ARAT DINK AND SEROPYAN SENTENCEDAGOS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ARAT DINK AND LICENCE HOLDER SERKIS SEROPYAN HAVE BEEN GIVEN A DEFERRED ONE-YEAR PRISON SENTENCE EACH UNDER ARTICLE 301.
Erol Onderoglu

Bıa news centre
07 Kasım 200
Ä°stanbul

The Sisli 2nd Penal Court has sentenced Agos editor-in-chief Arat
Dink, son of murdered journalist Hrant Dink, and licence holder Serkis
Seropyan to one year imprisonment each under Article 301. The sentences
were deferred.

Court took "history" lessons

In its twenty-page decree the court referred to the events of 1915,
saying, "If what the defendants had accused the Turks of doing was
a historical truth, then their actions would have been legal"; thus,
the court found it necessary to study history books itself and create
its own opinion of what happened in the past.

Citing controversial Yusuf Halacoglu’s book "From Exile to Genocide
2007", the court referred to historical contributions Armenians had
made to Ottoman society and the fact that "there was an increase in
education and teaching possibilities for Armenians".

"Transferral"

Stating that the Armenians had been preparing for an armed uprising
against the Ottomans, and giving examples of armed attacks from 1895
to 1915, the court then said that the Armenians were transferred to
Syria and Mosul in Northern Iraq.

The court further asked, "When, during World War I, the allies attacked
German cities with air attacks, does that count as a genocide? And
nuclear experiments held under oceans and …[unreadable] resulting
earthquakes, mass deaths, are they counted as scientific genocides?"

"Limitation of freedom of expression justified"

The court stated that the constitution and the European Court of Human
Rights (ECHR) allowed for a limitation of the freedom of expression
in order to "protect national security, territorial unity or public
safety, guarantee the law and prevent crimes":

"There are ECHR precendents which have deemed French legislation
on freedom of expression regarding the extermination of Jews
inappropriate; and the Jews in Europe never armed themselves against
their own state, never united with the armies of other states, never
massacred people in villages in the mountains and deep valleys,
in province and district towns."

The court thus reached the conclusion that the accusation of genocide
was unfair and "aimed at destroying the Turkish public order".

Great Lawyers’ Union filed complaint

The court case had been opened following a complaint by Recep Akkus
of the nationalist Great Lawyers’ Union about an interview which
Hrant Dink had done with the Reuters News Agency.

In the interview, Hrant Dink had said, "We see that with these events
a people who have lived on this soil for 4,000 years are not there
anymore." A further article called "A Vote against 301", which had been
written about Hrant Dink’s deferred six-month sentence for a series
of articles on "Armenian identity" and the protest of the Reporters
Without Borders (RSF) against this sentence, was also punished. After
Hrant Dink’s murder, the charges against him were dropped, but his
son Arat Dink and licence holder Seropyan were still on trial.

No other newspaper on trial…

Other newspapers had also quoted Hrant Dink’s statements, such as
the Yeni Cag newspaper (six days before Agos) in an article entitled
"Dink Has Not Been Brought to Senses after Appeals Court Decision",
the Cumhuriyet newspaper (two days before Agos) in an article entitled
"New Investigation into Dink", and the Tercuman newspaper in an
article with a similar title.

Family is still threatened

Meanwhile, many news sites have reported that Arat Dink is preparing
to leave Turkey for Belgium with his wife and two children. It is said
that he is leaving his post at Agos and, reacting to the many threats
he and his family are receiving, moving abroad. The Dink family has
said that this is a temporary measure. (EO/AG)

–Boundary_(ID_rewtRnp+ZIgODfV2d9v1rg)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress