Nigeria: Aba Suffers Blackout After Pipeline Attack; Gunmen Kill Prophet in Ogun Church
January 19, 2025
Russia’s War on Ukrainian Media: 24 Journalists Killed, Over 150 Press Violations in 2024
January 19, 2025
January 19, 2025 – Turkey –
On January 19, 2007, Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was assassinated in front of his newspaper Agos in Istanbul. The 52-year-old editor had long been a target of nationalist hostility for advocating Armenian-Turkish reconciliation and openly discussing the Armenian Genocide. His murderer, Ogün Samast, a 17-year-old Turkish nationalist, was arrested and later sentenced to over 20 years in prison. In November 2023, Samast was released on parole after serving nearly 17 years.
Eighteen years later, justice remains elusive. Though Samast and a few accomplices were convicted, the masterminds and state officials allegedly complicit in the crime have largely evaded accountability. In January 2025, a Turkish court dropped terrorism-related charges against Samast due to the statute of limitations, deepening public outrage, and reinforcing the perception of impunity. Meanwhile, Ahmet İskender, who helped conceal the murder weapon, was arrested this year in Kyrgyzstan after years on the run.
Despite the trauma, Agos continues to publish with a small but dedicated team. Now led by managing editor İşhan Erdinç and Armenian editor Pakrat Estukyan, the newspaper stands as a symbol of resistance and free expression in an increasingly repressive media landscape. Erdinç recently described their ongoing work as a “true act of resistance.”
Every year, civil society, journalists, and human rights defenders gather outside Agos on the anniversary of Dink’s killing, chanting “We are all Hrant, we are all Armenian.” These commemorations—now part of Istanbul’s memory culture—aim not only to honor Dink but to demand truth, justice, and the protection of minority rights in Turkey.
Dink was prosecuted multiple times under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code for “insulting Turkishness.” His voice, silenced by bullets, remains a powerful symbol of the fight for press freedom, dialogue, and justice in a country where speaking uncomfortable truths still comes at great risk.
Bottom line: Eighteen years after his assassination, Hrant Dink’s killers may have pulled the trigger, but it is the state’s failure to deliver justice that continues to echo. Agos and Dink’s legacy endures, reminding the world that truth-telling is resistance, and memory is justice.
Reference –
