Today’s Zaman, Turkey
June 30 2007

Lawyer: Dink murder may be linked to Ümraniye gang

A lawyer for slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink’s family
said yesterday that the killing could be linked with a shadowy group
uncovered when the police found a cache of hand grenades and
explosives during a raid on a house in the Ümraniye district of
Ýstanbul in June.

Fethiye Çetin, speaking to reporters at a press conference ahead of
the first hearing of a trial on Dink’s killing, said retired
noncommissioned officer Oktay Y., a key suspect arrested after
discovery of 27 hand grenades and TNT explosives in Ümraniye, was a
co-plaintiff in past court cases against Dink. Dink had faced charges
of "insulting Turkishness" for his comments on Armenian claims of
genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Dink, who called for
reconciliation, was a hated figure for radical nationalists.

Çetin also said much evidence linked to the Jan. 19 killing,
including video records recorded by security cameras in banks near
the crime scene, had disappeared.

The Ümraniye incident is believed to be linked with last year’s
attack on the Council of State as well as a series of bomb attacks on
secularist Cumhuriyet daily. Retired Capt. Muzaffer Tekin, who has
also been arrested in connection with Ümraniye incident, was a chief
suspect in the Council of State attack, in which a judge was killed
by a gunman who said he opposed a decision of the court on teachers’
rights to wear a headscarf outside their school.

Journalist and columnist Ali Bayramoðlu, also attending the press
conference, said the Dink murder was connected with other shadowy
incidents such as the Council of State attack and the murder of three
Christian missionaries in the eastern province of Malatya earlier
this year.

Trial starts on July 2

The 18 suspects charged with involvement in the murder of Dink, who
was the editor in chief of the bilingual Agos weekly, will be
standing trial starting Monday.

Dink was gunned down in broad daylight outside the Ýstanbul office of
Agos in January of this year. Hundreds of thousands took to the
streets on the day of his funeral, bearing aloft banners reading "We
are all Hrant, We are all Armenian" in protest of his assassination.

The 18 suspects, including Erhan Tuncel and Yasin Hayal, for whom the
prosecutor demands life imprisonment, will be appearing before
justice for the first time at the 14th High Criminal Court of
Ýstanbul.

Prominent figures from Turkey’s intellectual community from academics
and human rights groups representatives, to journalists and authors
will be following Monday’s trial.

The alleged trigger man, teenager O.S., who faces various charges
including "murder with premeditation" and "membership of a terrorist
organization," quickly confessed, but the net grew much wider.

Ultranationalists Tuncel, a university student, and Hayal, who served
time for the 2004 bombing of a McDonald’s, are charged with planning
the crime and membership of a terrorist group. But the slate of
defendants reaches up into the political ranks, including Yaþar
Cihan, chairman of a local branch of the ultranationalist Grand Unity
Party (BBP), who is accused of giving money to Hayal after the
shooting.

Due to the prime suspect of the assassination, O.S., being younger
than 18, the trial will be a closed hearing with only the suspects,
suspects’ lawyers and lawyers of the plaintiff side being allowed
inside the court room.

Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel-laureate author, who is also listed as a
victim in the indictment for having been publicly threatened with
death by Hayal, will not appear in the courtroom on Monday as he is
currently abroad. Pamuk attracted the anger of ultranationalists when
he said during an interview with a foreign newspaper last year that
"1 million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in this land."

Security will be heightened at the courthouse before the trial, which
is likely to be followed by a large number of individuals both from
Turkey and abroad.

>From the indictment

The indictment, drawn up by prosecutors Selim Berna Altay and Fikret
Seçen, demands life imprisonment for Tuncel on charges of inciting
Hrant Dink’s murder. The indictment seeks additional jail time from
22-and-a-half to 48 years on charges of leading an armed terrorist
organization, manufacturing explosive materials, detonating explosive
material, damaging property and causing the injury of six others.

Tuncel had earlier been prosecuted for placing a bomb in a fast-food
restaurant in the northern province of Trabzon.

The indictment also demands a lifetime sentence for Hayal, for
inciting the murder of Hrant Dink. An additional jail term of between
18 and 30 years on account of being a leader of an armed terrorist
organization, threatening Ferit Orhan Pamuk and carrying a gun
without a license is also being sought.

The indictment demands from 18 years to 24 years for O.S., the
alleged hit man, on charges of premeditated murder. O.S. is also
facing an additional jail term of eight-and-a-half to 18 years on
charges of membership of a terrorist organization and carrying a gun
without a license.

Suspects Mustafa Öztürk, Tuncay Uzundal, Zeynel Abidin Yavuz, Ahmet
Ýskender and Ersin Yolcu face from 22-and-a-half to 35 years on
charges of aiding the murder of Hrant Dink, and membership of a
terrorist organization. Defendants Cihan and Halis Egemen are facing
from seven-and-a-half to 15 years on charges of aiding a terrorist
organization.

The indictment accuses Salih Hacýsalihoðlu, Alper Esirgemez, Ýrfan
Özkan, Osman Alpay, Erbil Susaman, Numan Þiþman, Þenol Akduman and
Veysel Toprak of having aided a terrorist organization, carrying guns
without a license and concealing a crime, and demands from
seven-and-a-half to 16 years in prison.

30.06.2007

Today’s Zaman Ýstanbul