Assassination of Hrant Dink

Hrant Dink, a prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist and editor of the newspaper Agos, was assassinated in the Şişli district of Istanbul at around 12:00 GMT on 19 January 2007. Dink had written and spoken extensively about the Armenian genocide and was known for advocating reconciliation between Turks and Armenians and for defending minority and human rights in Turkey. At the time of his death he was on trial under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code for "denigrating Turkishness." He had received years of threats from Turkish ultranationalists but never formally requested police protection.

According to eyewitnesses, Dink was shot three times in the head from behind, at point-blank range, by a young man who fled on foot; a nearby witness reported the shooter shouted "I shot the infidel." The following day, police identified the suspect through footage from Istanbul's MOBESE surveillance network and released his photo publicly. The shooter's father recognized him and alerted authorities. He was identified as Ogün Samast, a teenager from Trabzon. Samast reportedly confessed to a Samsun prosecutor, stating the killing was a personal act motivated by Dink "insulting Turks."

The investigation implicated additional figures: Yasin Hayal, previously imprisoned for a 2004 McDonald's bombing in Trabzon, confessed to directing Samast and supplying the murder weapon. Erhan Tuncel, a student linked to a nationalist youth organization, was accused of orchestrating the assassination and allegedly directing both Samast and Hayal; rumors circulated that Tuncel had been a police informant who had warned Trabzon police of a plot in advance. Subsequent investigations, including material tied to the broader Ergenekon case, raised further suspicions of security-force involvement, alongside concerns over destroyed evidence, missing phone records, and one police officer's promotion after being photographed celebrating with Samast.

Dink's funeral on 23 January 2007 drew roughly a hundred thousand mourners in a march that became a protest against the killing, with chants of "We are all Armenian, we are all Hrant Dink." The assassination drew condemnation from Turkish officials, Armenian officials, and numerous international governments and human rights and press-freedom organizations.

The murder trial opened in Istanbul on 2 July 2007 with 18 people charged. On 25 July 2011, Ogün Samast was convicted of murder and illegal firearm possession and sentenced to 22 years and 10 months (as a minor at the time, this was commuted from a life sentence). On 16 January 2012, a court found no organized conspiracy and treated the killing as an "ordinary" crime; Yasin Hayal was sentenced to life imprisonment, later reduced on appeal to 7 years and 6 months in 2019 following procedural changes. Erhan Tuncel, initially acquitted of murder, was later convicted and sentenced to 99½ years in prison in July 2019. A final verdict on 26 March 2021 sentenced 26 defendants — including police and interior ministry officials — on charges ranging from document forgery to membership in an armed terrorist organization; 37 defendants were acquitted. In September 2010, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Turkish authorities had violated Dink's right to life by failing to prevent the murder and failing to punish police inaction.