FAMILY OF TURKISH ARMENIAN PRIVATE TO APPEAL COURT’S DECISION ON SON’S DEATH

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 27 2013

The family of a Turkish private of Armenian descent, Sevag Å~^ahin
Balıkcı, has said they will appeal a court ruling which said the
2011 death of their son was an accident and sentenced the man who
shot him to four years, five months in prison.

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, Kıvanc
Agaoglu. The two were serving at the Kozluk GumuÅ~_göru Gendarmerie
Station at the time of the incident.

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

On Tuesday, the Diyarbakır Second Air Forces Command Military Court
ruled for a lengthier four years and five months of prison time for
Agaoglu, finding him guilty of involuntarily causing the death of
Balıkcı. Subtracting time served, he will be staying in prison for
the next three years.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Ä°smail Cem Halavurt, a lawyer
representing the Balıkcı family, said they will file an appeal at
the Supreme Court of Appeals seeking the reversal of the decision.

“We believe the killing was deliberate,” Halavurt said, demanding
a lengthier prison term for Agaoglu. He also accused the prosecutor
involved in the case of being reckless in saying Balıkcı was shot
“accidentally.”

Also speaking to the press, Ani Balıkcı, the mother of the private,
said her son was killed because of his ethnic background as a person
of Armenian origin.

A reaction against the court ruling came from the Association of
Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed Peoples (MAZLUM-DER), whose
Diyarbakır Branch President Abdurrahim Ay said, “We think the court
ruling regarding Sevag Å~^ahin Balıkcı was given without a thorough
and adequate investigation.”

Ay noted that during the course of the trial, several witnesses had
testified that the private was shot on purpose, not by accident, adding
that the ruling “has disappointed Balıkcı’s family and everyone
following this trial.” He also said that in many similar cases in the
military, the victims tended to be Kurdish or of some other ethnicity.

“This alarming truth is that people are being discriminated against
on the basis of their race or religion even when they are performing
a duty that is compulsory in this country and this discrimination is
proving to be deadly,” he said, underlining that the court’s decision
was a major disappointment given this situation.

Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Ä°stanbul deputy Sebahat Tuncel, who
held a press conference in the Parliament building on Wednesday, said:
“It is no coincidence that those who die in accidents in the army are
Kurds, Alevis or Armenians. We are seeing the consequences of racism
and nationalism.” She continued: “This country hasn’t forgotten Hrant
Dink. What happened to Sevag Balıkcı is a different manifestation
of the same thing. Turkey has to establish social peace.”

From: Baghdasarian