Turkey... 18 deaths (submitted by ma_duron) 4

From The Associated Press (Saturday, January 20th): "journalist Hrant Dink was gunned down outside his newspaper's office in Istanbul. On Sunday, police captured the suspect identified as Ogun Samast (b. 1990) in the Black Sea city of Samsun.

"Dink, editor of the Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, was targeted for his public statements calling the killing of Armenians by Turks in the early 20th century (1915) genocide. Nationalists consider such statements an insult to Turkey's honor and a threat to its unity, and Dink had been showered with insults and threats. Turkey is the world's eighth most dangerous country for journalists, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, which counts 18 reporters killed for their work in the past 15 years. Dink's killing brought worldwide attention once again to the precarious state of free expression in Turkey and to the dangers journalists face (in Turkey)."

At stake, politically and economically, Turkey's aspirations to become part of the EC.