VZCZCXRO2886
OO RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHIT #0038 0191400
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 191400Z JAN 07
FM AMCONSUL ISTANBUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6520
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE

UNCLAS ISTANBUL 000038 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV TU
SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST ASSASSINATED IN ISTANBUL 
 
REF: A. 06 ISTANBUL 504 
     ¶B. 05 ISTANBUL 1780 
     ¶C. 05 ISTANBUL 1680 
 
¶1. Human rights activist and newspaper publisher Hrint Dink 
was assassinated at approximately 1500 local time outside the 
offices of the bilingual Turkish- and Armenian-language 
newspaper Agos.  Television reporters on the scene less than 
one-half hour later report four spent bullet casings on the 
sidewalk.  Dink reportedly received two bullets to the head. 
Police are seeking a suspect 18 to 19 years of age.  No one 
is yet in custody according to live media reports.  Dink was 
shot while exiting the building in the Osmanbey section of 
Istanbul.  Collegues report his receiving threats against his 
life "for some time." 
 
¶2.  Dink is a graduate of the University of Istanbul, 
Department of Zoology with continuing education in 
philosophy.  He began working as a columnist for Agos in 1966 
and was currently the paper's editor-in-chief.  In October 
2005, Dink was convicted of breaking Turkey's Article 301 
against insulting Turkishness.  At the time of his death he 
was free pending further legal procedures (ref B).  Dink was 
an articulate if controversial figure both in Turkey and 
within the Armenian diaspora.  Most recently, in 2006 he was 
a vocal opponent of French legislation that would have 
criminalized the denial of the Armenian genocide.  He was a 
longstanding activist on freedom of speech issues and active 
in a variety of civil society issues. 
JONES