CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE CAMPAIGN UNDERWAY IN TURKEY TO PROTEST ARTICLE 301 - CITIZENS URGED TO DECLARE SOLIDARITY WITH HRANT DINK

The Initiative for Freedom of Expression, a coalition in Turkey that works towards promoting democratic change through peaceful civil disobedience, has recently organized a unique campaign whereby Turkish citizens can sign an affidavit stating they agree with those particular statements made by Hrant Dink for which he had been prosecuted under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code and that they, in turn, wish to be prosecuted in a similar fashion.

(Below we present a copy of the letter that appeared on this group's website that some 500 people, including Taner Akcam, have already signed.)

I TOO AM HRANT DINK!!!!!!

The Initiative for Freedom of Expression is broadening the civil disobedience campaign launched earlier for Hrant Dink entitled: " I TOO AM HRANT DINK "

I agree with his words quoted below and considered as crime, I want to be tried too.

1. Quoted from the decision of 9th. Penal Department of Highcourt which approved six months prison sentence for Dink: (This decision was approved by General Assembly of Penal Departments and got finalised despite the objection of the chief prosecutor.) “There is no doubt that the phrase ‘The fresh blood that would replace the poisoned blood that Turk would bleed out, exists in the noble vein of Armenian that he would form with Armenia’ is an insult to Turkishness.”

2. Dink’s words that were published in the 21.07.2006 dated issue of Agos paper and led to the ongoing trial in Şişli Primary Court Nm. 2: (The next hearing is on 22 March 2007 at 10.00 am.) “Of course I say that it was a genocide since the consequences reveal and define it anyway. We see that the people who had lived on this land for four thousand years disappeared during the incidents ."

For more on this campaign and to see a list of signatures CLICK HERE