VETERAN ARMENIAN-TURKISH EDITOR DIES AT 80

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
March 30 2015

ISTANBUL

Sarkis Seropyan, the veteran editor of Istanbul-based weekly Agos’
Armenian language pages, has passed away at the age of 80.

Seropyan died on March 28 after succumbing to pancreatic cancer,
news portal T24 reported.

The journalist, who was among the people to establish Agos, will be
laid to rest on March 31 in Istanbul’s Ã…~^iÃ…~_li Armenian Cemetery
following a ceremony at the Surp Vartanants Church in Ã…~^iÃ…~_li’s
Feriköy neighborhood.

Agos announced Seropyan’s death via its website, stressing that he
was the “newspaper’s history, the chief pillar, and our everything.”

Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek sent weekly Agos’ editor-in-chief
Yetvart Danzikyan a message of condolence, expressing his grief over
the loss.

“I am deeply grieved by the death of Serkis Seropyan, one of the
veteran founders and the Armenian language pages editor of the Agos
newspaper, which is the unique sound of diversity in Turkey,” read
Cicek’s statement.

Seropyan, who was born in 1935, started working after graduating from
middle school, during which he wrote articles to various journals
and newspapers in the Armenian language. He was among the group of
people who founded the Agos newspaper in 1996 following a call by
the late Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink. Since the paper’s
establishment, Seropyan had been the Armenian language pages editor.

Dink was murdered on Jan. 19, 2007, in broad daylight on a busy street
outside of Agos’ office in Ã…~^iÃ…~_li.

Ogun Samast, Dink’s killer, who was 17 years old when he committed
the crime, is serving a sentence of 22 years and 10 months in a
high-security prison for the shooting.

March/30/2015