Every year on 19 January, the day Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was murdered in 2007, the Gorki commemorates his political engagement and his life-long commitment to reconciliation between the Armenian and Turkish populations. Following the early release of his murderer in November 2023 after 16 years of imprisonment, we take a closer look at the legal complications related to freedom of thought and speech in Turkey. Arrested Justice brings together the real-life stories of Hrant Dink, the author Doğan Akhanlı and the imprisoned philanthropist Osman Kavala in the form of two productions, a presentation and a panel discussion, highlighting how closely linked their biographies are in the fight for freedom of speech.
Despite its clear defeat in the local elections last March, the coalition of Erdoğan's party AKP and the ultra-nationalist MHP doesn't flinch at keeping up the political repression. Similar to the laws passed in Russia and Hungary in recent years, a so-called ›spying bill‹ is being drafted to criminalize critical, independent news channels, cultural institutions, and civil society organizations and cut their links to foreign countries.
In the accompanying panel to Arrested Justice, Erden Kosova talks to the director of Anadolu Kültür, Asena Günal, and the lawyer of Dink’s family, Hülya Deveci, about the legal challenges in Turkey and the latest developments in the Osman Kavala/Gezi and Hrant Dink cases.
Talk in Turkish with simultaneous translation into German
