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".

It is understood that the Sisli Public Prosecutor's investigation into Dink was sparked off after the office received a complaint.

"...Every person has the right to live in the land where their ancestors have lived and where the roots of their culture are known. It is not possible for them to live elsewhere. I am someone who accepts it like this. But as an Armenian I am not a person who expects Turkey or the Turks by saying 'accept this, apologize'" were also cited as being among Dink's offending remarks. (EO/AD/II/YE)