EU-TURKEY COMMISSION: ANYONE, WHO IS INVOLVED IN HRANT DINK’S MURDER, MUST BE PUNISHED
Yerkir
09.07.2007 17:24
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – The trial over murderers of journalist Hrant Dink
should disclose all facts connected this case.
"We stress the importance and necessity for a complete explanation of
the circumstances surrounding Hrant Dink’s murder. The facts of this
case, including possible involvement of officials, have to be brought
into the light of day. The Turkish State will be closely watched by
both the people of Turkey who want a just and open democracy with no
dark corners, and their friends outside Turkey who support the reform
process towards gaining full membership of the European Union.
Consequently, it is highly important that everybody who was involved
in the murder of Hrant Dink is punished," head of the EU-Turkey
Commission Joost Lagendijk and member of the same commission Cem
Ozdemir stated. Their statement underlines the necessity to remove
Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which repeatedly prosecuted
Hrant Dink and other intellectuals, PanARMENIAN.Net reported,
citing ABHaber.
Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code supposes criminal punishment for
those who have ‘insulted Turkishness’, to which particularly refers
any mentioning of the Armenian Genocide. Hrant Dink, writers Elif
Å~^afak and Taner Akcam, as well as Nobel Prize laureate Orhan Pamuk
were prosecuted under this article. Editor-in-Chief of Armenian-Turkish
Agos bilingual Hrant Dink was gunned down on January 19, 2007.
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