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ARMENIAN-TURKISH EDITOR SAYS TURKEY MUST LEARN ITS HISTORY


ISTANBUL, FEBRUARY 14, ARMENPRESS: In an interview to the Turkish daily Radical, Hrant Dink, the chief editor of Istanbul-based bilingual (Turkish and Armenian) weekly Agos said now was time for Turkey to start examining its past in order to learn the truth about what had happened to Armenians in 1915 and several years later.

“Without talking to itself on this subject Turkey will not be able to talk about it to Armenians,” Dink said, adding that opening of borders between the two countries and establishment of diplomatic relations would become a strong impetus, the driving force for resolving all existing sensitive problems, spoiling relations of the tow nations. “People do not want to dig deep in the history and remain there. The most important thing is to save the future of both nations,” Dink said,. Dink was acquitted earlier this month by a Turkish court. He was on trial for saying the Turkish national anthem and a national oath were discriminatory. Dink was facing charges for remarks he made at a human rights conference in 2002 in southeastern Turkey criticizing Turkey’s national anthem and an oath taken by Turkish schoolchildren each day in which they say, “Happy is the one who says, ‘I am a Turk.'”

A court in the southeastern city of Sanliurfa acquitted Dink, a Turkish citizen and editor of the bilingual Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos. Dink did not attend the trial. In October, Dink was convicted of “insulting Turkishness” and received a six-month suspended sentence. The case had become one of several prominent prosecutions over speech that prompted questions about Turkey’s dedication to democracy from officials of the European Union, which Turkey is trying to join. Dink appealed that sentence and said he would leave the country unless his conviction was overturned.

Separately, a Turkish prosecutor filed new charges against Dink in December for insulting the “Turkish judiciary” with his comments. That trial will start in Istanbul on May 16.

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