17 years since Hrant Dink’s assassination
Today is the 17th anniversary of the assassination of Hrant Dink, the founder and editor-in-chief of Istanbul-based ‘Agos’ weekly.
Dink was a journalist in a country where free-thinking journalists are persecuted. And as a peace fighter, he was persecuted by nationalists.
Dink was one of Turkey’s prominent intellectuals, known for his fearless speeches and bold articles commenting on the most complicated political issues.
Hrant Dink was born in 1954 in Malatya. In 1961 he moved to Istanbul with his family. He grew up in the Armenian orphanage of Gedikpasha.
Dink, like all those who spoke out about the Armenian Genocide in Turkey, was sentenced to half a year in prison under Article 301 of the Criminal Code.
Dink was persecuted especially because of his publications about Islamized and secret Armenians.
“I am a person who understands the pain experienced by his people and bears this burden,” he described himself in one of his interviews.
The prominent Istanbul Armenian journalist and editor-in-chief of Agos, the only weekly newspaper being printed in Armenian and Turkish in Turkey, Hrant Dink was killed on January 19, 2007, in front of the then editorial office of Agos, by three gunshots to the head from behind.
The killer had called Dink “gavur,” meaning “foreigner” or “infidel,” when he had fled the scene. And this gives reason to assume that this murder was committed on national grounds.
The police detained then 17-year-old Ogun Samast at the bus station in Samsun, Turkey, on suspicion of committing the murder, and Samast confessed to the murder during his first interrogation.
Dink’s assassination sparked a wave of protest. Jam-packed protests and mourning processions were held in many cities of Turkey, Armenia, and numerous other countries.
