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PEN Mourns the death of Turkish Journalist Hrant Dink
January 19, 2007
Geneva, 19 January 2007 - According to sources in Istanbul, Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was the victim of an armed assault. Apparently he was shot dead today by an 18-year-old man in front of his newspaper offices, Agos.
Below is the official statement from International PEN.
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On Saturday January 20th, PEN USA participated in a press conference held by the Armenian National Committee in America in front of the Turkish Consulate on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles.
For the text of the PEN USA statement click here
To visit the website of the Armenian National Committee Click Here
International PEN Statement on the Murder of Hrant Dink in Turkey
Author(s): Eugene Schoulgin - WiPC International Chair
Date: 19th January, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information contact: Eugene Schoulgin, Board Member International PEN mobile: +47 48031212; Sara Whyatt, International PEN Writers in Prison Committee Programme Direct +447930695826; Joanne Leedom Ackerman, International Secretary International PEN: +447932733979; Larry Siems, +12123341660 ext. 105
The murder today, 19 January 2007, of Armenian-Turkish writer and editor Hrant Dink, the courageous and principled advocate for dialogue and understanding between the Armenian minority and the Turks, is an appalling act. Hrant Dink’s fellow writers worldwide express their profound shock at this terrible loss.
Dink, whose campaign against the law making it a crime to insult the TurkishState, particularly as it relates to the killings of Armenians in the early years of the last century, has paid the highest price with his own life.
Jiri Grusa, International President of International PEN, the world association of writers, called the murder “a symptom of old hatreds that threaten the relationship of all Turkish people to the democratic values shared in Europe and the world.” International PEN calls upon the Turkish government to do all in its power to apprehend Dink’s killer and welcomes Prime Minister Erdogan’s pledged commitment that those who ordered the killing be brought to justice.
Hrant Dink was well known to PEN members throughout the world and had received many awards for his courage, including, most recently, the Oxfam/Novib award for Freedom of Expression in November 2006. He was an honorary member of the English, American, Belgian Dutch and Norwegian PEN Centres, and friend to many more PEN Centres and individual PEN members around the globe. International PEN sends its condolences to Hrant Dink’s wife and children.
For details on Hrant Dink’s life and work, go to: