Retrospective On Trials Against Hrant Dink

Dink has been shot dead today (January 19) in front of the offices of Agos newspaper which he founded.

Intellectuals Solidarize with Hrant Dink

A number of leading Turkish intellectuals have launched a new civil disobedience action declaring themselves accomplices of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink whose most recent prosecution in a series launched by Turkish courts is based on opinions he expressed in an interview with the Reuters news agency.

The action comes in the wake of an Amnesty International (AI) statement on Dink that said the human rights watchdog organization was dismayed at recent reports that yet another case had been opened against Dink on charges of "denigrating Turkishness" under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code.

The AI warned that if Dink was arrested on any of the charges leveled against him, he would be declared a "Prisoner of Conscience" on the international arena.

The latest charge against Dink was brought up following a statement he made to Reuters on July 14 in which he mentioned the massacre of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire. "Of course I'm saying it's a genocide" he said in the report. "Because its consequences show it to be true and label it so. We see that people who had lived on this soil for 4000 years were exterminated by these events."

Background of the case

In reality issue to the case are not Dink's remarks reflected to the Reuters report but a 21 July 2006 news article in the weekly Armenian-Tukish Agos magazine that he runs. Subject to the original investigation was that news item and the remarks it contained.

A nationalist group of lawyers known for filing complaints against Turkish intellectuals and writers, a group also held responsible for interrupting many court proceedings with physical violence and dub themselves now as the "Union of Grand Jurists," brought up the first criminal complaint against Dink on these remarks.

As result, under article 301 of the Penal Code, a case was launched by the Istanbul Sisli Prosecutor's Office where both Dink and Serkis Seropyan, as executives of the newspapers, were put on trial.

Hrant Dink Under New Investigation

The Sisli Public Prosecutor's Office has launched a new investigation into Hrant Dink, the Editor-in-Chief of the Armenian Turkish bilingual Agos weekly, on charges of "insulting the Turkish identity" through an interview he gave to the Reuters news agency.

Dink's previous 6 month suspended prison sentence on an identical charge for a 2004 article published in Agos was upheld by the Court of Cassation this month with its "conditional verdict" that defers imprisonment for the journalist only on condition that he does not commit a similar offence for a period of five years.

If he is prosecuted and found guilty in the new investigation, Dink is required to serve the jail term for his previous conviction too.

This new investigation relates to a July 14 interview with Reuters where Dink is accused of defending an Armenian genocide had taken place in history by saying "of course I say this is a genocide. Because the result itself identifies what it is and gives it a name. You can see that a people who have been living on these lands for 4 thousand years have disappeared. This is self explanatory".

The interview was conducted by Daren Butler and Osman Senkul of Reuters after Dink's verdict was conclusively ratified by the Appeals Court. He said in the context of the interview that he had no doubts that an Armenian genocide had taken place, that he would not remain silent because he was punished and that he would not leave the country.

Dink, who has exhausted all domestic channels, is taking the verdict to the European Court of Human Rights and referred to the state of freedom of expression in Turkey during the Reuters interview. "If I leave [Turkey]" he said, "I will feel that I have left those people struggling for democracy in this country alone. That would be betraying them, I could never do that".

Dink Verdict on Way to European Court

Armenian-Turkish bilingual weekly "Agos" newspaper Editor-in-Chief Hrant Dink's lawyer Fethiye Cetin has said they will take his suspended 6 months prison sentence to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) following this week's ratification of the verdict by the Turkish Court of Cassation.

Cetin said they would apply to the ECHR as soon as they received written notification of the Appeals Court's decision that was taken despite objections of the prosecution, saying the verdict was "at the very least, sad for justice".

"With regard to the interpretation of article 301, they could have created a precedent that would have been extremely just and in accordance with democracy. This would have been in the interest of Turkey. This opportunity was lost" Cetin said, evaluating the court's conclusive decision that confirmed Dink's sentence.

Dink was originally sentenced under article 301 by an Istanbul court to 6 months jail on October 7, 2005 where opinions expressed in his 2004 article series "The Armenian Identity" published in Agos were found to be "insulting and ridiculing Turkishness". Subject to the verdict were Dink's remarks "The poisoned blood that will spill from Turks will be replaced by noble blood of the Armenians who will create Armenia".

The same court later suspended the sentence justifying it with the convict's goodwill but the deferment was on condition that he did not commit a similar offence for a period of five years and if he did, would serve the previous sentence in full alongside any new sentence.

Following an appeal against the decision, the high court prosecutor demanded Dink's acquittal, but the demand which relied on the evaluation that Dink's controversial expressions were "allegorical" rather more than insulting "Turkishness" was turned down.

"Agos" Case A Stage of Violence Again

The trial of Armenian "Agos" newspaper journalists Hrant Dink, Aydin Engin, Serkis Seropyan and Arat Dink charged with "attempting to influence a fair trial" by way of criticizing a court verdict banning a 2005 Ottoman Armenians Conference in Istanbul continued this Tuesday with a fight breaking out between lawyers before the hearing, a protest outside the court house afterwards and heavy security measures that prevented neither.

Prior to the June 4 hearing at the Sisli 2nd Civilian Court of First Instance a fight broke out between defence lawyers and attorneys of complainants during which Deniz Ceylan, representing the defendants, was punched in the face and his glasses were broken.

The case was later adjourned to December 12 by Chief Justice Hilmi Aslan as a group of demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse to shout slogans in protest of the defendants.

Serkis Seropyan was the only defendant who attended this weeks hearing to testify.

Seropyan told the court that readers of his newspaper had reacted to a sentence of Hrant Dink by another court and that the paper had covered this story due to its news value. He asked to be acquitted.

About 30 lawyers including Fethiye Cetin, Yucel Sayman, Fikret Ilkiz, Erdal Dogan, Bahri Bayram Belen and Filiz Kerestecioglu represented the defendants while the complainants were represented by four lawyers .

Kemal Kerincsiz, an attorney for the complainants, told the court that the defendants aimed to destroy the Turkish Republic and to hinder the judicial system by making it ineffective.

The case was opened after Kerincsiz, a leading member of the right-wing organisation of a group of Turkish lawyers who call themselves "The Unity of Jurists" and nine other individuals filed a criminal complaint against the journalists and they were subsequently charged under article 288 of the Penal Code. If they are found guilty, each can be sentenced to up to 4.5 years imprisonment.

Cetin: This case is harmful

Evaluating the ongoing trial for bianet, jurist Fethiye Cetin said the fact that this trial is taking so long was "a great disadvantage and even harmful" for the economics of a trial. "All the court needs to do" she said, "is to examine the articles and comments, and pass a verdic

Writer Hrant Dink Acquitted

Hrant Dink, editor of the Armenian language magazine "Agos" -who was among eight writers, journalists and publishers accused of "insult" and "interference in the judiciary" have been brought before the courts since 6 February 2006, in four separate trials- was acquitted.

The other cases were all postponed and the defendants are destined for more weeks - if not months - of waiting in uncertainty.

In a public statement International PEN expresses deep disappointment that "lessons were not learned from the case of Orhan Pamuk, against whom trial proceedings were dropped last month. It will continue to protest against the many trials and other acts of judicial harassment against writers, journalists and publishers, and to call for the quashing of laws that breach the right to freedom of expression in Turkey."

New Charges Against Agos Newspaper

Since the campaign that 169 intellectuals started to call for the repeal of articles 301 and 305 of the Turkish Penal Code was launched on 26 December, nearly 4,000 people have added their names to the campaign's website.

Among those who orginally signed the "301 times No! No Limits on Freedom of Thought" campaign, hosted at the website www.301hayir.net, are Prof. Dr. Ali Nesin, Prof. Dr. Gülay Toksöz, Prof. Dr. Kadir Erdin, Prof. Dr. Turgut Tarhanlı, Prof. Dr. Baskın Oran, Doç. Dr. Mithat Sancar, journalist and writer Şeyhmus Diken, journalists Sinan Kara, Adnan Gerger, and Bahattin Arı, authors Nihat Ziyalan and Ayşe Günaysu and musician and free speech activist Şanar Yurdatapan. Many other prominent academics, writers, journalists, and human rights activists have signed onto the campaign.

The intellectuals, reacting to the trial of writer Orhan Pamuk and these other cases, have expressed their fears that these trials are signs of a grave struggle against the democratization process. The statement also censures Justice Minister Cemal Çiçek, and Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu, asking why these freedom of expression cases have been opened and criticizing them for encouraging the aggressors with their words.

Some of the writers who have been charged under Article 301, which came into effect hwith the new Penal Code, or the older Article 159, are journalists Emin Karaca and Hrant Dink, writer Zülküf Kışanak, publisher Fatih Taş, Çağrı magazine owner Aziz Özer and the magazine's reader Erkan Akhay. In another case, the writer Rahmi Yıldırım was acquitted for the articles he wrote on the website sansursuz.com.

The signatories include other artists and thinkers from intellectual and professional backgrounds, such as Yaşar Kemal, Çetin Altan, Adalet Ağaoğlu, Arif Damar, Müjde Ar, Yılmaz Erdoğan, Nilüfer Göle, Fazıl Say, Süleyman Çelebi, Mehmet Ali Birand, Yaşar Seyman, Halil Ergün, Cüneyt Ülsever, Murat Belge and Toktamış Ateş.

Coşkun Ak, who was tried and later acquitted under article 159, the predecessor of Article 301, for publishing an internet article about human rights violations while he was editor of the Superonline.net forum, has also extended his support the campaign.

Intellectuals Denounce Dink's Punishment

Intellectuals from Turkey and overseas join to undersign a petition asking for lifting the sentence against Hrant Dink, the editor-in-chief of the Istanbul based Turkish-Armenian bilingual weekly newspaper Agos, who has recently received a suspended sentence of six months in jail.

Dink was found guilty by Istanbul Sisli court on 7 October 2005 for penning an article where he allegedly committed the crime of thought of insulting "Turkish identity".

The sentence was given in spite that the court-appointed experts could not find a single instance of such insult in Hrant Dink's comments

Journalist Guilty of "Insulting Turkishness"

Hrant Dink, who was charged with "insulting Turkishness" in an article on Armenian identity published in the weekly newspaper Agos, has been sentenced to a 6-month term in prison, but the penalty has been suspended.

Dink was also one of the organizers of the conference on Ottoman Armenians that was recently held in Istanbul. The newspaper's general coordinator Karin Karakasli, who was charged along with Dink, was acquitted on the grounds that she was exempt under a provision of the Press Law. The journalists' lawyer, Fetiye Cetin, told Bianet that they are appealing the court's decision.

The decision hearing took place today (7 October 2005) at the Second Criminal Court in Sisli, and was attended by the journalists, their lawyers, and other supporters. The prosecutor, Muhittin Ayata, argued that Dink's article had been written with the intent to criticize and humiliate Turkish national identity. The court suspended the sentence on the grounds that Dink had no previous convictions and on the condition that he does not repeat the offense.

The suit was filed against Dink and Karakasli on 16 April 2004 for a series of articles starting in February 2004 that criticized diaspora Armenians for focusing on the history of Turkish crimes against Armenians and not doing enough for the needs of Armenians in the present. Reporters Without Borders, PEN International, and other civil society groups have criticized the lawsuit.(EÜ)