Thirteen years on, mourners want justice for slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Hundreds of people gathered on Sunday outside the former offices of Agos newspaper in Istanbul where Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was murdered 13 years ago.

The 52-year-old was editor-in-chief of Agos, a weekly newspaper published in both Turkish and Armenian. He was shot dead in broad daylight in front of Agos’ central Istanbul office on January 19, 2007, by then 17-year-old and self-styled Turkish nationalist Ogen Samast.

Samast was handed a jail sentence of 22 years and 10 months for Dink’s murder in 2011, followed by an additional two and a half year sentence in 2019.

However, Dink’s death became national scandal after it was discovered that security forces were aware of the murder plot, but failed to act. 

A total of 76 suspects, including police officers, are on trial as part of the case. The final result of Dink’s murder case has long been awaited, with his family and friends continuing on the quest for justice. 

"For Hrant, for justice," the crowds chanted in Istanbul. "We have not forgotten and we will not let it be forgotten."

"There are courthouses in this country but there is nothing in the name of justice,” mourner Seyit Dogan told AFP.

Hakan, one of the supporters who joined the mourning, lamented that the murder had remained unsolved for so long.

"Hrant was killed here 13 years ago. For 13 years they haven't shed light on his death," he told AFP.

"We won't stop following Hrant's murderers. Whether they shed light on this or not, as Hrant's brothers, we will continue to be here."

After the ceremony, carnations were laid on the sidewalk where Dink was shot dead.

A giant picture of Dink, embellished with slogans reading "It is not late to be ashamed" and "This case will not be over before we say it is over" were hung by mourners outside the building that once housed Agos, and on whose steps Dink was shot.

The office building has been reopened as a memorial to its founder by the Hrant Dink Foundation, an organisation advocating for freedom of expression established after his death. Agos continues to be published, but from a different Istanbul office.

The former Agos HQ has been renamed the 23.5 Hrant Dink Site of Memory, in honour of an article Dink wrote in 2006 entitled '23.5 April'.

"We gave this name [to the site] inspired by Hrant's article, in which he talked about April 23 and 24 and said: 'I wish we could combine these two days and promise a future encouraging hope at the end of these two days'," Sibel Asna, a board member at Hrant Dink Foundation said.

April 23 is Turkey’s national day of sovereignty, while April 24 is Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, recognised as a day of mourning by Armenia, its diaspora and its international allies.

On April 24 1915, hundreds of Armenian intellectuals were rounded up, arrested and executed in what is seen to mark the beginning of the genocide.  An estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the genocide, which stretched on until 1917. The Turkish government still refuses to recognise what happened as genocide, and has pressured its international allies to do the same.

Despite the reconciliatory tone of his work, Dink angered nationalists with his appeals for Turkey to recognise its genocide, and was subject to death threats from Turkish ultranationalists. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2010 that Turkey had failed to protect Dink’s life in the face of such threats.

Dink was repeatedly prosecuted for "denigrating Turkishness" over articles he wrote about the genocide and Armenian identity; in 2005, he was handed a six-month suspended prison sentence.

Earlier this week, Agos released a special edition of its paper to commemorative Dink, with the front-page headline 'Your hope and dreams is our legacy.'

Businessperson and human rights advocate Osman Kavala, former Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtas, and journalist Ahmet Altan – all currently being held in Turkish detention - wrote pieces in memory of the late journalist. 

"Some people decided in secret rooms that he was 'guilty',” wrote Altan, detained for alleged ties to plotters of an attempted coup on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.  

“The first biggest crime of Hrant was that he told Turkey an Armenian was a human and an Armenian was as acceptable as a Turk."

Additional reporting by AFP