BÄ°A, Turkey
April 27 2008

Dink Murder Trial: The investigation leaves Istanbul, but the trial is
still local

15 months later, with a hearing nearly every three months, the court
has still not determined all the responsible parties in Hrant Dink’s
murder trial. The lawyers do not think `a few young men planned the
murder.’

Bia news servıce
27-04-2008
Erol Ã-NDEROÄ?LU

The accused murderers of Hrant Dink, the slained editor of bilingual
Turkish-Armenian biweekly newspaper Agos, will appear before the judge
for the fifth time 15 months after the murder. On 28 April hearing
(Monday), the remaining questionings are expected to be completed.

The Istanbul 14th Criminal Court, which tries the 19 defendants, eight
of whom are arrested, had demanded at the previous hearing that the
physical surveillance reports and telephone records concerning the
arrested defendants Yasin Hayal and Mustafa Ã-ztürk. It is
established now that Yasin Hayal was under the surveillance of the
Trabzon Police Department, a major province in the eastern Black Sea
region of Turkey, and is accused of inciting the killing, facing
strict life imprisonment. Similarly accused Mustafa Ã-ztürk
is a member of Alperen Ocakları (translated roughly as
Hero-Saint Hearths), a far right nationalistic youth group linked to
the Great Unity Party (BBP).

It is not known whether the reports will show a connection between the
Trabzon police, Alperen Ocakları and the Great Unity Party
(BBP).

However, during the previous trial, the court had removed the
obligation that the head of BBP Trabzon provincial organization
YaÅ?ar Cihan, the member of the Central Decision and Executive
Committee of BBP Halis Egemen and the two other people should join the
hearings. Not arrested, these defendants are charged with sentences of
up to ten years in jail for `being members of a terrorist
organization.’

Cinmen: It was planned in Alperen Ocakları, the killers were
protected

According to Ergin Cinmen, one of the lawyers of the slained victim,
who petitioned the court on February 22, there are indications that
the murder was planned at Alperen Ocakları: the statement by
Erhan Tuncel, who is being tried as the `inciter brother,’ that `I
still have the key to Alperenler OcaÄ?ı’; his picture
with the BBP leader Muhsin YazıcıoÄ?lu; the fact
that his place of work is Alperen Ocakları and that his Alperen
Ocakları connection was Ã-ztürk.

The lawyers of the slained victim think that the killing of the
journalist on January 19, 2007 is not `a murder planned together by a
few young men and executed in spite of the authorities; they claim
that the local security units supported this group.

Ä°stanbul Police Department under investigation; except Cerrah

The court did not see the need to connect the ongoing trials of the
two police officers in Samsun, a Black Sea town near Trabzon, and the
two gendarmerie officers in Trabzon with the hearings of the Dink
trial. The police officers are accused of dereliction of duty, as they
had their picture taken with the accused triggerman O.S. and the
gendarmerie officers are accused with not preventing the murder and
hiding the evidence.

Following the lack of jurisdiction decision by Istanbul Chief Public
Prosecutor’s Office, Fatih Public Prosecutor’s Office, also in
Istanbul province, had opened an investigation into the involvement of
Istanbul’s chief of police Celalettin Cerrah and the other Istanbul
police department officers who are accused of not taking into
consideration the warnings before the Dink murder.

Recently, it had made it into the headlines that the Provincial
administrative Council of the Istanbul Governorship allowed the
investigation proceed only for Ahmet İlhan Güler, the
Head of the Intelligence Office for the Istanbul Police Department,
and the six police officers but kept Cerrah out of it.

Upon hearing the confession `It was not us, but our superiors who
neglected their duties’ of the two gendarmerie officers who are tried
for dereliction of duty in Trabzon, the lawyers of Dink family
petitioned the Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office for having
Trabzon’s former Gendarmerie Regiment Commander Colonel Ali Ã-z and
nine gendarmerie officers brought to the Istanbul Chief Public
Prosecutor’s Office to be tried in the murder case.

The purpose of the lawyers is to combine the trials of police and
gendarmerie officers in Samsun and Trabzon and perhaps the possible
trial of Cerrah and the officers tied to him in Istanbul with the
Dink’s murder trial. (EÃ-/GG)

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress