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TURKEY: VERDICT IN EDITOR'S DEATH
By SEBNEM ARSU
The New York Times
January 18, 2012 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
ISTANBUL -- A Turkish court convicted one man on Tuesday of instigating
the 2007 murder of a prominent editor, but acquitted all 19 suspects
on charges of being members of a terrorist organization, rejecting
claims that the murder was an act of conspiracy by an illegal network
within the Turkish state.
The verdict was met with outrage by relatives and supporters of the
murdered man, Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian who edited a bilingual
weekly in Turkish and Armenian called Agos and was a leading spokesman
of the Armenian community in Turkey.
Witnesses said that security officers in the courtroom struggled to
keep order as the crowd chanted "We demand justice."
"This verdict is certification of the ongoing state tradition of
political murders and its alienation of some citizens as the enemy,"
Fethiye Cetin, a lawyer for the Dink family, told television reporters
at the scene. She called the trial a missed chance to get at the truth.
Outside observers also criticized the narrow verdict. Reporters Sans
Frontieres, an advocacy group for press freedom based in Paris,
issued a statement saying: "Five years after Dink's murder, this
court has proved to be powerless to shed light on all the complicity
within the state apparatus and to identify the masterminds. No one
can regard this case as solved."
The trial that ended on Tuesday did not involve the gunman who
actually shot Mr. Dink in the street outside his office on Jan. 19,
2007; he was convicted and sentenced separately last July. Rather,
it turned on charges of a widespread conspiracy to terrorize and kill
journalists for political reasons, and on the state's negligence in
failing to protect journalists.
Seven security officials have been convicted of failing to report
what they knew about murder plots against Mr. Dink, and in 2010 the
European Court of Human Rights ordered the Turkish government to pay
compensation to Mr. Dink's family.
Many prominent writers and intellectuals in Turkey have been harshly
critical of the state over Mr. Dink's death, including Nedim Sener, an
award-winning journalist who wrote a book about the case. Mr. Sener
is currently jailed on charges of aiding a terror organization,
which he calls retaliation against him.
The court on Tuesday convicted Yasin Hayal and sentenced him to life
in prison for his role in the murder, and as a lesser offense, for
publicly threatening another writer, the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk.
Both Mr. Pamuk and Mr. Dink spoke out publicly about the killing of
ethnic Armenians by the Ottoman army in the early 20th century.
Another defendant was convicted on a charge unrelated to Mr. Dink's
murder, while two defendants received 12 years and 6 months each on
charges of aiding in the murder.
After the verdict, hundreds of protesters marched from the courthouse
to the Agos office in downtown Istanbul, chanting, "This trial is not
over" and "Murderers must be publicly held accountable, for justice,
for Hrant."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
By SEBNEM ARSU
The New York Times
January 18, 2012 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final
ISTANBUL -- A Turkish court convicted one man on Tuesday of instigating
the 2007 murder of a prominent editor, but acquitted all 19 suspects
on charges of being members of a terrorist organization, rejecting
claims that the murder was an act of conspiracy by an illegal network
within the Turkish state.
The verdict was met with outrage by relatives and supporters of the
murdered man, Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian who edited a bilingual
weekly in Turkish and Armenian called Agos and was a leading spokesman
of the Armenian community in Turkey.
Witnesses said that security officers in the courtroom struggled to
keep order as the crowd chanted "We demand justice."
"This verdict is certification of the ongoing state tradition of
political murders and its alienation of some citizens as the enemy,"
Fethiye Cetin, a lawyer for the Dink family, told television reporters
at the scene. She called the trial a missed chance to get at the truth.
Outside observers also criticized the narrow verdict. Reporters Sans
Frontieres, an advocacy group for press freedom based in Paris,
issued a statement saying: "Five years after Dink's murder, this
court has proved to be powerless to shed light on all the complicity
within the state apparatus and to identify the masterminds. No one
can regard this case as solved."
The trial that ended on Tuesday did not involve the gunman who
actually shot Mr. Dink in the street outside his office on Jan. 19,
2007; he was convicted and sentenced separately last July. Rather,
it turned on charges of a widespread conspiracy to terrorize and kill
journalists for political reasons, and on the state's negligence in
failing to protect journalists.
Seven security officials have been convicted of failing to report
what they knew about murder plots against Mr. Dink, and in 2010 the
European Court of Human Rights ordered the Turkish government to pay
compensation to Mr. Dink's family.
Many prominent writers and intellectuals in Turkey have been harshly
critical of the state over Mr. Dink's death, including Nedim Sener, an
award-winning journalist who wrote a book about the case. Mr. Sener
is currently jailed on charges of aiding a terror organization,
which he calls retaliation against him.
The court on Tuesday convicted Yasin Hayal and sentenced him to life
in prison for his role in the murder, and as a lesser offense, for
publicly threatening another writer, the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk.
Both Mr. Pamuk and Mr. Dink spoke out publicly about the killing of
ethnic Armenians by the Ottoman army in the early 20th century.
Another defendant was convicted on a charge unrelated to Mr. Dink's
murder, while two defendants received 12 years and 6 months each on
charges of aiding in the murder.
After the verdict, hundreds of protesters marched from the courthouse
to the Agos office in downtown Istanbul, chanting, "This trial is not
over" and "Murderers must be publicly held accountable, for justice,
for Hrant."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress