The assassination of Hrant Dink was a tragedy which had far-reaching consequences, a Turkish expert said.

“Thousands of Turks took to the streets to give way to their indignation,” Zafer Yoruk, Lecturer of Media and Politics at Izmir University of Economics, told a news conference in Yerevan.

Commenting on the attitude towards Armenians in Turkey in general, he said that the word ‘Armenian’ is used as an offence or a joke.

“However, as Freud used to say, true pain reveals through jokes,” Yoruk said.

He also noted that the forthcoming liturgy in Holy Cross Church in Akhtamar island is the first step towards freedom of religion.