It won't end this way, say friends of murdered journalist
It won't end this way, say friends of murdered journalist
Friends of murdered journalist Hrant Dink have gathered today in front of Beþiktaþ Court where what is supposed to be the last hearing of the trial about Dink murder is being held.
Among the crowd, were Alper Taþ, Ufuk Uras, Ahmet Ýnsel, Ýpek Çalýþlar, Sevda Alankuþ, Yeþim Büber, Osman Kavala, Mehmet Esen, Gençay Gürsoy, Pakrat Estukyan, Ümit Kývanç, Oral Çalýþlar, Alp Selek, Necmiye Alpay.
The friends of Dink said that "The court decided to finalize the Hrant Dink case before it completed a period of five years. During the last hearing, the prosecutor said that “Hrant Dink was killed by a gang within the state but I couldn’t find any evidence for it”. In other words, - the friends of the journalist said - once again they are lying and they think that we will give up. But we are here to say loud that this case won’t end this way”.
Reporters Without Borders had also indicated that it would be "premature for the prosecution to conclude its case in the trial of his accused murderers".
Dink’s family and its lawyers walked out of the Istanbul courtroom in protest when prosecutor Hikmet Usta began reading his 86-page summing-up during the 20th hearing on 19 September.
Dink’s murder shocked public opinion, which began to distance itself from the most radical forms of Kemalist nationalism. It is now up to the judicial system to show that it has not been left behind by this major social change, and that it is ready to contribute to a thorough overhaul of the Turkish state. Unfortunately, the prosecutor’s summing up suggested the contrary. The target of the Dink murder, he said, was “public order in the Turkish republic, the state’s authority and the state’s indivisible unity with the nation.”
A Turkish-Armenian journalist who edited the newspaper Agos, Dink supported reconciliation between Turks and Armenians and was a critic of Kemalist dogma.
Samast, the youth who shot him outside the newspaper on 19 January 2007, was tried before a different court from the 18 other defendants on the grounds that he was a minor at the time. Sentenced to 23 years in prison on 25 July for the Dink murder, he is also being tried on a separate charge of belonging to an illegal organization.
The members of the Trabzon gendarmerie who had prior knowledge of the Dink murder plot and did nothing to stop it were also tried separately and were sentenced on 2 June to sentences ranging from four to six months in prison.
Among the crowd, were Alper Taþ, Ufuk Uras, Ahmet Ýnsel, Ýpek Çalýþlar, Sevda Alankuþ, Yeþim Büber, Osman Kavala, Mehmet Esen, Gençay Gürsoy, Pakrat Estukyan, Ümit Kývanç, Oral Çalýþlar, Alp Selek, Necmiye Alpay.
The friends of Dink said that "The court decided to finalize the Hrant Dink case before it completed a period of five years. During the last hearing, the prosecutor said that “Hrant Dink was killed by a gang within the state but I couldn’t find any evidence for it”. In other words, - the friends of the journalist said - once again they are lying and they think that we will give up. But we are here to say loud that this case won’t end this way”.
Reporters Without Borders had also indicated that it would be "premature for the prosecution to conclude its case in the trial of his accused murderers".
Dink’s family and its lawyers walked out of the Istanbul courtroom in protest when prosecutor Hikmet Usta began reading his 86-page summing-up during the 20th hearing on 19 September.
Dink’s murder shocked public opinion, which began to distance itself from the most radical forms of Kemalist nationalism. It is now up to the judicial system to show that it has not been left behind by this major social change, and that it is ready to contribute to a thorough overhaul of the Turkish state. Unfortunately, the prosecutor’s summing up suggested the contrary. The target of the Dink murder, he said, was “public order in the Turkish republic, the state’s authority and the state’s indivisible unity with the nation.”
A Turkish-Armenian journalist who edited the newspaper Agos, Dink supported reconciliation between Turks and Armenians and was a critic of Kemalist dogma.
Samast, the youth who shot him outside the newspaper on 19 January 2007, was tried before a different court from the 18 other defendants on the grounds that he was a minor at the time. Sentenced to 23 years in prison on 25 July for the Dink murder, he is also being tried on a separate charge of belonging to an illegal organization.
The members of the Trabzon gendarmerie who had prior knowledge of the Dink murder plot and did nothing to stop it were also tried separately and were sentenced on 2 June to sentences ranging from four to six months in prison.
