The Times, UK
Feb 2 2007
Anger as film shows police posing with editor’s killer
Suna Erdem in Istanbul
Four policemen have been suspended from duty after posing in front of
a Turkish flag with the suspected murderer of an ethnic Armenian
journalist. Another four security police have been transferred to
other duties after film of the incident was shown on Turkish
television, offering further apparent evidence that the killing may
have had support from within the security forces.
It shows officials, some in uniform, arm-in-arm with Ogun Samast, who
has confessed to the murder of Hrant Dink, the Editor of Agos, a
bilingual Armenian-Turkish newspaper.
Mr Dink, 52, was hated by ultra-nationalists for his writings about
the mass killing of Armenians on Ottoman soil during the First World
War.
In the film, broadcast by TGRT television after days of official
denials that such footage existed, the military police are seen with
Samast under a quotation by Kemal Ataturk, the revered founder of
modern Turkey, saying: `The nation’s land is sacred. It cannot be
left to its fate.’ Someone out of vision calls Samast `my lion’, and
urges him to tidy his hair.
Since the murder on January 19, the media have been alleging some
degree of involvement from within the state. Even Tayyip Erdogan, the
Prime Minister, has questioned whether the killing was the work of
Turkey’s `deep state’ – shadowy nationalist elements in the security
forces willing to act outside the law. He has also acknowledged that
exposing the `deep state’ was almost impossible.
`This cassette is proof that the murderer and his partners in crime
are not alone, and that people who, when necessary, can perform
similar acts are spreading throughout the state apparatus – primarily
the police and paramilitary organisations,’ wrote Ismet Berkan,
Editor of Radikal, the liberal daily newspaper.
Ismail Caliskan, a police spokesman, said the officers involved were
being investigated. But the military police attacked those who leaked
and used the pictures. `We expect the media to be more sensitive with
respect to deliberate attempts to damage the Turkish armed forces,’ a
statement said.
Despite periodic official attempts to play down the implications, the
Dink investigation continues to produce revelations pointing to
complicity, or at least tacit support for the murder, from within
state ranks.
First the Interior Ministry sacked the police chief and governor of
Trabzon, the Black Sea town where Samast lived, for failing to act
against what appears to be a hotbed of violent nationalism. Police
were criticised for failing to keep tabs on Yasin Hayal, the man who
admitted inciting Samast, since he was released from jail after
serving a sentence for bombing a McDonald’s restaurant in 2004.
It was then revealed that an ultra-nationalist who had associated
with Hayal was a police informer and had exposed plans to kill Mr
Dink eleven months previously.
Thousands of mourners attended the funeral of Mr Dink last week in
protest against a tide of nationalism, which has prompted some
politicians to play the right-wing card ahead of elections this year.