During his senior year, he was expelled from the Üsküdar Surp Haç, and completed his high school degree at the Şişli Public High School. Hrant Dink continued his education at Istanbul University

Istanbul University

Istanbul University is a Turkish university located in Istanbul. The main campus is adjacent to Beyazıt Square.- Synopsis :A madrasa, a religious school, was established sometime in the 15th century after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. An institution of higher education named the...

, where he studied zoology and became a sympathizer of TİKKO, the armed faction of the Maoist TKP-ML

Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist

Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist is a clandestine communist organization in Turkey currently waging a war against the Turkish Government. It was founded in 1972 with İbrahim Kaypakkaya as its first leader...

. Around this time, in 1972, he legally changed his name (to Fırat Dink), along with two Armenian friends, Armanek and İstepan, to disassociate their factional activities from the Armenian community. His friend Armanek Bakırcıyan, who changed his name to Orhan Bakır, later rose in TİKKO to membership of the central committee, took part in armed struggle in Eastern Turkey and was killed during fighting in 1978. Having fallen in love, Hrant Dink parted ways with his friends and remained at the sympathizer level, completing his bachelor's degree in Zoology and enrolling in the Philosophy Department for a second bachelor's degree, which he did not complete.

Rakel Yağbasan, childhood friend, future wife

Hrant Dink met his future wife, Rakel Yağbasan, when she came to the Tuzla

Tuzla (district)

Tuzla is a small town, a suburb of Istanbul, Turkey on the Asian side of the city beyond Kartal and Pendik. Tuzla is on a headland on the coast of the Marmara Sea, at the eastern limit of the city. The mayor is Şadi Yazıcı .-History:...

 Armenian Children's Camp at age 9 in 1968. Born in 1959 in Silopi

Silopi

Silopi is a district of Şırnak Province in Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region, close to the border with Iraq. The district, composed of Silopi center, 3 depending townships with own municipalities and 23 villages has an urban population of 73,400 .The Habur frontier gate, the only major...

, Cizre

Cizre

Cizre is a town and district of Şırnak Province in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey, located at the border to Syria, just to the north-west of the Turkish-Syrian-Iraqi tripoint....

, Rakel was one of 13 children of Siyament Yağbasan, head of the Varto clan and Delal Yağbasan who died when Rakel was a child.

In 1915, the Varto clan had received orders to relocate along with the rest of the Armenian population in the region, but they were attacked during the journey. Five families from the clan escaped to nearby Mount Cudi and settled there, remaining without any contact to the outside world for 25 years. Eventually they re-established contact and largely assimilated into the nearby Kurdish population, speaking Kurdish exclusively, although they retained knowledge of their Armenian origin and Christian beliefs. Armenian Protestant lay preacher Hrant Güzelyan (also known as Küçükgüzelyan), who was running a program for relocating Anatolian Armenians to İstanbul, visited the clan and brought back around 20 children to the Tuzla Camp, including Rakel and two of her brothers.

Staying at the Tuzla Camp during summers and at the Gedikpaşa Orphanage during winters, Rakel learned Turkish and Armenian, and finished primary school. Because Rakel was registered as a Turk, not as an Armenian, she was not allowed to enroll at Armenian community schools and her father did not give permission for her to attend a Turkish school past then-compulsory

Education in Turkey

Education in Turkey is governed by a national system which was established in accordance with the Atatürk Reforms after the Turkish War of Independence...

 5th grade. Not able to obtain further formal schooling, Rakel was privately tutored by instructors at the Gedikpaşa Orphanage.

Rakel's father, Siyament Yağbasan, at first opposed Hrant Dink's marriage proposal since the Varto clan traditionally practiced endogamy

Endogamy

Endogamy is the practice of marrying within a specific ethnic group, class, or social group, rejecting others on such basis as being unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relationships. A Greek Orthodox Christian endogamist, for example, would require that a marriage be only with another...

, but eventually relented when elders of the Armenian community, including Patriarch Kalustyan

Shenork I Kaloustian of Constantinople

Archbishop Shenork I Kaloustian was the 82nd Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople under the authority of the Catholicos of Armenia and of all Armenians. He was elected to the position in 1963 and served for 27 years as Armenian Patriarch until his death at Echmiadzin in Soviet Armenia in 1990....

, applied pressure and Rakel declared that she would marry no one else. Hrant Dink and Rakel Yağbasan got married in a civil ceremony at the Tuzla Camp on April 19, 1976 when they were 22 and 17, respectively. One year later, at Rakel Dink's insistence, the couple conducted a church wedding ceremony on April 23, 1977. Hrant and Rakel Dink had three children: Delal, Arat

Arat Dink

Arat Dink is a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin and the executive editor of Agos, a bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly newspaper published in Istanbul...

, and Sera.

Religious beliefs

Hrant Dink was baptized and married within the Armenian Apostolic Church

Armenian Apostolic Church

The Armenian Apostolic Church is the world's oldest National Church, is part of Oriental Orthodoxy, and is one of the most ancient Christian communities. Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD, in establishing this church...

, but was educated and sheltered at Armenian Protestant

Armenian Evangelical Church

The Armenian Evangelical Church was established on July 1, 1846 by thirty-seven men and three women in Constantinople.-History:In the 19th century there was intellectual and spiritual awakening in Constantinople. This awakening and enlightenment pushed the reformists to study the Bible...

 institutions and received his introduction to religion within the Protestant sphere. Dink was a member of the Armenian Evangelical Church of Gedikpaşa, Istanbul, as well as a member by birth in the Armenian Apostolic Church. He regarded both churches as part of his culture and said that he was not someone who dealt heavily with religious rituals. Keeping the duality to the end, his funeral service was held in the Apostolic Church, by Patriarch Mutafyan

Patriarch Mesrob II Mutafyan of Constantinople

Archbishop Mesrob II Mutafyan, also known as Mesrop Mutafyan, is the 84th Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople...

, with Protestant ministers delivering eulogies at the burial.

After college

Having graduated from the university, Hrant Dink completed his military service

Conscription in Turkey

In Turkey, compulsory military service applies to all male citizens from twenty to forty one years of age. Those who are engaged in higher education or vocational training programs prior to their military drafting are allowed to delay service until they have completed the programs or reach a...

 in Denizli

Denizli

Denizli is a growing industrial city in the Southwestern part of Turkey and the eastern end of the alluvial valley formed by the river Büyük Menderes, where the plain reaches an elevation of about a hundred meters. Denizli is located in southwestern Turkey, in the country's Aegean Region.The city...

; not being promoted to sergeant despite his full marks on the examination caused him to weep. Whether his not being promoted was due to his association with TİKKO or his Armenian heritage, the discrimination he felt was one of the turning points on his way to activism. Returning to İstanbul, Dink established "Beyaz Adam" (literally "White Man"), a bookstore in the Bakırköy

Bakirköy

This article is about a neighbourhood in IstanbulBakırköy is a neighborhood, municipality and district on the European side of İstanbul, Turkey. The quarter is densely populated, has a residential character and is inhabited by a middle class population...

 district with his brothers Hosrop and Yervant in 1979. Encouraging students to browse and borrow needed books, the store gained recognition by word of mouth and gradually expanded into a multi-location bookstore and publishing house that specialized in textbooks, children's books, atlases and dictionaries. After the 1980 coup d'état, when it became difficult for Turkish citizens to obtain passports for travel abroad, Dink's brother Hosrop started traveling to Beirut and then to Europe by using falsified identification papers, and when he was caught in the act, Hrant Dink was also taken into custody as an associate. Soon afterwards, Dink was questioned twice again by the police, once when a former resident of the Tuzla Camp was investigated for possible connections to ASALA

Asala

Asala may refer to:* Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla organization.* Asalah Nasri, Syrian singer* Al Asalah, a Salafist political party in Bahrain...

, an anti-Turkish

Anti-Turkism

Anti-Turkism, also known as Turcophobia or anti-Turkish sentiment, is the hostility, intolerance or racism against the Turkish people, Turkish culture, or Turkey ....

 guerrilla organization, and again when Hrant Güzelyan, who ran the Tuzla Camp, was arrested and charged with anti-Turkish propaganda, and had ASALA demand his release when they occupied the Turkish Consulate General in Paris and took hostages.

Tuzla Armenian Children's Camp

Hrant Dink, together with his wife Rakel, took over the management of the Tuzla Armenian Children's Camp at the time of Güzelyan's arrest, while continuing in the bookstore business with his brothers. In 1979, the General Directorate of Foundations started a court action to annul Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church's ownership of the camp, based on a 1974 ruling by the Court of Appeals that made it impossible for minority foundations to own real estate beyond what they possessed in 1936. After a five year legal battle, the court ruled that the land should be returned to its previous owner and in 1984 the camp was closed down. The closure of the camp, where over 22 years around 1,500 children stayed affected Dink deeply and over the years he wrote about the camp often:

The Tuzla Armenian Children's Camp was the subject of an exhibit by the Turkish Human Rights Organization in 1996, the materials from which was published in book form in 2000, with a foreword by Orhan Pamuk

Orhan Pamuk

Ferit Orhan Pamuk , generally known simply as Orhan Pamuk, is a Turkish novelist. He is also the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he teaches comparative literature and writing....

 and an afterword by Hrant Dink. In 2001 the camp grounds were sold to a local businessman who intended to build a house on the site until Dink contacted him and let him know that the land had belonged to an orphanage. The businessman offered to donate the land back, but the law at the time did not permit it. At the time of Dink's death in 2007, the camp grounds continued to stand empty, awaiting the new Foundation law that was passed at the end of 2006 but was vetoed and returned to parliament by President Sezer.

Editor of Agos

Hrant Dink was one of the founders of Agos

Agos

Agos is an Armenian weekly newspaper published in Istanbul, Turkey. It was established on 5 April 1996. Today, it has a circulation of over 9,000. It has both Armenian and Turkish pages as well as an on-line English edition...

weekly, the only newspaper in Turkey published in Armenian

Armenian language

The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora...

 and Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

, and served as the editor-in-chief of Agos from its founding in 1996 until his death in 2007. The first edition of Agos appeared on April 5, 1996, on the day of Surp Zadik (Easter

Easter

Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...

) and was saluted by Patriarch Karekin II as a gift of Surp Zadik.

Agos was born out of a meeting called by Patriarch Karekin II when mainstream

Mainstream

Mainstream is, generally, the common current thought of the majority. However, the mainstream is far from cohesive; rather the concept is often considered a cultural construct....

 media started linking Armenians of Turkey with the illegal Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)

Kurdistan Workers Party

The Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights...

. A picture of PKK's leader Abdullah Öcalan

Abdullah Öcalan

Abdullah Öcalan , Kurdish founder of the terrorist organization called Kurdistan Workers' Party in 1978.Öcalan was captured in Nairobi and extradited to the Turkish security force, and sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed gangs...

 and an Assyrian priest appeared in a Turkish daily, with the caption "Here's proof of the Armenian-PKK cooperation". Patriarch Karekin II asked the attendees at the meeting what needed to be done and the opinion that emerged out of the meeting was that the Armenians in Turkey needed to communicate with the society at large. The group held a widely covered press conference, followed by monthly press events and eventually formed Agos.

Dink had not been a professional journalist until founding Agos. Up to that point, he had contributed occasional articles and book reviews to local Armenian language newspapers and corrections and letters to the editor to the national dailies. He soon became well known for his editorials in Agos and also wrote columns in the national dailies Zaman

Zaman (newspaper)

Zaman is a major, high-circulation daily newspaper in Turkey. It was founded in 1986 and was the first Turkish daily to go online in 1995. It contains national , international, business and other news...

and BirGün

BirGün

BirGün is an Istanbul-based Turkish left-wing daily.The paper was founded in 2004 by a group of Turkish intellectuals. The most important point of the newspaper is that it doesn't have any owners....

.

Up to the founding of Agos, the Armenian community had two main newspapers, Marmara and Jamanak, both published only in Armenian. By publishing in Turkish as well as Armenian, Hrant Dink opened up the channels of communication to the society at large for the Armenian community. After Agos started its publication, the participation of Armenians in the political-cultural life in Turkey increased greatly, and public awareness in Turkey of the issues of the Armenians started to increase. Always willing to speak on the issues faced by Armenians, Hrant Dink emerged as a leader in his community and became a well-known public figure in Turkey.

At its inception, Agos started with a circulation of 2,000, and at the time of Hrant Dink's death had reached a circulation of around 6,000. Influential beyond its circulation, often applauded greatly by some and criticized heavily by others, Agos became a paper whose editorial viewpoint was sought after.

Editorial policy

Dink's unique perspective has been described as a "four way mirror", simultaneously empathetic to people of the Armenian diaspora, citizens of the Republic of Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

, Turkish Armenians

Armenians in Turkey

Armenians in Turkey have an estimated population of 40,000 to 70,000 . Most are concentrated around Istanbul. The Armenians support their own newspapers and schools...

, and citizens of Turkey

Turkish people

Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...

. Under Hrant Dink's editorship, Agos concentrated on five major topics: Speaking against any unfair treatment of the Armenian community in Turkey, covering human rights violations and problems of democratization in Turkey, carrying news of developments in the Republic of Armenia, with special emphasis on the Turkey-Armenia relations, publishing articles and serials on the Armenian cultural heritage and its contributions to the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, criticizing malfunctions and non-transparency in the Armenian community institutions.

As a leftist activist, Hrant Dink often spoke and wrote about the problems of democratization in Turkey, defending other authors such as Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk

Orhan Pamuk

Ferit Orhan Pamuk , generally known simply as Orhan Pamuk, is a Turkish novelist. He is also the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he teaches comparative literature and writing....

 and novelist Perihan Mağden who came under criticism and prosecution for their opinions. In a speech Hrant Dink delivered on May 19, 2006, at a seminar jointly organized in Antalya by the Turkish Journalists´ Association and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, he said:

Acting as a voluntary spokesperson for the Armenian community in Turkey, Hrant Dink, through Agos, addressed the particular prejudices, injustices and problems the community faced in its interaction with the Turkish society and state. Agos, through Hrant Dink's pen, criticized discrimination against Armenians found in Turkish mainstream media, publicized the problems faced by Armenian foundations, and spoke against cases of destruction of the Armenian cultural heritage.

Armenian issues

Dink hoped his questioning would pave the way for peace between the two peoples:
He defended his constant challenge of established notions:
Dink was one of Turkey's most prominent Armenian voices and, despite threats on his life, he refused to remain silent. He always said his aim was to improve the difficult relationship between Turks and Armenians. Active in various democratic platforms and civil society organizations, Hrant Dink emphasized the need for democratization in Turkey and focused on the issues of free speech, minority rights, civic rights and issues pertaining to the Armenian community in Turkey. He was a very important peace activist. In his public speeches, which were often intensely emotional, he never refrained from using the word genocide when talking about the Armenian Genocide, a term fiercely rejected by Turkey.

At the same time, he made clear that this term had a political meaning, rather than a historical one, and he was strongly critical of the strategy of the Armenian diaspora of pressuring Western governments into official recognition of the Genocide label.

Dink featured prominently in the 2006 genocide

Genocide

Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...

 documentary film Screamers

Screamers (2006 film)

Screamers is a 2006 documentary by director Carla Garapedian. The film explores why genocides have recurred into the modern day, and involves the band System of a Down, Serj Tankian's grandfather , the human-rights activist, journalist, and Professor Samantha Power, and various people involved...

in which he explains:
Hrant Dink believed that diaspora Armenians

Armenian diaspora

The Armenian diaspora refers to the Armenian communities outside the Republic of Armenia and self proclaimed de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic...

 should be able to live free of the weight of historical memory (the "residues of the past"), considering first and foremost the needs of the living majority (he said "eyes of the other side").

Indicating that a show of empathy would have nothing to do with accepting or refusing the genocide, Dink called for dialogue:
By pointing out issues of rhetorical discourse that hampered Armenian-Turkish

Armenian-Turkish relations

Armenian–Turkish relations have been strained by a number of historical and political issues, including the Armenian Genocide and the continuing Turkish attempts at its denial. Although there are currently no formal diplomatic relations between the two modern states, it was announced on October 10,...

 dialogue, he believed these obstacles could be overcome to the benefit of Turkish Armenians

Armenians in Turkey

Armenians in Turkey have an estimated population of 40,000 to 70,000 . Most are concentrated around Istanbul. The Armenians support their own newspapers and schools...

.

According to the Turkish media, he was opposed to the French law that makes denial of Armenian Genocide a crime. He was planning to go to France to commit this 'crime', when the law came into effect.

According to Hrant Dink, Agos helped the development of the Armenian community such that it helped triple the participation in the last Patriarchal elections, trained many journalists, became the community's face to Turkish society and cultivated many friends. He voiced his intention for an "Institute of Armenian Studies" in Istanbul. He tried to make it the democratic, opposition voice of Turkey, a voice used to inform the public of the injustices committed against the Armenian community. One of the major aims of the newspaper was to contribute to a dialog between the Turkish and Armenian communities, as well as between Turkey and Armenia.

Policy view

Hrant Dink promoted a policy of wider integration of Turkish-Armenians into the wider Turkish society. Critical of state injustices, he often underlined the fact that a stronger Turkey would be achieved through the elimination of discrimination. Even after his conviction for speaking of the Armenian Genocide, Dink continued to value his community, city, and country, noting often that his analysis and criticism was in the interest of strengthening the country. He concentrated on the mismanagement of community institutions, tried to promote obtaining rights through legal means, and was always open to compromise, once noting, "After all, Turkey is very reluctant to concede rights to its majority as well."

Prosecution for denigrating Turkishness

Dink was prosecuted three times for denigrating Turkishness under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code

Article 301 (Turkish penal code)

Article 301 is a controversial article of the Turkish Penal Code making it illegal to insult Turkey, the Turkish ethnicity, or Turkish government institutions...

. He was acquitted the first time, convicted and received a suspended 6-month jail sentence the second time, which he had appealed at the European Court of Human Rights

European Court of Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...

. At the time of his death, the prosecutor's office was preparing to press charges in a third case.

The first charge under the previous version of Article 301, then called Article 159, stemmed from a speech he delivered at a panel hosted by human rights NGO Mazlum-Der in Şanlıurfa on 14 February 2002. Speaking at the "Global Security, Terror and Human Rights, Multiculturalism, Minorities and Human Rights" panel, Dink and another speaker, lawyer Şehmus Ülek, faced charges for denigrating Turkishness and the Republic. In the speech, Dink had stated: On February 9, 2006, Hrant Dink, and Şehmus Ülek, who stood trial for another speech at the same panel, were acquitted of all charges.

The second charge under 301 was pressed for Dink's article called "Getting to know Armenia" (February 13, 2004), in which he suggested to diaspora Armenians that it was time to rid themselves of their enmity against Turks, a condition he considered himself free of, keeping himself emotionally healthy while at the same time knowing something of discrimination. His statement, "replace the poisoned blood associated with the Turk, with fresh blood associated with Armenia" resulted in a six-month suspended sentence.

Dink defended himself vigorously against the charges:

In a February 2006 interview with the Committee to Protect Journalists

Committee to Protect Journalists

The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent nonprofit organisation based in New York City that promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists.-History:A group of U.S...

 (CPJ), Dink spoke about his 2005 conviction for denigrating Turkishness in a criminal court:
In the same CPJ interview, he explained that while he had always been a target of Turkish nationalists, the past year had seen an increase in their efforts:
His appeal of the ruling that found him guilty was rejected by a Turkish court in May 2006. Having exhausted internal appeal mechanisms, Dink appealed to the European Court of Human Rights for an overturn of the ruling on January 15. The appeal suggests that Article 301 compromises freedom of expression and that Dink has been discriminated against because of his Armenian ethnicity. Dink's family has the right to decide whether or not to proceed with the appeal after his death.

In September 2006, another case was opened against Dink on charges of 'denigrating Turkishness' under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code

Article 301 (Turkish penal code)

Article 301 is a controversial article of the Turkish Penal Code making it illegal to insult Turkey, the Turkish ethnicity, or Turkish government institutions...

, which Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

 considered to be "part of an emerging pattern of harassment against the journalist exercising his right to freedom of expression." The charge was brought against him by the Istanbul Prosecutor's Office after he referred to the 1915 massacre of Armenians

Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...

 in the Ottoman Empire as genocide

Genocide

Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...

 during a July 14, 2006 interview with Reuters

Reuters

Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...

:
The charges were also leveled at Serkis Seropyan and Dink's son Arat Dink

Arat Dink

Arat Dink is a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin and the executive editor of Agos, a bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly newspaper published in Istanbul...

, as the holder of Agos's publishing license and executive editor, respectively. On June 14, 2007, the case against Hrant Dink was dropped due to his death, though proceedings for Serkis Seropyan and Arat Dink were scheduled for July 18, 2007.

In September, 2010, the European Court of Human Rights

European Court of Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...

 found that Turkish authorities have violated Dink's freedom of speech (Article 10 ECHR) by criminal proceedings against him for alleged denigration of Turkish identity and in reality, for criticizing the state institutions' denial of the view that the events of 1915 amounted to genocide.

Assassination

Dink was assassinated in Istanbul around 12:00 GMT on January 19, 2007, as he returned to the offices of Agos. The killer was reported to have introduced himself as an Ankara University

Ankara University

Ankara University is a public university in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. It was the first higher education institution founded in the Turkish Republic....

 student who wanted to meet with Mr. Dink. When his request was rejected, he waited in front of a nearby bank for a while. According to eyewitnesses, Dink was shot by a man of 25–30 years of age, who fired three shots at Dink's head from the back at point blank range before fleeing the scene on foot. According to the police, the assassin was a man of 18–19 years of age. Two men had been taken into custody in the first hours of the police investigation, but were later released. Another witness, the owner of a restaurant near the Agos office, said the assassin looked about 20, wore jeans and a cap and shouted "I shot the infidel" as he left the scene. Dink's wife and daughter collapsed when they heard the news, and were taken to the hospital.

Trial

The Dink murder trial opened in Istanbul on July 2, 2007. 18 people were charged at Istanbul Heavy Penal Court No 14 in connection with the journalist's assassination. Since the main suspect, Ogün Samast

Ogün Samast

Ogün Samast is a Turkish ultra-nationalist who killed Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink on January 19, 2007 in front of the headquarters of his newspaper Agos, in Osmanbey, Istanbul.-Background:...

 was younger than 18 the hearing was not public. Reportedly the defendants Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel repeated their testimonies given to the security forces and prosecutor. The court decided to release the defendants Osman Altay, Irfan Özkan, Salih Hacisalihoglu and Veysel Toprak to be tried without remand and adjourned the hearing to 1 October.

On July 25, 2011, Ogün Samast

Ogün Samast

Ogün Samast is a Turkish ultra-nationalist who killed Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink on January 19, 2007 in front of the headquarters of his newspaper Agos, in Osmanbey, Istanbul.-Background:...

 was convicted of premeditated murder and illegal possession of a firearm by Istanbul's Heavy Juvenile Criminal Court. He was sentenced to 22 years and 10 months in prison
, and will be eligible for parole in 2021, after serving 2/3's of his sentence.

Awards

• 2005 Ayşenur Zarakolu Award for Freedom of Thought and Expression, awarded by the Turkish Human Rights Association in Turkey
• 2006 Henri Nannen Prize for Freedom of the Press by Gruner + Jahr, publisher of Stern
  Stern (magazine)
  Stern is a weekly news magazine published in Germany. It was founded in 1948 by Henri Nannen, and is currently published by Gruner + Jahr, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann. In the first quarter of 2006, its print run was 1.019 million copies and it reached 7.84 million readers according to...
  
  in Germany
• 2006 Oxfam/Novib PEN Award for Freedom of Expression by Oxfam Novib
  Oxfam Novib
  Oxfam Novib is the Dutch affiliate of the international Oxfam organization. It is an association dedicated to establishing a fair world with no poverty in it. The organization is based in The Hague.Oxfam Novib was founded under the name Novib in 1956...
  
   in Netherlands
• 2006 Bjørnson Prize by The Norwegian Academy of Literature and Freedom of Expression
  The Norwegian Academy of Literature and Freedom of Expression
  The Norwegian Academy of Literature and Freedom of Expression is a Norwegian institution, founded in 2003, and also called Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson-Akademiet. Its objective is to promote understanding of cultures other than our own and for literary free speech...
  
   in Norway
• 2007 Armenian Presidential State Prize, citing Dink's contribution to "restoration of historical justice, mutual understanding between peoples, freedom of speech, and protection of human rights."
• 2007 (posthumous) Hermann Kesten Medal
  Hermann Kesten Medal
  The Hermann Kesten Medal , named after Hermann Kesten , is a prize awarded annually for outstanding efforts in support of persecuted writers according to the principles of the Charter of International P.E.N. In 1985, the P.E.N...
  
   for outstanding efforts in support of persecuted writers

Fırat Dink, Taksim SK player

He played professional football with Taksim SK

Taksim SK

Taksim Spor Kulübü is a sports club located in Taksim-Şişli, Istanbul, Turkey. The football club plays in the Istanbul Super Amateur League. The club is founded in 1940 by Armenian Community when Ateş-Güneş, Nor Şişli and Kale Sport Clubs merged...

 which is Armenian Community team in 1982-83 season. His name was wrote as Fırat Dink in his licence.

See also

• Agos
  Agos
  Agos is an Armenian weekly newspaper published in Istanbul, Turkey. It was established on 5 April 1996. Today, it has a circulation of over 9,000. It has both Armenian and Turkish pages as well as an on-line English edition...
  
  
• Anti-Armenianism
  Anti-Armenianism
  Armenophobia is the fear, dislike of, hatred or aversion to the Armenians, Republic of Armenia and the Armenian culture, which can range in expression from individual hatred to institutionalized persecution...
  
  
• Armenian Genocide
  Armenian Genocide
  The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
  
  
• Armenian Genocide denial
• Armenian Genocide recognition
• List of assassinated people from Turkey
• Ararat (film)
  Ararat (film)
  Ararat is a 2002 film directed, written, and co-produced by Atom Egoyan based loosely on the Siege of Van during the Armenian Genocide, an event that is disputed by the government of Turkey. In addition to exploring the human impact of that specific historical event, the film also examines the...
  
   2002 film directed, written, and co-produced by Canadian Atom Egoyan
  Atom Egoyan
  Atom Egoyan, OC is a critically acclaimed Armenian-Canadian stage director and film director. Egoyan made his career breakthrough with Exotica...
  
   about the Armenian Genocide
• Conscience Films
  Conscience Films
  Conscience Films is a short film competition organized by the Hrant Dink Foundation. The competition was founded in memory of Hrant Dink...
  
  

External links

• International Hrant Dink Foundation Turkey - established by Hrant Dink's family and friends.
• Friends of Hrant initiative- Regular update on the Hrant Dink murder case press briefings and statements.

• Agos newspaper official web site and
• For Hrant For Justice A documentary about the justice disaster after the assassination and short films made for Hrant
• Extracts from Hrant Dink's last column, BBC News
  BBC News
  BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
  
  .
• The New York Times News about Hrant Dink
• Transcribed video of the interview with TV5 with French and English subtitles.
• Hrant Dink, "Ermeni Kimliği Üzerine" in the personal website of Baskın Oran.