TURKEY: Colleagues of slain Armenian-Turk editor sentenced

Two colleagues of slain Armenian-Turkish editor Hrant Dink receive suspended jail sentences in Istanbul for a newspaper article which called the killing of Armenians by Turks during World War One a genocide. Two colleagues of slain Armenian-Turkish editor Hrant Dink have received suspended jail sentences for insulting Turkishness under a controversial law limiting free speech, their newspaper said on Thursday (October 11). Arat Dink, editor of Agos and Hrant's son, and proprietor Sarkis Seropyan were each given one-year suspended sentences. The pair were tried under article 301 of the penal code for a piece written last year before Dink was shot dead in Istanbul by an ultra-nationalist. Dink had also been accused in the case. At a news conference on Thursday, lawyer Fethiye Cetin said that they were charged just for publishing a story in their newspaper, "This verdict shows that in Turkey to make a news story about Hrant Dink who says that there was an Armenian genocide in 1915, is a crime," she told reporters outside Istanbul's courthouse as supporters of the two journalists looked on. At a news conference afterwards academic Cengiz Candar told Reuters that article 301 of the penal code was very much applying against the freedom of speech in Turkey even though some politicians said it was not. Nineteen suspects are on trial for the murder of Dink. One person has already confessed to the killing, which shocked Turkey. The European Union, which Turkey wants to join, has repeatedly urged Ankara to scrap the article, under which Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk has also been tried. Court officials were not immediately available for comment. The case was opened against the paper after it published a story describing how an investigation had been launched into comments Dink had made in an interview with Reuters, an official at the paper said. In the interview Dink repeated his view that Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War One, charges Ankara denies. Dink was a respected but controversial figure who promoted reconciliation between Turks and Armenians. But his calls for Turkey to recognise its role in the 1915 massacres were seen by nationalists as a insult to national honour. The AK Party government -- under which the current penal code was revised -- has said the code needs more time to be tested and officials have said the article will not be revised as part of a constitutional reform planned for next year.

ITN Source | October 12, 2007

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