‘DINK CASE SHOULD NOT PIT POLICE, GENDARMERIE AGAINST EACH OTHER’

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 5 2007

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said yesterday Turkey’s two main
security organizations, the police and the gendarmerie, should work
in cooperation and effectively share intelligence, amid allegations
of a rift between the two institutions.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said yesterday Turkey’s two main
security organizations, the police and the gendarmerie, should work
in cooperation and effectively share intelligence.

Gul, responding to questions on allegations of a rift between the
Gendarmerie Command and the Police Directorate-General after the
murder on Jan. 19 of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, said
cooperation and solidarity between the two institutions would help
prevent wrongdoing.

Allegations of disagreement between the gendarmerie, attached to the
General Staff, and the police have become widespread after the leaking
to the press of footage showing members of the police and gendarmerie
posing for a "souvenir photo" with Ogun Samast, the prime suspect in
Dink’s murder.

The footage, obtained exclusively by a private television station,
was first reported to have been shot at one of the gendarmerie’s
stations. But the Gendarmerie Command angrily denied the report and
said it had been shot at a police station in Samsun, where Samast had
been captured after a nationwide manhunt. The gendarmerie also said
that gendarmerie personnel seen in the images were personnel assigned
to hand over the suspect to the police and added that the leaking of
the footage to the press was "purposeful," without elaborating.

The police, for its part, have announced an investigation has been
launched to find out how the footage was leaked to the press.

"There should be no dispute between the gendarmerie and the police,"
Gul told reporters in Ankara, just before departing for a visit to
the United States. "These are all institutions of Turkey. These are
institutions that should work in cooperation and should not envy each
other." Samast was seen in the video holding out a Turkish flag and
posing with officers. Behind Samast was a poster with another Turkish
flag carrying the words of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern
Turkey: "The nation’s land is sacred. It cannot be left to fate."

Information overload?

But wary of negative effects that the press coverage may have on
the ongoing investigation, Ýstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor Aykut
Cengiz Engin said most of the information published in the press was
"incorrect" and added, "We are concerned that this kind of wrong
and confusing information might lead to unjustified expectations
in society."

Cengiz also complained that testimonies of the suspects were published
in newspapers and that this complicated the investigation.

"We ask members of the press not to pay attention to statements and
information other than those provided by authorized officials and show
the necessary sensitivity for the well-being of the investigation,"
he said.

Engin noted that some 26 people have been detained in connection with
the murder and that eight of them were later sent to jail.

–Boundary_(ID_iDZjf+yREWTrjRrX0vlZuA)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress