Reporter Threatened with Picture of Killed Journalist Dink

Journalist Özgüt Topsakal, reporter for the nation-wide Evrensel ('Universal') newspaper, was threatened after having written an article for the daily.

Topsakal's writing entitled "A solution for the problem" was published on 29 July. Subsequently, he received a threat via e-mail. The message also included a photograph of the body of Hrant Dink, former chief editor of the Armenian Agos newspaper, after he had been assassinated. "The Alperenci youth will certainly call you to account for calling a big leader a baby murderer. There is no hole to hide for traitors of the motherland in this country". The Alperenci youth has an ultra-national tendency and is related to the nationalist Great Union Party (BBP).

Topsakal filed a criminal complaint at the Prosecution of Elbistan, a city in the Kahramanmaraş province in southern Anatolia.

"I wanted them to find the sender"

As reported by the Everensel daily, Topsakal said that he was searched twice by the police. "People claiming to be police officers called and asked me questions that are not related to the issue. They asked me for the ID number of the person who threatened me and for the person's parents' names. They asked me for information about the identity of the person who threatened me. I filed the criminal complaint to find out just that". (TK/VK)