Istanbul: Gunmen kill Armenian advocate of Turkish EU membership
Journalist Hrant Dink, one of the most prominent voices of Turkey's shrinking Armenian community, was killed by a gunman Friday at the entrance to his newspaper's offices, police said.
Dink, a
53-year-old Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, was a public figure in
Turkey, and as the editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper
Agos, one of its most prominent Armenian voices.
He was an outspoken advocate of Turkey's EU membership and invested
his hopes in the EU's ability to transform his country into a modern
democracy.
Dink had gone on trial numerous times in recent years for speaking
out about the extermination of Turkey's Armenians at the beginning of
the 20th century and other topics. He had received threats from
nationalists, who viewed him as a traitor.
In the past two years, the European Commission and Parliament
repeatedly raised his case with the Turkish authorites, and considered
it a test of Turkey's commitment to reforms.
Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, condemend the
killings, declaring: "In the person of Hrant Dink, this assassination
is aimed at all of us. [...] I curse the blood-stained hands that
committed this ghastly act."
European Commissioner Olli Rehn, who is responsible for the EU's
negociations with Turkey, also published a statement, expressing his
shock and sadness and calling Hrant Dink "a respected intellectual who
defended his views with conviction and contributed to an open public
debate. He was a campaigner for freedom of expression in Turkey." "I
trust, added the Commissioner, that the Turkish authorities will fully
investigate this crime and bring the perpetrators to justice."
The event is sure to feed skepticism in Europe about Turkey's
ability to address the challenges of europeanization. Among other
reactions to the assassination, one Armenian campaigning group in
France, the Collectif Van, denounced the EU's past passivity in the
face of Turkish official expressions of hostility to Armenians, adding
that "the Turkish State has for decades fed anti-Armenian hatred and
armed extremists, whether on Turkish soil or elswewhere".
Links:
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Vidéo: Dink in Paris, 20 October 2006 [fr]. www.armenews.com/article.php3
