DINK MURDER PROBE PITS EVERYONE AGANIST EVERYONE ELSE

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 12 2007

Ogun Samast, the suspected killer of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink, was arrested soon after the murder on Jan. 19, but suspicions
are growing over the motives behind the crime and who else may have
been involved, despite his quick capture and immediate confession to
the crime.

An ongoing investigation into the abhorrent murder is already
plagued by charges of information pollution and now it has come to
be overshadowed by an intense battle raging on among politicians,
within the security apparatus, and between the state institutions and
the media. Bickering between the police and gendarmerie and between
the media and the security organizations erupted in the early days of
the probe, when a scandalous video showing members of the police and
gendarmerie posing for photos with Samast at a police station hit the
headlines.The gendarmerie angrily denied reports that the video had
been shot at one of their stations and said the leakage to the media
of the footage was purposeful. The TGRT television which first aired
the video, and said it had been shot at a gendarmerie station, lost
its press accreditation from the General Staff soon after the episode.

Over the weekend, newspapers which have leveled tough charges against
both institutions for their conduct before and after the murder,
sharpened axes in a battle against the police. They said Yasin Hayal,
one of the main suspects who has earlier confessed to inciting the
murder, had been indirectly instructed by a senior police official
in the Black Sea province of Trabzon to kill Dink by Erhan Tuncel,
another key suspect who reportedly had worked with the police and the
gendarmerie as an informant and gave them tip-offs about the plot to
kill Dink several months before the assassination.

Newspapers cited Hayal’s lawyer and private notes in his notebook from
a meeting he had with Hayal and said Yahya Ozturk, head of the police
anti-terror department in Trabzon, had encouraged Erhan Tuncel. "This
flag has fallen right to the ground. It is your duty to pick it up,"
Ozturk apparently told Tuncel.

The police angrily dismissed the reports as "unfounded, slanderous
and fictitious." In a statement, the Police Department also vowed to
seek legal action against those who "make and publish" the claim.

Separately, Ozturk filed a complaint against newspapers which
published the accusations, which he said were a "part of a smear
campaign against me and my department."

Newspapers have already grilled the police for failing to follow up on
several tip-offs from Tuncel about the plot to kill Dink, and several
columnists have backed calls for the resignation of Ýstanbul Police
Chief Celalettin Cerrah over the conduct of the police both before
and after the murder.

Tuncel reportedly warned the police and the gendarmerie as early
as 11 months before the killing. His connection with the police
was suspiciously terminated a few months before the murder and
his tip-offs were never followed up. Head of the Ýstanbul police
intelligence department has recently been sacked for not heeding the
warnings as part of an ongoing investigation and Cerrah may also face
investigation on the same charges.

Judiciary, MÝT also in the picture As the charges against the police
mount, the media also questioned conduct of the judiciary in Trabzon,
where Samast and Hayal come from. Hayal was arrested for a McDonalds
bombing in 2004, injuring six people, but he was set free after a
surprisingly brief ten-month term in jail. The Turkish daily newspaper,
Milliyet, reported yesterday that members of the panel of judges
that ruled for Hayal’s release were all replaced with new members
shortly before the court session. Two judges in the three-member
panel were judges dealing with commercial disputes and property cases,
Milliyet reported.

Other reports claimed the National Intelligence Agency (MÝT) may also
have played a role in the murder. On Saturday, the daily Hurriyet
published what it said was part of Hayal’s testimony at the police
and said a MÝT member had told him after the McDonalds bombing that
he could offer help to reduce punishment.

Hayal said he had been introduced to the 40-45-year-old man whom he
identified as Ýhsan or Ýsmail Kasap. These reports were followed by a
statement from the MÝT, which criticized leakage of such allegations
to the press and dismissed employing any personnel named Ýhsan or
Ýsmail Kasap.

The murder also deepened divisions among political parties, with
opposition lashing out at the government for allowing and encouraging
"infiltration of religious sectarian elements" into the police and
demanding dismissal of both Ýstanbul Police Chief Cerrah and Interior
Minister Abdulkadir Aksu for handling of the murder probe.

The government appeared to be linking the murder with shadowy "deep
state," a move which opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP)
dismissed as "empty talk."

The fallout from the Dink murder was perhaps greatest on the Grand
Unity Party (BBP). Chairman Muhsin Yazýcýoðlu angrily vowed to seek
court action against the press for accusing his party of links with
the murder after they discovered a photo showing him and other members
of his party with Erhan Tuncel.

–Boundary_(ID_a/Xy/21hePQ5FjYlxEFaGg)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress