Thousands of people commemorate slain journalist Hrant Dink in front of the Istanbul.
Thousands of people gathered Wednesday commemorate slain journalist Hrant Dink in front of the Istanbul office building where he was assassinated four years ago, an event that united a diverse and colorful coalition.
Crowds have gathered on the same spot each year since Jan. 19, 2007, when the Armenian-Turkish newspaper editor was shot in the back by confessed triggerman Ogun Samast. Thousands of people came together that day as photographers were still taking shots of his body, lying in the street covered with newspapers.
Four years later, they united under the same slogan – “We are all Hrant, We are all Armenians” – as at the original gathering, and with the same demands for the justice they say has been denied.
“We know the ones who did it, the ones who made them do it and the ones who covered it up are in the state,” journalist Bulent Aydın said to the crowd assembled on a sunny winter day in Istanbul’s Osmanbey district. “Let the ones who said ‘kill’ be put to trial.”
Though last year’s commemoration drew limited participation due to snow, a larger crowd joined this year’s event, with one group gathering at Taksim Square and another in the Shishli district. Both marched to Osmanbey and the office of the weekly newspaper Agos, founded by Dink and published in Armenian and Turkish. By 2 p.m. the street was closed to traffic. Flowers and pictures in a heart-shaped wreath were laid at the spot where Dink was shot. At 3 p.m., the time of the assassination, the crowd was called to silence and a recording was played of Dink’s voice talking about the Armenians of Anatolia. Many in the crowd could not back hold their tears.
Dink was a Turkish citizen of Armenian origin who had been working to reestablish ties between Turks and Armenians which have been troubled since the alleged killing or deporting of hundreds of thousands of Armenians during the last years of the Ottoman Empire. His assassination in 2007 hit the country hard and has brought together people from different backgrounds to demand that all those involved in his murder be brought to justice.
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