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The state of freedom of expression and human rights in Turkey has deteriorated over the past years, following the assassination of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of Armenia's National Academy of Sciences (NAS), Ruben Safrastyan, told Panorama.am. Speaking of the murder trial, Safrastyan doubted whether the court would ever issue a fair verdict and the offenders would be held responsible.

“The developments in Turkey over the past years indicate Erdoghan [Rejep Tayyip Erdoghan – President of Turkey] drives Turkey in an increasingly authoritarian direction. The current climate in the country provides no opportunity for exercising freedom of speech. The Dink assassination came to exemplify a silence of freedom of speech at an individual level. Yet these days, the crackdown on freedom of expression have switched from individual to mass levels. Thousands are arrested and prosecuted for thinking or expressing their opinions differing from those of the ruling elite,” the turkologist explained.

Safrastyan noted that it was previously thought the murder was organized by nationalists driven by state-nurtured ideology of Pan-Turkism. “I am convinced those people were used by the state machine to silence Dink,” the Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies said, who also warned other outspoken critics of the Erdogan government, against retributions, Armenian MM of the Turkish Parliament Garo Palyan among them. 

“Paylan actually continues the Dink cause. His voice resonates in the Turkish parliament and he is never afraid of voicing matters deemed dangerous to raise in public domains. He may not be killed but state pressures, retribution and intimidations against him are not excluded,” Safrastyan concluded.