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Turkey gags journalist over 'insult'

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  • Turkey gags journalist over 'insult'

    The Guardian/Observer, UK
    Oct 9 2005

    Turkey gags journalist over 'insult'

    Just as the EU opens talks with Turkey over its application to join
    the European Union comes a reminder that the freedoms the British
    press takes for granted are not always extended to its Turkish
    equivalent.

    Last Friday, a Turkish court gave an Armenian-Turkish journalist a
    six-month suspended prison sentence for 'insulting Turkish identity'
    in an article he wrote.

    The issue of freedom of speech has dogged every stage of Turkey's
    efforts to join the European Union. While the EU agreed this week to
    start entry talks with Turkey, such court cases are likely to hinder
    Ankara's progress toward full membership.

    The Istanbul court found Hrant Dink, the editor-in-chief of the
    bilingual Turkish and Armenian weekly Agos newspaper, guilty of
    'insulting and weakening Turkish identity through the media' in an
    article he wrote last year.

    'Whether the sentence was for one day or six years, it doesn't
    matter. The important thing, and what saddens me, is that I was
    sentenced. I did not commit this crime,' Dink told Reuters.

    The article he wrote called on the Armenian diaspora to reject the
    anger they felt against Turkey. 'Forget insulting the Turkish
    identity, I said to Armenians "let go of your enmity toward Turks",'
    Dink said.

    The journalist, who founded the Agos newspaper in 1996, said that he
    would appeal against the court's verdict and take the case to the
    European Court of Human Rights if necessary.

    'If I don't get a result, I will not stay with the people I have
    supposedly insulted,' he said. 'I will leave the country.'
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