sağolun.
* GAZETECİLERİ KORUMA KOMİTESİ’NDEN AÇIKLAMA
Merkezi New York'ta bulunan Gazetecileri Koruma Örgütü (CPJ) Ortadoğu Koordinatörü Joel Campagna, Hrant Dink’in öldürülmesi ardından, Yasemin Çongar’ın soruları üzerine, şunları söyledi. 19 Ocak 2007
“Türkiye, gazeteciler için en tehlikeli sekizinci ülke”
“Sorumlular bulunsun”
“Hrant Dink’in korkunç bir cinayete kurban gitmesi bizi şoka uğrattı ve derin üzüntüye boğdu. Türkiye’deki birçok gazeteci ve yazar gibi Dink de, görüşleri nedeniyle siyasi kovuşturmaya uğramıştı, şimdi de en büyük bedeli ödedi. Türk hükümetini bu suçun cezasız kalmaması için herşeyi yapmaya çağırıyoruz.”
“301 kaldırılsın”
“Gazetecileri öldürenlerin adalet önüne çıkarılmaması, basın özgürlüğünü ve gazetecilerin işlerini yapmasını engeller. Birçok Türk gazetecisi ve yazarı gibi, Dink hakkındaki davalar da kanıtlıyordu ki, Türkiye’deki yasalar, özellikle de TCK 301, yetkililere gazeteciler hakkında siyasi kovuşturma imkanı veriyor. Dink’in anısına saygıyı yansıtacak en uygun adım TCK 301’i kaldırmaktır.”
“15 yılda 18 gazeteci”
“Son 15 yılda 18 gazetecinin yazdıkları nedeniyle öldürüldüğü Türkiye, dünyada gazeteciler için ölüm tehlikesinin en yüksek olduğu sekizinci ülke. Birçok gazeteci cinayeti çözümsüz kaldı. Dink’i öldürenler cezasını çekmeli.”
“Türkiye, gazeteciler için en tehlikeli sekizinci ülke”
“Sorumlular bulunsun”
“Hrant Dink’in korkunç bir cinayete kurban gitmesi bizi şoka uğrattı ve derin üzüntüye boğdu. Türkiye’deki birçok gazeteci ve yazar gibi Dink de, görüşleri nedeniyle siyasi kovuşturmaya uğramıştı, şimdi de en büyük bedeli ödedi. Türk hükümetini bu suçun cezasız kalmaması için herşeyi yapmaya çağırıyoruz.”
“301 kaldırılsın”
“Gazetecileri öldürenlerin adalet önüne çıkarılmaması, basın özgürlüğünü ve gazetecilerin işlerini yapmasını engeller. Birçok Türk gazetecisi ve yazarı gibi, Dink hakkındaki davalar da kanıtlıyordu ki, Türkiye’deki yasalar, özellikle de TCK 301, yetkililere gazeteciler hakkında siyasi kovuşturma imkanı veriyor. Dink’in anısına saygıyı yansıtacak en uygun adım TCK 301’i kaldırmaktır.”
“15 yılda 18 gazeteci”
“Son 15 yılda 18 gazetecinin yazdıkları nedeniyle öldürüldüğü Türkiye, dünyada gazeteciler için ölüm tehlikesinin en yüksek olduğu sekizinci ülke. Birçok gazeteci cinayeti çözümsüz kaldı. Dink’i öldürenler cezasını çekmeli.”
* ABD’DEKİ ERMENİ DİASPORASINDAN TEPKİ
ABD’deki Ermeni diasporasının önde gelen isimlerinden, ABD-Ermenistan Kamusal İşler Komitesi (USAPAC) Başkanı Ross Vartian’ın Yasemin Çongar’a açıklaması. 19 Ocak 2007
“Vicdan sahibi herkes bu cinayeti kınamaktadır. Bu, bir nefret ve hoşgörüsüzlük eylemidir. Gerçeğin inkarına ve gerçeği söyleyenlerin kovuşturmaya uğratılmasına dayanan ortam, bu cinayetten de sorumludur. Dink’in tek suçu, vicdan sahibi olmak ve ifade özgürlüğü hakkını kullanmaktı, ki bu da suç değildir. TCK’nın 301’inci maddesi değiştirilmelidir. Türkiye, AB’nin parçası olmak istiyorsa, tarihi gerçekle yüzleşmek ve ifade özgürlüğünü hayata geçirmek konusunda köklü değişiklikler yapmalıdır. Türkiye böyle devam edemez. Türk hükümetini cinayeti kınamaya ve sorumlusunu yakalamaya çağırıyoruz.”
“Vicdan sahibi herkes bu cinayeti kınamaktadır. Bu, bir nefret ve hoşgörüsüzlük eylemidir. Gerçeğin inkarına ve gerçeği söyleyenlerin kovuşturmaya uğratılmasına dayanan ortam, bu cinayetten de sorumludur. Dink’in tek suçu, vicdan sahibi olmak ve ifade özgürlüğü hakkını kullanmaktı, ki bu da suç değildir. TCK’nın 301’inci maddesi değiştirilmelidir. Türkiye, AB’nin parçası olmak istiyorsa, tarihi gerçekle yüzleşmek ve ifade özgürlüğünü hayata geçirmek konusunda köklü değişiklikler yapmalıdır. Türkiye böyle devam edemez. Türk hükümetini cinayeti kınamaya ve sorumlusunu yakalamaya çağırıyoruz.”
* STATEMENT BY ATAA
January 19, 2007 - Washington, DC -- The Assembly of Turkish Americans strongly condemns the killing earlier today of Turkish Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, in Istanbul. The ATAA urges the Turkish Republic to dedicate its best assets to the capture, trial and punishment of the perpetrator(s) of this heinous murder.
The killing of Mr. Dink is a great loss to Turkey. Mr. Dink was the editor of Agos, an Armenian-language newspaper in Istanbul, and also wrote for the Turkish daily, Zaman. He was a respected member and voice of Istanbul's prosperous and growing Armenian community. He advocated reconciliation on the Ottoman Armenian Tragedy of WWI. Unfortunately, he was also the subject of prosecution for his characterization of WWI Armenian deaths as genocide.
ATAA reaffirms that people are entitled to their own opinions and the expression of the same. Turks are struggling for the same rights in Europe and America.
The Turkish Court of Appeals was right to vacate the conviction and remand the case that charged Dink under Law 301 for "insulting the Turkish identity." ATAA is confident in Turkish democracy's ability to address the difficulties of Law 301.
ATAA expresses that the killing of Dink ranks among the worst acts against the best interest of Turkey and regional peace and stability. ATAA urges all concerned parties that the Ottoman Armenian Tragedy is an extremely sensitive matter, the treatment of which requires the utmost care not to fuel the flames of extremism, particularly at a time when security, peace and stability in the Middle East is critical.
ATAA mourns the death of this fellow countryman, Mr. Hrant Dink, and the loss of this very important part of our community. We convey our deepest sympathies to his family and friends, and to the people of Turkey.
_______________________________________________________
assembly@ataa.org
Assembly of Turkish American Associations
Home of 63 Turkish American Associations across U.S., Canada and Turkey
1526 18th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20036 Phone: (202) 483-9090 Fax: (202) 483-9092
The killing of Mr. Dink is a great loss to Turkey. Mr. Dink was the editor of Agos, an Armenian-language newspaper in Istanbul, and also wrote for the Turkish daily, Zaman. He was a respected member and voice of Istanbul's prosperous and growing Armenian community. He advocated reconciliation on the Ottoman Armenian Tragedy of WWI. Unfortunately, he was also the subject of prosecution for his characterization of WWI Armenian deaths as genocide.
ATAA reaffirms that people are entitled to their own opinions and the expression of the same. Turks are struggling for the same rights in Europe and America.
The Turkish Court of Appeals was right to vacate the conviction and remand the case that charged Dink under Law 301 for "insulting the Turkish identity." ATAA is confident in Turkish democracy's ability to address the difficulties of Law 301.
ATAA expresses that the killing of Dink ranks among the worst acts against the best interest of Turkey and regional peace and stability. ATAA urges all concerned parties that the Ottoman Armenian Tragedy is an extremely sensitive matter, the treatment of which requires the utmost care not to fuel the flames of extremism, particularly at a time when security, peace and stability in the Middle East is critical.
ATAA mourns the death of this fellow countryman, Mr. Hrant Dink, and the loss of this very important part of our community. We convey our deepest sympathies to his family and friends, and to the people of Turkey.
_______________________________________________________
assembly@ataa.org
Assembly of Turkish American Associations
Home of 63 Turkish American Associations across U.S., Canada and Turkey
1526 18th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20036 Phone: (202) 483-9090 Fax: (202) 483-9092
* COMMENTARY BY THE ZORYAN INSTITUTE
January 19, 2007
The murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink today came as a shock to all of us at the Zoryan Institute. About four years ago, he visited the institute and shared with us his vision of bringing together the Armenian and Turkish peoples through dialogue and reconciliation. He reiterated this vision at the scholarly conference in Yerevan in April 2005 and again at the Third Armenia-Diaspora Conference there last September. He was a passionate individual, devoted to promoting truth, freedom of speech, and democracy.
On behalf of the Zoryan Board and staff, we wish to express our deepest condolences to his family. We express our sympathies to the people of Turkey, who believe in what he stood for, as they have lost a staunch champion for human rights. We also express our sympathies to the Armenians of Turkey, who have lost a strong voice of leadership in the effort to reconcile the Armenian and Turkish peoples.
Dink used his newspaper, Agos, as a vehicle to disseminate his views with conviction. He raised questions about Turkish history and the highly politicized Armenian Genocide issue, thus contributing to an open public debate. When addressing Armenians, he pleaded that Armenians, especially those in the Diaspora, who are primarily descendants of the survivors of the 1915 Genocide, not view the people of Turkey with the spectacles of that era, but rather to seek ways and means of sharing the truth with Turks in order to ultimately achieve reconciliation.
Unfortunately, Dink became disillusioned because of the events that had taken place over the past four years. Despite the promise of the Turkish Government to bring about freedom of speech and democracy, some 75 people were indicted under the notorious Article 301 of the Turkish Penal code. He was part of the Istanbul Conference in 2005, whose participants the Turkish Justice Minister called "traitors" and accused of "stabbing the nation in the back." Most of the people indicted under Article 301 were acquitted. He felt that he was being singled out, as a Turkish citizen of Armenian heritage, for rougher treatment for the same alleged offense. No one has been imprisoned in Turkey for breaching Article 301, but the appeals court confirmed a six-month suspended sentence against Dink. He was beaten by an angry mob when leaving the courthouse.
He was equally disillusioned by France's effort to penalize denial of the Armenian Genocide. He felt strongly that the law in both countries was being used to stifle freedom of speech and expression. It is ironic that, he, while being persecuted in his own country for referring to the massacre of Ottoman Armenians in 1915 as genocide, at the same time challenged the French Government to indict him under their proposed new law, in defense of the same right of free speech.
It is our opinion that, while trying to promote freedom of expression and bring about mutual understanding between Turks and Armenians, Dink was a victim of the political struggle between the forces of democratization in Turkey and the forces of the "Deep State" that want to maintain the status quo. This casts a terrible chill on the entire human rights movement in Turkey and dims the hope of reconciliation.
Let Hrant Dink's vision and spirit stay alive and inspire all those who continue the struggle for universal human rights.
Zoryan Institute
255 Duncan Mill Rd., Suite 310
Toronto, Canada M3B 3H9
Tel: 416-250-9807 E-mail: zoryan@zoryaninstitute.org
The murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink today came as a shock to all of us at the Zoryan Institute. About four years ago, he visited the institute and shared with us his vision of bringing together the Armenian and Turkish peoples through dialogue and reconciliation. He reiterated this vision at the scholarly conference in Yerevan in April 2005 and again at the Third Armenia-Diaspora Conference there last September. He was a passionate individual, devoted to promoting truth, freedom of speech, and democracy.
On behalf of the Zoryan Board and staff, we wish to express our deepest condolences to his family. We express our sympathies to the people of Turkey, who believe in what he stood for, as they have lost a staunch champion for human rights. We also express our sympathies to the Armenians of Turkey, who have lost a strong voice of leadership in the effort to reconcile the Armenian and Turkish peoples.
Dink used his newspaper, Agos, as a vehicle to disseminate his views with conviction. He raised questions about Turkish history and the highly politicized Armenian Genocide issue, thus contributing to an open public debate. When addressing Armenians, he pleaded that Armenians, especially those in the Diaspora, who are primarily descendants of the survivors of the 1915 Genocide, not view the people of Turkey with the spectacles of that era, but rather to seek ways and means of sharing the truth with Turks in order to ultimately achieve reconciliation.
Unfortunately, Dink became disillusioned because of the events that had taken place over the past four years. Despite the promise of the Turkish Government to bring about freedom of speech and democracy, some 75 people were indicted under the notorious Article 301 of the Turkish Penal code. He was part of the Istanbul Conference in 2005, whose participants the Turkish Justice Minister called "traitors" and accused of "stabbing the nation in the back." Most of the people indicted under Article 301 were acquitted. He felt that he was being singled out, as a Turkish citizen of Armenian heritage, for rougher treatment for the same alleged offense. No one has been imprisoned in Turkey for breaching Article 301, but the appeals court confirmed a six-month suspended sentence against Dink. He was beaten by an angry mob when leaving the courthouse.
He was equally disillusioned by France's effort to penalize denial of the Armenian Genocide. He felt strongly that the law in both countries was being used to stifle freedom of speech and expression. It is ironic that, he, while being persecuted in his own country for referring to the massacre of Ottoman Armenians in 1915 as genocide, at the same time challenged the French Government to indict him under their proposed new law, in defense of the same right of free speech.
It is our opinion that, while trying to promote freedom of expression and bring about mutual understanding between Turks and Armenians, Dink was a victim of the political struggle between the forces of democratization in Turkey and the forces of the "Deep State" that want to maintain the status quo. This casts a terrible chill on the entire human rights movement in Turkey and dims the hope of reconciliation.
Let Hrant Dink's vision and spirit stay alive and inspire all those who continue the struggle for universal human rights.
Zoryan Institute
255 Duncan Mill Rd., Suite 310
Toronto, Canada M3B 3H9
Tel: 416-250-9807 E-mail: zoryan@zoryaninstitute.org
* STATEMENT BY ANCA
WASHINGTON, DC – 19 January, 2007- The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) mourns the loss of Hrant Dink, a leading Istanbul-based Armenian journalist murdered outside the offices of his Agos newspaper today amid a growing tide of official Turkish government prosecutions and nationalist pressure to silence his writings on the Armenian Genocide.
"Hrant Dink's murder is tragic proof that the Turkish government - through its campaign of denial, threats and intimidation against the recognition of the Armenian Genocide - continues to fuel the same hatred and intolerance that initially led to this crime against humanity more than 90 years ago," said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.
"Sadly, the Turkish government can continue denying the Armenian Genocide - against all evidence -in great measure due to the complicity of the U.S. Administration, which, at Turkey's urging, works against Congressional legislation commemorating this crime and has even nominated an Ambassador to Armenia, Dick Hoagland, who is on record denying that it was a genocide," he added. "Today's brutal murder serves as a wake up call to the United States and the entire international community to unite together in ending forever the Turkish government's denial of the Armenian Genocide."
Hrant Dink was featured prominently in the anti-genocide documentary film SCREAMERS, which was screened before an overflow Congressional audience on Capitol Hill this past Wednesday. Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA), Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Save Darfur, the ANCA Endowment Fund, and The Raffy Manoukian Charity sponsored the screening, which features the Grammy award winning band "System of a Down's" international efforts to end the cycle of Genocide. To watch excerpts of SCREAMERS featuring and interview with Hrant Dink, visit: http://www.screamersmovie.com/movie_clips.asp
Last year, Dink was found guilty and given a suspended six-month sentence in Turkey for "insulting Turkishness," a violation of the Turkish Penal Code, for his statements affirming the Armenian Genocide.
In a CNN-International interview earlier today, Hamparian explained that Dink's murder was a terrible tragedy, but not entirely a surprise, in light of the environment of escalating intolerance intimidation created by the Turkish government against those who openly acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.
Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) has called on his House colleagues to join with him in praising Hrant Dink's courage in confronting the facts of the Armenian Genocide, and urging the Prime Minister of Turkey to repeal the law under which Dink was prosecuted.
Armenian National Committee of America
1711 N Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036
Tel. (202) 775-1918
Fax. (202) 775-5648 Email.anca@anca.org
"Hrant Dink's murder is tragic proof that the Turkish government - through its campaign of denial, threats and intimidation against the recognition of the Armenian Genocide - continues to fuel the same hatred and intolerance that initially led to this crime against humanity more than 90 years ago," said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.
"Sadly, the Turkish government can continue denying the Armenian Genocide - against all evidence -in great measure due to the complicity of the U.S. Administration, which, at Turkey's urging, works against Congressional legislation commemorating this crime and has even nominated an Ambassador to Armenia, Dick Hoagland, who is on record denying that it was a genocide," he added. "Today's brutal murder serves as a wake up call to the United States and the entire international community to unite together in ending forever the Turkish government's denial of the Armenian Genocide."
Hrant Dink was featured prominently in the anti-genocide documentary film SCREAMERS, which was screened before an overflow Congressional audience on Capitol Hill this past Wednesday. Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA), Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Save Darfur, the ANCA Endowment Fund, and The Raffy Manoukian Charity sponsored the screening, which features the Grammy award winning band "System of a Down's" international efforts to end the cycle of Genocide. To watch excerpts of SCREAMERS featuring and interview with Hrant Dink, visit: http://www.screamersmovie.com/movie_clips.asp
Last year, Dink was found guilty and given a suspended six-month sentence in Turkey for "insulting Turkishness," a violation of the Turkish Penal Code, for his statements affirming the Armenian Genocide.
In a CNN-International interview earlier today, Hamparian explained that Dink's murder was a terrible tragedy, but not entirely a surprise, in light of the environment of escalating intolerance intimidation created by the Turkish government against those who openly acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.
Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) has called on his House colleagues to join with him in praising Hrant Dink's courage in confronting the facts of the Armenian Genocide, and urging the Prime Minister of Turkey to repeal the law under which Dink was prosecuted.
Armenian National Committee of America
1711 N Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036
Tel. (202) 775-1918
Fax. (202) 775-5648 Email.anca@anca.org
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