Slain Turkish-Armenian journalist commemorated

ISTANBUL

Hundreds of people gathered in Istanbul on Jan. 19 to mark the death anniversary of Hrant Dink, a prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist who was gunned down in broad daylight in front of his office 15 years ago.

The crowd walked to the site, the former office building of weekly Agos whose editor-in-chief was once Dink, carrying black-and-white placards written in Armenian on one side and Turkish on the other.

Participants voiced their demands for justice during the commemoration as they did every year.

After the flower leaving ceremony, doves were projected onto the building, in a reference to Dink’s last article in which he mentioned that he felt “dove-like anxiety” due to the death threats he had received.

On the same day the article was published, Dink was assassinated by then a 17-year-old jobless high-school dropout, Ogün Samast, who was sentenced to almost 23 years in jail back in 2011 after confessing to the killing.

However, a further inquiry found that many public and police officials linked to FETÖ, the group behind the 2016 defeated coup, tried to cover up the background of the assassination.

The case in which 76 suspects were on trial has been concluded with a verdict by a first court on March 26, 2021. However, it is still in the process of legal appeal.