Istanbul Protest for Murdered Turkish Armenian Journalist
Turkish riot police were out in force on Sunday as large crowds massed in Istanbul to demand justice for a prominent Turkish Armenian journalist murdered seven years ago.
"Murderer state will account for this," chanted several thousand protesters gathered in Istanbul's Taksim Square to mark the anniversary of Hrant Dink's killing, with questions still lingering about the circumstances of his death.
"We are all Hrant Dink, we are all Armenians," they shouted, demanding that justice be done.
Dink, 52, a leading member of Turkey's tiny Armenian community, was shot dead in broad daylight by a teenage ultranationalist outside the offices of his bilingual Agos newspaper on January 19, 2007.
He had campaigned for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians, but incurred the wrath of Turkish nationalists for calling the mass killings of Armenians during World War I a genocide.
Dink's supporters believe that those behind the murder were protected by the state and have asked for a deeper investigation to uncover officials who were allegedly involved.
Backing up widespread accusations of a state conspiracy, a former police informant accused of instigating the murder claimed during his trial last month that he had warned police of the plot but they failed to act.
Dink's self-confessed murderer, Ogun Samast, who was a jobless high-school dropout and 17 years old at the time, was sentenced to almost 23 years in jail in 2011.
Sunday's rally came as the Turkish government is battling fresh protests in the wake of a wide-ranging corruption scandal ensnaring Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's closest allies.
Turkish police on Saturday fired tear gas and plastic bullets to break up a protest by around 2,000 people over controversial plans to impose curbs on the Internet.
Source: Agence France Presse
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