COURT RULES DEATH OF TURKISH ARMENIAN PRIVATE AN ACCIDENT

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 26 2013

A court ruled on Tuesday that the 2011 death of a Turkish private
of Armenian descent, Sevag Å~^ahin Balıkcı, was an accident and
sentenced the man who shot him to four years and five months of
imprisonment.

Earlier this month, a military prosecutor demanded up to two
years, six months’ imprisonment for Kıvanc Agaoglu, accused of
accidentally shooting Balıkcı during their military service as
privates. Balıkcı’s family and lawyers believed the young man being
an ethnic Armenian might have been the motive for the fatal shooting.

In Tuesday’s decision the judge ruled for a lengthier four years
and five months of prison time for Agaoglu. But considering the time
served awaiting trial, he will only be staying in prison for three
additional years.

Pvt. Balıkcı was killed on April 24, 2011, the date the Armenian
diaspora has chosen to commemorate the incidents of 1915, when
hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed in the Ottoman Empire
during World War I. Officers and other privates in Balıkcı’s unit,
which was stationed in Batman province, testified that he was shot
accidentally while “joking around” with a close friend, Agaoglu. The
two were serving at the Kozluk GumuÅ~_göru Gendarmerie Station at
the time of the incident.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress