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Al Arabiya, UAE
Jan 19 2015
Turkish police chief detained over Armenian editor's 2007 murder
By Ayla Jean Yackley, Reuters | Istanbul
Monday, 19 January 2015
A Turkish police chief handed himself in to authorities on Monday in
connection with the murder of a prominent ethnic Armenian journalist
who was gunned down outside his newspaper offices in Istanbul eight
years ago to the day.
Ercan Demir, who had been assigned last month as police chief in the
Kurdish town of Cizre, surrendered to police in the capital Ankara
after an arrest warrant was issued in the murder trial of Hrant Dink,
editor of the Armenian newspaper Agos, government officials said.
Demir is the third police officer detained in connection with the case
this month, signalling a possible renewal in efforts to shed light on
what Dink's family has insisted was a conspiracy that involved state
officials.
Dink, 52, was shot in broad daylight in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007,
unleashing an outpouring of grief among hundreds of thousands of
people angered by his murder as well as discrimination against
non-Sunni and ethnic minorities.
At the time of Dink's death, Demir worked in police intelligence in
the city of Trabzon, where the teenage gunman in Dink's murder
resided. Demir has denied accusations he was derelict in duty and
abused his office, media reports said.
A first trial finished in 2012 with 18 convictions, but judges ruled
there was no organised plot to kill Dink. The Supreme Court reviewed
that verdict, and a court in October said it would look at whether it
was an organised crime.
Dink sought to reconcile Turks and Armenians, 60,000 of whom still
live in Turkey after most of their forebears were killed or expelled
by Ottoman soldiers during World War One.
Before his death, Dink was charged with "insulting Turkishness" and
faced jail terms for reporting that the adopted daughter of Mustafa
Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish Republic, was an
Armenian orphan, among other articles.
"We are all Hrant, we are all Armenian," chanted several thousand
people carrying placards demanding justice, marching on Monday to the
spot where Dink was killed to commemorate the eighth anniversary of
his murder.
This year also marks the centennial of the beginning of the mass
slaughter of Armenians in Turkish lands. The Turkish government faces
pressure to acknowledge the massacres were a systematic genocide,
which it denies.
Armenians say 1.5 million people were killed. Turkey rejects such a
high death toll and says more Turks were killed in the chaos of the
war and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/media/print/2015/01/19/Turkish-police-chief-detained-over-Armenian-editor-s-2007-murder.html
From: Baghdasarian
Jan 19 2015
Turkish police chief detained over Armenian editor's 2007 murder
By Ayla Jean Yackley, Reuters | Istanbul
Monday, 19 January 2015
A Turkish police chief handed himself in to authorities on Monday in
connection with the murder of a prominent ethnic Armenian journalist
who was gunned down outside his newspaper offices in Istanbul eight
years ago to the day.
Ercan Demir, who had been assigned last month as police chief in the
Kurdish town of Cizre, surrendered to police in the capital Ankara
after an arrest warrant was issued in the murder trial of Hrant Dink,
editor of the Armenian newspaper Agos, government officials said.
Demir is the third police officer detained in connection with the case
this month, signalling a possible renewal in efforts to shed light on
what Dink's family has insisted was a conspiracy that involved state
officials.
Dink, 52, was shot in broad daylight in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007,
unleashing an outpouring of grief among hundreds of thousands of
people angered by his murder as well as discrimination against
non-Sunni and ethnic minorities.
At the time of Dink's death, Demir worked in police intelligence in
the city of Trabzon, where the teenage gunman in Dink's murder
resided. Demir has denied accusations he was derelict in duty and
abused his office, media reports said.
A first trial finished in 2012 with 18 convictions, but judges ruled
there was no organised plot to kill Dink. The Supreme Court reviewed
that verdict, and a court in October said it would look at whether it
was an organised crime.
Dink sought to reconcile Turks and Armenians, 60,000 of whom still
live in Turkey after most of their forebears were killed or expelled
by Ottoman soldiers during World War One.
Before his death, Dink was charged with "insulting Turkishness" and
faced jail terms for reporting that the adopted daughter of Mustafa
Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish Republic, was an
Armenian orphan, among other articles.
"We are all Hrant, we are all Armenian," chanted several thousand
people carrying placards demanding justice, marching on Monday to the
spot where Dink was killed to commemorate the eighth anniversary of
his murder.
This year also marks the centennial of the beginning of the mass
slaughter of Armenians in Turkish lands. The Turkish government faces
pressure to acknowledge the massacres were a systematic genocide,
which it denies.
Armenians say 1.5 million people were killed. Turkey rejects such a
high death toll and says more Turks were killed in the chaos of the
war and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/media/print/2015/01/19/Turkish-police-chief-detained-over-Armenian-editor-s-2007-murder.html
From: Baghdasarian