Congress’s resolution condemning the 1915 Armenian genocide gives Turkey a chance to disavow a grotesque state crime and abandon its hideous charade of bullying, propaganda and falsified history says Nouritza Matossian
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Hackers took control of the website of Agos, a leading Turkish-Armenian newspaper last Friday, the cyber-attackers uploaded images of the alleged murderer of the newspaper’s former editor-in-chief, and winner of the Index on Censorship’s 2008 journalism award, Hrant Dink. The hackers claimed there would be more of the same if the newspaper did not fix its reporting to “the way we see fit”. Agos has regularly published articles about the Armenian genocide.
Ozan Kilinc, editor of Kurdish newspaper Azadiya Welat, has been sentenced to 21 years in jail for publishing ‘Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) propaganda’. Comments or acts judged supportive of the PKK are a serious crime in Turkey. The PKK, branded a terrorist organisation, launched an armed campaign for Kurdish self-rule in 1984.
A 15-year-old girl has been sentenced to jail for nearly eight years after having been arrested at a demonstration in support of the banned Kurdish group PPK. The girl has been convicted of ‘terrorist’ offences, including ‘crimes on behalf of an illegal organisation’, ‘attending meetings and demonstrations in opposition to the law’ and ‘spreading propaganda for an illegal organisation. ’ In her defence the girl claimed that she did not know what the word propaganda meant and that she had only confessed after having been beaten while in custody.