Dink commemorated in Istanbul 10 years after he was murdered

Thousands took to streets in Istanbul on January 19 to honor the memory of Hrant Dink, an Armenian-Turkish journalist and civil rights leader assassinated on this day ten years ago in the city.

In 2012, 18 people were imprisoned for their part in the killing, two of them for life. Another person, a former intelligence officer, is still regarded as a suspect, but he has never been arrested.

Dink’s relatives say the crime has never been properly investigated. They claim several Istanbul police high-rankers had been informed about a murder plot against Dink, but ignored the warnings.

In 2010, the European court of human rights found that Turkey had failed to duly probe the role of state officials in the murder.

“The perpetrator of this crime seems to be the state with all its ranks,” the assassinated journalist’s widow Rakel Dink said at the commemoration ceremony on January 19.

Some political figures have also released statements to commemorate the murder of Dink.

Opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş said: “In the past 10 years, we, unfortunately, have not been able to make our country a place that is livable and free.”
Republican People’s Party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said he hoped that “brotherhood, equality and justice will prevail in Turkey.”

The U.S. Embassy to Turkey also shared a tweet for the occasion: “We will always remember [Dink’s] message of peace, reconciliation and respect for human rights.”

Hrant Dink was the founder and editor of “Agos”, the first Armenian-Turkish newspaper in Turkey. He enraged Turkish nationalists by advocating recognition of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman empire as genocide.