Hrant Dink, 53, prominent newspaper editor and a leading figure in one of Turkey's most burning historical debates – the massacre of Armenians during the collapse of the Ottoman empire – has been shot dead.
Dink was shot three times in the head outside the office of Agos, his weekly newspaper, Istanbul, capital of Turkey. He died almost immediately.
The murder brought swift condemnation from Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The police are invesrtigating.
Hrant Dink was a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent and had played a leading role in breaking a taboo in Turkey, were debate on the fate of the Armenians had for years been an untouchable subject. He was widely credited with trying to bring Turks and Armenians together, but had been given a suspended prison sentence in 2005 for allegedly insulting the Turkish state.
Armenians say the deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenian citizens of the Ottoman empire were a deliberate genocide by the empire's rulers beginning in 1915. Turkey denies genocide and insists that hundreds of thousands of both Turks and Armenians died as a result of war, famine, ethnic cleansing and disease in that turbulent period.
Dink's murder could have serious repercussions for Turkey in Washington. Both houses of the United States Congress are due to debate a motion in the next few weeks that would recognise the Armenian massacre as genocide.
Turkey is fighting diplomatically to prevent this, and the White House has indicated that it would not approve such a motion. But the atmosphere in which the debate takes place will be clouded by Friday's murder.
Dink's murder will have a huge impact in Turkey, too. It is an election year in Turkey and all political parties are beginning to position themselves to capture the nationalist vote, which represents a sizeable portion of the electorate.
Ultranationalists have succeeded many times in shutting off debate on the Armenian issue, including academic debates at universities.
Most Turks are not aware of the fate of the Armenians because Turkish school history textbooks make no reference to it, but a debate has emerged in the past two years with Hrant Dink as one of its most prominent proponents.
The Republic of Turkey was created in 1923 from the ruins of the Ottoman empire.
Dink was known to have received many death threats in recent years, he is understood to have refused police protection.Labels: International Politics |
