Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
Jan 26 2007
Turkish party official accuses "Westerners" of instigating murder of
journalist
Adana, 26 January: Grand Unity Party [BBP] Deputy General Chairman
Edip Ozbas charged that it was "Westerners" who instigated the
assassination of Agos General Publishing Manager Hrant Dink.
Speaking at a press conference in Adana where he was visiting his
party’s province organization, Ozbas said that certain circles have
been using Dink’s assassination as an excuse to bring out the
"poison" accumulated inside them against the Turkish nation.
Charging that Western states have pursued various objectives in
Turkey’s geography for many centuries, Ozbas said: "The same game is
being played today. We have never lost our faith that independent
judicial organs will lift the veil of secrecy behind the Dink murder,
which we condemn strongly. However, the real powers behind this
murder and similar acts of terror, the ones who instigate them, are
Westerners who have forced Turkey to adapt to the EU acquis."
Ozbas continued: "Politicians and so-called intellectuals who have
been trying to impose the EU acquis on Turkey irrationally for many
years bear primary responsibility for the murders, the muggings, and
the corruption that have been perpetrated, and the surrender of
[Turkish] lands to foreigners. Those who have levelled accusations
against the BBP and General Chairman Muhsin Yazicioglu will have to
give a reckoning in the future for what they have done to the
nation."
Answering a question, Ozbas said that Western states want Article 301
of the Constitution [as published] to be amended in accordance with
their wishes. He added: "[They want] insults against the Turkish
identity to be permitted but any remarks to the effect that ‘there
was no Armenian genocide’ to be a crime. This cannot be accepted. For
the past 84 years, the Turkish state has included in its constitution
provisions that protect it. It will preserve those provisions in the
future also."