Family of killed ethnic Armenian soldier of Turkish Army appeal Court’s ruling on compensation

A Turkish Court has delivered a verdict regarding the compensation to the family of Sevag Balıkçı, the ethnic Armenian soldier of the Turkish Army who was murdered in 2011. Istanbul’s Armenian Agos newspaper reported the Court ruled to pay Balıkçı’s family a compensation of around 11 thousand dollars.

The family’s attorney said the amount is extremely small compared to other similar cases. He said they have appealed the Court’s ruling in the Court of Appeals. The murder trial of Sevag Balıkçı is still ongoing.

The ethnic Armenian soldier was shot dead on April 24, 2011, only 23 days short from being demobilized. Immediately after the murder, the command of the military base announced the incident “happened during a joke with a co-serviceman, by an unintentional discharge.”

Sevag’s parents however, insist their son was killed for being Armenian. In 2013, a military court sentenced the shooter Kıvanç Ağaoglu to 4 and a half years imprisonment for murder, and a corporal, Sedrettin Ersyoz, was sentenced to 5 months for misconduct.

In 2014 a military court overturned the ruling on grounds that the facts are insufcient and the murder was unintentional.

After the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, a new decree was adopted on dissolving military courts, thus on February 2 the Sevag Balıkçı case was transferred to the Kozluk criminal court.