PARLIAMENT COMMITTEE CONFIRMS NEGLECT IN DINK MURDER

Turkish Daily News
July 24 2008

A parliamentary subcommittee investigating the murder of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink confirmed that there was
negligence and a lack of coordination by both the gendarmerie and
police, in a report released yesterday.

"Hrant Dink was killed due to negligence of authorities at every
level in introducing measures to prevent the threat," said the
committee’s long-awaited report, which was presented yesterday in a
press conference at parliament. Thus, Article 17 of the Constitution
regulating "right to life" and Article 2 of the European Convention
on Human Rights were violated due to negligence, the report concluded.

The chairman of the subcommittee, Mehmet Ocaktan, Justice and
Development Party, or AKP, Istanbul deputy, said the committee only
investigates if there is some wrongdoing in the administrative process,
but they are not responsible for solving the murder.

Ocaktan declined to respond to questions regarding a recent decision
by an Istanbul court disallowing any investigation of the police
officers, including Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah. "Our report does
not contain allegations against persons. The judicial process is
going on. At this stage, we do not have the right to ask questions
on who was accused of what," Ocaktan argued.

The subcommittee pointed to controversies related to Dink’s
assassination and argued that intelligence received prior to the
murder was not taken into consideration despite the seriousness
of the threats. Trabzon police were accused of sending a document
dated Feb. 17, 2006 that included intelligence on possible effective
action against the Armenian community and a violent threat against
Dink’s life.

Noting that there was still an ongoing investigation into the case, the
sub-committee said it is too early to reach a conclusion about whether
an effective official investigation has been carried out or not.

The 180-page report proposed a list of measures to counter
possible future threats in situations similar to Dink’s. "Degree of
confidentiality and urgency of the documents must be clearly noted. All
intelligence regardless of the content should be reported and
inserted to the central data bank. A system to record all supportive
intelligence sources needs to be established," the report noted.

The report also underlined that civilian authorities must be notified
of all intelligence and any activity by security forces in their
jurisdiction. Increasing the number of police officers in Istanbul
and granting special duty benefits to junior office staff were also
among the recommendations.