COL. OZ’S PAST TURNS UP MORE LINKS TO DEEP STATE

Today’s Zaman
July 25 2008
Turkey

Former Trabzon Gendarmerie commander Col. Ali Oz, who recently
testified in the murder case of Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor
Hrant Dink, had been involved in other cases thought to be related
to the deep state.

Oz testified on July 21 that he did not remember receiving prior
information on the plot to kill Dink and responded to most questions
by stating either "I don’t remember" or "I don’t know them."

Col. Oz had been tried previously in a case concerning the 1999 murder
of journalist Ahmet Taner KıÅ~_lalı. Oz is believed to have arrived
at the murder scene first and destroyed most of the evidence.

He was also the head of operations at Ankara’s Ulucanlar prison, where
10 inmates were killed in September 1999 by security forces because
they refused to attend roll call or move to parts of the prison
to which they had been ordered after being informed of a transfer
to what they feared would involve solitary confinement. The Human
Rights Association (Ä°HD) had described the incident as a massacre. As
for the Dink case, two gendarmes had testified on March 20 of this
year, saying that they had informed their superior officer, Oz —
the Trabzon provincial gendarmerie commander at the time — of the
plot, but that they had given false statements during the course of
the investigation under pressure from Oz.

–Boundary_(ID_e36UEJbhKsYGETer8deFyg)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress