TURKISH COURT FORMALLY ARRESTS TWO FOR OPENING FIRE IN THE COURTYARD OF ARMENIAN CHURCH
AP Worldstream
Published: Mar 07, 2007
A Turkish court on Wednesday formally arrested and pressed charges
against two Turks who opened fire into the air in the courtyard of
an Armenian church in Istanbul over the weekend.
The two opened fire into the air on Sunday several hours after a
memorial service at the Church of the Virgin Mary for an ethnic
Armenian journalist who was gunned down in January.
The court formally arrested the two on charges of "firing weapons
with the aim of threatening" and carrying "unlicensed guns."
The motive for the shooting was not clear but one of the suspects
reportedly told prosecutors that he wanted to meet with the Armenian
Patriarch Mesrob II, private Dogan news agency reported.
Last month’s killing of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in
Istanbul prompted international condemnation as well as debate within
Turkey about free speech, and whether state institutions were tolerant
of militant nationalists.
Dink was shot outside his Istanbul office on Jan. 19 and his murder
revived a debate about the law. His prosecution under Article 301
turned him into a reviled figure among radical nationalists, some of
whom were arrested in connection with his killing.