NEW SUSPECT CHARGED OVER MURDER OF TURKISH-ARMENIAN JOURNALIST

Agence France Presse — English
July 19, 2007 Thursday

Turkish prosecutors have charged a 19th suspect in connection with
the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, according to
court documents obtained by AFP Thursday.

Coskun Igci, a relative of one of the alleged masterminds of the
January 19 murder, was accused of belonging to an illegal organisation
and aiding the killing, according to the documents.

If found guilty, he risks a jail term of 22 to 35 years, Anatolia
news agency said.

The prosecutors called for Igci’s case to be merged with the trial
of the 18 other suspects, which began in Istanbul earlier this month.

Dink, 52, a prominent member of Turkey’s tiny Armenian minority,
was gunned down outside the offices of his bilingual Turkish-Armenian
weekly Agos, in central Istanbul.

Although he campaigned for reconciliation, Turkish nationalists hated
him for calling the massacres of Armenians under Ottoman rule during
World War I genocide, a label that Turkey fiercely rejects.

A 17-year-old youth, Ogun Samast, has admitted to shooting Dink
because he was an "enemy of the Turks," according to prosecutors.

Two other key suspects — Igci’s nephew Yasin Hayal and Tuncel Erhan,
both aged 26 — are accused of masterminding the plot and recruiting
Samast to carry out the murder.

Hayal told Igci he was plotting to kill Dink and sought his help to
buy a gun, the indictement says.

Igci maintains he informed a member of the intelligence service of
the local paramilitary police of his nephew’s plans, it says.

The Turkish security forces are under fire for failing to prevent
the murder despite having received several intelligence notes of a
plot to kill Dink being organised in the northern city of Trabzon,
the home of Samast and most of the other suspects.

But no official has so far been charged over the murder.

At the first hearing of the trial on July 2, the court accepted demands
by the Dink family’s lawyers to expand the investigation after they
accused the police of "almost an intentional negligence."

Dink’s murder sent Turkey into shock and more than 100,000 people
marched at his funeral, chanting "We are all Hrants, we are all
Armenians."