NEWS

SYRIZA, the radical left party that won the general elections in Greece, has reached an agreement with the conservative Independent Greeks Party (ANEL) to form a coalition government. SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras has sworn in as the Prime Minister of the new government.

Responding to a parliamentary question, the government of Germany announced that it would not use the term “Genocide” for the 1915 Armenian Genocide, and that the appraisal of 1915 was primarily the responsibility of Turkey and Armenia.

The lost gravestone of Garabet Balyan, the architect of the Dolmabahçe Palace, and a member of the Balyan family praised by President Erdoğan as ‘competent masters’ of their art, was discovered at a Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality construction site in Kartal.

In the Zirve Publishing House Massacre case held in Malatya, verdicts of release were issued for three suspects tried for instigating the murders. Lawyers of the victims’ families share the view that the releases are a further outcome of the consensus reached between the AK Party government and ultra-nationalist circles after the 17-25 December corruption scandals.

The court has announced its verdict in the case of Ali İsmail Korkmaz who was murdered in Eskişehir during the Gezi Resistance. The accused police officers Mevlüt Saldoğan and Yalçın Akbulut each received 10-year sentences, while the other accused police officers were acquitted. The bakery personnel involved in the murder each received sentences of 6 years and 8 months.

At the commemoration rally held in Malatya, an unidentified young man pulled a gun on the group. Police intervened before he could fire the weapon.

Hrant Dink is being commemorated in Istanbul in front of his newspaper Agos on the 8th anniversary of his passing. You can follow developments here live.

Cizre Police Chief Ercan Demir, for whom an arrest warrant was issued in relation to the Hrant Dink murder case investigation, has reportedly turned himself in.

On the 8th anniversary of Hrant Dink’s assassination, poet and playwright Murathan Mungan spoke to the crowd gathered fort he commemoration ceremony: “One of Hrant Dink’s dreams was the opening of borders between Armenia and Turkey to allow for the two peoples to commingle. Friends, we should own up not only to the memory of our lost loved ones, but also to their dreams. And if that border were to be opened today, it would mean opening the door to so many other things. (…) The opening of that border would so much become the year 2015.”

Agos founder and chief editor Hrant Dink was commemorated at his graveside on the 8th anniversary of his assassination with a ceremony attended by his family and friends.