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Mourners reconcile at Dink funeral
Today's Zaman, Turkey
Jan 23 2007
Up to 100,000 people walked through İstanbul yesterday to bid
farewell to slain journalist Hrant Dink in a funeral where appeal for
reconciliation competed with grief over the loss of a respected
member of Turkey's Armenian community.
Turkish and Armenian officials joined mourners who filled streets of
İstanbul on an eight-kilometer route. "It is mystical that his
funeral turned into an occasion where Armenian and Turkish officials
gathered together. He would have been happy to see this turn into
real dialogue," Patriarch Mesrob II, the spiritual leader of Turkey's
Armenian community, told mourners at a private church service.
Dink was widely acclaimed as a voice of reconciliation between Turks
and Armenians, but he was loathed by radicals on both sides. He
seemed, though, to have achieved that to a certain extent in his
death: Turkey has no diplomatic ties with Armenia but still invited
Armenian officials and religious leaders as well as moderate members
of the diaspora to the funeral. Armenia sent Deputy Foreign Minister
Arman Kirakosian. The Armenian Orthodox Church sent US-based Bishop
Khazkah Parsamian. Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, primate of the
Eastern diocese of the Armenian Church of America, and a delegation
from the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations in France
were also in attendance.
Absent from the funeral were Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who were hosting the visiting
Italian prime minister and Polish president, respectively. Deputy
Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Şahin and Interior Minister Abdulkadir
Aksu represented the Turkish government in the ceremony.
Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize the independence
of Armenia from the former Soviet Union, but it refuses to have
diplomatic ties with the landlocked country and keeps its border gate
closed in protest of Armenia's occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, an
Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan, and its support for Armenian
diaspora efforts to win international recognition for an alleged
genocide of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.
In yesterday's funeral, mourners carried identical black-and-white
signs reading "We are all Hrant Dink" and "We are all Armenians" as
they walked from Agos headquarters to an Armenian cemetery in
Yenikapi in one of the biggest funerals ever held in
İstanbul.
White doves, which Dink had likened himself to in his last column
before his death, were released into the air as somber music played.
Much of downtown Istanbul was closed to traffic.
Dink wrote in his last column that he was like a pigeon, living with
anxiety and fear among the human crowds, but concluded that he was
still free as "people don't touch pigeons" in this country.
Dink drew hatred from ultranationalists, who viewed him as traitor
because he called the killing of Armenians in Ottoman Anatolia during
the World War I years "genocide." He was an unpopular figure among
Armenian radicals as well since he called for reconciliation with
Turks.
"Hrant Dink was a great advocate in the country for freedom of speech
and for reconciliation, in particular between Armenians and Turks,"
said Ross Wilson, the US ambassador to Turkey, on the sidelines of
the funeral procession.
"He was one of the many advocates here for a more liberal Turkey,"
Wilson said. "All of them are making a statement about the kind of
country they want Turkey to be. Judging by what you see on the
streets, he did bring the people together."
Seventeen-year-old Ogun Samast, an unemployed secondary school
graduate, confessed to killing Dink because he had said "Turkish
blood is dirty."
Police are questioning seven suspects, including Samast and Yasin
Hayal, a nationalist militant convicted in a 2004 bomb attack at a
McDonald's restaurant. Hayal has confessed to inciting the slaying
and providing a gun and money to the teenager, according to police.
The suspects also include a university student who allegedly
"inspired" the attack, daily Hurriyet reported Tuesday. Police
confirmed the report but gave no details. A firm motive has yet to be
established, but many believe Dink was killed for expressing his
views.
In an emotional speech to the crowd in front of the Agos office,
Rakel Dink called for a deeper search for answers to the killing.
"Seventeen or 27, whoever he was, the murderer was once a baby," said
Rakel Dink in her emotional speech. "Unless we can question how this
baby grew into a murderer, we cannot achieve anything."
Remembering her husband, she said, "You have left ... your loved
ones, but you have not left your country."
"Nothing was taboo or untouchable for him," Rakel Dink also said.
Dink was killed because of "his love of truth, transparency and
friendship," she said, adding that "Neither darkness, nor fear nor
death will make us forget.
301 protests
Dink had requested a silent funeral in his will, but some mourners
shouted: "Shoulder to shoulder against fascism" as and "Murderer 301"
-- a reference to the law under which Dink had been sentenced to a
six-month suspended imprisonment for "insulting Turkishness."
Among the intellectuals dragged to court over Article 301 was
novelist Orhan Pamuk, who last year won the Nobel Prize in
literature. Such prosecutions have alarmed the European Union, which
Turkey aspires to join.
The government has signaled readiness to reconsider the controversial
article, which the EU says restricts freedom of expression, but so
far there has been no concrete step in that direction. Justice
Minister Cemil Cicek was non-committal yesterday as he advised
"talk[ing] about this later" when he was asked by journalists about
prospects for abolishment of the infamous article.
Thousands of policemen were on duty for the ceremony and
sharp-shooters could be seen positioned on the rooftops of nearby
buildings as the authorities cancelled all police leave and called in
reinforcements from nearby cities.
Today's Zaman, Turkey
Jan 23 2007
Up to 100,000 people walked through İstanbul yesterday to bid
farewell to slain journalist Hrant Dink in a funeral where appeal for
reconciliation competed with grief over the loss of a respected
member of Turkey's Armenian community.
Turkish and Armenian officials joined mourners who filled streets of
İstanbul on an eight-kilometer route. "It is mystical that his
funeral turned into an occasion where Armenian and Turkish officials
gathered together. He would have been happy to see this turn into
real dialogue," Patriarch Mesrob II, the spiritual leader of Turkey's
Armenian community, told mourners at a private church service.
Dink was widely acclaimed as a voice of reconciliation between Turks
and Armenians, but he was loathed by radicals on both sides. He
seemed, though, to have achieved that to a certain extent in his
death: Turkey has no diplomatic ties with Armenia but still invited
Armenian officials and religious leaders as well as moderate members
of the diaspora to the funeral. Armenia sent Deputy Foreign Minister
Arman Kirakosian. The Armenian Orthodox Church sent US-based Bishop
Khazkah Parsamian. Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, primate of the
Eastern diocese of the Armenian Church of America, and a delegation
from the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations in France
were also in attendance.
Absent from the funeral were Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who were hosting the visiting
Italian prime minister and Polish president, respectively. Deputy
Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Şahin and Interior Minister Abdulkadir
Aksu represented the Turkish government in the ceremony.
Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize the independence
of Armenia from the former Soviet Union, but it refuses to have
diplomatic ties with the landlocked country and keeps its border gate
closed in protest of Armenia's occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, an
Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan, and its support for Armenian
diaspora efforts to win international recognition for an alleged
genocide of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.
In yesterday's funeral, mourners carried identical black-and-white
signs reading "We are all Hrant Dink" and "We are all Armenians" as
they walked from Agos headquarters to an Armenian cemetery in
Yenikapi in one of the biggest funerals ever held in
İstanbul.
White doves, which Dink had likened himself to in his last column
before his death, were released into the air as somber music played.
Much of downtown Istanbul was closed to traffic.
Dink wrote in his last column that he was like a pigeon, living with
anxiety and fear among the human crowds, but concluded that he was
still free as "people don't touch pigeons" in this country.
Dink drew hatred from ultranationalists, who viewed him as traitor
because he called the killing of Armenians in Ottoman Anatolia during
the World War I years "genocide." He was an unpopular figure among
Armenian radicals as well since he called for reconciliation with
Turks.
"Hrant Dink was a great advocate in the country for freedom of speech
and for reconciliation, in particular between Armenians and Turks,"
said Ross Wilson, the US ambassador to Turkey, on the sidelines of
the funeral procession.
"He was one of the many advocates here for a more liberal Turkey,"
Wilson said. "All of them are making a statement about the kind of
country they want Turkey to be. Judging by what you see on the
streets, he did bring the people together."
Seventeen-year-old Ogun Samast, an unemployed secondary school
graduate, confessed to killing Dink because he had said "Turkish
blood is dirty."
Police are questioning seven suspects, including Samast and Yasin
Hayal, a nationalist militant convicted in a 2004 bomb attack at a
McDonald's restaurant. Hayal has confessed to inciting the slaying
and providing a gun and money to the teenager, according to police.
The suspects also include a university student who allegedly
"inspired" the attack, daily Hurriyet reported Tuesday. Police
confirmed the report but gave no details. A firm motive has yet to be
established, but many believe Dink was killed for expressing his
views.
In an emotional speech to the crowd in front of the Agos office,
Rakel Dink called for a deeper search for answers to the killing.
"Seventeen or 27, whoever he was, the murderer was once a baby," said
Rakel Dink in her emotional speech. "Unless we can question how this
baby grew into a murderer, we cannot achieve anything."
Remembering her husband, she said, "You have left ... your loved
ones, but you have not left your country."
"Nothing was taboo or untouchable for him," Rakel Dink also said.
Dink was killed because of "his love of truth, transparency and
friendship," she said, adding that "Neither darkness, nor fear nor
death will make us forget.
301 protests
Dink had requested a silent funeral in his will, but some mourners
shouted: "Shoulder to shoulder against fascism" as and "Murderer 301"
-- a reference to the law under which Dink had been sentenced to a
six-month suspended imprisonment for "insulting Turkishness."
Among the intellectuals dragged to court over Article 301 was
novelist Orhan Pamuk, who last year won the Nobel Prize in
literature. Such prosecutions have alarmed the European Union, which
Turkey aspires to join.
The government has signaled readiness to reconsider the controversial
article, which the EU says restricts freedom of expression, but so
far there has been no concrete step in that direction. Justice
Minister Cemil Cicek was non-committal yesterday as he advised
"talk[ing] about this later" when he was asked by journalists about
prospects for abolishment of the infamous article.
Thousands of policemen were on duty for the ceremony and
sharp-shooters could be seen positioned on the rooftops of nearby
buildings as the authorities cancelled all police leave and called in
reinforcements from nearby cities.