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The GuardianThe son of the murdered ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and a journalist colleague were convicted yesterday of insulting Turkish identity for publishing remarks that had also landed Dink in court.
Aram Dink, and Serkis Seropyan, both editors at the Turkish-Armenian daily Agos, were each given a one-year suspended sentence under Turkey's controversial law on insulting "Turkishness", their lawyer, Erdal Dogan, said.
The case against Hrant Dink - for calling the killings of Armenians during the first world war a genocide - was dropped when he was shot dead in January, but the court continued with the prosecution of the other men under article 301 of Turkish law. Hrant Dink had been convicted and was appealing against the decision when he was killed by a Turkish youth. Mr Dogan said Aram Dink and Seropyan would appeal.
"The discriminatory mentality which turned intolerance into a state tradition has yet again declared criticism and expression of opinion an insult to Turkishness and a crime," said the group Human Rights Associated after the court decision. The EU is urging Turkey to scrap the law, which it says restricts freedom of speech. Armenians say up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in 1915-17, before modern Turkey was born. Turkey rejects the label genocide, insisting that the death toll is inflated and that the killings occurred at a time of civil unrest.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/turkey/story/0,,2189429,00.html