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Agence France Presse -- English
January 21, 2007 Sunday 5:26 PM GMT
Turkish teenager confesses to killing journalist
A 17-year-old prime suspect in the killing of Turkish journalist
Hrant Dink, one of his country's most prominent ethnic Armenians, has
confessed to the murder, a prosecutor said Sunday.
"He admitted he committed the murder" in his preliminary
interrogation in the Black Sea port of Samsun, where he was arrested
overnight, the city's chief prosecutor Ahmet Gokcinar told Anatolia
news agency.
The suspect, Ogun Samast, reportedly said he shot Dink because the
journalist insulted the Turkish nation.
"I shot him after saying the Friday prayers. I'm not sorry," the CNN
Turk news channel quoted him as saying in his testimony. "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."
Dink, 53, was one of the taboo-breaking critics of the official line
on the massacre of Armenians in 1915-17 under the Ottoman Empire,
which he labeled as genocide, and was last year given a suspended
six-month jail sentence for insulting "Turkishness."
Nationalists had branded him a "traitor" and Dink wrote in recent
articles in his bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos that he
received threats.
Samast, a jobless secondary school graduate reportedly involved with
nationalist groups, was detained on board a bus in Samsun, while he
was returning from Istanbul to his northeastern hometown of Trabzon
on the Black Sea.
He was still carrying the gun he allegedly used to shoot Dink three
times in the head and the neck outside the Agos office in downtown
Istanbul Friday afternoon, officials said.
The boy, flown to Istanbul Sunday, was arrested with the help of his
father, who tipped off the police after the authorities released
pictures of his son caught on the security camera of a bank near the
scene of the murder.
Nine other people suspected of being linked to the assassination were
detained in Trabzon, officials said. Four of them were also taken to
Istanbul.
In addition, the Samsun police detained two men who were travelling
on the same bus as Samast and sent them to Istanbul, Anatolia
reported.
Pointing to Samast's young age, Dink's lawyer raised the possibility
that he might only be a hitman.
"The boy might have pulled the trigger, but the authorities should
find those who are behind him," Erdal Dogan told the Aksam newspaper.
"The state should not just say 'this boy did it' and shut up."
Istanbul's chief prosecutor, Aykut Cengiz Engin, said organized crime
units would probe the murder, even though there was no immediate
indication that an illegal organization was involved.
Among the detainees was reportedly a friend of Samast, named as Yasin
Hayal, who spent 11 months in jail for a 2004 bomb blast outside a
McDonald's restaurant in Trabzon.
Samast said in his initial testimony that Hayal encouraged him to
kill Dink and gave him the gun, the Milliyet newspaper said.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed Samast's detention "in the
name of democracy and the struggle for freedom".
The police will also probe any possible links between Dink's
assassination and the murder of an Italian Catholic priest in Trabzon
in February last year by a 16-year-old boy, Erdogan said.
Dink's assassination sent shock waves through Turkey and hundreds of
protestors into the streets chanting "We are all Armenians, we are
all Hrants."
Despite the controversies, the soft-spoken and often emotional Dink
had won many hearts as a sincere activist for Turkish-Armenian
reconciliation and free speech, who also denounced Armenian
radicalism and most recently a French bill to jail those who deny
that the massacres constituted genocide.
Members of Istanbul's tiny Armenian community prayed for Dink after
Sunday masses.
Hundreds continued to flock to the scene of the murder to pay their
respects to the slain journalist, lighting candles and laying flowers
at his portrait. Dink was to be laid to rest Tuesday.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
January 21, 2007 Sunday 5:26 PM GMT
Turkish teenager confesses to killing journalist
A 17-year-old prime suspect in the killing of Turkish journalist
Hrant Dink, one of his country's most prominent ethnic Armenians, has
confessed to the murder, a prosecutor said Sunday.
"He admitted he committed the murder" in his preliminary
interrogation in the Black Sea port of Samsun, where he was arrested
overnight, the city's chief prosecutor Ahmet Gokcinar told Anatolia
news agency.
The suspect, Ogun Samast, reportedly said he shot Dink because the
journalist insulted the Turkish nation.
"I shot him after saying the Friday prayers. I'm not sorry," the CNN
Turk news channel quoted him as saying in his testimony. "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."
Dink, 53, was one of the taboo-breaking critics of the official line
on the massacre of Armenians in 1915-17 under the Ottoman Empire,
which he labeled as genocide, and was last year given a suspended
six-month jail sentence for insulting "Turkishness."
Nationalists had branded him a "traitor" and Dink wrote in recent
articles in his bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos that he
received threats.
Samast, a jobless secondary school graduate reportedly involved with
nationalist groups, was detained on board a bus in Samsun, while he
was returning from Istanbul to his northeastern hometown of Trabzon
on the Black Sea.
He was still carrying the gun he allegedly used to shoot Dink three
times in the head and the neck outside the Agos office in downtown
Istanbul Friday afternoon, officials said.
The boy, flown to Istanbul Sunday, was arrested with the help of his
father, who tipped off the police after the authorities released
pictures of his son caught on the security camera of a bank near the
scene of the murder.
Nine other people suspected of being linked to the assassination were
detained in Trabzon, officials said. Four of them were also taken to
Istanbul.
In addition, the Samsun police detained two men who were travelling
on the same bus as Samast and sent them to Istanbul, Anatolia
reported.
Pointing to Samast's young age, Dink's lawyer raised the possibility
that he might only be a hitman.
"The boy might have pulled the trigger, but the authorities should
find those who are behind him," Erdal Dogan told the Aksam newspaper.
"The state should not just say 'this boy did it' and shut up."
Istanbul's chief prosecutor, Aykut Cengiz Engin, said organized crime
units would probe the murder, even though there was no immediate
indication that an illegal organization was involved.
Among the detainees was reportedly a friend of Samast, named as Yasin
Hayal, who spent 11 months in jail for a 2004 bomb blast outside a
McDonald's restaurant in Trabzon.
Samast said in his initial testimony that Hayal encouraged him to
kill Dink and gave him the gun, the Milliyet newspaper said.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed Samast's detention "in the
name of democracy and the struggle for freedom".
The police will also probe any possible links between Dink's
assassination and the murder of an Italian Catholic priest in Trabzon
in February last year by a 16-year-old boy, Erdogan said.
Dink's assassination sent shock waves through Turkey and hundreds of
protestors into the streets chanting "We are all Armenians, we are
all Hrants."
Despite the controversies, the soft-spoken and often emotional Dink
had won many hearts as a sincere activist for Turkish-Armenian
reconciliation and free speech, who also denounced Armenian
radicalism and most recently a French bill to jail those who deny
that the massacres constituted genocide.
Members of Istanbul's tiny Armenian community prayed for Dink after
Sunday masses.
Hundreds continued to flock to the scene of the murder to pay their
respects to the slain journalist, lighting candles and laying flowers
at his portrait. Dink was to be laid to rest Tuesday.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress