Ogün Samast

Ogün Samast (b. 1990 in Trabzon) is a Turkish ultra-nationalist who killed Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink on January 19, 2007 in front of the headquarters of his newspaper Agos, in Osmanbey, Istanbul.

Background

Samast's family is from Düzköy district of Trabzon Province. His parents live apart. He had dropped out of high school, was unemployedand may have been a [...] user. The Turkish media has also reported that Samast has been described by his family as "calm and withdrawn", whilst his friends have labelled him "aggressive and contentious", pointing out that he had been "kicked off" his local football team for aggression. The report also stated that Samast spent a lot of time on the Internet.

[...] suspect

Arrest

Samast was identified by his father, Ahmet Samast, who informed the police after he saw CCTV footage of his son on TV. He was detained on Saturday January 20, the day after the [...], in an operation at the main bus station in Samsun. What is thought to be the [...] weapon was found in his possession.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced Samast's arrest.

Later developments

According to the official state-run news agency Anadolu, he has confessed to the [...] and stated that he did not have any regrets. However, several days later it was reported that Samast had stated that he was very sorry that he had killed Hrant Dink. The following Monday, the Turkish police announced that Yasin Hayal, an ultra-nationalist militant who bombed a McDonald's restaurant in Trabzon in 2004, confessed to telling Samast to kill Dink and supplying the [...] weapon. Ogün Samast's uncle, Faik Samast has said that he did not believe that his nephew had acted alone, stating that he did not know his way around Istanbul. Later, Hayal and Samast confessed that the [...] was planned by Erhan Tuncel who is allegedly a police informer

A Radikal story of 2 February 2007 featured pictures of Samast holding up a Turkish flag, flanked by smiling government employees. A police spokesman indicated that an investigation into the video was underway.

See also

• Anti-Armenianism

External links

• Turkish-Armenian journalist killed (Wikinews)
• Suspected assassin arrested (Wikinews)
• Dink's brother says Dink feared for his safety after seeing Veli Küçük (Wikinews)

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