RFE/RL reports that a man has been arrested by Turkish police after hijacking a ferry and threatening to blow it up. The incident was apparently in response to “pro-Armenian” slogans displayed on placards at the funeral of Hrant Dink.

The man, claiming to have plastic explosives on him, seized the ferry as it was on its way from Gelibolu to Lapseki late Saturday, Gov. Yusuf Ziya Ince told NTV. He gave himself up to police after 2 1/2 hours, Ince said. The man was armed but was not carrying any explosives, Ince said.

Television footage showed the man shouting: “I did it for the country,” as he was being led away from the ferry to a police vehicle.

Ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who spoke out about the mass killings of Armenians in the early 20th century, was gunned down outside his newspaper a week ago. His funeral inspired a massive outpouring of support for reconciliation between Armenians and Turks.

Ince and ferry passengers said the man was angered by the pro-Armenian slogans chanted at the funeral.

The same report details news that stones were thrown at a church in the northern town of Samsun, and also repeats concerns that ultra-nationalism is on the rise in Turkey’s Black Sea towns. As mentioned in the previous post, EurasiaNet even ran a story on this on Friday.

Turkey was a nationalist country long before groups opposed to its European Union accession process began pumping up xenophobia. Radical nationalism of the sort that appears to have influenced Dink’s murderers has traditionally been strongest in the towns south of the 3,500-meter peaks dividing Trabzon from the bleak Anatolian interior. But it’s only recently that Trabzon has become a center for such thinking, and locals say the phenomenon is spiraling out of control.

“What you have here is a headless monster, a nursery for potential assassins,” said Omer Faruk Altuntas, a lawyer and the local head of the small, left-leaning Freedom and Democracy Party.

Interestingly, Turkish Torque covers the issue of the statement made by many Turks in the immediate aftermath of Dink’s murder. While many Turkish columnists lamented the loss of their ethnic Armenian colleague, at least one is now beginning to question the way many Turks reacted to Dink’s death.

The “We are all Armenians” placards at Hrant Dink’s funeral was just a gesture aimed at Turkey’s adversaries. But when the issue was blown out of proportion, again things have soured.

[…]

Should we declare “We are Germans, Italians, Russians, Spanish, Chinese, Indians…” again everyone will laugh at us while “standing French” [to “stand French” is a latter-day idiom in Turkey which means “not to understand anything” – UA]

Should we declare “We are Arabs,” the Arabs won’t accept it; and if we say “We are Iranians,” the Iranians would reject the same.

Should we say “We are Japanese,” that would be really off the wall!

[…]

Friends, who are we for God’s sake?

[…]

Are we that stupid or retarded, I wonder?

We are not Armenians; we are not Greeks, Russians, Americans, Germans, Italians, French, Spanish, Arabs, etc. either…

[…]

Are we sort of “Turks” or “just a little bit Turks”?

I wonder?!

Nevertheless, Turkish Torque also posts the outcome of a poll of readers of Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper regarding the use of the statement “We Are All Armenians” at Dink’s funeral. According to the poll, the paper’s readership is split on the matter.

Was it correct to use the slogan “We are all Armenians” at Hrant Dink’s funeral ceremony?

49.5 % — Yes, it’s correct
49.2 % — No it’s not correct
1.2 % — I don’t care

Anyway, haven’t found anything on the hijacking in the blogosphere yet, but when I do I’ll post links and excerpts below.