Veteran Armenian-Turkish editor dies at 80

ISTANBUL

Sarkis Seropyan, the veteran editor of Istanbul-based weekly Agos’ Armenian language pages, has passed away at the age of 80.

Seropyan died on March 28 after succumbing to pancreatic cancer, news portal T24 reported.

The journalist, who was among the people to establish Agos, will be laid to rest on March 31 in Istanbul’s Şişli Armenian Cemetery following a ceremony at the Surp Vartanants Church in Şişli’s Feriköy neighborhood.

Agos announced Seropyan’s death via its website, stressing that he was the “newspaper’s history, the chief pillar, and our everything.”

Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek sent weekly Agos’ editor-in-chief Yetvart Danzikyan a message of condolence, expressing his grief over the loss.

“I am deeply grieved by the death of Serkis Seropyan, one of the veteran founders and the Armenian language pages editor of the Agos newspaper, which is the unique sound of diversity in Turkey,” read Çiçek’s statement.

Seropyan, who was born in 1935, started working after graduating from middle school, during which he wrote articles to various journals and newspapers in the Armenian language. He was among the group of people who founded the Agos newspaper in 1996 following a call by the late Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink. Since the paper’s establishment, Seropyan had been the Armenian language pages editor.

Dink was murdered on Jan. 19, 2007, in broad daylight on a busy street outside of Agos’ office in Şişli.

Ogün Samast, Dink’s killer, who was 17 years old when he committed the crime, is serving a sentence of 22 years and 10 months in a high-security prison for the shooting.