Armenian not allowed to attend father's funeral

Armenian not allowed to attend father's funeral
Thursday, February 11, 2010

Vercihan ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

An Armenian who was arrested after giving a newspaper interview in 2008 has not been allowed to attend his father’s funeral even though the law gives him seven days’ leave from prison in such cases.

The funeral has been kept waiting for at least a week in hopes that permission might be granted for Sarkis Hatspanian to travel. Hatspanian is a French citizen of Armenian origin. He was arrested and imprisoned in Armenia after he participated in the interview.

Prisoners are supposed to be allowed seven days’ monitored leave in the event of the death of a close relative, according to Armenian law experts and human-rights associations. Hatspanian’s family said he has been deprived of this right despite the efforts of the French Consulate.

“I wanted Sarkis to pay his last respects to our father. Unfortunately, there is no democracy in Armenia,” his brother Murat Hatspanian, who lives in Istanbul, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. “The [Armenian authorities] grant permission to anyone. Why not my brother? This is not fair. There are political reasons behind the permission not being granted.”

Born in Hatay, Hatspanian was an active member of an outlawed communist organization in Turkey in the 1970s, along with the late journalist Hrant Dink, a close friend. Dink was assassinated in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007.

According to Avedik Iskhanyan, head of the Armenia Helsinki Committee, an application had been made for Hatspanian to be granted permission for the seven-day leave, but the group’s efforts had proved fruitless. “We gave a guarantee that he would be back,” he told the Daily News. “Moreover, he would not be on his own. He would be under monitoring with an attendant next to him. That is unfair.”

Violation of law

Levon Zurabian, coordinator of the Armenian National Congress Headquarters, said not giving Hatspanian his seven days’ leave is a violation of Armenian law. “Hatspanian could not benefit from the seven-day leave that all prisoners benefit from because the laws are too vague,” Zurabian said. “The administration uses this vagueness to its own advantage. The decision is political.”

Hatspanian was imprisoned because of a November 2008 interview published in daily Haygagan Jamanag (Armenian Times), a newspaper known for supporting Armenia’s first president, Levon Ter-Petrossian. Armenia was preparing for presidential elections at the time. In the interview, Hatspanian said there might be people who were planning to assassinate Armenian President Serge Sarkisian.

“They were already looking for an excuse to arrest him. The interview played right into their hands,” the newspaper’s Hayk Kevorkyan told the Daily News. He added that there are currently at least 15 political prisoners in Armenia.

Turkish intellectuals have recently launched an online petition protesting Hazspanian’s imprisonment. The petition – published at gercek-inatcidir.blogspot.com – was launched by Sait Çetinoğlu, an author and editor at Belge International Publishing, and received more than 30 signatures in its first day.

A letter was also written to President Sarkisian demanding Hatspanian’s release.