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January 23, 2007

Armenian church leader says killing journalist will not kill cause

by Ecumenical News International

ANTELIAS, Lebanon — The former moderator of the World Council of Churches, Catholicos Aram I of the Armenian Apostolic Church, has condemned the assassination of Hrant Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian descent, who was the editor-in-chief of the bilingual weekly newspaper Agos in Turkey.

     “Hrant Dink was a man of faith and vision. He was a committed journalist who had the courage to question all attempts depicting the Armenian Genocide, the first genocide of the 20th century as a ‘fiction’ or ‘alleged,’” said Aram, Catholicos of Cilicia, whose headquarters are at Antelias in Lebanon. 
 
     Aram said Dink had courageously challenged present-day Turkey to recognize the mass killing of Armenians in 1915, which, Aram said, had been planned and executed by the Turkish Ottoman Empire. 
 
     “In fact, one cannot kill the truth by physically killing the messenger of it. One cannot silence the voice of justice by neutralizing its advocate,” said Aram in a Jan. 22 statement.

     “The Armenian cause is a cause of justice. The sons of the one and a half million Armenian martyrs will continue their non-violent struggle for justice.” 
 
     The press service of the Armenian Church said a special memorial service for Dink would be held on Jan. 28 in all Armenian churches, including the main cathedral of Etchmiadzin in Armenia.
  
     Dink was through his Armenian-Turkish newspaper a vehement critic of abuses of human rights in Turkey and his death generated a strong reaction in many parts of the world and protests in his own country. Turkish police said two suspects had been arrested.
 
     Turkey denies 1.5 million Armenians died in a systematic genocide in the early 20th century, and in 2006 Dink was given a six-month suspended jail sentence for “insulting Turkey’s identity.”