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Los Angeles Times, CA
Jan 20 2007
L.A. Armenians saddened but not surprised over editor Hrant Dink's
shooting
Vigils begin and tributes are planned to honor a 'witness to the
truth.'
By Greg Krikorian, Times Staff Writer
January 20, 2007
Until two years ago, the eloquent editor of Turkey's only Armenian
language newspaper was barely known to many in Los Angeles' vast
Armenian American community.
But when Turkey charged that Hrant Dink's uncompromising stories had
insulted that nation's identity, the iconoclastic resident of
Istanbul quickly gained notice.
So his assassination Friday stunned and saddened those who had known
him for years and many who had only recently learned his name.
"It is shocking but not surprising," said Raffi Hamparian of the
Armenian National Committee of America, the nation's largest Armenian
American political organization. "We are paying the results of a
tragic policy on the part of Turkey to deny its past and, perhaps
most tragically, the complicity of the U.S. in this denial."
For decades, Armenian Americans have urged the U.S. government to
pressure Turkey to acknowledge what historians have long called the
first genocide of the 20th century - the killing of 1.5 million
Armenians in Turkey beginning in 1915.
More recently, Turkey's insistence that no such genocide took place
has drawn fire as it seeks acceptance into the European Union.
"I am devastated," said Frank Zerunyan, a Los Angeles attorney and
chairman of the Armenian Bar Assn. "As a lawyer I always respected
his views about freedom of speech. He never discriminated."
Calling Dink's slaying "horrifying," Archbishop Hovnan Derderian of
the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church added, "What happened in
Istanbul reawakens in the hearts and souls of our community what
happened in the genocide."
Just last October, the archbishop recalled, Dink was in Los Angeles
and spoke to a gathering of more than 500 Armenian Americans, many of
whom asked him whether he was afraid that his outspoken comments in
Turkey might one day cost him his life.
"He said he was not afraid," Derderian recalled. "He said that after
we have lost 1.5 million for our faith, he was not afraid to be a
witness to the truth."
As church vigils began Friday and tributes were scheduled through the
weekend, many Armenian Americans like Harry Kasbarian seemed stunned
by the assassination.
At his Glendale tire store, Kasbarian said he, his family and friends
were downhearted. At the same time, he said, Dink's willingness to
ignore danger would long be remembered.
"When any voice is silenced, there will be thousands of new voices
that will come up around the world," he said. "He is going to be
considered a martyr."
Jan 20 2007
L.A. Armenians saddened but not surprised over editor Hrant Dink's
shooting
Vigils begin and tributes are planned to honor a 'witness to the
truth.'
By Greg Krikorian, Times Staff Writer
January 20, 2007
Until two years ago, the eloquent editor of Turkey's only Armenian
language newspaper was barely known to many in Los Angeles' vast
Armenian American community.
But when Turkey charged that Hrant Dink's uncompromising stories had
insulted that nation's identity, the iconoclastic resident of
Istanbul quickly gained notice.
So his assassination Friday stunned and saddened those who had known
him for years and many who had only recently learned his name.
"It is shocking but not surprising," said Raffi Hamparian of the
Armenian National Committee of America, the nation's largest Armenian
American political organization. "We are paying the results of a
tragic policy on the part of Turkey to deny its past and, perhaps
most tragically, the complicity of the U.S. in this denial."
For decades, Armenian Americans have urged the U.S. government to
pressure Turkey to acknowledge what historians have long called the
first genocide of the 20th century - the killing of 1.5 million
Armenians in Turkey beginning in 1915.
More recently, Turkey's insistence that no such genocide took place
has drawn fire as it seeks acceptance into the European Union.
"I am devastated," said Frank Zerunyan, a Los Angeles attorney and
chairman of the Armenian Bar Assn. "As a lawyer I always respected
his views about freedom of speech. He never discriminated."
Calling Dink's slaying "horrifying," Archbishop Hovnan Derderian of
the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church added, "What happened in
Istanbul reawakens in the hearts and souls of our community what
happened in the genocide."
Just last October, the archbishop recalled, Dink was in Los Angeles
and spoke to a gathering of more than 500 Armenian Americans, many of
whom asked him whether he was afraid that his outspoken comments in
Turkey might one day cost him his life.
"He said he was not afraid," Derderian recalled. "He said that after
we have lost 1.5 million for our faith, he was not afraid to be a
witness to the truth."
As church vigils began Friday and tributes were scheduled through the
weekend, many Armenian Americans like Harry Kasbarian seemed stunned
by the assassination.
At his Glendale tire store, Kasbarian said he, his family and friends
were downhearted. At the same time, he said, Dink's willingness to
ignore danger would long be remembered.
"When any voice is silenced, there will be thousands of new voices
that will come up around the world," he said. "He is going to be
considered a martyr."