Hrant Dink (September 15, 1954 – January 19, 2007) was a
Turkish-Armenian editor,
journalist and
columnist. As
editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper
Agos (Ակօս), Dink was a prominent member of the
Armenian minority in
Turkey. Dink was best known for advocating Turkish-Armenian reconciliation and
human and minority rights in Turkey; he was often critical of both Turkey's
denial of the
Armenian Genocide, and of the
Armenian diaspora's campaign for its international recognition. Dink was prosecuted three times for
denigrating Turkishness, while receiving numerous death threats from Turkish nationalists. Hrant Dink was
assassinated in
Istanbul in January 2007, by
Ogün Samast, a 17-year old Turkish nationalist. While Samast has since been taken into custody, pictures of the alleged assassin flanked by smiling Turkish police and
gendarmerie, posing with the killer in front of the Turkish flag, have since surfaced. The photos created a scandal in Turkey, prompting a spate of investigations and the removal from office of those involved. At his funeral, one hundred thousand mourners marched in protest of the assassination, chanting "We are all Armenians" and "We are all Hrant Dink". Criticism of
Article 301 became increasingly vocal after his death, leading to parliamentary proposals for repeal.
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