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HRANT DINK: THOUSANDS MARCH IN ISTANBUL AFTER CONTROVERSIAL VERDICT
International Business Times
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/284621/20120119/hrant-dink-thousands-march-istanbul-controversial-verdict.htm
Jan 19 2012
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Fifty thousand people marched in Istanbul on Thursday in commemoration
of Hrant Dink, the Armenian journalist who was assassinated exactly
five years earlier. Holding up photos of Dink and signs reading "We
are all Hrant, we are all Armenian," they walked to the location in
the Turkish city where the reporter was killed in 2007.
Dink was shot dead outside his office at the Turkish-Armenian newspaper
Agos by a right-wing nationalist named Ogun Samast. The journalist
was a vocal advocate for Armenian rights and minority groups, and
published reports on the Armenian Genocide, a tragedy long denied by
the Turkish government.
Some of the protests marched to express their outrage over the most
recent verdicts in the murder trial. Earlier this week, Yasin Hayal
was sentenced to life in prison in connection to Dink's murder,
while suspect Erhan Tuncel was acquitted of murder charges. Hayal
was found guilty of plotting the assassination and giving Samast the
murder weapon.
A judge also acquitted 19 suspects on charges that they belonged to
a terrorist organization called Ergenekon which apparently seeks to
overthrow the government.
"First of all this verdict disturbed everyone. It has been so long.
Even if it's overturned on appeal I don't know how it can satisfy
people after all this time. But anyway it should be rejected,"
journalist and protestor Engin Bas told Euronews.
Turkish politicians have repeatedly vowed to get to the bottom
of Dink's assassination, but many of his supporters still feel
unsatisfied.
"They made fun of us throughout the five-year trial process. We did
not know they saved the biggest joke to the very end," Dink family's
lawyer, Fethiye Cetin, told reporters.
"This ruling means a tradition was left untouched. The state tradition
of political murders. The tradition of state discriminating against
some of its citizens and turning them into enemies."
International Business Times
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/284621/20120119/hrant-dink-thousands-march-istanbul-controversial-verdict.htm
Jan 19 2012
Comments 0Print This ArticleSend This AricleShare This AricleText
Size By Staff Reporter: Subscribe to Staff's RSS feed
Fifty thousand people marched in Istanbul on Thursday in commemoration
of Hrant Dink, the Armenian journalist who was assassinated exactly
five years earlier. Holding up photos of Dink and signs reading "We
are all Hrant, we are all Armenian," they walked to the location in
the Turkish city where the reporter was killed in 2007.
Dink was shot dead outside his office at the Turkish-Armenian newspaper
Agos by a right-wing nationalist named Ogun Samast. The journalist
was a vocal advocate for Armenian rights and minority groups, and
published reports on the Armenian Genocide, a tragedy long denied by
the Turkish government.
Some of the protests marched to express their outrage over the most
recent verdicts in the murder trial. Earlier this week, Yasin Hayal
was sentenced to life in prison in connection to Dink's murder,
while suspect Erhan Tuncel was acquitted of murder charges. Hayal
was found guilty of plotting the assassination and giving Samast the
murder weapon.
A judge also acquitted 19 suspects on charges that they belonged to
a terrorist organization called Ergenekon which apparently seeks to
overthrow the government.
"First of all this verdict disturbed everyone. It has been so long.
Even if it's overturned on appeal I don't know how it can satisfy
people after all this time. But anyway it should be rejected,"
journalist and protestor Engin Bas told Euronews.
Turkish politicians have repeatedly vowed to get to the bottom
of Dink's assassination, but many of his supporters still feel
unsatisfied.
"They made fun of us throughout the five-year trial process. We did
not know they saved the biggest joke to the very end," Dink family's
lawyer, Fethiye Cetin, told reporters.
"This ruling means a tradition was left untouched. The state tradition
of political murders. The tradition of state discriminating against
some of its citizens and turning them into enemies."