TURKEY ISN’T CONTENTED WITH HRANT DINK’S MURDER AND NOW DINK’S SON IS BEING CHASED

PanARMENIAN.Net
Analytical Department
16.06.2007 GMT+04:00

The question is what measures Ankara will take if all the citizens
of the Ottoman Empire of non-Turkish origins, who have systematically
been annihilated, are charged with "insult to Turkishness".

The hearings of the case of Hrant Dink’s murder in Istanbul will
be held on July 2, 2007. The sessions will be held behind closed
doors and the dissemination of any information about the course of
the hearings is strictly forbidden. Journalists will be deprived from
the right to give any reports on the course of the case and will not
be given any information about the hearings either.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Dink was murdered by 17-year-old nationalist
Ogyun Samast, who grounded the committed crime with "Dink’s insult
to Turkishness". It seemed that after the crime, which would have
tragic outcomes for any country fighting its way to Europe, the
attitude towards the Armenian-Turkish Press would change. However,
the Office of Public Prosecutor in Istanbul thinks that "Agos" has
once again violated provisions of the Article 301 and demands Hrant
Dink’s son’s and his colleague’s Sarkis Serobyan’s imprisonment with
the period of up to three years.

They are charged with the same "insult to Turkishness" and the cause
for the charge was the repeated publication of Hrant Dink’s interview
where he had touched upon the issue of the Armenian Genocide.

During the first court session Arat Dink blamed the prosecutors
in having their certain role in his father’s murder. "The biggest
absurdity and the most dangerous thing is that the determination of
the historical event like the Armenian Genocide is considered to be
offence for the Turkish Nation," quotes his words the Turkish Daily
News. In case Arat Dink is recognized guilty, which is beyond doubt, he
is facing imprisonment with the period of from 6 moths up to 3 years.

If we take a look at the county’s home policy on the threshold of
general elections, the launch of the military operations against the
Kurds and rather possible EU rejection of resuming the negotiations,
the decision of the Office of Public Prosecutor in Istanbul is
quite natural. In fact Turkey is not going to abandon its policy of
denying the Armenian Genocide for anything and carries on according
to its main principle – gain as much time as possible, maybe the
international community will one day get tired of raising the issue
of the crimes committed by the Ottoman Empire during the World War
I. The truth is that if the problem was with the Armenians only,
this variant would still work out, but there are also the Assyrians,
Pontiac Greeks, and the very Kurds with the hands of which the Young
Turks slaughtered whole nations. The question is what measures Ankara
will take if all the citizens of the Ottoman Empire of non-Turkish
origins, who have systematically been annihilated, are charged with
insult to Turkishness.

On the same day 86 Turkish scientists, writers and diplomats sent
letter to 53 Nobel Prize laureates, having called Armenia and Turkey
upon establishing relationships, co-operation and tolerance between
the two nations. "The present initiative will help to create the
world culture, which will have its fruits in the future. We declare
that we are ready to put all the efforts and have our certain
asset in putting an end to the created situation. The Armenians and
Turks have lived together in the Ottoman Empire and this can’t be
denied. Our nations share common cultural values and we assume that
these common values may serve as bases for the development of future
relationships. Turkey doesn’t define the tragic events of 1915 as
Genocide. After many researches and studies of different documents
some Turkish and foreign academicians came to the conclusion that no
Armenian Genocide had ever been committed in the Ottoman Empire. We
would like to say that we are ready to discuss this issue in united
commissions together with the Armenian historians and all the parties
interested. We assume that the dialogue is the only way to solve our
problems," the Turkish scholars write.

Thus the Turkish side didn’t come up with anything new, from one side
there is the charges according to the Article 301 brought forward,
and from the other side there is the call for discussions with the
historians. Perhaps the French President Nicola Sarkozy is right in
his strong conviction that Turkey has no place in Europe. In fact he
is right, as the denial of one’s own responsibility in the harsh crime
committed against humanity and the rejection of the right of freedom
of speech only contradict the values adopted and advocated in Europe.