Hrant Dink Memorial, Liberty Square, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

Just when you thought media attention on Turkey in the aftermath of Hrant Dink’s murder in Istanbul might be dissipating, iArarat reports a new scandal brewing over the death of the ethnic Armenian journalist and newspaper editor. Quoting a Turkish newspaper report, Artyom highlights reports that members of Turkey’s police force posed for photographs with Ogün Samast, Dink’s murderer.

After Ogün Samast, the triggerman of the murder of Agos newspaper editor-in-chief Hrant Dink was arrested, his photograph in front of Turkish flag became the issue of debate. The photograph was discussed as much as the murder itself. The place where the photograph was taken was discussed for days and the ministry of internal affairs and gendarmerie assigned auditors, who could not detect the place in the photograph. Then the camera footage of the photograph revealed that it was taken at the gendarmerie police station in Samsun bus station. After Samast was arrested; checked and his hands were handcuffed, the officers beside him took the photograph and the camera footage instead of taking him to the police department.

Still, the fact that the leaked photographs have caused a scandal in Turkey at least indicates that many Turks are well aware of what this means for the country’s law enforcement agencies and their own protection from criminal elements. Again, as with the murder of Dink itself, Turkey appears to be in shock. Already used to left-wing Turks and Kurds being on the receiving end of the police force’s thugish antics, James In Turkey sums up what this latest news means for the country’s citizens.

Ismet Berkan says in today’s Radikal that the idea of terror being praised by people wearing official uniforms is like a punch in the stomach. But it is the truth. Turkish police already has a notorious history of thuggery; this week, it added to that a conspiracy with murderers. The force will find it very difficult to try and claim the moral highground in this one. After all, if some of its officers seem to think Hrant Dink’s killer is a hero, why should the Turkish people want the police at their side?

Gateway Pundit has more background information on this latest development, and posts the video of Samast with police with little commentary. Elgordochico, however, is a little more outspoken, and calls Samast a “racist arsehole.”

A video of Ogun Samast (that’s his name) has now surfaced in which the members of the police take pictures with him in front of a huge Turkish flag that displays racially charged statements. Later the officers give him a smaller flag to hold and wave at the camera, as if the asshole had done something to be proud of.

Turkish police are fascist, racist pigs. They are thoroughly infiltrated by the nationalist Greywolves. And the kind of people like me who found the slaying abhorrent inside Turkey are just a minority, albeit a vocal minority.

We were feeling so good and united after the protests. What do we have to be proud of, though? Nothing. We can’t do a single thing about the racism in Turkish society. All the marching doesn’t get you anywhere.

Yet, even so, one can only hope that the reaction of the Turkish media is enough to tip the balance in favour of more liberal Turks who don’t want to see their country slip into an unhealthy and abhorrant ultra-nationalist State where ethnicity means more than citizenship. Of course, this is pretty much the situation in Turkey already, but it is how the authorities react to such a scandal that will be a sign of whether the country is able to evolve democratically.

Samsun’s chief prosecutor Ahmet Gokcinar said he launched an investigation into the officers seen in the pictures on charges of commending crime and criminals and misconduct in office.

They belonged both to the police and a paramilitary force which is policing rural areas, he said, adding: “We will do what the law requires without delay.”

The Anatolia news agency, citing interior ministry sources, later reported that eight police officers from Samsun had been dismissed from their posts.

It’s worth pointing out, for exmple, that the police in question were those from Samast’s home town of Samsun, situated in a part of the country renowned for its ultra-nationalist leanings. Recent news reports have already examined the rise and appeal of ultra-nationalism on the largely poor and unemployed youth that reside there. As such, reports from the Turkish media at least give us some reason for hope that this is not the general feeling of most Turks.

“A kiss on the forehead is the only thing the murderer was not given,” growled liberal paper Radikal. “This is the picture of the mindset that killed Dink.”

“Shoulder to shoulder with the gunman,” trumpeted the mass-circulation Sabah newspaper, while the popular Vatan said the images were “as grave as the assassination itself.”

Turkish Torque, however, indicates there is little changing in Trabzon itself. Indeed, ultra-nationalism appears to be on the increase after Dink’s murder and Samast’s arrest if the reaction of local sports fans are anything to g by. Posting an article from the Hurriyet newspaper, fascism seems to be alive and well and certainly undaunted by a global backlash aimed towards Turkey after Dink’s murder.

The “We are all Armenians!” slogans and placards used in Hrant Dink’s funeral ceremony has created a strong reaction in Turkey.

To be an Armenian is of course neither bad nor a shame. But the claim that we are all Armenians (!) has ratcheted the tension to the limit. We’ve started to see the results of that.

In Canakkale, a retired senior NCO has confiscated a ferryboat [as a protest].

During the Trabzonspor-Kayserispor soccer match, thousands of spectators shouted slogans and waved signs that read:

“You asked our lives and give it we did / You asked our blood and give it we did / We’ve loved this country without anything in return / We did not deserve the label hoodlum”

Some placards decorated with stars and crescents read:

“We are from Trabzon. We are Turks. We are all Mustafa Kemal’s.”

The mood also seems to be as extreme in other locations in Turkey’s South East. I remember Kurds telling me that Elazig was 50 percent ultra-nationalist when I visited in 1997, and the continuation of the report gives me no reason to doubt that. However, it is interesting to note that the Dink murder also appears to be dividing Turks.

The situation in Malatya (Hrant Dink was from Malatya) got a bit nasty. The first sentence of the placard that Elazig fans have displayed during the Malatyaspor-Elazigspor game was not nice at all:

“We are neither Armenians nor Malatyalians… We are Elazigians and lovers of Turkey!”

In response, the Malatya fans started to chant “PKK — Go Outside!” In the fistfight that ensued, two people were hospitalized.

Bardizag, a blog named after the Turkish town where its two bloggers originally hailed from, is not surprised, and argues that it is ultra-nationalism and hostility towards minorities, especially Armenians, that defines the modern-day secular Republic. Bardizag also addresses the issue of ultra-nationalism in Trabzon.

The world will remember that on January 19, 2007 Turkey has killed the only Armenian public figure that was ready to discuss face to face ‘in an open state of mind’ the fate of the Armenians in the late Otttoman Empire and the denial by the Turkish Republic of the Armenian population mass murders in 1915-1916.

Turkey, the Turkish Republic, the state founded by Mustapha Kemal - the very idea of ‘Turkish statehood’ - has been built upon and through out the genocide of the entire Armenian poplulation.

The murder of Hrant Dink was just another step - another stone- to pave the way to the construction of ‘Turkey’.

We curse you, Ogün Samast, 17 years old, from Trabzon. We curse your ancestors - that used nearly all forms and aspects of mass muders to eliminate the Armenian population of the Trabzon province. We curse the memory of the entire Turkish population of Trabzon that loaded onto barges the Armenian poplulation and drowned them in the Black Sea.

We curse the memory of Dr. Ali Saib, Director of Public Health of Trabzon province, that systematically poisoned Armenian infants brought to the city’s Red Crescent Hospital and ordered the drowning at the nearby Black Sea of those who resisted.

We curse the memory of the province’s governor-general during world war I, Cemal Azmi, who detained fifteen young girls (Court-Martial 10th sitting, April 12, 1919), for his lethal debaucheries.

We curse the memory of Nuri, the police chief of Trabzon, and the CUP commissar in Trabzon, Yenibahceli Nail.

Be sure that Ogun Samast is proud of himself - he is a true descent of the Trabzon turks.

Which leads us on to the most obvious conclusion from the Dink murder. That is, for Turkey to become a more democratic state it must pay more attention to the rights of its national minorties. Moreover, it desperately needs to come to terms with its past. I’ve said before on this blog that many Turkish human rights lawyers I know strongly believe that for Turkey to become a democratic State it must acknowledge the 1915 massacre and deportation of most of its Armenian population as Genocide.

Faced with growing pressure to recognize the Genocide, and a particularly bad public image after Dink’s murder, Turkish Enchantress posts an announcement detailing Turkey’s diplomatic offensive now that momentum for global recognition of the Armenian Genocide has now reached unprecedented levels.

With some believing that the assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink has given the Armenian diaspora an important trump card for recognition of an Armenian genocide around the world, Turkey has unleashed an ambitious diplomatic plan.

In the first step of the plan, supported by Turkish Parliament Speaker Bülent Arýnç, a delegation of 10 deputies will pay a visit to the United States Feb. 9-16 to lobby the US Congress. The delegation will be headed by Turkey-US Interparliamentary Friendship Group Chairman Egemen Baðýþ.

[…]

One of the most important steps in Turkey’s new anti-genocide strategy is opening dialogue with representatives of the Armenian diaspora. During Dink’s funeral, the change in attitude of the diaspora representatives invited to ceremony also resulted in a change in Turkey’s attitude: It now prefers to explain itself rather than adopting a defensive posture. Meetings have been held not only with the Armenian diaspora but also with the Armenian administration.

The timing, of course, is not coincidental, and Armenia Blog posts news of another Genocide Resolution to be introduced in the United States Congress. Interestingly, when I spoke to some activists from the Diaspora here in Yerevan a day or so after Dink’s murder they seem sure that the resolution would pass this year. However, they said that this was the mood on Capitol Hill even before Dink’s murder.

Rhyne, however, is a little more reserved although still somewhat optimistic.

I am optimistic about this resolution. However, there is a chance that it may not make it. What will we do? Keep fighting until it is adopted, whether today, tomorrow, or in five years. There is a reason why Armenians have survived through the ages, regardless of conquest after conquest upon our people and culture: we never give up..

Interestingly, as a great example of how blogs can assist in the development of truly open Government, one of the bill’s sponsors, Congressman Frank Pallone, posts about its introduction on The Hill, the U.S. Congress Blog.

The Armenian Genocide, an atrocious eight year period that began in 1915 and cost the lives of 1.5 million Armenians, has for too long been the victim of political maneuvering that kept the U.S. government from properly recognizing it as a genocide. However, to truly dedicate ourselves to improving human rights across the world, our government must first learn from and properly condemn the mistakes of the past.

That is why I am proud to announce the introduction of the Armenian Genocide Resolution with my bi-partisan colleagues: Representatives Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Joe Knollenberg (R-Mich.) & George Radanovich (R-Calif.), and to stand with them at a press conference in 1334 Longworth at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday to discuss the need for its swift passage. We are also honored to be joined by two genocide survivors at the introduction.

It is long past time for our government to properly recognize and condemn this tragic loss of human life, and our Resolution calls on the U.S. Government to take that crucial step.

Another sponsor, U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff, also posts an albeit short entry.

The United States has a compelling historical and moral reason to recognize the Armenian Genocide, which cost a million and a half people their lives. But we also have a powerful contemporary reason as well — how can we take effective action against the genocide in Darfur if we lack the will to condemn genocide whenever and wherever it occurs? With the new leadership in Congress, I am hopeful we can finally get this resolution passed.

And as if The Hill wasn’t already a great example of introducing transparency into U.S. politics, you can even email a copy of the Genocide Resolution from the site. Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, another blog by a member of the U.K.’s House of Lords, Eric Avebury, allows me to end this blogosphere roundup on the subject that started it — Hrant Dink. Lord Avebury posts details of the recent vigil staged in London in memory of Hrant Dink.

Armenians and Kurds gathered with Turkish intellectuals in a vigil outside the House of Commons, London this tuesday, 30th january to honour Hrant Dink and to call on the UK government to help the process of reconciliation between our peoples by the Recognition of the truth of the Armenian Genocide. . The vigil was led by Lord Avebury, and included the singing of the “Hair Mer” by Seta Cox.

Later, inside the House of Commons the Tribute to Hrant Dink was held. A message from the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation was read, followed by an eloquent oration on Hrant’s signifigance from Prof. Khatchatur Pilikian. Seta Cox read her poem of tribute to Hrant “Without You”. This was followed by an insight into Hrant’s personality and a masterly analysis of the Armenian Genocide by Prof. Hovannes Pilikian.

Eilian Williams of Armenia Solidarity made the point that Turkish democracy at present is based on the lie that there was no Genocide of Armenians,and appealed for all to strive for a multi-cultural Turkey where the Human rights of minorities are respected.

Messages of solidarity were given by Kurdish and Turkish supporters, including Dr Fariudin Hilmi, a former minister in the government of Iraqi Kurdistan and also by Mustapha Yesacan.The Kurdistan National Congress and other Kurdish groups as well as the Turkish-Kurdish Centre in London were represented.

[…]

Amongst other distinguished guests were the Turkish journalist Koray Duzgoran and the authors Mr Martin Short, and Ms Edwina Charles.

There’s probably much more information out there, but for now, time is short. When I stumble upon other interesting entries I’ll post more on Dink and the U.S. Congress Genocide Resolution as of when. Feel free to draw attention to any other notable posts I might have missed in the comments section below.