Tweet
JUSTICE URGED FOR SLAIN JOURNALIST IN TURKEY
MWC Network: Media With Conscience
Jan 20 2014
Several thousand Turks have taken part in a rally, amid heavy presence
of riot police, to demand justice for a prominent Turkish Armenian
journalist murdered seven years ago.
A demonstration has been staged every year on January 19 since Hrant
Dink's murder. It has often turned into a general plea for justice.
"Murderer state will account for this," chanted the protesters who
had gathered on Sunday in Istanbul's Taksim Square.
Questions still linger about the circumstances of the killing.
Dink, 52, a leading member of Turkey's tiny Armenian community,
was killed by a teenage ultranationalist outside the offices of his
bilingual Agos newspaper on January 19, 2007.
He had campaigned for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians,
but incurred the wrath of Turkish nationalists for calling the mass
killings of Armenians during the first world war a genocide.
Dink's supporters believe that those behind the murder were protected
by the state and have asked for a deeper investigation to uncover
officials who were allegedly involved.
Backing up widespread accusations of a state conspiracy, a former
police informant accused of instigating the murder claimed during
his trial last month that he had warned police of the plot but they
failed to act.
Dink's self-confessed murderer, Ogun Samast, a 17-year-old jobless
high-school dropout at the time, was sentenced to almost 23 years in
jail in 2011.
Sunday's rally came as the Turkish government battled fresh protests
in the wake of a corruption scandal involving the closest allies of
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister.
On Saturday Turkish police fired tear-gas and plastic bullets to
break up a protest by around 2,000 people over controversial plans
to impose curbs on the internet.
Turkey has long been criticised for a lack of freedom of expression
and has been branded the world's top jailer of journalists.
Dozens of journalists are in detention, as well as lawyers,
politicians and legislators, most of them accused of plotting against
the government or having links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK).
http://mwcnews.net/news/europe/35622-journalist-in-turkey.html
MWC Network: Media With Conscience
Jan 20 2014
Several thousand Turks have taken part in a rally, amid heavy presence
of riot police, to demand justice for a prominent Turkish Armenian
journalist murdered seven years ago.
A demonstration has been staged every year on January 19 since Hrant
Dink's murder. It has often turned into a general plea for justice.
"Murderer state will account for this," chanted the protesters who
had gathered on Sunday in Istanbul's Taksim Square.
Questions still linger about the circumstances of the killing.
Dink, 52, a leading member of Turkey's tiny Armenian community,
was killed by a teenage ultranationalist outside the offices of his
bilingual Agos newspaper on January 19, 2007.
He had campaigned for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians,
but incurred the wrath of Turkish nationalists for calling the mass
killings of Armenians during the first world war a genocide.
Dink's supporters believe that those behind the murder were protected
by the state and have asked for a deeper investigation to uncover
officials who were allegedly involved.
Backing up widespread accusations of a state conspiracy, a former
police informant accused of instigating the murder claimed during
his trial last month that he had warned police of the plot but they
failed to act.
Dink's self-confessed murderer, Ogun Samast, a 17-year-old jobless
high-school dropout at the time, was sentenced to almost 23 years in
jail in 2011.
Sunday's rally came as the Turkish government battled fresh protests
in the wake of a corruption scandal involving the closest allies of
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister.
On Saturday Turkish police fired tear-gas and plastic bullets to
break up a protest by around 2,000 people over controversial plans
to impose curbs on the internet.
Turkey has long been criticised for a lack of freedom of expression
and has been branded the world's top jailer of journalists.
Dozens of journalists are in detention, as well as lawyers,
politicians and legislators, most of them accused of plotting against
the government or having links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK).
http://mwcnews.net/news/europe/35622-journalist-in-turkey.html