Turks to remember murdered Dink /bbc


By Sarah Rainsford
BBC News, Istanbul

Hrant Dink's image on a poster

A ceremony is to be held in Istanbul to mark one year since the murder of the ethnic Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink.

Hrant Dink campaigned for his country to confront one of the darkest chapters of its past: the mass killing of Ottoman Armenians in 1915.

He was convicted of "insulting Turkishness", which many say labelled him a traitor to extreme nationalists.

Despite EU pressure on Turkey to change or abolish the law under which he was convicted, Article 301 still remains.

Thousands of people are expected to gather close to the spot where Hrant Dink was murdered.

It was 1457 local time (1257 GMT) - and at that time exactly, one year on, the crowd will mark a moment of silence.

Target

At a short ceremony led by Hrant Dink's close friends and family, they will remember a man who dared to speak out about one of the most sensitive issues there is here - the killing of hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Armenians.

Modern-day Turkey denies it was genocide. Hrant Dink's stance made him a hate figure for extreme nationalists.

But his friends believe it was his conviction under the controversial Article 301 - for "insulting Turkishness" - that singled him out as a target.

The government has long pledged to amend that law, which is a major obstacle to free speech here, and to Turkey's ambitions of EU membership.

Its critics say the revisions it has proposed are superficial at best, but even those have not been agreed on officially, or unveiled, yet.

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