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KOCHARIAN HONORS SLAIN TURKISH-ARMENIAN EDITOR
By Gayane Danielian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
June 18 2007
President Robert Kocharian publicly honored on Monday the assassinated
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink with a posthumous state award
granted each year to prominent individuals in recognition of their
contribution to Armenian culture and science.
Dink was among 18 writers, artists, and scientists awarded this
year from a special presidential endowment set up with the help of
French-Armenian philanthropist Robert Bogossian in 2001.
Kocharian singled out the late editor of the Istanbul-based
Armenian weekly "Agos" for special praise as he addressed a solemn
award-giving ceremony in his office attended by Dink's wife, daughter
and brother. He cited Dink's contribution to "restoration of historical
justice, mutual understanding between peoples, freedom of speech,
and protection of human rights."
"It was a big loss for our people," Kocharian said of the editor's
shock assassination. "I want to assure members of his family that we
will always remember Hrant Dink, that Armenia is also a home for his
family, that we are always happy to see them in Armenia," he added.
Dink's widow Rakel was given a standing ovation as she received the
$5,000 prize from Kocharian. "We will find the power to endure our
pain," she said in a brief speech.
Dink was shot dead outside the "Agos" offices in Istanbul last January
by a young ultranationalist Turk furious with his public references
to the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as
genocide. The murder was universally condemned in and outside Turkey
and led to an unprecedented outpouring of sympathy for Dink, his family
and Armenians in general by tens of thousands of ordinary Turks. But
it also provoked a nationalist backlash, raising questions about the
security of the country's small Armenian community.
Speaking to RFE/RL, Rakel Dink said she and other members of her
family are not yet considering leaving Turkey despite mounting
security concerns within the embattled community. Asked whether they
might eventually emigrate to Armenia, she said: "It could happen,
but there is no such urgency now."
Last Thursday Turkish prosecutors called for a prison sentence of
up to three years for Dink's son Arat, who now edits "Agos," and
his colleague Serikis Seropyan for republishing a 2006 interview in
which his father made a case for genocide recognition. They accused
the two men of "denigrating Turkishness." Hrant Dink was given a
six-month suspended sentence on the same charge several months before
his assassination.
At a court hearing in Istanbul, Arat Dink accused judges of
contributing to his father's death by making him a target thanks to
their high-profile judicial proceedings. "I think it is primitive,
absurd and dangerous to consider as an insult to Turkish identity
the recognition of a historic event as a genocide," he said, quoted
by the Anatolia news agency.
By Gayane Danielian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
June 18 2007
President Robert Kocharian publicly honored on Monday the assassinated
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink with a posthumous state award
granted each year to prominent individuals in recognition of their
contribution to Armenian culture and science.
Dink was among 18 writers, artists, and scientists awarded this
year from a special presidential endowment set up with the help of
French-Armenian philanthropist Robert Bogossian in 2001.
Kocharian singled out the late editor of the Istanbul-based
Armenian weekly "Agos" for special praise as he addressed a solemn
award-giving ceremony in his office attended by Dink's wife, daughter
and brother. He cited Dink's contribution to "restoration of historical
justice, mutual understanding between peoples, freedom of speech,
and protection of human rights."
"It was a big loss for our people," Kocharian said of the editor's
shock assassination. "I want to assure members of his family that we
will always remember Hrant Dink, that Armenia is also a home for his
family, that we are always happy to see them in Armenia," he added.
Dink's widow Rakel was given a standing ovation as she received the
$5,000 prize from Kocharian. "We will find the power to endure our
pain," she said in a brief speech.
Dink was shot dead outside the "Agos" offices in Istanbul last January
by a young ultranationalist Turk furious with his public references
to the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as
genocide. The murder was universally condemned in and outside Turkey
and led to an unprecedented outpouring of sympathy for Dink, his family
and Armenians in general by tens of thousands of ordinary Turks. But
it also provoked a nationalist backlash, raising questions about the
security of the country's small Armenian community.
Speaking to RFE/RL, Rakel Dink said she and other members of her
family are not yet considering leaving Turkey despite mounting
security concerns within the embattled community. Asked whether they
might eventually emigrate to Armenia, she said: "It could happen,
but there is no such urgency now."
Last Thursday Turkish prosecutors called for a prison sentence of
up to three years for Dink's son Arat, who now edits "Agos," and
his colleague Serikis Seropyan for republishing a 2006 interview in
which his father made a case for genocide recognition. They accused
the two men of "denigrating Turkishness." Hrant Dink was given a
six-month suspended sentence on the same charge several months before
his assassination.
At a court hearing in Istanbul, Arat Dink accused judges of
contributing to his father's death by making him a target thanks to
their high-profile judicial proceedings. "I think it is primitive,
absurd and dangerous to consider as an insult to Turkish identity
the recognition of a historic event as a genocide," he said, quoted
by the Anatolia news agency.