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Tens of thousands of people commemorated the Armenian intellectual Hrant Dink who was killed by the circles linked to the state. The commemorations coincided with the final hearing of the trial against the organisers of the assassination. The 14th Heavy Penal Court of Istanbul cleared the murderers of being members of a terror organisation. They condemned Yusuf Hayal, who gave the instruction of the murder to Ogun Samast, to aggravated life sentence for "having killed Hrant Dink in a deliberate way". Erhan Tuncel, the other important responsible for the murder received no sentence because of the murder, he was only sentenced to 10 years and 6 months for a bombing in McDonalds. The other accused were sentenced to several years of prison for helping them. Following the decision of the court of clearing Erhan Tuncel of the murder of Hrant Dink, he was set free in a few days. {divide}
On January 19, the 5th anniversary of the assassination of Dink, 30 thousand people gathered at the Taksim Square and marched towards the newspaper Agos, where Hrant Dink used to work. He was shot dead in front of this building. The masses shouted the slogans "We are all Hrant, we are all Armenians" in Turkish and Armenian languages and they promised Hrant that they will not live under this injustice. They opened black banners protesting the decision of the court. The main speech of the rally was made by journalist Karin Karakasli in the name of the Friends of Hrant. The commemorational rally was finished with songs in Armenian language.
After the rally, the police attacked the masses on their way back to Taksim and arrested 11 young people from Dev-Lis and SDP .
Hrant Dink was commemorated with large demonstrations in many other cities, among them Eskisehir, Findikli/Rize, Adana, Antep and Amed.
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