Turkey's own Lee Harvey Oswald

Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian journalist in Turkey, was shot two days ago. Just outside the offices of the paper he wrote for, an assailant fired three shots point-blank into Dink's head. A teenage suspect has now confessed, after police captured him based on a tip from his own father.

Police were investigating whether the teen acted alone or had ties to a group.

The suspect's uncle Faik Samast told private NTV television that he didn't think his nephew was capable of acting alone.

"He didn't even know his way around Istanbul," Samast said. "This kid was used."

Whether he was pushed by a single person or influenced by a group, there's just something Lee Harvey Oswald about all this. "I'm just a patsy!"

I haven't seen anything yet on his hometown, but note that the assassination was in Istanbul, and the kid was caught in Samsun. Here is a map of Turkey indicating Istanbul, and here is one indicating Samsun. They're about 500 miles apart according to those maps, which, going by pure distance, would be like Oswald having been found in a Kansas or Mississippi movie theatre.

Maybe the kid was just stupid to keep the gun on him, or maybe he was set up. Perhaps he really did do it and was instructed not to throw away the piece, or perhaps this is an elaborate frame job. That he was caught on video is persuasive but not necessarily convincing, because of today's sophisticated editing technology. And most of all, as a matter of human history, it's not unheard-of to frame someone for political gain. Now, I'm not saying anyone in the actual Turkish government had anything to do with this, but after the acquittals of Orhan Pamuk and Ipek Calislar, apparently somebody decided that if the courts couldn't punish the crime of "insulting Turkey," other means could and should be employed to silence the next critic.

Or is there another factor at play? Little Green Footballs thinks there is, noting something that is mysteriously being removed from most major media:

The assassination of Turkish-Armenian writer Hrant Dink is being universally portrayed as ethnic strife, a political act by Turkish nationalists against an Armenian critic.

Call me Mr. Suspicious, but when I see the entire media monolith pushing an idea like that with so much enthusiasm, I start looking for the real explanation.

And the real explanation, as with so many of these media smokescreens, is jihad. Turkish-Armenian editor shot dead in Istanbul. (Hat tip: Paul.)

NTV television said Dink had been shot three times in the head and neck.

Muharrem Gozutok, a restaurant owner near the newspaper, said the assailant looked about 20, wore jeans and a cap and shouted "I shot the non-Muslim" as he left the scene.

This little piece of essential information is now being excised from all wire service and media reports.

The Wikipedia article cites a source (in Turkish, though, so I can't read it for myself) that says, "Dink's close friend Orhan Alkaya stated that the three-shot assassination technique was a signature mark of the Turkish Hezbollah."

There's merit to this line of thought. At the end of the ABC news article is a curious revelation about an apparent accomplice, which says much about Turkish justice:

Police detained six other suspects, including Yasin Hayal, who was convicted in the bombing of a McDonald's restaurant in the Black Sea city of Trabzon in 2004, Turkish news reports said.

So that jihadist SOB served only a couple of years, after injuring six people in a bombing he later celebrated with anti-Western slogans?

Yasin Hayal made a show when he was taken out from the Trabzon Security Directorate for health control. He said that he performed the raid to punish the Americans interfering with Afghanistan and Iraq. He called out, "Death to the unbelievers. The Americans will die." Yasin Hayal said to the reporters, "I will bomb the Russian Consulate and HSBC. Shoot the legend now."

Charming fellow. But of course, he's only practicing his peaceful religion...right?