Another Trial Awaits Dink

PanARMENIAN.Net - Editor of the Agos Armenian newspaper, ethnic Armenian Hrant Dink was given a six-month suspended sentence last October. He had written a newspaper article which addressed the mass killings of Ottoman Armenians nine decades ago, the BBC reports. This case is one of several monitored closely by EU officials concerned about limits on free speech in Turkey.



In February, the chief prosecutor's office at the Appeals Court considered Mr Dink's case and recommended that the remarks were in no way insulting. But now, in a surprise development, the court itself has chosen to ignore that interpretation and ruled that the substance of the charge still stands. The high-profile newspaper editor, whose publication Agos appears in Turkish and Armenian, was first found guilty of insulting Turkishness last year when a court ruled that one of his articles described Turkish blood as dirty.



European Union officials have expressed serious concern about the article of law that was used against Hrant Dink and several dozen other writers here in Turkey. Despite a series of reforms linked to Turkey's bid for membership of the EU, it is still illegal to insult the Turkish identity, the military and the judiciary and the line between criticism and insult is often blurred.



We note that the next trial on Dink's case is scheduled in Istanbul May 16.