ONE MORE HIGH-RANKING OFFICER CONFESSES IN DINK MURDER
Turkish Daily News
June 11 2008
The former head of the intelligence unit in the Black Sea province of
Trabzon where Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink’s murderer came
from testified he was aware of plans to kill the prominent journalist,
but that he did not learn about crucial subsequent developments in
the case until much later, a Web site reported yesterday.
Noncommissioned officers Okan Å~^imÅ~_ek and Veysel Å~^ahin claimed
they had informed their superiors about the murder during a trial in
January on charges they had covered up intelligence about a plan for
the murder.
Dink was killed in 2007 in front of the building of multi-lingual
weekly newspaper Agos in Istanbul’s central district of Å~^iÅ~_li. A
juvenile suspect was arrested after the murder while trying to flee
to his hometown Trabzon. Later other suspects, including those who
are alleged to have planned and incited the murder, commonly known
as the "big brothers" of the crime, were arrested as well. However,
it was alleged that the roots of the murder go deep into the state and
that the so-called bigger brothers have still yet not been arrested.
Intelligence head of the Black Sea province of Trabzon’s Gendarmerie
Commandership, Captain Metin Yıldız, said in his testimony in a
court in Bolu yesterday, "Å~^ahin had said that (alleged gendarmerie
informer) CoÅ~_kun Ä°gci told him that Dink will be murdered and Yasin
Hayal was planning this. Later I told Gendarmerie Commander Ali Oz that
Hayal is planning to kill Dink. ‘We will discuss this issue later,’
he said," as reported on private NTV news site yesterday.
Claiming that the police chief, smuggling branch chief and organized
crimes branch chief were also at the meeting, Yıldız said he had a
detailed private discussion with Å~^imÅ~_ek, and confirmed that Ä°gci
was not an informer for the Gendarmerie. "Two days later I brought the
issue to the agenda one more time in the room of Oz and told that I
gave the order to Å~^imÅ~_ek to confirm [Ä°gci’s situation]," he said.
Learned about the gun after the murder
According to Yıldız, he later asked Å~^imÅ~_ek in private whether
he should transfer the information to the department dealing with
radical-right wing activities, adding that he ordered the junior
officer to follow up on the issue himself as it was not related to
Yıldız’s department’s special area.
Yıldız alleges that he did not receive any further information
on the issue. After Dink was murdered, Å~^imÅ~_ek said in a meeting
with high-ranking officials that Hayal had tried to make a homemade
gun. When Yıldız asked why he was not informed about the gun,
Å~^imÅ~_ek said the team had not learned about the gun from Ä°gci
until after they had met with the Yıldız team, the captain said in
his testimony.
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