ALTUĞ TANER AKÇAM v. TURKEY JUDGMENT 2 THE FACTS I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE A. The facts as submitted by the parties 5. The applicant was born in 1953 and lives in Ankara. 6. He is a professor of history who researches and publishes extensively on the subject of the historical events of 1915 concerning the Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire. 7. On 6 October 2006 the applicant published an editorial opinion in AGOS, a bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper, entitled “Hrant Dink, 301 and a Criminal Complaint”. In this editorial opinion the applicant criticised the prosecution of Hrant Dink, the late editor of AGOS, for the crime of “denigrating Turkishness” under Article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code. He also requested, in an expression of solidarity, to be prosecuted on the same ground for his opinions on the Armenian issue. 8. On 12 October 2006 a complaint was lodged against the applicant with the Eyüp public prosecutor. The complainant, R.A., alleged that the applicant’s defence of Hrant Dink in the editorial published in AGOS violated Articles 301, 214 (incitement to commit an offence), 215 (praising a crime and a criminal) and 216 (incitement to hatred and hostility among the people) of the Turkish Criminal Code. Following this complaint, the applicant was summoned to the Şişli public prosecutor’s office to make a statement. He was informed that he would be brought to the public prosecutor’s office by force, in accordance with Articles 145 and 146 of the Criminal Code, if he did not comply with the summons. 9. On 5 January 2007 the applicant went to the Şişli public prosecutor’s office to submit his defence statement in relation to the criminal complaint against him. The applicant stated, in the presence of his two lawyers, that he had indeed written the said article published in AGOS. He explained that the policy of the Ittihad ve Terakki1 towards the Armenians in 1915 could well be defined as genocide within the meaning of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of the United Nations of 1948. He had written the said article in order to express his opinion on the Armenian issue in the context of freedom of the press. He pointed out that he was a professor of history who had been working on this subject for almost twenty years and that he had expressed his opinion several times in his books and articles. He had not written the impugned article in order to 1. Ittihad ve Terakki (“Committee of Union and Progress”) is the name of a political party which ruled the Ottoman Empire at the relevant time.