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ANKARA: President Gul Met Hosrof Dink, Brother Of Killed Hrant Dink

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  • ANKARA: President Gul Met Hosrof Dink, Brother Of Killed Hrant Dink

    PRESIDENT GUL MET HOSROF DINK, BROTHER OF KILLED HRANT DINK

    BIAnet.org
    Aug 23 2010
    Turkey

    President Gul received Hosrof Dink, brother of killed Turkish Armenian
    journalist Hrant Dink, in Istanbul on Friday (20 August). Related
    to the state's recent defence to the ECHR, judge Turmen called the
    state to apologize and admit a mistake.

    Tolga KORKUT [email protected] Istanbul - BİA News Center23
    August 2010, Monday RELATED NEWS President Gul Admits State's
    Responsibility for Dink Murder President Abdullha Gul met with Hosrof
    Dink, the brother of assassinated Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant
    Dink, in Istanbul on Friday (20 August).

    Gul had invited Dink to a mansion in the Tarabya district. The meeting
    lasted for one hour. Dink said afterwards, "I thank the president for
    his invitation. We talked about very sensitive topics such as sharing
    sorrow and pouring out our grievances. The meeting was all about this.

    Thank you".

    Dink did not take any questions from the journalists. Gul did not
    comment on the meeting at all.

    Hrant Dink, then editor-in-chief of the Armenian Agos newspaper,
    was killed on 19 January 2007. Prior to his assassination he had been
    convicted under article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code (TCY), which
    bans "insults" to the Turkish state. The Dink family brought the case
    to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). In the defence of the
    Turkish state recently submitted to the international court, Dink
    was compared to a Nazi leader and accused of spreading "hate speeches".

    After the news about the defence had made the headlines, president
    Gul admitted that the "necessary precautions" had not been taken to
    prevent the murder of the journalist. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
    and Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin both distanced themselves from
    the defence.

    Turmen: government should apologize Rıza Turmen, former judge at
    the ECHR, criticized the defence of the Turkish state. He advised
    the state to admit a mistake instead of defending it.

    In an article published in the nation-wide Milliyet newspaper on
    Friday (20 August), Turmen took pen to paper on the defence: "It
    is not necessary to defend every case. Sometimes it might be better
    for the state in moral and legal terms to admit a mistake instead of
    clinging to a defence. If this case is bothering the government that
    much, they could conclude the case before it is decided".

    According to Turmen, this could be done in two ways. That could either
    be an amicable agreement between the government and the complainants.

    This is related to the state's prosecuting the public officials accused
    of negeligence and thus paving the way to the murder of Dink and to
    correcting the sentence handed down to Dink under Article 301.

    The government could apologize, Turmen suggested.

    Or, in case an amicable agreement would not work out, the government
    could unilaterally announce to accept a violation of the European
    Convention on Human Rights and agree on compensation. If the ECHR
    would recognize such a declaration, the "victim" status of the
    complainants could be lifted and the case could be concluded, the
    judge said. (TK/VK)




    From: A. Papazian
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