PROTESTS MARK EDITOR’S MURDER TRIAL IN TURKEY

Source : Reuters
Peninsula On-line, Qatar
Oct 2 2007

Hundreds of demonstrators fearing a state cover-up of the murder of
a Turkish-Armenian editor demonstrated outside an Istanbul courthouse
yesterday proclaiming: "We are all witnesses. We demand justice." The
EU, which opened membership talks with Turkey in 2005, sees the case
of Hrant Dink as a litmus test for a judicial system often accused
of conservative political bias.

Police imposed heavy security outside the court house where 19 suspects
were being tried over the killing of Dink, gunned down outside his
Istanbul office in January by a 17-year-old who has confessed to
the killing. "We are all witnesses, we demand justice," said banners
held aloft by the protesters outside the court as the trial resumed
in the Besiktas district of Istanbul.

Dink’s lawyers have complained that the murder has not been properly
investigated and have expressed fears for the independence of the
court, reflecting concerns about the possible involvement of Turkey’s
so-called "deep state". The "deep state" is a term coined to describe
hardline nationalists in the bureaucracy and security forces who are
prepared to subvert the law for their own political ends.

At the weekend, Turkey’s liberal Radikal newspaper published the
transcript of a conversation between one of the suspects and a police
officer two hours after the shooting which it said showed the officer
was aware of a plan to kill Dink.