A man who allegedly sent e-mails to the Hrant Dink Foundation, threatening to kill Dink’s widow and other foundation officials, has been detained in the central Turkish province of Konya, according to a statement from the Turkish General Directorate of Security on Saturday.
Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist, was shot dead in broad daylight in central İstanbul on Jan. 19, 2007, by a then-17-year-old jobless high-school dropout.
The 52-year-old Dink was editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian bilingual Agos weekly and a fierce advocate of reconciliation between Turks and Armenians.
In a statement on Friday the Hrant Dink Foundation announced that the foundation had received e-mails that included death threats against Dink’s widow Rakel and other foundation officials, adding that the Şişli Police Department and the İstanbul Governor’s Office had been informed of the threats.
The statement from the security directorate noted that the suspected user of the e-mail account which sent the death threats was tracked by the e-mail address to the Selçuklu district of Konya and has been taken into police custody. An investigation has also been launched into him.
Dink’s death became a wider scandal after it was discovered that security forces were aware of the murder plot but failed to act.