MOCKERY, DISTURBING CONFESSIONS AT DINK TRIAL

Today’s Zaman
July 8 2008
Turkey

A defendant has said he informed gendarmerie officers at least four
times that Yasin Hayal, one of the key suspects in the plot leading
to the 2007 assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink,
had plans to have Dink killed.

The sixth hearing in the case, at the Ä°stanbul Criminal Court
yesterday, saw for the first time the testimony of CoÅ~_kun Igcı,
Hayal’s uncle, who says he tried to dissuade Hayal from his plans
to have Dink murdered but was unable to do so and thus informed
gendarmerie officers, who told him they were already monitoring
Hayal. Dink was shot dead outside the offices of the Agos newspaper
in Ä°stanbul in January 2007. Police arrested the suspected gunman,
Ogun Samast, and his alleged associate, Hayal.

Seventeen-year-old Samast was charged with murdering Dink and
membership in a criminal group. The first five hearings were closed
to the media because suspect Samast was a minor at the time. Hayal,
aged 26, was also detained for providing Samast with money and
a gun, and threatening Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, who, like
Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos’ editor-in-chief Dink, stood trial
under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). "It was my duty
as a citizen," said Igcı, referring to his informing the officers.

Igcı said he tried to dissuade Hayal from the murder plot for about
one-and-a-half months until October 2006, but never saw him again
after that. When asked how many times he spoke with gendarmerie
officers about the issue, Igcı said he has known the gendarmerie
officers since 2004 and saw them four or five times.

When he heard the news of Dink’s assassination, Igcı said he guessed
it was Hayal’s plot. He said he had known Hayal since childhood
and that it was not hard to believe that he could commit such a
murder. Igcı also said he did not know Dink but spoke to the officers
to protect Hayal. He added that he was relieved when he heard Samast
was the alleged perpetrator.

Murder trial or comedy scene

Erhan Tuncel, another suspect linked to the Dink murder, also appeared
in court. He was previously charged with being a member of an armed
criminal group formed to commit crime and inciting premeditated murder.

The suspects seemed relaxed during the trial, shocking the public
with their not-so-serious remarks. At one point Hayal’s lawyer,
Fuat Turgut, asked Tuncel if he knew a woman he met with often in
Eski?ehir was an Israeli and Tuncel, stunning the courtroom audience,
responded with a joke: "I’ve just found out that she was the daughter
of the Israeli president."

When Turgut wanted to ask Samast a question, Samast said, "Do not
make me talk to that crazy man." Turgut asked him if he called Hayal
on the day of the murder and asked if Samast would kill everybody at
Agos and if Hayal replied by saying, "Don’t do it, there are innocent
people." Samast replied by saying that he had neither asked such a
question nor had Hayal given such a reply.

Samast surprised spectators at another point during the hearing. When
asked if a person who called him in front of the Agos newspaper was
Turkish-Armenian writer Etyen Mahcupyan, he answered: "No, it wasn’t
him. Jennifer Lopez called me."

When Hayal took the stand he first greeted the members of the press
and the "leader of the Turkish nation Muhsin Yazıcıoglu," who is in
reality leader of the ultranationalist Grand Unity Party (BBP): "Dear
Muslims and dear Alperens [BBP ultranationalist youth organization],
be relaxed. We will have this situation continue until the BBP comes
to power."

At the hearing, Hakkı Bahadır Cihan, the founder of the Trabzon
Alperen Association, who was detained and released, also testified. He
said he had no ties to Dink’s murder and that Tuncel was not accepted
into his association because he had contact with civilian police
officers. As Cihan said these words, Tuncel asserted that how Cihan
headed the association with "his little brain" was questionable.

In addition to defendants Samast, Tuncel, Hayal, Zeynel Abidin Yavuz,
Ersin Yolcu, Ahmet Ä°skender, Mustafa Ozturk and Tuncay Uzundal, who
are all under arrest, other suspects who had been released pending
trial — Igcı, Erbil Susaman, Veysel Toprak and Salih Hacı Salihoglu
— were present at the hearing. Nineteen suspects, eight of whom are
in prison, are being tried in the case.

Hrant Dink’s wife, Rakel Dink, her daughter, Delal Dink, Hrant Dink’s
brother, Orhan Dink, and his attorneys were all in attendance at
yesterday’s hearing. Heavy security measures were in place around
the court.

European Parliament member Cem Ozdemir, Justice and Development Party
(AK Party) deputy, AyÅ~_enur Bahcekapılı, Republican People’s Party
(CHP) deputy Å~^ahin Mengu, writer Adalet Agaoglu, journalist-writer
Cengiz Candar, journalist Ece Temelkuran, writer Yavuz Baydar, director
Sırrı Sureyya Onder and several foreign media representatives were
also at the hearing.

Ozdemir said before the hearing that those working against racism
and discrimination were standing by each other’s sides, adding,
"The vision of a democratic, secular, bright and European Turkey,
backed by Hrant, has not yet materialized." The trial began in July
2007. Prosecutors have demanded a prison term of 18 to 24 years for
Dink’s suspected assassin and life sentences for two key suspects,
Hayal and Tuncel, for inciting to murder.

‘It’s been a year – what has happened?’

Dink’s friends sought the attention of the public before the sixth
hearing of the murder case started, with the call "To the court for
Hrant, for justice! It has been one year. What happened?"

They gathered at BeÅ~_iktaÅ~_ Square yesterday morning and brought
to mind that it had been 535 days since Dink was killed and 534 days
since his alleged killer was caught, but that nothing had really been
accomplished in the last five hearings.

They criticized the trial process and said, "We will be at the court
again for Hrant, for justice."

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