The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling that Turkey failed to protect the life of journalist and human rights activist Hrant Dink has been welcomed by press freedom and human rights organisations around the world.
The ECHR on Tuesday held Turkey guilty of failing to protect Turkish-Armenian journalist Dink when authorities knew his assassination was imminent, and of then failing to adequately investigate his murder.
The court said in its ruling, "None of the three authorities informed of the planned assassination and its imminent realisation had taken action to prevent it. Admittedly, as stressed by the Turkish Government, Hrant Dink had not requested police protection. However, he could not possibly have known about the plan to assassinate him. It had been for the Turkish authorities, who were informed of the plan, to take action to safeguard Hrant Dink’s life."
The court, based in Strasbourg, France, ordered Turkey to pay 100,000 euros jointly to Hrant Dink’s wife and children, and 5,000 euros to his brother. It was also to pay 28,595 euros to the applicants jointly for costs and expenses incurred.
The ECHR's ruling has been welcomed by journalists and human rights organisations that have been campainging for justice.
"The Turkish authorities must now, for the first time, investigate all the circumstances around the death of Hrant Dink and bring those responsible to justice, whatever their position of power," said Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International's expert on Turkey.
New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomed the verdict and urged the Turkish government to finally bring the perpetrators of Dink's murder to justice. "The ECHR's ruling is a reminder that three and a half years after Dink's murder, justice remains elusive," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa programme coordinator. "We call on the Turkish authorities to abide by the ruling, as the foreign minister has already indicated they would, and to finally bring the perpetrators to justice."
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) hailed the judgment. "This is a landmark judgement that outlaws impunity and holds governments to account when they fail to protect journalists," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. "No government can escape its obligation to protect journalists who express dissent, even in the case of opinions not to their political taste."
Fethiye Çetin, a Dink family lawyer, said the ECHR ruling was proof that Dink did not insult Turkishness and that if the Dink murder had been solved “dark forces within the state” would have come to light.. “The state’s black box will be opened. We have an opportunity from now on to restart the investigations and continue to work to find Dink’s murderer. This will enable us to even the score,” Çetin said at a press conference.
Meanwhile, an NGO and a Spanish judge received on Wednesday an international award presented in the name of the journalist. The International Hrant Dink Foundation honoured anti-militarist NGO Vicdani Retciler Hareketi, an organisation opposed to military service, and Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon Real, who investigated important criminal cases in Spain, including terrorism, organised crimes and money laundering.
Hrant Dink was the editor-in-chief of Agos, a bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly newspaper published from Istanbul. He was killed in January 2007 by a teenager who admitted his ultranationalist loyalties in court. The suspect, who has been in prison awaiting trial, and 17 others have charged in connection with Dink's murder.
A well-known journalist and one who was well-respected by his colleagues, Dink had been the target of several prosecutions over his views on the massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman empire. In 2005, he received a six-month suspended sentence for “humiliating Turkish identity.” He was prosecuted again in September 2006 over an interview he gave to Reuters in which he referred to the massacres in Anatolia during the First World War as “genocide.” He had been facing a possible three-year prison sentence at the time of his killing.
