By Andranik Ispiryan

YEREVAN. – Thursday, January 19, 2012, marks fifth anniversary of the murder of Hrant Dink, the founder and former chief editor of Istanbul’s Agos Armenian weekly. He was one of Turkey’s most renowned Armenians, and, despite the numerous death threats against him, he was always calm and balanced. 

Dink stressed the need for Turkey to become democratic. He spoke about freedom of speech and human and national minority rights in Turkey. He believed that Turkey’s Armenian community will one day be able to live freely.   

Hrant Dink was killed on January 19, 2007, in front of Agos’ building. But prior to his death, he informed that he was getting more death threats, and complained that the police refused to protect him.   

Several international organizations made numerous appeals to the Turkish authorities so that Dink’s murder is exposed.

And the show trial into Hrant Dink’s killing had a shameful end on Tuesday. The instructors of the murder were not exposed, and several facts and testimonies were not examined. 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. And The Turkish court made another comical blunder in the murder trial of Hrant Dink. The court announced its ruling for the eighteen defendants being tried, but it forgot about Coskun Igci, the nineteenth defendant. So, the court will reconvene to deliver a verdict on Igci

The court’s verdict disappointed many. Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Minister said this was a perilous development. The President stressed that he saw the public discontent. And the Justice Minister said the judicial process is not over and that the ruling can be appealed. And Turkey’s main opposition leader criticized the verdict, saying this is the Turkish PM’s justice.  

In connection with the fifth anniversary of Hrant Dink’s murder, commemoration events and protests are underway in Istanbul on Thursday.