DINK MURDER TRIAL OPENS AMIDST PROTESTS
E. BariÞ AltintaÞ Ýstanbul
Today’s Zaman, Turkey
July 3 2007
The trial of 18 people charged with involvement in the murder of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink opened on Monday behind closed
doors, six months after the murder took place in Ýstanbul.
Eighteen suspects — including O.S., the 17-year-old who confessed to
gunning down Dink — went on trial for the first time yesterday. The
trial will take place behind closed doors because O.S. is a minor.
Ultranationalists Erhan 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 in a terrorist organization.
The slate of defendants reaches high 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. During the first day of the hearing,
Tuncel was reported to have said in his testimony that Hayal was "a
kid with nothing to do; has done nothing wrong. Has no bad intentions."
O.S. was reported to have demanded trial by a juvenile court,
plaintiffs’ lawyers informed the press during short breaks they took
throughout the day. Tuncel and Hayal were also reported to have
briefly bickered over remarks on each other’s psychological state
during the hearing, according to a press statement from Fahriye Cetin,
a lawyer representing the Dink family. "O.S. exercised his right to
keep silent and did not testify," she said in the evening when the
judge took a pause for 15 minutes.
Dink’s wife, Rakel Dink, in her court testimony blamed the negligence
of state officials for the assassination and demanded that the court
punish those responsible, a statement from a civil society organization
set up specially to monitor the Dink trial said.
The judges had not yet adjourned yesterday’s hearing by the time
Today’s Zaman went to print. Earlier in the morning, approximately a
thousand protesters gathered in Ýstanbul’s Beþiktaþ district, near
the courthouse, to demand that justice be done. Prominent lawyers,
artists and journalists joined the protestors appealing for justice
in front of the courthouse.
Protesters appealed for the rule of law, carrying banners that read,
"We are all witnesses, we want justice." The demonstrators also
shouted out, "We are all Hrant Dinks, We are all Armenians."
The journalist’s wife and other relatives walked through the nearby
square amidst hundreds applauding and proceeded to the courthouse
half an hour before the hearing began.
A large number of international journalists also turned up, as the
European Union and international human rights groups see the trial
as a litmus test for the Turkish legal system. Both Hrant Dink’s
lawyers and the print media have accused authorities of failing to
act on reports of a plot to kill Dink, and it is yet unclear whether
the allegations will be explored in the trial.
A statement issued by the Europe and Central Asia director of Human
Rights Watch (HRW), issued last Friday, said: "Hrant Dink’s murder
trial is a critical test of the Turkish judiciary’s independence. We
will be closely watching how the court handles any evidence that may
implicate the security forces."
In the wake of the murder earlier this year, Turkish authorities
promised a full and thorough investigation. The governor and police
chief of the Black Sea city of Trabzon — the hometown of O.S. —
were removed from office on charges of negligence in connection with
the case. Police and gendarmerie officers who posed for photographs
with the gunman as he held a Turkish flag were also dismissed.
However, there has been no evidence that directly implicates any police
or government officials in the slaying of Dink outside his office.
Many here believe that a shadowy network of individuals with access
to state power, referred to by critics as the "deep state," might be
behind the Dink murder as well as crimes targeting perceived enemies
in the name of nationalism.
Two days before the trial, the Dink family’s lawyer, Fethiye Cetin,
said a retired noncommissioned officer — a key suspect arrested after
the discovery of 27 hand grenades and TNT explosives in Umraniye —
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.
Cetin also said much evidence linked to the Jan. 19 killing of Hrant
Dink in the busy shopping district of Þiþli in central Ýstanbul,
including video records recorded by security cameras in banks near
the crime scene, had disappeared.
Shortly before the trial on Monday, Erdal Doðan, another lawyer for
the Dink family, expressed the same concern as Cetin. Replying to
questions from the press at the courthouse, he said, "We are not
satisfied about the real culprits not having been captured."
Also yesterday, in response to a question on the plaintiffs’ complaints
about the alleged limits of the Dink investigation, lawyer Cetin said,
"Our strategy will be to concentrate on that point. The gang is not
just limited to the suspects. It is a well-organized gang. All members
of the group should be rooted out. There is the negligence of the
gendarmerie and the police that was virtually on purpose. These [acts]
should be thoroughly investigated." Cetin also expressed that they had
demanded another ongoing investigation into claims of negligence to
be merged with the Dink trial. "These are interrelated crimes under
Article 8 of the Criminal Procedures Law (CMK)."
Approximately 500 lawyers from various parts of Turkey have obtained
authorization to follow the trial from the plaintiff’s side, with
about 300 of them present yesterday for the first day of the trial.
"This trial will be a test of whether this quagmire will be dried
up or not," lawyer Kezban Hatemi, representing Dink’s family, told
reporters before the hearing Monday. "The indictment lacks evidence
and there is a need to find the real culprits."
Ali Bayramoðlu, a columnist at Dink’s newspaper Agos, claimed "there
are dark, semi-official forces in action."
Dink’s death prompted calls for the revision or repeal of Article 301,
which is viewed by the EU as an obstacle to Turkey’s efforts to join
the bloc. No changes have yet been made.
Hayal’s lawyer harasses Dink family
Security was tight at the Ýstanbul 14th High Criminal Court before
the trial Monday morning.
The lawyer for one of the suspects, Yasin Hayal, charged with having
incited O.S. to carry out the assassination, told members of the
press that he had no expectations from the trial. "I protest this
type of pressuring of the Turkish judiciary. They will never think
it fair no matter what decision comes out of this courtroom," he said.
He also expressed his opinion that the indictment was erroneous in
that there was no gang involvement in the killing.
Hayal’s laywer, Turgut, upon the arrival of Hrant Dink’s wife and
two daughters, amidst applauding onlookers, charged at the newcomers:
"You are all Armenians! You all have Armenian passports!" Umit Abanoz,
one of Dink’s lawyers, yelled out and over Turgut’s comments, "Take
off your robe, you’re a provocateur!" The tension died down with the
intervention of police officers present in the room.
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