Agence France Presse — English
January 18, 2008 Friday 1:47 AM GMT
Thousands to rally on anniversary of divisive Turkish murder
by Nicolas Cheviron
ISTANBUL, Jan 18 2008
Thousands are expected to gather in Istanbul Saturday in memory of
Armenian-Turk campaigning editor Hrant Dink, on the first anniversary
of his hate-slaying outside his weekly newspaper’s offices.
The grassroots tribute to the Agos founder, gunned down by an
unemployed ultra-nationalist on January 19, 2007, comes days before
Turkish parliament reform of a controversial law against insulting
‘Turkishness’ that some hold responsible for his murder.
Already the subject of a series of prosecutions, Dink was given a
six-month suspended sentence in October 2005 after a court ruled that
one of his pieces described Turkish blood as dirty. An appeal was
also rejected.
He had called on Armenians to reject symbolically "the tainted part
of their Turkish blood" and "turn now towards the new blood of an
independent Armenia, the only thing capable of freeing them from the
weight of the diaspora".
Over and above the actual sentence, the judgment "confirmed," in the
words of his killer’s lawyer, that Dink was "a traitor to the
fatherland," handing him on a plate to ultra-nationalists with
reprisal in mind.
"There is no doubt that article 301 has contributed to a targeting of
intellectuals and, for some, like Dink, the paying of the heaviest
price," said Erol Onderoglu of press rights campaigners Bia2.
Sentences were imposed in only six out of 55 cases last year, and not
one of those involved time behind bars.
But that doesn’t make the law any less harmful, according to Ragip
Zarakoglu, a publisher being tried himself for releasing a book which
classed as "genocide" the 1915-17 massacres of Armenians, a claim
denied by Turkey.
Countries like France, Argentina, Greece and Russia, where
descendants live, have formally recognised Armenian genocide, but
Turkey argues the killings of hundreds of thousands of natives under
the Ottoman Empire — virtually clearing their heartland — was
related to the First World War.
"This article (301) is used to trigger (Turkish) nationalist
campaigns and in this way to force intellectuals to censor
themselves," said Zarakoglu.
He cited a new-found "silence" on the part of other high-profile
writers in Orhan Pamuk, the 2006 Nobel prize winner for literature
whose trial on charges of "insulting Turkishness" was dropped last
year, as well as French-born author Elif Safak.
The amendment being voted on next week is intended to define more
precisely what article 301, or insulting Turkishness, is meant to
cover.
It will also reduce the maximum prison term from three to two years
and introduce the need for the justice minister to sign off
prosecutions — in Zarakoglu’s eyes, a move that threatens judicial
independence.
It also risks, he believes, creating a two-tier system whereby
lesser-known individuals may be prosecuted free from the prying eyes
of the media or the European Union while "stars will be untouchable
because the ministry will refuse to sanction a trial in order to
avoid the hassle".
For Etyn Mahcupyan, current director of Agos, the changes should,
nevertheless, be sufficient to halt a good number of cases.
"We can guess that with all these new little details, they will be
unable to open the majority of cases," he said.
Asked about article 301’s influence on the death of his friend, the
journalist preferred to point to other factors.
"We know full well that there is a small group of judges and
prosecutors (the extremist self-styled Union of Lawyers) who are very
nationalist and statist, and who act apparently in a deliberate
fashion," he added.