PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release- January 19, 2007

Contact: Frank V. Zerunyan, Esq. 310- 971-5219

ARMENIAN BAR ASSOCIATION CONDEMNS THE MURDER OF HRANT DINK AND MOURNS THE LOSS OF A FREEDOM OF SPEECH ADVOCATE

Armenian Bar Association will be represented at demonstration in Los Angeles

Los Angeles, CA—The Armenian Bar Association mourns the loss of a leading freedom of speech advocate and condemns the brutal murder of this journalist of Armenian descent. Hrant Dink had the courage to speak about the Armenian Genocide in Turkey, a place where he was being persecuted and tried for his remarks.

“I on behalf of my brothers and sisters of the Armenian Bar Association deeply regret the senseless killing of a freedom loving journalist. I extend my deepest sympathies and condolences to our brother Hrant’s family and members of the Armenian and, freedom and truth-loving, Turkish communities,” said Frank V. Zerunyan, Chairman of the Armenian Bar Association.

As a journalist, Mr. Dink was committed to the basic human right of free speech. On October 28, 2006, Mr. Dink expounded on this topic before the membership of the Armenian Bar Association in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In his remarks to the audience of Armenian-American judges, prosecutors, and lawyers, Mr. Dink spoke about the importance of free speech, as well as his pending prosecution in Turkey for writing about the Armenian Genocide in his newspaper, Agos. He also expressed concern about proposed French legislation that would make it a crime to deny the Armenian Genocide, explaining that, "Defending and advocating for the Armenian Genocide is a human responsibility. But, it also is a human responsibility to defend the freedom of speech. No course should permit the limitation of free speech because that freedom is paramount." Mr. Dink was presented with the Liberty Bell Award for his journalistic efforts to protect and keep alive freedom of speech.

The Committee to Protect Journalists keeps statistics on countries where journalists have been killed. In Turkey, "18 journalists have been killed for their work, many of them murdered, making it the eighth deadliest country in the world for journalists."

In September 2006, a prosecutor opened a case against Dink for "insulting Turkishness" by telling a foreign news agency that the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey were genocide. "Of course I say it was genocide," Dink said. "With these events you see the disappearance of a people who lived on these lands for 4,000 years."

In October 2006, Novelist Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first Turk to do so. He said, "Thirty-thousand Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these lands, and nobody but me dares to talk about it."

In December 2005, Mr. Pamuk stated that, “My crime is to have ‘publicly denigrated Turkish identity.’ The prosecutor will ask that I be imprisoned for three years. I should perhaps find it worrying that the Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was tried in the same court for the same offense, under Article 301 of the same statute, and was found guilty, but I remain optimistic.” Mr. Dink’s and Mr. Pamuk’s devotion to freedom of speech exposed them to prosecution for "insulting Turkishness.”

The Armenian Bar Association is the world’s largest non-profit organization of attorneys of Armenian descent.

The Armenian Bar Association will be represented at a special vigil being held tonight at 8:00 pm at the Headquarters of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church, located at 3325 North Glenoaks Boulevard, Burbank, California where a short video will be shown of Mr. Dink's recent visit to the Los Angeles area on November 5th, 2006.

The Armenian Bar Association will also be represented at a Press Conference on Saturday, January 20, 2007 at 10:00 am in front of the Turkish Consulate located at 6300 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90048.