Frank Pallone: “I rise to honor the life of Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. One year ago, Hrant Dink was brutally gunned down…”

“I rise to honor the life of Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. One year ago, Hrant Dink was brutally gunned down outside his office in Istanbul, Turkey by a self-proclaimed Turkish nationalist. The world lost a great human rights advocate and his tragic death was an attack on democratic ideals and values. Dink was first charged with treason for upholding an irrefutable historical fact about the Armenian Genocide. He was convicted for his writings in 2005 for violating article 301, a law that makes it a crime to ``insult'' the Turkish state. This law continues today to be used to persecute, prosecute, and incarcerate those who attempt to exercise their universal human right of freedom of speech. Mr. Speaker, Turkey uses intimidation to deny its citizens their right to freedom of expression. It lobbies for its so-called rightful role in the international community and a place in the European Union. Yet it does not live up to democratic principles and standards. Hrant Dink is not the only one who has suffered from the consequences of this Turkish penal law. Anyone who refers to the events of 1915 for what they were, genocide, is targeted within Turkey.”