STRASBOURG, Sept 27 (AFP) - 20h15 - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday ordered Turkey to pay damages to a Turkish journalist for repressing her freedom of speech in a case where she was accused of writing Kurdish separatist propaganda.

Asli Gunes was the editor of a political publication called Hedef (target in Turkish) when she co-wrote an article in March 1992 in which she criticized the Turkish military operations against Kurdish separatists.

Gunes was sentenced in December 1995 to 16 months in prison. A Turkish court later suspended the sentence and in 2003 annulled her conviction at the expiration of a three-year period of suspension.

To convict Ankara of violating the European convention on human rights, the judges in Strasbourg had to determine that the incriminating article was not written to incite hatred, which in their eyes was "the essential element to take into consideration."

They also said that the suspended sentence had in effect "limited greatly" Gunes's ability to publish critiques over the three-year period.

The European judges also found that the length of the legal process, nearly seven years, was excessive.

The authorities in Ankara were ordered to pay Gunes damages of 8,500 euros (10,200 dollars).