Author: Kajoyan Gevork

COURT’S VERDICT ON DINK MURDER RAISES EYEBROWS

Hurriyet
Jan 19 2012
Turkey

Following the court’s verdict in Hrant Dink murder trial, family,
friends and lawyers of Dink family object to the decision saying that
all their appeals will be blocked by the court’s decision indicating
there was no organizational structure behind the crime. ‘Our conscience
does not approve the verdict,’ a journalist says

Hundreds of people imcluding friends and supporters as well as
journalists protested the court decision on Tuesday, throwing slogans
‘this case will not be over.’ Daily News Photo, Emrah Gurel

Outcry in many quarters was raised by the verdict issued by an Istanbul
court on Jan. 17 in the case of Hrant Dink, five years after the
Turkish-Armenian journalist was murdered before the offices of the
weekly Agos.

“All the suspects were acquitted of charges [pertaining to the
existence of] an organization [behind the crime,] despite the fact that
all the evidence demonstrates this incident was an organized crime,”
Cem Halavurt, one of the Dink family’s lawyers, told the Hurriyet
Daily News.

Even though the court’s detailed ruling is set to be announced a month
from today, all our appeals will be blocked by the court’s decision
indicating there was no organizational structure behind the crime,
he added.

“[Police informant Erhan] Tuncel was not even found guilty of the
charge of murder; he was merely sentenced in relation to the McDonalds
bombing and acquitted from the charge of membership in a [terrorist]
organization. Even though [instigator Yasin] Hayal was sentenced to
aggravated life imprisonment, he too was acquitted of the charge of
membership in a [terrorist] organization.” Cem Halavurt said.

The Prime Ministry Inspection Board had undertaken work to shed light
on Dink’s assassination but to no avail, Halavurt said.

“The board failed to make progress due to political manipulation and
internal strife. Perhaps it did not want to make progress,” he added.

Conscience

Our conscience does not approve of the court’s verdict, Oral
CalıÅ~_lar, a columnist for the daily Radikal who has been following
the case since its inception, told the Hurriyet Daily News.

“‘It is the same power who wants to kill both Hrant and me,’ the prime
minister said. The government ought to assume an attitude to ascertain
this power. The prime minister issued a promise to the Dink family.

More importantly, however, it ought to be the duty of a state of law
to uncover the guilty parties,” Oral CalıÅ~_lar said.

Baruyr Kuyumcuyan, the chief editor of the weekly Agos, also referred
to the Jan. 17 verdict as a “comedy.”

Dink was gunned down in front of Agos, his weekly Turkish-Armenian
newspaper, on Jan. 19, 2007.

The court refused to connect Dink’s murder to his identity as
an Armenian and chose instead to see the assassination like other
incidents involving the killing of Christians, such as the murdering of
Andrea Santoro of the church of Santa Mari in the Black Sea province
of Trabzon in 2006, the Zirve Publishing House massacre of 2007 in
the eastern province of Malatya and the 2010 killing of Archpriest
Luigina Padovese in the southern province of Hatay.

“All these murders were organized killings. It is exactly for
this reason that none of the trials will ever be able to reach a
conclusion. The acquittal of the suspects from charges pertaining
to [their involvement in an organization] amounts to a scandal,”
Eran EriÅ~_, a case lawyer in the Padovese trial, told the Hurriyet
Daily News.

US, RUSSIAN DIPLOMATS DISCUSS NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT

APA
Jan 19 2012
Azerbaijan

Baku – APA. US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake and Russian
Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin held consultations on the
Central Asian problems in Washington, DC.

According to APA, Karasin also met Under Secretary of State for
Political Affairs Wendy Sherman. They discussed the prospects of
mutual activity of the United States and Russia toward the Central
Asia and the situation in the region.

Grigory Karasin met Assistant Secretary of State for European
and Eurasian Affairs Philip Gordon and discussed the relations of
Russia and the United States with Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and South
Caucasian countries. The issues of the settlement of Transdniestrian
and Nagorno Karabakh conflicts were on agenda during the meeting.

HRANT DINK: THOUSANDS MARCH IN ISTANBUL AFTER CONTROVERSIAL VERDICT

International Business Times

Jan 19 2012

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Fifty thousand people marched in Istanbul on Thursday in commemoration
of Hrant Dink, the Armenian journalist who was assassinated exactly
five years earlier. Holding up photos of Dink and signs reading “We
are all Hrant, we are all Armenian,” they walked to the location in
the Turkish city where the reporter was killed in 2007.

Dink was shot dead outside his office at the Turkish-Armenian newspaper
Agos by a right-wing nationalist named Ogun Samast. The journalist
was a vocal advocate for Armenian rights and minority groups, and
published reports on the Armenian Genocide, a tragedy long denied by
the Turkish government.

Some of the protests marched to express their outrage over the most
recent verdicts in the murder trial. Earlier this week, Yasin Hayal
was sentenced to life in prison in connection to Dink’s murder,
while suspect Erhan Tuncel was acquitted of murder charges. Hayal
was found guilty of plotting the assassination and giving Samast the
murder weapon.

A judge also acquitted 19 suspects on charges that they belonged to
a terrorist organization called Ergenekon which apparently seeks to
overthrow the government.

“First of all this verdict disturbed everyone. It has been so long.

Even if it’s overturned on appeal I don’t know how it can satisfy
people after all this time. But anyway it should be rejected,”
journalist and protestor Engin Bas told Euronews.

Turkish politicians have repeatedly vowed to get to the bottom
of Dink’s assassination, but many of his supporters still feel
unsatisfied.

“They made fun of us throughout the five-year trial process. We did
not know they saved the biggest joke to the very end,” Dink family’s
lawyer, Fethiye Cetin, told reporters.

“This ruling means a tradition was left untouched. The state tradition
of political murders. The tradition of state discriminating against
some of its citizens and turning them into enemies.”

ARMENIA AND THE EURASIAN UNION

The Messenger
Jan 19 2012
Georgia

During a press conference on January 16 Armenia~Rs FM Eduard Nalbandian
stated that the topic of Armenia~Rs position regarding the Eurasian
Union has not so far become a subject for discussion. According to
him Armenia must finally decide its stance towards the Union. Russia
is encouraging Armenia to join the Eurasian Union promising further
benefits for the country. The position of Armenians concerning entry to
the union is mostly positive. Russia and Armenia are already strategic
partners. There are more than 2.5 million ethnic Armenians living and
working in Russia. All of them have relatives back in Armenia. These
facts could play a positive role in Armenia~Rs decision to join the
Eurasian Union.

KERVORKIAN ART CASE DISMISSED IN MICHIGAN

WHTC

Jan 18 2012

OAKLAND (WKZO) — An Oakland County judge is dismissing a
Michigan-based lawsuit concerning who owns the artwork created by
the late Dr. Jack Kervorkian.

Friend and attorney to the doctor, Mayer Morganroth, says that in 1999
Kervorkian loaned 17 paintings to the Boston-area Armenian Library
and Museum of America. Morganroth is suing for the return of the
paintings, which he claims were to be brought back to Michigan and
given to Kervorkian’s estate.

Museum officials insist that Kervorkian donated the artwork, and they
took the matter to court in Massachusetts. The paintings remain in
museum storage for now, pending the outcome of the case in federal
court.

FRANCE TO HOST RALLY IN SUPPORT OF GENOCIDE BILL

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Editor

PARIS (PanARMENIAN.Net, AFP) – The Coordination Council of Armenian
Organizations of France (CCAF) urged all French people upholding
principles of democracy and humanity to join a peaceful rally on
January 23 to support the bill penalizing Armenian Genocide denial.

On December 22, 2011, the French National Assembly passed a bill
criminalizing public denial of the Armenian Genocide. If passed and
signed into law by the Senate, the bill would impose a 45,000-euro
fine and a year in prison for anyone in France who denies this crime
against humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire.

The Genocide bill will be debated at French Senate on January 23.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s main opposition party said Friday it had appealed
to France’s socialist leader over French plans for a law that
reinforces the view of Turkey’s Ottoman-era massacre of Armenians
as genocide.

In a letter to Francois Hollande, the social democratic Republican
People’s Party (CHP) denounced the French bill, which would outlaw
denial that the 1915-17 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces
amounted to genocide.

Hollande is the Socialist Party’s contender in the French presidential
elections later this year.

“If the French parliament insists on voting through anti-Turk and
unconstitutional laws,’ it could cause serious damage not just to
France’s image but also that of the European Union…,” said the
letter.

CHP chief Kemal Kilicdaroglu wrote directly to Hollande amid a growing
diplomatic row between the countries over the bill.

Passing it into law “would provoke an unprecedented crisis” between
the two countries, he wrote.

Copies of the letter also went to other leading socialists including
the president of the Senate, Jean-Pierre Bel.

French senators will debate the bill on January 23 and if passed,
it would go to President Nicolas Sarkozy for approval. France’s lower
house, the national assembly, approved the bill last month.

“The Turks cannot believe that the country of Voltaire and Diderot
would want to trample over freedom of expression…,” said the letter,
a copy of which was obtained by AFP.

Ankara has already hit back by freezing political and military ties
with Paris.

THE NEWLY APPOINTED AMBASSADORS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM TO ARMENIA PRESENTED THEIR CREDENTIALS TO SERZH SARGSYAN

19.01.2012

Today, the newly appointed Ambassadors Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland to the Republic of Armenia Jonathan James Aves and Mrs.

Katharine Jane Leach presented their credentials to the President of
Armenia Serzh Sargsyan.

The President congratulated the Ambassadors on the commencement of
their diplomatic mission in our country and wished them success. He
also expressed confidence that through their experience and joint work
the newly appointed Ambassadors of the United Kingdom will promote the
development of the Armenian-British relations and further strengthening
and deepening of the cooperation in different areas.

With regard to strengthening the bilateral relations, the two sides
stressed the importance of reciprocal visits on different levels,
establishment of more active contacts, regular consultations between
the Foreign Ministries of the two countries and development of
Armenia-Great Britain cooperation also in the framework of the
European Union.

At the meeting, the parties discussed also regional issues.

ARMENIAN INTELLECTUALS CONCERNED OVER PLAN TO SELL TUMANYAN’S HOUSE

Tert.am
19.01.12

Amid the growing concerns over the possible sale of great Armenian poet
Hovhannes Tumanyan’s house in Tbilisi, severak Armenian intellectuals
are leaving for to the Georgian capital to clear up the matter on
the ground.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan
said the delegation of intellectuals, under the leadership of Levon
Ananyan, presdent of the Writers’ House, will depart to the Georgian
capital later today.

“We often get conflicting reports on the issue. That’s why,
after consultations with the prime minister, we decided to send
intellectuals,” she said.

The minister denied reports that the Government has been offered to
purchase the house.

“It was quite recently that we heard of some people’s plan to sell
the venues,” he said, adding that no one will be able to use the
house for other purposes unless he or she purchases the area that
belongs to Tumanyan’s family.

“It is very important for the family not to think about selling the
house,” she said.

The minister promised to answer journalists’ question after the
delegation is back to Armenia.

THE GUARDIAN: STATE OFFICIALS WERE COMPLICIT IN DINK’S MURDER

PanARMENIAN.Net
January 18, 2012 – 18:39 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Amnesty International’s Turkey researcher,
Andrew Gardner commented on Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink
assassination.

“There has been evidence since the time of the murder five years ago
indicating that those on trial were working as part of a network,
that state officials were complicit in the murder. This has been
acknowledged by the Dink family lawyers, defendants in the case,
the prosecutor and a state administrative investigation. Yet
those individuals were not investigated effectively, they were not
prosecuted,” Andrew Gardner said.

Lawyers representing the Dink family had repeatedly asked the court
to summon several witnesses, among them senior police officers in
Istanbul and Trabzon, but these requests were rejected. They also
presented evidence to the court that the Istanbul police had been
informed about a murder plot against Dink, but ignored the warnings.

“It is a damning indictment of justice in Turkey, sending the message
that those in positions of power will be protected and human rights
violations by state officials will go unpunished,” said Gardner.

“The investigation, the prosecution and the verdict were largely
irrelevant to achieving justice for Hrant Dink,” The Guardian quoted
Andrew Gardner as saying.

Hrant Dink was shot dead on Jan. 19, 2007 by an ultranationalist
teenager outside the offices of his newspaper in Istanbul in broad
daylight. The investigation into his murder has stalled; the suspected
perpetrator and his accomplices were put on trial, but those who
masterminded the plot to kill him have yet to be exposed and punished.

WILL SARKOZY KEEP HIS PLEDGE?

PanARMENIAN.Net
January 18, 2012 – 20:22 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Today, on January 18, Constitutional Commission
of the French Senate passed a decision against debating of the
bill criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial, accepting Senators’
solicitation that oppose the aforesaid legislation.

The proposal on rejection of the bill was adopted with 23 votes for,
9 against and 8 abstentions, according to the official website of
the French Senate.

The decision stipulates debate of the draft law by the Senate,
considering the proposal of the Commission prior to the overall voting.

The proposal aroused no special surprise due to the initial phase of
the Genocide bill adoption having evoked deja feeling.

On October 12, 2006, the National Assembly of France with 106 votes
for and 19 against adopted a bill on criminalization of the Armenian
Genocide denial. Then too, the draft law stipulated a 45,000 euro
fine and a year in prison for anyone in France who denied this crime
against humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire. The bill passage,
however, was followed by threats from Turkey and its younger brother
Azerbaijan regarding breaking ties and freezing military, trade
cooperation with France. Proposals to take “austerity measures”
towards France were heard.

Then, too, Presidential Candidate Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to foster
passage of the bill penalizing Armenian Genocide denial.

In May, 2007, Sarkozy was elected president of France with Armenian
community members having backed his candidacy.

However, on May 4, 2008, French Senate with 196 votes against and 74
for blocked the Genocide bill passed by National Assembly in 2006.

An impression is created that the scenario was decided to be applied
this time, too. Thus, the French Senate may protract the bill until
April, with French presidential elections due on April 22, two days
prior to 97th commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.

Three months and it be will be clear whether Nicolas Sarkozy’s pledge
was realistic or the French-Armenian community was once again trapped
for electoral votes.