Thousands To Rally In Istanbul On Dink Murder Anniversary

By Nicolas Cheviron, AFP

Thousands are expected to gather in Istanbul Saturday in memory of Armenian-Turk campaigning editor Hrant Dink, on the first anniversary of his hate-slaying outside his weekly newspaper's offices.

The grassroots tribute to the Agos founder, gunned down by an unemployed ultra-nationalist on January 19, 2007, comes days before Turkish parliament reform of a controversial law against insulting 'Turkishness' that some hold responsible for his murder.

Already the subject of a series of prosecutions, Dink was given a six-month suspended sentence in October 2005 after a court ruled that one of his pieces described Turkish blood as dirty. An appeal was also rejected.

He had called on Armenians to reject symbolically "the tainted part of their Turkish blood" and "turn now towards the new blood of an independent Armenia, the only thing capable of freeing them from the weight of the diaspora".