Communication cut off due to masses at Dink rally

PanARMENIAN.Net - The peaceful rally in memory of Agos newspaper editor-in-chief Hrant Dink brought together several thousands of people, with no specific number reported yet.

“Large number of people gathered before the Agos editorial office caused problems with communication. Demonstrators voice slogans accusing Turkish authorities of injustice over the court ruling on Dink’s murder case,” a source in Istanbul told PanARMENIAN.Net

“Speeches by representatives of “Dink friends” and family members followed the minute’s silence peaceful demonstrators observed,” the source reported.

Dink was shot dead on Jan. 19, 2007 offices of his newspaper in Istanbul in broad daylight by ultranationalist teenager Ogun Samast, who was sentenced to 21 years in prison.

A Turkish court has recently convicted Yasin Hayal, a major suspect in the killing of the Turkish-Armenian journalist, of instigating a murder.

The Istanbul 14th High Criminal Court issued its ruling in the 25th hearing of the case. Tuncel was given 10 years, six months for his role in a McDonalds bombing in 2004. The court, however, acquitted Hayal and several others of charges of acting under a terrorist organization's orders, angering lawyers who say the trial failed to shed light on alleged connections between the suspects and some state officials.

The Dink family's lawyer, Fethiye Cetin, slammed the ruling, saying it meant that a “state tradition of political murders” was deliberately left intact because it did not deal with accusations of state involvement in the 2007 murder.