Journalist's Car Burned

It's hard to keep track of the cars that get burned. Should I start a tally on the blog?

On February 8, at about 8:00 p.m., unknown people burnt the car "Nissan-Jeep" belonging to Ara Saghatelyan, owner of Panorama.am and "My Right" newspaper.

...he was the first to see the burning car and saw nobody on the site. He has received no threats over the passing days.

Mr. Saghatelyan suspects no one and he will give names only after the investigation.

Armenia has to graduate from this phase of illegal democracy before it can truly prosper.

Source: A1+

Los Angeles to Train Armenian Journalists

The city of bright lights and fake breasts is out to do some good.

...the program is organized on the initiative of American Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau for journalists from cities-friends.

According to the press release, Armenian journalists can participate in the program, because signing of the agreement on declaring Yerevan and Los Angeles cities-friends is scheduled for February 2007. The program is designed for journalists with experience no less than three years. Applications for participation are accepted until February 9, 2007.

Certain people from a certain blog should attend this training course. Perhaps then they will learn about plagiarism and its consequences.

Source: ARKA

Hrant Dink's Agos Newspaper Receives Death Threats

Even though many took to the streets in support of condemning Hrant Dink's murder, there are some who want more.

Employees of the bilingual “Agos” weekly said they received a letter late Wednesday that described Dink as an “enemy dog” and warned that anyone calling World War One-era massacres of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey a genocide will meet his fate.

“If you fail to exercise caution, many of your other dogs will also die,” read the letter signed by the obscure Turkish Revenge Brigade (TIT). “We have enough explosives to send the ‘Agos’ building skywards.”

“If you claim to have endured a genocide in 1915, then you don’t know what a genocide is. A real genocide will begin now,” it said.

The newspaper will not be swayed, even if a small group of ultranationalist pigs believe otherwise. I'm convinced that Turkey is on the verge of enormous change, but I fear that more killings of the sort will take place in the meantime.

Source: ArmeniaLiberty

Armenian Journalist Goes on Trial

Yet another one of those free speech stories breaking cover:

The trial opened in Yerevan and immediately adjourned on January 17 of Gagik Shamshian...Shamshian faces charges, which he denies, of having extorted money in 1998-2004 from residents of Yerevan's Nubarashen district in return for not publishing articles criticizing them, and, on the basis of unpublished cartoons, of defamation.

The charges were brought against Shamshian last August, two months after he claimed to have been assaulted by associates of Nubarashen Mayor Mher Hovannisian. Shamshian claimed Hovannisian was angered by articles he published criticizing the district authorities. Shamshian said on January 17 that a senior prosecutor recently offered to drop the charges against him if he wrote to the OSCE admitting his guilt.

Does anyone out there really believe the extortion story?

Source: EurasiaNet

Hrant Dink Murder Suspect Caught!

Here's the latest:

The governor of Istanbul said police captured Ogun Samas on a bus in the Black Sea port city of Samsun. Mr Samas was earlier named as the suspect pictured in security camera images near the scene of the killing.
He said Mr Samas, whom he said was born in 1990, will be brought to Istanbul for questioning.

Mr Guler said six other people will also be questioned in the morning. The governor emphasised that the suspect had been seized after 32 hours, and as a result of the pictures caught on the security cameras.

Let's hope total justice is served, even though no amount of punishment can bring back anyone who is gone.

Source: BBC

Hrant Dink Killed in Turkey

This is what we know so far:

A prominent Turkish-Armenian editor, convicted in 2005 of insulting Turkish identity, has been shot dead outside his newspaper's office in Istanbul. The US, EU and Armenia have condemned his murder and Turkey's leaders vowed to bring those responsible to justice.

"A bullet has been fired at democracy and freedom of expression," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a hastily convened news conference.

Dink was given a six-month suspended sentence in October 2005 after writing about the Armenian genocide of 1915. Dink was among dozens of writers in Turkey who have been charged under 301 of Turkey's penal code with insulting Turkish identity, often for articles dealing with the killing of Kurds and Ottoman Armenians.

This is a real tragedy and shows just how much Turkey has to change before it should even be considered as an ally of Armenia, the EU, or the world.

A big thanks to Sassna and Khoren for suggesting the story as it broke.

Source: BBC