Kurdish Info, Germany
Oct 8 2005

Journalist Guilty of ‘Insulting Turkishness’

Erol Onderoglu

Bianet /7 October 2005 /-Hrant Dink, the editor of the Istanbul based
Armenian language weekly newspaper Agos, has been sentenced to
suspended 6 months imprisonment for “insulting Turkishness” in a
series of articles he wrote on Armenian identity.

Hrant Dink, who was charged with “insulting Turkishness” in an
article on Armenian identity published in the weekly newspaper Agos,
has been sentenced to a 6-month term in prison, but the penalty has
been suspended.

Dink was also one of the organizers of the conference on Ottoman
Armenians that was recently held in Istanbul. The newspaper’s general
coordinator Karin Karakasli, who was charged along with Dink, was
acquitted on the grounds that she was exempt under a provision of the
Press Law. The journalists’ lawyer, Fetiye Cetin, told Bianet that
they are appealing the court’s decision.

The decision hearing took place today (7 October 2005) at the Second
Criminal Court in Sisli, and was attended by the journalists, their
lawyers, and other supporters. The prosecutor, Muhittin Ayata, argued
that Dink’s article had been written with the intent to criticize and
humiliate Turkish national identity. The court suspended the sentence
on the grounds that Dink had no previous convictions and on the
condition that he does not repeat the offense.

The suit was filed against Dink and Karakasli on 16 April 2004 for a
series of articles starting in February 2004 that criticized diaspora
Armenians for focusing on the history of Turkish crimes against
Armenians and not doing enough for the needs of Armenians in the
present. Reporters Without Borders, PEN International, and other
civil society groups have criticized the lawsuit.