ISTANBUL: An Istanbul court on Friday handed life sentences to two former police chiefs and two top ex-security officers over the gangland-style killing of a high-profile Turkish-Armenian journalist who promoted cross-cultural ties.

Dozens of suspects faced a range of charges over the 2007 death of Hrant Dink, who was shot twice in the head in broad daylight outside the front door of Agos, a bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper he edited.

The 52-year-old’s death plunged Turkey’s Armenian community into mourning and sparked a sprawling trial that lasted over a decade and involved top security officers who were accused of knowing about the murder plot but failing to act.

Dink’s work focused on mending ties between Ankara and Yerevan, still sorely strained by the mass killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I, which Turkey refuses to recognise as genocide.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2021