A march will be organized in Istanbul on Saturday in memory of Sevag Sahin Balikci, the Istanbul Armenian who was killed, on April 24, 2011, in a military unit while serving in the Turkish army.

“The criminal and murderer mindset that killed Sevag Sahin are not condemned yet. We again see that now, just as in 1915, they protect the killers of Armenians in this country, and they are not punished. And the authorities incite fascism and discrimination in the squares,” reads the statement issued by Nor Zartonk (New Awakening) Armenian website of Istanbul.   

Sevag Balikci was killed by fellow soldier Kivanc Agaoglu, but the Turkish gendarmerie had stated that the death had occurred accidentally while the soldiers were joking around. Sevag’s parents assert that he was killed for being Armenian.

Agaoglu was released at the very first court hearing, and on the grounds that he had no reason to escape. But at Diyarbakir Military Court, an anonymous senior officer had stated that, after Sevag’s murder, an eyewitness soldier had told him that Kivanc Agaoglu had told Sevag: “Chubby, I will kill you!”