I’m completely with you when it comes to nationalism.

Cheers,
Jim

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2007/01/hrant-dinks-murderers-admit-links-to-fr.html#links

In 1997, a British journalist and I travelled the then military state of emergency region in south eastern Turkey and did a number of stories on human rights and media freedom in Turkey. One was published by The Scotsman. Nick wrote the text and I was the “photographer.”

The snow-topped, guerrilla-infested mountains of south-east Turkey (also known as north-west Kurdistan) seem far away from the golden beaches of its western coast, which form the UK’s number two tourist destination. Even further from the little office where we are sitting in the centre of Elazig, a bustling, European-style city on the edge of the region. Yet for Nurcan Yucel, there is a very real danger. The secret police are waiting outside to interview her - delayed only by the presence of myself and my photographer - and she knows she could be arrested at any minute for daring to speak to a foreign reporter. Plenty of others before her have been murdered or ‘disappeared’.

[…]

Journalists who try and report on the true nature of events have a habit of disappearing or spending several years in prison (where conditions are reminiscent of the Middle Ages). I met the family of one editor who was sentenced to 6,000 years imprisonment. According to the Turkish Human Rights Association, 28 journalists and distributors have disappeared since 1992 and 421 were arrested last year alone. Most media is state-run or state-compliant, and refuses to report on the daily atrocities taking place.

http://www.nickryan.net/articles/dangerous.html

Hell, we were even detained and taken to a deserted factory in the middle of nowhere outside Diyarbair while village guards radioed the Turkish military for instructions as to what to do with us. A guy from the Amnesty International International Secretariat in London even said I was “mad” for wandering around a militarized zone as a journalist in Turkey with an Armenian name and surname albeit on a British passport. He was probably right.

Anyway, while Hrant Dink was no doubt murdered because he was Armenian and spoke out, it’s worth pointing out that Turkish and Kurdish journalists have been murdered in their dozens. On that basis, this is a larger issue than just Dink being Armenian. It is a matter that concerns democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression in Turkey. At the time we worked on our stories everyone we spoke to were arrested or beaten by the security forces , and Kurdish paper boys were having their throats cut by nationalists.

It’s why I despise nationalism in any shape or form wherever it is — and btw, that includes Armenia. There’s a fine line between patriotism and nationalism, perhaps, but I favour the former.

I’ve heard other comments recently like the one Emre’s father made about burying a multi-cultured Istanbul; I think Hrant’s murder, more than any of the previous assassinations of journalists, have led people to lament the direction Turkey seems to be heading….but I fear they are in the minority. Unfortunately, I think the growing Turkish ultranationalism you wrote about in an earlier post and the counter-reaction mentioned above are all too real. Again, I’m trying to be optimistic…