The murder of a crusading newspaper editor in Turkey last week has resulted in a flood of public outrage for this crossroads Eurasian country struggling with democratic and political reforms.
Hrant Dink, a prominent voice for ethnic Armenians, was shot to death by a hard- line nationalist because he dared to call the 1915 mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a “genocide.” Turkish authorities past and present have denied that characterization, and it’s a crime in Turkey to call it that.
Dink’s funeral Tuesday brought 100,000 people to the streets of Istanbul to pay their respects and to protest the persecution of free speech.
Turkey, a democratic republic that is 99 percent Muslim, is trying to join the European Union, and Dink’s murder underscores concerns that current EU countries have about Turkey’s respect for rule of law and human rights. There are fears the country will return to the killings of intellectuals that were routine a decade ago.
The reaction of the Turkish officials so far has been heartening. They quickly deployed top officials to oversee the murder investigation, condemned the killing and permitted a large public funeral with its attendant free speech.
Every country has its radicals and miscreants. How a country deals with them is the measure of its civilization. The world will closely watch how Turkey navigates these difficult times.
