DINK MURDER TRIAL OPENS IN TURKEY
By Vincent Boland in Ankara
FT
July 2 2007 10:33
A teenager accused of murdering the Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink goes on trial on Monday in Istanbul on Monday in a case
considered a severe test of the independence and thoroughness of
Turkey’s judicial system.
Dink was murdered on a street in Istanbul in January. A 17-year-old
boy, Ogun Samast, was arrested and charged with the crime along with
17 alleged accomplices, all from the northeastern city of Trabzon.
Dink was the founder and editor of Agos, a bilingual Turkish and
Armenian weekly for Istanbul’s estimated 60,000 inhabitants of
Armenian descent.
He was a hate figure among Turkish nationalists for advocating
acknowledgement of the mass murder of Armenians during the collapse
of the Ottoman empire.
He had been prosecuted several times under the notorious article 301
of Turkey’s penal code, which seeks to silence those whose views are
critical of the country’s institutions or its past or who "insult
Turkishness".
Amid reports of the alleged involvement of members of Turkey’s security
forces in Dink’s murder, human rights campaigners and Dink’s family
said the trial was a crucial test of the judicial system’s willingness
to prosecute any members of the police or gendarmerie implicated in
the case.
Holly Carter, Europe and Central Asia director of Human Rights
Watch, said the trial was a critical test of the Turkish judiciary’s
independence.
"We will be closely watching how the court handles any evidence that
may implicate the security forces."
Fethiye Cetin, a lawyer for Dink’s family, said evidence and documents
relating to the murder had been destroyed or were flawed.
Turkey’s judicial system has faced severe criticism in recent months
for its handling of cases involving writers and intellectuals. The
most controversial was the prosecution, for "insulting Turkishness",
of Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel prize-winning novelist, in 2005. The case
was terminated by the justice ministry after an international outcry.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
