DINK SUSPECT ‘WAS HIGH ON DRUGS’

BBC News, UK
Oct 1 2007

Ogun Samast has reportedly confessed to killing Mr Dink

A Turkish teenager accused of killing Hrant Dink has told a court
in Istanbul he was high on drugs when he shot the Turkish-Armenian
journalist in January.

Ogun Samast said he had been "scared" into pulling the trigger by
some of the 18 alleged accomplices in the dock, a lawyer for Mr Dink’s
family said.

The murder of Mr Dink, 53, triggered widespread anger and shock
in Turkey.

His family has accused the authorities of collusion, and the court
is considering allegations of a cover-up.

On Saturday, Turkish media aired a recording of a telephone
conversation between one of the suspects and a police officer that
suggested the police knew about a plan to kill the journalist and
may have been able to prevent it.

The court indictment also states that one of the defendants was a
police informant who twice told the police of a plot to kill Mr Dink.

‘Intimidated’

In Monday’s court session, held behind closed doors because Mr Samast
is a minor, the teenager said he regretted killing Mr Dink because
the journalist had a family, according to Bulent Akbay, a lawyer
representing Mr Dink’s relatives.

Hrant Dink was one of Turkey’s most prominent Armenian voices

Mr Samast said he had taken Ecstasy tablets and other drugs beforehand
and claimed he was intimidated into carrying out the murder by two
of the other defendants, Mr Akbay said.

A defence lawyer, Fuat Turgut, confirmed the teenager had testified
to taking drugs.

The 17-year-old teenager from the town of Trabzon is believed to have
been a member of a Turkish ultra-nationalist group led by two of the
defendants, Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel.

Mr Dink was a hate figure for hard-line nationalists and had received
multiple death threats.

He was well-known for writing articles about the mass killing of
hundreds of thousands of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in 1915 –
a very controversial issue in Turkey.

Armenians have campaigned for the killings to be recognised
internationally as genocide – and some countries have done so.

Turkey admits that many Armenians were killed but it denies any
genocide, saying the deaths happened during widespread fighting in
World War I.