Author: Badalian Vardan

THE JESTER IS NAKED

Today’s Zaman
Jan 19 2012
Turkey

How would a conscientious Christian living in Nazi Germany who sees
him or herself as a “true German” feel when s/he observed how Jews were
persecuted? Possibly, his or her overwhelming feeling would be shame.

She would feel shame for her human identity in general and for
her German identity in particular. Even if you are not a person
who feels attached to nationalist sentiments, you will still find
yourself feeling shame in such circumstances. While the Armenian
Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) was killing people,
many Armenians like me started to feel ashamed for their humanity,
as well as for their immutable Armenian identities. While the rage
the perpetrators felt may have rendered the events “humane,” this
only helps us peer into the world of the perpetrators. It does not
cancel out the severity and moral burden of the crime.

Yet, we find that humanity becomes corrupted when identity is
fixed upon an ideology. This is because the emotional backbone of
the identity will be destroyed and covered by a “covering” that is
generally manufactured by the state. Those who find themselves with an
ideologically based identity most of the time form the content of this
identity with the “enemies” that the state continuously manufactures
for them.

In countries filled with ideologically founded identities, no
emotion can be found behind murders committed with identity-centered
justifications. Thus, you may reason and perform the necessary
planning to kill a person for his or her identity as an Armenian,
and in order to pave the way for a coup, you may make someone who
knows nothing about that Armenian kill him or her. The reason for
the murder may appear to be the Armenian identity of the targeted
person, but perhaps the real cause of the murder is the “Turkish”
identity of the perpetrator. When you remove the Turkish identity
from its naturally hybrid and mediocre state, and transform it into
an identity that is synonymous with nationhood, then the identity of
the person before you loses its meaning. You won’t really be killing
that person for his or her Armenian identity. Rather, you will give
an Armenian identity to that person in your mind by killing him or her.

This was how Hrant Dink was killed, but it didn’t stay there. Dozens of
people from scores of public institutions including the gendarmerie,
the police department and the National Intelligence Organization
(MÄ°T) in Trabzon, Ä°stanbul and Ankara, saw this murder in advance,
but chose to keep silent. Perhaps many of them felt in some corner of
their hearts that it was an act that would hurt consciences, but in
the final analysis, the victim was just an Armenian — an Armenian
could be killed easily and without feeling any burden; also this
murder hinted at the underlying logic of the state and it was not
easy for the Turkish identity to exist outside that state reason.

That was not all. During the trial evidence was hidden, obscured
and distorted. Public authorities did not give any answer to the
court’s questions and they did their best to prevent truth from being
discovered. Those who knew something about this murder did not or
could not go to court, and the government did not want to flex its
muscles to make them go to the court.

Really, how were all these institutions able to act in such a harmony?

What were the common points of reference for all of these people
from such diverse institutions? Why did they feel so uneasy with the
possibility of the truth of this murder becoming known? Because they
were “Turks.” This was a quote-unquote: Turkish identity. It is a
Turkishness that has not come to being through the lived experiences
of people; rather, it is a Turkishness stuffed with ideological bias —
not with culture — used as a symbol declaring allegiance to the state.

Meanwhile, the Dink family insistently tried to shed light behind the
scenes of the murder. If they wanted to trumpet Armenian nationalism,
they would reject the court and leave the “Turkish state” to its fate.

But they did not do this. Instead, they chose a way that would make
living with together with Turks in their natural environments and their
own lands meaningful and precious. Knowing that this trial was a matter
of honor for Turkey, they gave Turkey the chance to uphold its honor.

But the court knew what it should protect. Saying that there was no
organization involved in the murder, it acquitted the organization
which everyone knows exists. Indeed, the organization involved was the
state itself and a Turkish court cannot inculpate the Turkish state.

But this decision tells us that the jester whom we took to be a king
is naked. This decision makes the whole Turkish state a partner in
the murder.

We are at the same point. It is Jan. 20, 2007. And there are still
two different types of Turks that have yet to confront each other. One
group carries the heart and wealth of this land and the other embodies
the inhuman quality of the mentality that corrupts this land.

This is an opportunity. Let this shell be crushed now. Let us be
content with saying there are true human beings in this land; let
us be able to say those same human beings are able to control their
own destinies.

DINK RULING JUDGE SAYS NOT HAPPY WITH CONTROVERSIAL VERDICT EITHER

Today’s Zaman
Jan 19 2012
Turkey

Amidst wide public criticism of a Turkish court’s recent ruling
that ruled out involvement of an organized criminal network in the
2007 killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, the court’s
presiding judge has said he is personally not satisfied with the
verdict either.

The presiding judge of the Ä°stanbul 14th High Criminal Court, Rustem
Eryılmaz, spoke with the Vatan daily on Thursday and responded to
criticism of the court’s Tuesday ruling in the five-year-long Dink
murder case. He said while he personally cannot deny the murder was
well-organized, the evidence submitted to the court was not sufficient
to issue such a ruling. “According to the evidence, there is no
[illegal] organization [involved in the murder]. But we cannot say
there is no organization involved in the case,” Eyılmaz said.

In what many said was a shocking and frustrating ruling for the
five-year-long trial in the Dink case, the Ä°stanbul court cleared
all suspects in the case of membership in a terrorist organization,
angering lawyers and many others who say the trial failed to shed
light on alleged connections between the suspects and state officials.

The court convicted Yasin Hayal, a major suspect in the killing
of Turkish-Armenian journalist Dink, of instigating a murder and
sentenced him to life in prison, while another suspected instigator,
Erhan Tuncel, was acquitted by the court. “We acquitted the suspects
of organized crime charges. This ruling does not mean that there was
no organization involved. This means that there was not enough evidence
to prove the actions of this organization,” the embattled judge said.

Noting that he and other judges of the court also think the Dink
murder was not an ordinary one, he said there certainly is someone
who instigated the murder, but they had no evidence to prove that.

Sharing his personal views about the case, Eryılmaz added that he
believes that the killing of Dink was not simply an idea thought up by
Hayal. “There must be some instigators. This is my personal view. But
in order to accept this situation as legal fact, there should be
evidence. Since expectations were high in this case, this ruling
pleased nobody. If you ask me whether I was personally satisfied,
I would say no since I believe there are more instigators. But this
is the best ruling that can be issued in accordance with the evidence
in the case file,” he said.

Complaining that light was not shed on the background of the murder
in this case, the judge said the ruling still does not mean that
the Dink case is closed. He recalled that there is an ongoing case
against the unknown masterminds of the murder and state officials
who are accused of abuse of power in the murder of Dink.

Dink was shot dead on Jan. 19, 2007 by the ultranationalist Ogun
Samast outside the offices of his newspaper in Ä°stanbul in broad
daylight. Even though five years have passed since his assassination,
Dink family lawyers and civil society organizations have long remained
concerned that evidence relating to the real perpetrators of the crime
is still being covered up and that even if the court’s ruling punishes
the hit men, the public’s sense of justice will not be satisfied.

The judge’s remarks were met with criticism by Deputy Prime Minister
Bulent Arınc, who stated that “judges speak with their rulings.” The
politician said statements such as “My conscience was not satisfied”
do not suit a judge. Arınc recalled that the court forgot to issue a
ruling about a suspect in the case, saying the presiding judge should
first have commented on this mistake.

DINK MEMORIAL MARCH DRAWS THOUSANDS IN TURKEY

Al Jazeera
Jan 19 2012
Qatar

Crowds mark five years since death amid anger over trial’s failure
to uncover suspected conspiracy behind killing.

Supporters of Dink made a memorial at the site of his killing,
outside the office of the newspaper he wrote for [Reuters]

Tens of thousands of protesters have marked the fifth anniversary of
a Turkish-Armenian journalist’s murder as outrage continues to grow
over a trial that failed to shed light on alleged official negligence
or even collusion.

On Thursday, human rights activists placed red carnations at the
place where Hrant Dink was gunned down in broad daylight outside
of his minority Agos newspaper office in Istanbul by a nationalist
teenage gunman.

Many people carried black banners that read: “We are all Hrant, we are
all Armenian,” and some chanted, “Turkey will be a grave for fascism”.

The call to march was shared by Turkish political and business leaders
who expressed unease over this week’s sentencing of Yasin Hayal to life
in prison for masterminding the killing, while another 17 people were
acquitted of charges of acting under the orders of a group defined
in Turkey as “terrorist”.

The court neglected to issue a verdict about a 19th suspect.

“The verdict is tragic and is weighing heavily on the conscience
of everyone in Turkey,” said Rober Koptas, Dink’s son-in-law and
editor-in-chief of Agos.

Turkey’s leaders have vowed a thorough investigation into Dink’s
killing, signaling dissatisfaction with Tuesday’s court ruling by a
panel of judges.

‘Lack of legal evidence’

Dink’s lawyers have said they will appeal the verdict, saying the
investigation was flawed because the judiciary had not followed up
on evidence alleging officials may have been aware of the plot.

While the acquittal of others who had been allegedly involved in the
killing outraged many, Rustem Eryilmaz, who led the panel of judges,
caused even more anger.

Eryilmaz told the Vatan newspaper in an interview published Thursday
that he was not satisfied with the decision, saying that the court
had failed to reveal allegations of negligence or collusion between
the state and the suspects.

“We could not shed light on what was going on behind the scenes,
which is what everyone is curious about,” Eryilmaz said.

“There must be instigators … but there is a need for evidence to
accept the existence of such from a legal perspective.”

Eryilmaz said the judges felt pressure to issue a verdict after
the four-and-a-half-year trial, and did not have time to examine
thousands of telephone conversations at the scene on the day of the
assassination.

Bulent Arinc, Turkey’s deputy prime minister, said Eryilmaz’s remarks
were unacceptable and questioned why and how the court had neglected
to issue its verdict on the 19th suspect.

“The assumption that only one person was responsible for this incident
has damaged the public conscience,” Arinc said Thursday.

The gunman, Ogun Samast, was sentenced to nearly 23 years in prison
in July by a separate juvenile court.

Dink’s murder highlights Turkey’s uneasy relationship with its
ethnic and religious minorities, including at least 60,000 Armenian
Christians.

The case also shines light onto the country’s harsh experience for
journalists, of whom 99 were incarcerated in Turkish prisons near
the end of 2011, according to Turkey’s Union of Journalists.

Head of EU mission in Armenia wants fair elections

Vestnik Kavkaza
Jan 19 2012
Russia

The EU mission, assisted by the OSCE, is realizing a program for
support of clear and fair parliamentary polls in Armenia, PanARMENIAN
reports.

The OSCE provided 1.7 million euro for the program. Its goal is to
help the civil society of Armenia progress, assist the CEC with
equipment and polling stations, organize training and seminars,
head of the mission Trayan Christea said. He emphasized that clear
elections in Armenia will determine development of relations with
the EU and the Eastern Partnership.

Christea noted that the EU will provide the full sum.

CHESS REVIEW: LEVON ARONYAN REACHED THE LEADER

19.01.12

Three important chess tournament now are taking place which may be
interesting for Armenian chess funs. Armenian 72nd Men’s Championship
and Armenian 67th Women’s Championship are held in Yerevan and “Tata
Steel” chess festival is held in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands.

Hrant Melqumyan has shared a point with Zaven Andreasyan on the seventh
tour of Men’s Championship. Melqumyan is the leader of the championship
with 4.5 points. Arman Pashikyan and Tigran L. Petrosyan have also won.

Men’s championship, 7th tour

Grigoryan Avetik – Hovhannisyan Robert 1 / 2 Grigoryan Karen H –
Ter-Sahakyan Samvel 1 / 2 Pashikian Arman – Simonian Hrair 1 –
0 Andriasian Zaven – Melkumyan Hrant 1 / 2 Petrosian Tigran L –
Babujian Levon 1 – 0 Standing:

1.Melkumyan Hrant 4.5 2.Andriasian Zaven 4 3.Petrosian Tigran L 4
4.Hovhannisyan Robert 4 5.Pashikian Arman 3.5 6.Ter-Sahakyan Samvel
3 7.Grigoryan Avetik 3 8.Minasian Artashes 3 9.Grigoryan Karen H
2.5 10.Simonian Hrair 2 11. Babujian Levon 1.5 On the 7th round of
the Women’s championship Maria Kursova and Anna Hayrapetyan have
celebrated victory. They have gotten six points and are the leaders
of the tournament. Kursova has missed one tour.

Women’s Championship, 67th round

Aghabekian Liana – Gasparian Narine 1 – 0 Movsisian Naira – Gevorgyan
Maria 1 – 0 Doluhanova Evgeniya – Kursova Maria 0 – 1 Hairapetian Anna
– Ghambaryan Hasmik 1 – 0 Sargsyan Shushanna – Martirosyan Lia 1 / 2

Standing:

1.Hairapetian Anna 6 2.Kursova Maria 6 3.Sargsyan Shushanna 3.5
4.Aghabekian Liana 3.5 5.Doluhanova Evgeniya 3.5 6.Martirosyan Lia
3 7.Gasparian Narine 2.5 8.Movsisian Naira 2.5 9.Kharatyan Anahit
2 10.Ghambaryan Hasmik 1.5 11. Gevorgyan Maria 1 Levon Aronyan won
his rival on the fourth tour of the Wejk aan Zee championship and is
equal with the leader of championship Magnus Carlsen.

Sergey Karayakin also won his rival, Davit Navara. The other games
ended in drawn.

Aronian, L. – Kamsky, G. 1 – 0 Caruana, C. – Carlsen, M. 1 / 2 Gelfand,
B. – Radjabov, T. 1 / 2 Giri, G. – Nakamura, H. 1 / 2 Ivanchuk,
V. – Van Wely, L. 1 / 2 Navara, D. – Karjakin, S. 0 – 1 Topalov,
V. – Gashimov, V. 1 / 2 Standing 1. Aronian, L. 3 2. Carlsen, M. 3
3. Caruana, F. 2½ 4. Radjabov, T. 2½ 5. Giri, A. 2 6. Ivanchuk, V. 2
7. Karjakin, S. 2 8. Topalov, V. 2 9. Van Wely, L. 2 10. Gashimov,
V. 1½ 11. Gelfand, B. 1½ 12. Kamsky, G. 1½ 13. Nakamura, H. 1½
14. Navara, D. 1

HRANT DINK: ISTANBUL MARCH AS VERDICT ANGER CONTINUES

BBC
19 January 2012

Marchers carried placards reading “We are all Hrant, we are all
Armenian” Continue reading the main story At least 20,000 people have
marched in Istanbul to mark five years since the murder of prominent
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

Some of the demonstrators were driven by anger over verdicts delivered
this week in the latest trial of people linked to his killing.

Three people were jailed but allegations of official negligence or
state collusion were rejected.

Dink’s actual killer, Ogun Samast, was jailed earlier for 22 years.

The journalist, shot dead outside the Istanbul offices of
Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, had angered Turkish nationalists by
describing the mass killing of Armenians a century ago as genocide.

Ethnic Armenian journalist On Tuesday, a judge sentenced one man to
life imprisonment for incitement to murder Dink, and two others were
given 12 years in prison.

However, all three men, along with 16 other defendants, were acquitted
of the charge of being members of a criminal organisation.

The prosecutor, Hikmet Usta, said he would appeal against Judge Rustem
Eryilmaz’s decision, and insisted there was sufficient evidence to
establish the murder had been an “organised crime”.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul defended the verdicts of the court on
Thursday, saying “The conclusion of this case in a transparent and
just manner in line with our laws is an important test for us.”

‘We are all Armenian’

On Thursday, human rights activists placed red carnations on the
spot where Dink was shot dead by Samast in broad daylight, outside
the offices of Agos.

Dink’s widow Rakel and his children were among the demonstrators,
many of whom carried placards reading “We are all Hrant, we are
all Armenian”.

Red carnations surrounded a photo of Hrant Dink outside the Agos
offices Journalist and writer Karin Karakasli, an ethnic Armenian,
read out a statement from the window of the Agos offices.

“We want an end to this shame,” she was quoted as saying by Turkish
newspaper Today’s Zaman.

“They are telling us that the [case] file has been closed. The Dink
case is not a file that can be closed. The Dink case is a wound.”

A smaller march was also held in the capital, Ankara, and rallies
and tributes to Dink were reported in other Turkish cities such as
Izmir and Bursa, and as far away as the Green Line in Cyprus.

Among those attending the Istanbul rally was prominent Turkish writer
Vedat Turkali, 92, who appeared in his wheelchair.

Dink’s supporters say they have uncovered evidence that suggests
involvement by state officials and police in his murder.

But, they say, repeated requests to have those officials investigated
have been ignored, and in some cases important evidence has been
destroyed.

‘Not thorough’

In his petition against the verdict, Prosecutor Usta pointed out that,
in his initial verdict, Judge Eryilmaz had left out one of the 19
defendants, thus acquitting only 18.

He said the fact that the judge had left out a suspect indicated that
the indictment had not been thoroughly examined.

Responding to his own verdict Sources quoted by Today’s Zaman said
the omission had been accidental, and the 19th defendant’s acquittal
was being announced separately.

Judge Eryilmaz has expressed doubts about his own verdict, saying
that any “connections” between the culprits and the state could not
be clearly established before the trial.

“However, this is the only decision we could take, according to the
available evidence,” he told the private news channel NTV.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2010 that Turkey had
failed to protect Dink, despite being warned that ultra-nationalists
were plotting to kill him.

The court also criticised Turkish authorities over the investigation
of his murder.

The Turkish state strenuously denies that the deaths of hundreds of
thousands of Armenians in 1915-16 amounted to genocide.

Armenians say as many as 1.5 million people were slaughtered or died
of starvation and disease when they were deported by the Ottoman Turks.

VIEWS FROM OHANIAN, SAHAKIAN ON CONGRESSIONAL BILLS ADDRESSING DIGITAL PIRACY
Elise Kalfayan

asbarez
Thursday, January 19th, 2012

“SOPA/PIPA” have been major topics online, but I didn’t read up
on them until a message appeared on my blog’s upload screen last
week from the project leaders of WordPress. The nonpolitical lead
programmers of open source software which runs millions of websites
including mine were encouraging their entire WordPress community to
contact Congress and urge defeat of the proposed bills.

A quick Google search on the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect
Intellectual Property Act sent me to a video link of Alexis Ohanian’s
January 5 interview on Bloomberg TV.

Ohanian, the young founder of Reddit.com (which gets millions of visits
each month), stated his conviction that “More government intervention
is not the answer here.” He noted later that Bloomberg was the first
mainstream outlet to cover the controversy, which had been brewing
on the internet for weeks. TechCrunchTV and finally CNN interviewed
Ohanian just this week as a January 18 internet blackout loomed.

Ohanian and Reddit instigated the blackout in protest against the bills
before Congress. Wikipedia, Google, Craigslist, and many other major
sites joined in or put a warning on their front page about the bills.

Media conglomerates (Craigslist named News Corp, the Recording Industry
Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America,
Nike, Sony, Comcast, VISA “and others” on its home page) lobbied for
these bills, which would give copyright holders the power to ask the US
Department of Justice to block websites accused of infringement. The
entertainment industry and creative professionals have suffered
greatly from pirating: the illegal copying and distribution of films,
videos, music, and creative content. But the remedy proposed through
$94 million in lobbying (according to Ohanian) alarms the internet
business community concerned about censorship, and its determined
opposition has been “organic, not top-down.”

Shant Sahakian, also a young Armenian-American internet entrepreneur,
deals with the both sides of this debate in his business.

Sahakian is founder and president of the full-service marketing
and design firm Sedna Solutions, started in 1999 and based
in Glendale. He helps clients build websites, social apps, and
marketing and print advertising campaigns. He’s worked extensively
with creative professionals, and his clients include Glendale Arts
and the Alex Theatre.

“One of the problems with the legislation is that there is a fine line
between enforcement and going too far,” he said. “The drafters have
good intentions, but it is too broadly written. They might do a good
job of enforcing it and not abusing its power, but who knows five
years from now? Especially with how fast the internet is changing,
it brings up risks for censorship and threats to freedom of speech.”

What about the concerns of content creators, who are losing income as
people just steal their work off the internet? “It’s definitely a major
issue,” says Sahakian. “You see it all the time with something simple
like stock photography. There are very clear laws, you need to purchase
photos, and you need to give the photographer credit if that’s part of
the agreement. They created the photos so they have the rights to their
work. There is quite a bit of abuse, taking the work of musicians,
artists, and photographers, and I think that something needs to be
done, but the way SOPA and PIPA have been written is overreaching.”

Sahakian’s work with clients includes “a great deal of education
about copyright.” He directs them to resources where they can obtain
creative works such as photographs with clear terms and conditions
that are respectful of the artists’ rights. “We’ve had some issues
ourselves, when some of the ads we’ve done for clients are ‘copied’
in some form – that’s always an interesting topic.”

Sahakian says there are already laws on the books to deal with
copyright problems that could have a remedy (foreign websites posing
the greatest threat to Hollywood by pirating movies are outside U.S.

jurisdiction). “With websites for example, if there’s a problem,
you can contact the hosting company’s abuse department, and they can
decide if they have legal grounds to remove the content or if there’s a
risk. YouTube, for example: if there’s a video where there’s been some
copyright infringement, has a process by which they decide whether to
take it down. Some companies are responsible, some aren’t responsible
at all, and maybe some laws need be on the books that make websites
responsible for things on their site. But the way the law is written
it gives Congress and the Department of Justice a lot of power. The
big danger is Congress picking favorites, as people have said they’ve
done in the auto industry or the banking industry. It opens up a risk
of too much power being given to one side.”

Ohanian, Sahakian, and other internet entrepreneurs have all said the
solution to this problem needs to be crafted very carefully. Ohanian
calls for significant input from the “tech community.” Sahakian says,
“You’ll have to bring creative people, small businesses, and internet
experts together to figure out how to protect copyrights and protect
work from getting copied.”

A January 18 Congressional committee hearing on the House bill’s
provisions, called by Darrell Issa (R-CA), was cancelled after
constituent outcry got the House bill tabled. Issa had invited Ohanian,
among others, to testify.

The January 24 Senate vote on its version of the legislation may
still go forward so the fight is not over, said Ohanian on CNN. Both
California senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer are listed
as sponsors of the bill. Original co-sponsor Senator Marco Rubio
(R-Florida) announced January 18 that he no longer supported the PIPA
bill and would ask Harry Reid to withdraw it.

This column’s focus on the federal legislative fight pitting Hollywood
against Silicon Valley ends here: Asbarez readers can follow the news
online in the coming days.

I’m glad research on the subject led me to learn more about Alexis
Ohanian and his successful startup Reddit, which I will start checking
regularly (it’s a fun site!). Also impressive is his volunteer work
to encourage entrepreneurs and startups in many ways, including the
time he spent as a 2010 Kiva Fellow in Armenia.

I’m also glad I learned more about Shant Sahakian and his work in our
community. In addition to creating top-quality online platforms for
Glendale Arts and other notable clients through Sedna Solutions, he is
serving on the boards of the Downtown Glendale Merchants Association,
the Glendale Parks & Open Space Foundation, and the Glendale Young
Professionals, and is a very thoughtful business professional himself.

Finally, I’m grateful national attention is being paid to the huge
problem all content creators (including writers like me!) are having
with copyright infringement and digital piracy. There should be a
way to guarantee the full fruits of our labors that doesn’t threaten
freedom of expression.

Elise Kalfayan is a Glendale resident, a native Southern Californian,
and a combined first/second generation Armenian-American. She has
produced or edited print and online pieces on topics ranging from
urban development to Armenian Church history. She is the publisher
of a Glendale community news blog, and works as a contract writer,
editor, and publishing consultant for clients including businesses,
entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and memoirists.

TURKEY: TENS OF THOUSANDS MARK JOURNALIST’S DEATH
By SELCAN HACAOGLU

Associated Press
ANKARA, Turkey January 19, 2012 (AP)

Tens of thousands of protesters marked the fifth anniversary of a
Turkish-Armenian journalist’s murder on Thursday as outrage continues
to grow over a trial that failed to shed light on alleged official
negligence or even collusion.

Human rights activists placed red carnations on the spot in Istanbul
where Hrant Dink was gunned down in broad daylight outside of his
minority Agos newspaper office by a nationalist teenage gunman.

The case highlights Turkey’s uneasy relationship with its ethnic and
religious minorities, including at least 60,000 Armenian Christians.

Many people carried black banners that read: “We are all Hrant, we are
all Armenian,” and some chanted “Turkey will be a grave for fascism.”

Tens of thousands marched for justice, a call shared by Turkish
leaders and leading businessmen who expressed unease over this week’s
sentencing of one man, Yasin Hayal, to life in prison for masterminding
the killing, while another 17 were acquitted of charges of acting
under a terrorist organization’s orders. The court neglected to issue
a verdict about a 19th suspect.

“The verdict is tragic and is weighing heavily on the conscience
of everyone in Turkey,” Rober Koptas, Dink’s son-in-law and
editor-in-chief of Agos, told AP television in an interview.

The gunman, Ogun Samast, was sentenced to nearly 23 years in prison
in July by a separate juvenile court.

Umit Boyner, the head of Turkey’s influential industrialists’
association TUSIAD, said the court’s decision had “shocked” the public.

“What we solidly see in this trial process is that the belief in
justice has been shaken and weaknesses in our justice system have
been revealed,” he said.

Turkey’s leaders have vowed a thorough investigation into Dink’s
killing ~W signaling dissatisfaction with Tuesday’s court ruling by
a panel of judges.

Dink’s lawyers have said they will appeal the verdict, saying the
investigation was flawed because the judiciary had not followed up
on evidence alleging officials may have been aware of the plot.

Protesters marching past the site of the Jan. 19, 2007 killing carried
banners that read: “This case cannot finish like this.” A black marble
plaque marking the spot bore the solemn words in Turkish and Armenian:
“Hrant Dink was killed here.”

President Abdullah Gul said the case amounted to a tough test for
Turkey, a democracy with a mostly Muslim population that seeks
membership in the European Union.

“The conclusion of this case in a transparent and just manner in line
with our laws is an important test for us,” Gul said on Thursday.

Koptas responded that politicians were feeling guilty because they
had done nothing in five years to ensure justice.

“If Hrant Dink was a test, Turkey failed, the ruling party failed,”
he said.”If candid steps are taken in the future (to rectify the
verdict), Turkey’s image can be repaired but I’m not very hopeful.”

Rustem Eryilmaz ~W who led the panel of judges ~W sparked even more
fury when he told the daily Vatan in an interview published Thursday
that he was not satisfied with the decision, acknowledging that the
court had failed to reveal allegations of negligence or collusion
between the state and the suspects.

“We could not shed light on what was going on behind the scenes,
which is what everyone is curious about,” Eryilmaz said. “There must
be instigators … but there is a need for evidence to accept the
existence of such from a legal perspective.”

Rustem Eryilmaz ~W who led the panel of judges ~W sparked even more
fury when he told the daily Vatan in an interview published Thursday
that he was not satisfied with the decision, acknowledging that the
court had failed to reveal allegations of negligence or collusion
between the state and the suspects.

“We could not shed light on what was going on behind the scenes,
which is what everyone is curious about,” Eryilmaz said. “There must
be instigators … but there is a need for evidence to accept the
existence of such from a legal perspective.”

Eryilmaz said the judges felt pressure to issue a verdict after
the 4-1/2 year trial, and did not have time to examine thousands of
telephone conversations at the scene on the day of the assassination.

“The assumption that only one person was responsible for this incident
has damaged the public conscience,” Arinc said Thursday.

Dink had sought to encourage reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia,
but several years before his death he was prosecuted under Turkish
law for describing the early 20th-century mass killings of Armenians
as genocide.

Historians estimate up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by
Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed
by genocide scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Turkey, however, denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying that
the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of
civil war and unrest.

EUROPEAN EXPERT: WASHINGTON AND BRUSSELS REALIZE THE REGION IS ‘COMBUSTIBLE’ EVEN WITHOUT A WESTERN INTERVENTION

arminfo
Thursday, January 19, 18:35

I think the fact that Russia supported the previous round of sanctions
on Iran is a signal that Moscow and Washington share the fundamental
interest in seeing Iran as a nuclear bomb-free country – the views of
Russia and the US differ in terms of how this should be achieved and
at what costs, Jana Kobzova, expert at European Council for Foreign
Relations, told ArmInfo.

“Washington and the EU states are ready to go further than Russia
at the moment, as confirmed by the recent adoption of oil embargo on
Iran by the US and the EU,” she said.

Moreover, Kobzova said, Washington and Brussels are still hoping
the sanctions would work eventually and that no offensive would be
needed and hope the international community would rally behind this
objective – they realize the region is ‘combustible’ even without a
Western intervention.

CPJ SAYS HRANT DINK CASE NEEDS FURTHER INVESTIGATION

NEWS.am
January 18, 2012 | 14:23

The Committee to Protect Journalists said further investigation into
Hrant Dink murder is necessary.

“Justice for our colleague Hrant Dink will not be achieved until the
commissioners of his slaying five years ago are tried and punished to
the full extent of the law,” said CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program
Coordinator Nina Ognianova.

“We stand in solidarity with Dink’s family, colleagues, and friends
in calling for a thorough and transparent investigation into the
suspected involvement of military and security service officials in
this brutal crime.”

In a statement posted on organization’s website, CPJ said the research
showed that the masterminds of the murder were never prosecuted.

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, on Tuesday, the Turkish
court found Yasin Hayal guilty of planning and organizing Hrant Dink’s
murder, and sentenced him to life in prison. Erhan Tuncel, on the
other hand, was found not guilty of prompting Dink’s murder, and,
instead, he was sentenced to 10 years and 6 months for an explosion
in a McDonald’s store. But taking into account that Tuncel was already
incarcerated for that amount of time, the court ruled his release.

And earlier, Hrant Dink’s actual killer, Ogun Samast, was sentenced to
a total of 22 years and 10 months for Dink’s murder and for bearing
illegal arms. But Samast was tried at a juvenile court, since he was
a minor at the time of the murder.