Respected intellectual killed in Turkey

Hrant Dink, a high-profile Turkish-Armenian writer, journalist and editor, known for his free speach and strong common sense, was killed in front of his office in Istanbul on 19 January 2007.

Hrant Dink was a respected intellectual, who defended his views with conviction, contributed to an open public debate, and was a campaigner for freedom of expression in Turkey.

NTV television said Dink was shot three times in the head and neck. Muharrem Gozutok, a restaurant owner near the newspaper, said the assailant looked about 20, wore jeans and a cap, and shouted "I shot the non-Muslim" as he left the scene.

In 2006 Hrant Dink was awarded the Norwegian Bjornson prize, worth 100,000 NOK (15,200 USD), for highlighting the situation of the Armenian minority in Turkey, and the genocide of the Armenians by Ottoman Turks. The prize was handed out in an official ceremony on 24 November 2006 in the Norwegian west coast city Molde. The prize was awarded by the Bjornson Academy, established in 2003 to protect freedom of expression. Previous winners include Vivian Fouad and Samir Morcos from Egypt for their efforts to promote ties between Muslims and Christians, and Esma Redzepova from Macedonia who has championed the rights of the Roma people.

Last year Turkey's appeals court upheld a six-month suspended jail sentence under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code against Dink for mentioning the genocide of Armenians in Turkey in an article. Nobel Prize winner in 2006, Orhan Pamuk, has also been accused with a similar charge. Turkey denies that 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a systematic genocide between 1896 to 1921. Another 300,000 Armenians have been killed in Ottoman Turkey during Hamidian massacres in 1894-1896.

- 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, said Raffi Hamparian of the Armenian National Committee of USA.

Hrant Dink was born in Malatya on September 15th, 1954. He had graduated from Zoology Department of Ystanbul University Science Faculty. Then he continued his education at Literature Faculty, Philosophy Department of the same university.

Since 1996 he worked as columnist and chief editor of AGOS, a weekly newspaper. He tried to make this newspaper a democrat and oppositional voice of Turkey, and also to inform the public about the injustices done to the Armenian community. One of the main aims of the newspaper is to contribute to dialogue between Turkish and Armenian communities, and also between Turkey and Armenia. He took part in various democratic platforms and civil society organizations.