January 19 marks the 17th anniversary of the assassination of prominent Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink.
52-year-old Dink, the editor-in-chief of Istanbul-based Agos newspaper, was shot dead in broad daylight outside the newspaper’s headquarters in central İstanbul on January 19, 2007 by Ogun Samast, a 17-year-old Turkish nationalist.
Photographs of the assassin flanked by smiling Turkish police and gendarmerie, posing with the killer side by side in front of the Turkish flag, surfaced. The photos sparked a scandal in Turkey, prompting a spate of investigations and the removal from office of those involved. Samast was later sentenced to 22 years in prison by a Turkish court. He was released on parole for “good behaviour” on 15 November 2023, after spending 16 years and 10 months in prison.
Dink was one of Turkey’s most prominent Armenian voices. Despite threats on his life, he refused to remain silent. He always said his aim was to improve the difficult relationship between Turks and Armenians. Active in various democratic platforms and civil society organizations, Hrant Dink emphasized the need for democratization in Turkey and focused on the issues of free speech, minority rights, civic rights and issues pertaining to the Armenian community in Turkey.
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Meanwhile, he believed that Diaspora Armenians should be able to live free of the weight of historical memory. “Turkish-Armenian relations should be taken out of a 1915 meters-deep well.”
Source Panorama.am
