Hrant Dink Commemorated

Family, friends and colleagues gathered together this weekend to commemorate Hrant Dink, Turkish-Armenian journalist who was murdered by a young nationalist gunman in front of his newspapers offices in Istanbul on January 19.

On the 40th day of his death, a ceremony has been organized in St. Maria Armenian Church. After that, the crowd visited Dink's grave at the Balıklı Armenian Cemetery.

Talking at the ceremony, Patriarch of Anatolian Armenians, Mesrob II expressed his sorrow regarding the ambiguity surrounding Dink's death and the ineffectiveness of the investigation.

Journalists Oral Çalışlar, Raffi Hermon, Cengiz Çandar, writer Elif Şafak, Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Executive Committee member Ümit Fırat, lawyers Ergin Cinmen and Fethiye Çetin as well as numerous human rights activists and academics joined the ceremony.

Gunshots at the chuch

About two hours after the ceremny, two young men has opened fire at the church's courtyard and run away. Police investigated the incident and arrested two men hours later.

Reminding the nationalist mass uprising following Dink's funeral, where hundreds of thousands protested the assassination, Prof. Kezban Hatemi commented, "if the necessary operations aren't done and the rule of law isn't established urgently, it wouldn't be possible to avoid such attacks".

"We need a u-turn in our concept of the state and rule of law. Prosecutors must act immediately against web sites and media that disseminate hate speech and racism".(EÖ/EÜ)