The ruling over the killing of Armenian-Turkish soldier Sevag Balikcı, sentencing the perpetrator to four years and five months in prison met severe condemnation.

The parents of the soldier stressed that the ruling was not adequate to the crime committed. “Sevag died from a racist bullet. Is it truly a punishment that a chauvinist who killed him merited?” Sevag’s father, Garabed, questioned.

According to Sevag’s mother, Ani, the hearing was marred by a number of violations, with eyewitnesses permanently changing their testimonies, which might come as a result of intimidation.

As Professor Gencay Gursoy told a news conference later, “Sevag’s murder is very similar to that of Hrant Dink. This is one of the cases that Turkish justice chooses to ignore,” Ermenihaber quoted him as saying.