Turkey’s “Say No to Racism and Nationalism” Movement has filed a lawsuit against Okan Bas, a journalist of Statuko monthly of Samsun city, who had depicted as a hero Ogun Samast, the killer of Hrant Dink—the founder and former chief editor of Istanbul’s Agos Armenian bilingual weekly, who was gunned down in 2007 in front of his office building.  

In the lawsuit, which is signed by renowned Turkish historian and publicist Baskin Oran, former MP Ufuk Uras, and other intellectuals, Okan Bas is accused of praising the crime and the perpetrator, insulting the memory of a person, and encouraging the committing of the crime.   

In the January 2012 issue of Statuko, Okan Bas wrote an article entitled “He killed someone called Hrant Dink. Did he do something bad?”, in which he praised Ogun Samast and portrayed Hrant Dink’s Armenian identity in an offensive manner.