Thousands of People Commemorated Murdered Journalist Hrant Dink

3,000 people gathered in front of Agos newspaper in Şişli in the centre of Istanbul to commemorate Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, founder of the weekly Agos newspaper which is published partly in Armenian and partly in Turkish.

Many people came despite the biting cold and snowfall, shouting slogans that attributed the responsibility for the murder to the state. The street was closed to traffic from 2.30 pm onwards. Armenian tunes and Turkish folk songs were intoned.

Among the crowd were many well-known journalists, authors, artists and politicians such as writer Adalet Ağaoğlu, Peace and Democracy Party leader Demir Çelik, MPs Ufuk Uras, Akın Birdal and Sabahat Tuncel, director Özcan Alper, Özgür Doğan, musicians Aynur Doğan, Nejat Yavaşoğulları, Ferhat Tunç, Emel Kurna, Hakan Tahmaz, journalist Ertuğrul Kürkçü¸ academics Ferhunde Özbay, Ayşe Gül Altınay, Nazan Aksoy, Ali Bayramoğlu, painter Arzu Başaran, Gülten Kaya, actress Ayça Damgacı, Head of the Turkish Human Rights Foundation Şebnem Korur Fincancı, Eren Keskin, Leman Yurtsever, journalists Nadire Mater, İpek Çalışlar, Oral Çalışlar, Ece Temelkuran, Banu Güven, Perihan Mağden, Cengiz Çandar, Hadi Uluengin, Joost Lagendijk, Nevin Sungur, Abdi İpekçi's daughter Nükhet İpekçi and Sezen Öz, wife of murdered prosecutor Dğan Öz.

Rakel Dink: We will walk the path of justice and love

The place where Hrant Dink died was once more covered in red carnations. Rakel Dink, widow of the assassinated journalist, addressed the crowd: "Welcome to all of you. Together with you we will walk the path of justice and love".

Arat Dink, son of Hrant Dink, opened his speech by saying: "I cannot cry as someone whose father was killed in this country three years ago. Arat Dink told the crowed how his father had been targeted and how the responsible persons were hidden:

"Three days before my father was killed I was called to this country's governorship and they tried to put me in my place for an article I wrote. There were two intelligence officers next to the governor. We asked the court who they are. The court asked the governorship and they told us a tale over one and a half pages. We said they should be asked again, but the court said 'The reply was already given'. Did the court not mock us?"

Dink said he was angry and sorrowful: "I want to smash everything to bits. First I will crash the windows of Agos and then my father's bust. I don't like busts but real people. But we have to keep dignity. You have showed that three years ago and during last three years. There has to be a crowd as big as this one in deed. The state cannot manage this, the state is afraid of it", Arat Dink said.

"100 years ago we hunted, now we became the prey".

Aydın: We cannot wait 30 years for Dink's murderers

At the beginning of the commemoration, Bülent Aydın spoke to the crowd: "We know the ones who tried to destroy brotherhood quite well. They are watching us from a dark corner. We are here, regardless how long it will take to bring light into the darkness. Hrant's murderer is the Ergenekon state", Aydın claimed.

Referring to the recent release of Mehmet Ali Ağca Aydın said: "Some people say 'Hrant's murderers are being tried after all, is that not enough?' Just like the murderer of Abdi İpekçi who was released only yesterday... 30 years have passed after that darkness. We are determined not to wait for 30 years for the murderer of Dink".

A portrait of journalist Dink had been arranged in the window of Agos newspaper together with a banner saying, "We know the murderer, we want justice". This was also the slogan shouted by the crowd on the street. Other slogans were "There is no salvation for only one, it is all of us or none" or "The murder state will be taken to account". "They planned it, they had him killed, they concealed it and hid out" was written on banners.

Office director Sırrı Süreyya Önder spoke to the crowd and emphasized the state's responsibility for the murder.

20 defendants are tried in the context of the Dink murder, five of them in detention. The public officials accused by the Dink family lawyers of negligence preceeding the murder have still not appeared at court. (EÖ/EÜ/VK)

* Click here to view photographs of the commemoration ceremony.