Turkish-Armenian journalist goes on trial on charges of insulting Turks
AP Worldstream
Apr 29, 2005
SELCAN HACAOGLU
A trial has begun for a Turkish-Armenian journalist charged with
insulting Turks in remarks at a human rights conference three years
ago, the journalist said Friday.
Hrant Dink, 51, said he did not attend the opening of the trial
Thursday in the southern city of Sanliurfa, where the conference was
held in 2002.
Dink, editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, could
face up to three years in prison if convicted. The trial was adjourned
until July 7.
The case highlights challenges still facing Turkey as it tries to
carry out reforms ahead of negotiations on membership in the European
Union. The government has promised to lift restrictions on freedom of
expression, and it’s also under pressure to grant more rights to its
ethnic Kurdish minority and other communities.
In his remarks to the conference, Dink criticized Turkey’s national
anthem and an oath taken by school children, which he said reinforce
Turkish dominance over the country’s minorities.
Children open each school day by saying, “Happy is the one who says,
‘I am a Turk.'”
“I was asked about what I feel about the oath taken by school children
and I said I don’t feel like a Turk and that I am a citizen of Turkey
but Armenian,” Dink said in a telephone interview. “I also said I
don’t like the line of the national anthem which says ‘smile upon my
heroic race.’ The emphasis on race is discrimination.”
Dink, a member of Istanbul’s Armenian Christian community, also
angered nationalists by publishing claims that Sabiha Gokcen _ the
adopted daughter of modern Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk _
could have been Armenian. Gokcen was Turkey’s first woman war pilot
and is a national icon.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s prime minister said his country might establish
political relations with Armenia if the two sides agree to jointly
research the killings of Armenian’s during World War I, which
Armenians say was a genocide, the Milliyet newspaper reported Friday.
Turkey has been opening up on the subject under pressure from the
European Union ahead of membership talks.
Armenians say 1.5 million of their people were killed as the Ottoman
Empire forced them from eastern Turkey between 1915-1923 in a
deliberate campaign of genocide.
Turkey denies a genocide was committed, saying the death count is
inflated and insisting that Armenians were killed or displaced as the
Ottoman Empire tried to secure its border with Russia and stop attacks
by Armenian militants.