Thirteen years after Armenian Turkish journalist Hrant Dink was shot dead in broad daylight outside his office in Istanbul, the trial of 77 people accused of involvement in his murder, including police officers and intelligence agents, is still dragging on with no end in sight.
Dink had received many death threats for writing in the bilingual Armenian-Turkish newspaper, Agos, about the genocide Armenians living under the Ottoman Empire during World War One. Some 1.5 million were killed in massacres, or died from starvation and disease in forced marches into the Syrian desert.
Turkey denies a genocide took place and says many died in intercommunal fighting. On April 24 last year, the day the genocide is commemorated, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said: “The relocation of the Armenian gangs and their supporters who massacred the Muslim people, including women and children, in eastern Anatolia, was the most reasonable action that could be taken in such a period”.
Any suggestion of genocide is met with anger by many in Turkey, even more than 100 years later. Dink was prosecuted for his writing several times under Article 301 of the penal code, which makes it illegal to insult Turkey or Turkish government institutions, or to “denigrate Turkishness”.
Teenage Turkish nationalist Ogün Samast shot Dink three times in the head on Jan. 19, 2007 and pictures later emerged of Samast posing next to smiling police officers. Samast was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2011, but could be eligible for parole in 2021.
A 2017 indictment accused the officials now on trial of running a criminal network, destroying evidence, dereliction of duty and official misconduct, and other offences. Their case has been combined with the murder retrial.
A court handed prison sentences to nine suspects in relation to Dink’s murder in July last year. But out of dozens of defendants – including police, intelligence and gendarmerie officials – few remain in jail.
“The trial is continuing for 13 years and the end is nowhere in sight because there is no desire by the government to find out the truth and bring the real planners of the murder to justice, or, alternatively, there is direction by the government not to find the truth and bring the real planners of the murder to justice,” said Raffi Bedrosyan, an Armenian activist born in Istanbul and a columnist for the Armenian Weekly.
“This is why the judges and prosecutors of the case have been substituted at least 14 times so far. This is obviously a clear message to all Armenian journalists, human rights lawyers and activists to give up and not to interfere in this case,” said Bedrosyan, who has written extensively about Dink and is now based in Canada.
Agos columnist Ohannes Kılıçdağı said that he would have expected the case to have been closed long ago and the defendants allowed to walk free.
“That is what is considered normal in Turkey. If the trial process has taken so long, it is due to the courageous struggle for justice of Hrant Dink’s friends, lawyers, and rights advocates,” he said.
The Dink family and their lawyers applied to the Constitutional Court in 2016 to appeal against a decision by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office not to prosecute more officials that the Dink family and their lawyers believe were involved in the murder. But in 2019, the court rejected the request for an additional investigation.
On the 12th anniversary of Dink’s murder last year, opposition member of parliament Garo Paylan, who is of Armenian origin, submitted a parliamentary motion that aimed to shed more light on the killing. But deputies from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and their far-right nationalist allies voted down the motion.
“This trial is related to the basic nature of the Turkish state and its values,” Kılıçdağı said. “In this trial, the state is defending its own character and identity. Not surrendering their own personnel is also part of this defence, so it took years for even the simplest legal steps to be taken.”
One of the accused, Şeref Ateş, a gendarmerie intelligence officer in Istanbul at the time of Dink’s murder, was killed in an armed attack on his vehicle in the northwestern city of Düzce on March 12. Police have detained three suspects for the killing, state-run Anadolu news agency said. Ateş was arrested as part of the Dink murder case in 2016 and spent more than a year in prison pending trial before being freed on bail.
“The recent murder of the intelligence officer is also undoubtedly dark,” Kılıçdağı said. “But if we consider the gang-like nature of the state, such an incident is not unexpected according to the logic of the state and the way it operates.”
The next hearing of the Dink murder trial is due to be held on May 12. The long, drawn-out case could work in two ways, Kılıçdağı said.
“First, undoubtedly, intimidation might discourage rights advocates from the very beginning, showing that they could be in a similar situation and case. But, on the other hand, the struggle of rights advocates in this trial demonstrates that although it is very challenging, if you persevere, you can shed light on at least part of the murder – or in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s words right after Dink’s murder – on the dark corridors of the state,” he said.
“Thanks to this case, we have been able to see the dark, crooked relations within the state to some extent. And I think this is an achievement for rights defenders.”
BEIRUT, LEBANON (10:30 P.M.) – The Azerbaijani military attempted to infiltrate the Armenian Army’s positions in the Noyemberyan area of the Tavush Province, the Armenian Ministry of Defense reported this evening.
“At 7 p.m. today #Azerbaijan launched a subversive incursion attempt on the #Armenia’n positions of Noyemberyan, Tavush. Armenian Army thwarted the attack, two soldiers were lightly injured,” the Armenian Ministry of Defense tweeted this evening.
According to the ministry, the Azerbaijani forces also targeted the villages of Baghanis and Voskevan, which resulted in a child being wounded.
“Armenian forces will respond appropriately against the Azerbaijani aggression during the #COVID pandemic. The full responsibility of the consequences falls on #Azerbaijani side,” the ministry added.
The Azerbaijani government has yet to respond to these accusations.
As of March 30, 10 am, the number of coronavirus infected people in Armenia reached 482, the Center of Prevention and Control of diseases reports.
The source says 30 citizens have already recovered, 449 are getting factual treatment.
The number of coronavirus deaths reached 3 after two patients a woman, 55, and a man 73 died earlier today.
ArmInfo.The difference between the upcoming elections in Artsakh and all the previous ones is not only the number of candidates, but also the emergence of a real alternative, NKR Foreign Minister, Artsakh presidential candidate Masis Mayilyan expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.
The main competitors in the upcoming March 31 presidential and parliamentary elections in Artsakh are former Minister of State, one of the richest people in the country Arayik Harutyunyan and incumbent Foreign Minister Masis Mayilyan. Harutyunyan is supported by the current authorities of Artsakh, while Mayilyan is supported by Commander of the Artsakh Defense Army Samvel Babayan and several other political forces. In total, 14 presidential candidates registered in the Artsakh CEC.
“In view of the unprecedented increase in resources and control tools over the electoral process, this time we can’t talk about the predetermination of the election results. In this light, in my opinion, today in our country there is an exceptional situation for holding normal, democratic elections. A situation, in which administrative resource is limited, and the results depend solely on voters, “Mayilyan noted.
According to the presidential candidate, this situation gives impetus to his team to actively unite the healthy forces of society in order to implement fundamental reforms in Artsakh. Mayilyan also expressed confidence in the upcoming fruitful cooperation of the Armenian authorities with the legitimately elected President of Artsakh. In case of victory, he intends to do everything to make Artsakh more open to the international community.
Mayilyan considers cooperation with the former Minister of Defense of Artsakh Samvel Babayan as another example of uniting the healthy forces of society. He emphasized that this cooperation was not directed against anyone, and had the aim of consolidating the people of Artsakh around the idea of ensuring a prosperous future for the country. The presidential candidate stated that his own approaches in conducting fundamental reforms are in line with those of Babayan and his United Homeland party. The basis of these approaches lies in further strengthening the combat effectiveness of the army, overcoming economic stagnation and solving social problems.
Commenting on the demographic situation, Mayilyan noted his readiness, in case of coming to power, on the basis of public discussions, to begin to adopt and implement a new, clear and targeted strategy for the populating of all regions of the republic. At the same time, he considers that the change in the demographic situation is linked with the development of the Artsakh economy, which will create the necessary infrastructure and communications in the areas where new settlers will settle. “Our common development strategy for Artsakh is based on ensuring national security, defense and economic self-sufficiency. Moreover, nobody canceled the prospects for reuniting Artsakh with Armenia. ”Miatsum” was at the heart of the Artsakh liberation movement and the departure from this slogan had exclusively objective reasons and the need for protection of our right to self-determination. Today saying Armenia we mean one country and two states with a common future, accordingly, intending to intensify integration processes “, Mayilian concluded.
ArmInfo.Armenia is the second after Iran in the region in the share of new-type coronavirus infected (COVID-19) in the total population.
So, according to official data in Armenia on the morning of March 30, 58 new cases of infection with a new type of coronavirus were registered. Thus, the total number of infected reached 482 people, while 30 people have already been cured, 3 fatalities have been recorded. A negative result was recorded in 2216 test cases. 449 patients are in institutional care. Given the official population data of 2.959 million (data for 2019), the percentage of infected people is 0.02% of the total population of the country.
Only Iran with a population of 83.993 million (for 2019) is ahead of Armenia in these statistics, where the number of cases of coronavirus infection increased to 41495 (or 0.05% of the population), deaths – up to 2757, 13911 cases of recovery were recorded.
Turkey is on the third line. According to statistics, on an early morning on March 30, in Turkey with a population of 84.339 million (for 2019), a total of 9217 cases of coronavirus (+1815 per day) or 0.01% of the total population were recorded. Statistics of the deceased cases is 131(+23 per day), 105 people have recovered.
In neighboring Georgia, the number of people infected with coronavirus has increased to 97 people. “There are 97 confirmed cases of infection, among them 18 have recovered, 4,876 in quarantine , under the supervision of doctors in hospital -264 people,” the Georgian government’s special website said in a statement. This is despite the fact that according to official data, the population of Georgia is 3.799 million (for 2019), in relation to which the proportion of people infected with coronavirus is 0.003%.
In Azerbaijan, with a population of 10.383 million people, according to official data for March 29, the number of people infected with coronavirus reached 190 people, or 0.002% of the total population.
At the same time, 4 cases of deaths were recorded, 15 people have recovered. It should be noted that of the above countries, the most reluctant to provide information about the sick is precisely the Azerbaijani authorities. There are fears that authorities deliberately hide the real picture of the spread of a pandemic in the country. Thus, in the region, in terms of the percentage of infected people in the total population, Iran leads (0.05%), followed by Armenia (0.02%), Turkey (0.01%), Georgia (0.003%), Azerbaijan (0.002%) )
To note, according to official figures, Turkey ranked the 13th in the entire world in the number of cases of coronavirus. According to Worldometers, coronavirus has spread to 199 countries and territories. In total, 721.956 cases of coronavirus were recorded. 33.966 people died, 151? 312 recovered. The largest number of deaths from coronavirus is in Italy (10,779), Spain (6803) and China (3300).
ArmInfo.To date, 85 cases of coronavirus have been identified in the Ararat region. Governor of the region Garik Sargsyan reported this during a live broadcast on Facebook.
According to him, the largest number of cases (13) was detected in Masis, some of whose residents worked in one of the capital’s enterprises, which became the focus of the spread of the virus. This is followed by the communities of Nor kyurin (12), Nor Kharberd (9) and Mkhchyan (5). In the city of Artashat, three cases of coronavirus are currently registered. Sargsyan did not exclude the possibility that the number of patients with COVID-19 will increase taking into account the fact that several more samples were taken for analysis and their results have not yet been obtained.
The source of the spread of the virus can be a funeral reception in Artashat, among which there was a resident of the Dalar community, who subsequently was infected with coronavirus infection. In this regard, the governor again voiced a call to avoid mass events.
Sargsyan also informed that cases of violation of self-isolation and restrictions on movement were revealed in the region. So, one citizen subject to isolation went to work, endangering the health of his colleagues. This person, according to the governor, was fined 400 thousand drams. As noted, at the moment, the region is collecting data on citizens who, in connection with the situation with coronavirus, are in a difficult social situation (in particular, people with daily wages). Sargsyan indicated that the collected data will be submitted to the Government to receive appropriate state assistance. In total, 482 cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Armenia, 30 people recovered, three died, 2216 tests were negative. Currently, 449 patients are receiving treatment.
ArmInfo.RA Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Arayik Harutyunyan suggested that university rectors not deprive students who have not paid tuition of the opportunity to receive online education before the end of the state of emergency. The minister said this during a live broadcast on Facebook
Harutyunyan informed that he received a number of messages from university students regarding the fact that they are required to pay tuition fees. In this regard, the Minister in writing appealed to the rectors with a request until April 14, that is, before the end of the state of emergency, to refrain from expelling students in connection with non-payment for studies.
In addition, if students express their willingness to fulfill their financial obligations to the university, it was proposed to organize the acceptance of payments online.
Azerbaijani military attempted a subversive attack targetting Armenian defense positions near Noyemberyan region of Tavush Province on Monday, March 30, the Armenian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The attack was recorded at around 7pm local time.
The adversary was repelled thanks to the actions of Armenian frontline troops, the ministry said, adding information on casualties is being clarified.
The Armenian side suffered no losses. Only two servicemen were slightly injured during the operation, the statement said.
In the meantime, the Azerbaijani armed forces opened fire at the Armenian border villages of Baghanis and Voskevan, wounding a school-age child who was standing in the balcony at the moment.
“To stabilize the situation on the border and to restrain the shameful actions of the Azerbaijani troops during the pandemic, the Armenian Armed Forces will take adequate retaliatory actions. The military-political leadership of Azerbaijan will bear the full responsibility for the consequences,” the statement read.
The virus that causes COVID-19 is mainly transmitted through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or speaks. These droplets are too heavy to hang in the air. They quickly fall on floors or surfaces, World Health Organization (WHO) reported.
You can be infected by breathing in the virus if you are within 1 meter of a person who has COVID-19, or by touching a contaminated surface and then touching your eyes, nose or mouth before washing your hands.
To protect yourself, keep at least 1 meter distance from others and disinfect surfaces that are touched frequently. Regularly clean your hands thoroughly and avoid touching your eyes, mouth, and nose.
The message spreading on social media that “COVID-19 is airborne” is incorrect. Help stop misinformation. Verify the facts before sharing, the updated on the organization said.