Epress.am News from Armenia
Following a call by a group of journalists to include Armenian journalists killed in 1915 in a list of slain journalists in Turkey by various journalists’ associations, Turkey’s Contemporary Journalists Association (ÇGD) has announced it has added the names of nine journalists of Armenian origin killed in 1915 to their list, reports Today’s Zaman.
“This is the first time that a journalists’ association has announced that Armenian journalists were killed in 1915,” said Rober Koptaş, editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, at a press conference yesterday.
Ahmet Abakay, head of the ÇGD, said at the same conference that the association will hold a ceremony on April 24, the date when some countries commemorate the Armenian Genocide.
“It’s been a shame that there needs to be a serious effort to update our lists. The delay is due to our ignorance. Somebody drew up a list and we used it,” Abakay said.
In its list, the ÇGD has added the names of Krikor Zohrab, Yervant Sımakeşhanlıyan, Adom Yarcanyan, Hovhannes Harutyunyan, Rupen Sevag, Rupen Zartayan, Armen Doryan, Levon Larents and Taniel Varujan.
Koptaş remarked that journalist Bülent Tellan was given an “honorable mention” last year by the Turkish Journalists Association (TGC) for his work “Censorship with Blood,” in which he provided details of Armenian journalists killed in 1915, but the TGC still did not mention those names in its list.
The original list included the names of 76 journalists killed in Turkey before and after the foundation of the Turkish Republic, including well-known figures such as Abdi İpekçi, Çetin Emeç and Uğur Mumcu; but it only had one Armenian name, Hrant Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian descent and editor-in-chief of Agos weekly, who was assassinated in İstanbul in 2007.
Photo Detail: Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review