http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4490366.html
Jan. 22, 2007, 10:53PM Turkey, Armenia bond after slaying Editor's death leads to conciliatory gestures between the historic enemies By SUSANNE FOWLER and SEBNEM ARSU ISTANBUL, TURKEY - The killing of an Armenian-Turkish editor in Istanbul last week and the sorrow it has generated within Turkey are leading to rare conciliatory gestures between Turkey and Armenia, historic enemies, and to calls for changes in laws here defending Turkish identity. On Monday Armenian political and spiritual figures accepted an invitation from the Turkish government to attend the funeral of Hrant Dink, the founder of an Armenian-Turkish newspaper, who was killed outside his office on Friday, apparently by a young nationalist fanatic. The suspect in the slaying, Ogun Samast, 17, was escorted back to the scene of the crime Sunday night by law enforcement authorities. The head of the Istanbul security forces said that Samast "was driven to commit the crime by his nationalistic feelings" and had no ties to any group. However, seven other suspects also were being detained. One of those suspects is Yasin Hayal, who served 11 months in jail for the bombing of a McDonalds restaurant in Trabzon in 2004. Hayal, a known nationalist, has confessed to inciting the killing of Dink, police said Monday. Hayal told police he provided a gun and money to Samast. If accurate, Hayal's reported statements to police would be a strong indication that Dink, was targeted because of his public statements on the mass killings of Armenians by Turks in the early 20th century, one of the nation's most sensitive and divisive issues. Dink was a staunch defender of free speech and like other intellectuals was prosecuted for insulting "Turkishness" and sentenced to six months in jail but his term was suspended. Bulent Arinc, the parliamentary chairman from the ruling Justice and Development Party, said he would back efforts to abolish the measure under which Dink was prosecuted, known as Article 301. "It can be discussed to totally abolish or completely revise the Article 301," Arinc said, adding that members of Parliament "are open to this." Despite the fact that the Armenian-Turkish border has been sealed since 1993 and diplomatic relations severed, Armenia is to send a deputy foreign minister to the funeral. Earlier, the Armenian Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisyan called for improved relations so that Armenia could "establish ties with Turkey with no preconditions," the Turkish news channel NTV reported. High Turkish government officials are to attend the funeral. The Associated Press contributed to this report. +++ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
