Javier Solana says slaying of journalist in Turkey won't affect accession negotiations

(20 Jan 2007)
1. Convoy of EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana arriving in Ramallah
2. Reporter asking Solana whether murder of Armenian journalist in Turkey will affect Turkey's prospects of joining EU
3. SOUNDBITE (English) EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana:
"No this is not, no effect of that, no."
4. Solana walking into building
STORYLINE:
EU Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana said on Saturday that the murder of a journalist in Turkey on Friday would not affect Turkey's prospects of joining the European Union.
"No this is not, no effect of that, no," Solana said, before a meeting in Ramallah with the head of the Fatah faction in the Palestinian parliament, Azzam al-Ahmed.
Hrant Dink, one of the most prominent voices of Turkey's shrinking Armenian community, was killed by a gunman on Friday at the entrance to his newspaper's offices in Istanbul, police said.
Dink gained notoriety after he was put on trial for saying that the mass killing of Armenians at the beginning of the 20th century was genocide.
His position goes against Turkey's official position and is widely seen there as a treasonous view of those events.
Dink, who was a 52 year-old Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, had received threats from nationalists, who viewed him as a traitor.
In his last newspaper column Dink wrote that he was so worried about attacks that he had begun to move around
like a pigeon, head darting from side to side.
Well-known Turkish journalists commonly receive police protection and can be seen travelling around Istanbul with
bodyguards. Dink was alone when he was killed.
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