Serj Tankian's friend makes video on Hrant Dink

YEREVAN, JANUARY 21, ARMENPRESS: The friend of the rock musician Serj Tankian, Jon Del Sesto, made a video honoring the life of Hrant Dink. Armenpress reports that the American Armenian composer and the solo singer of the famous System of a Down Serj Tankian wrote about it in his Facebook profile.

“The video will be included in my Dad, Khatchadour Tankian's album “Inchbes Moranank”. Hrant was a Turkish Armenian writer and editor assassinated in Turkey in 2007 after appearingin the documentary Screamers, in which he was interviewed about the Turkish denial of the Armenian Genocide and the case against him under the Article 301 in Turkey. Recent ties to his killer weave a very sordid web of collusion among certain nationalists and law enforcement personnel”.

The musician describes the murder of Hrant Dink, noting that to this day, Turkey has a horrible human rights record and one of the highest rates of incarceration of journalists in the world.

Dink, the renowned editor-in-chief of Agos, which has been the voice of the small Armenian community in Istanbul for several years, was shot dead by Ogün Samast in front of his office in Istanbul on January 19, 2007. Samast was sentenced to over 22 years in jail for the murder. At his funeral, two hundred thousand mourners marched in protest of the assassination, chanting "We are all Armenians" and "We are all Hrant Dink". Criticism of Article 301 became increasingly vocal after his death, leading to parliamentary proposals for repeal. The 2007–2008 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honor.