DINK LAWYERS PETITION FOR ERGENEKON EVIDENCE
Today’s Zaman
13 October 2009, Tuesday
Dink lawyers petition for Ergenekon evidence – Lawyers for the
co-plaintiffs in the trial over the murder of Turkish Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink yesterday requested documents found during
the searches of homes and offices of suspects from the prosecutor
investigating Ergenekon, a clandestine organization whose alleged
members are currently standing trial in two separate court cases.
Dink was the editor-in-chief of the bilingual Agos daily until he was
killed in January of 2007. The 11th hearing of the murder suspects’
trial was heard yesterday with suspects Ogun Samast, Erhan Tuncel,
Yasin Hayal, Ahmet Ä°skender and Ersin Yolcu being brought to the
courtroom by prison officers. Lawyers representing the co-plaintiffs
in the Dink trial have long alleged that the Dink murder was the
doing of Ergenekon.
In yesterday’s hearing, lawyer Fethiye Cetin demanded that the court
request documents seized during the Ergenekon probe relating to the
organization’s Psychological Action Plan against minorities in Turkey.
Cetin stated that Sevgi Erenerol, currently in jail as an Ergenekon
suspect, prepared briefings for certain units of the General Staff,
including the Land Forces Command, against missionaries in what
she said were presentations pointing fingers at Turkey’s Armenian,
Christian and other minorities. She also recalled that CDs and DVDs
with similar content had been found during searches of Ergenekon
defendant DurmuÅ~_ Ali Ozoglu’s property. "We are particularly
interested in activities in the Black Sea region regarding Armenian
minorities. The Ergenekon prosecutors have said that Ozoglu worked
in the ‘psychological operations’ of the organization."
Ergenekon’s plan against minorities
Cetin stated that Dink’s killing, along with the 2006 killing
of an Italian priest and the 2007 killing of three Christians in
Malatya, was part of an operation in the works being carried out by
Ergenekon. Cetin stated that the a pects in turning Hrant Dink into
a target for ultranationalist people and groups were very "open." She
recalled that when Dink was facing charges under the Turkish Penal Code
(TCK) Article 301, which then criminalized "insulting Turkishness,"
some of the people who are in jail now as alleged Ergenekon members
brought crowds of protestors and even attacked Dink and his supporters
as they entered and left the courtroom.
The court’s response was not clear by the time Today’s Zaman went to
print yesterday.
In addition to the suspects, a large number of high-profile spectators
including Dink’s wife, Rakel Dink, and other family members; Democratic
Society Party (DTP) deputy Sebahat Tuncel; Justice and Development
Party (AK Party) deputy and head of the Parliament’s Human Rights
Commission, Zafer Uskul; co-chair of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary
Commission, Helene Flautre; Ali Yurttagul, a political advisor for
the Greens in the European Parliament; and Vincent Niore and Alexandre
Couyoumdjian, representing the Bar Associations of Brussels and Paris,
also attended yesterday’s hearing.
Meanwhile, a group gathering at the BeÅ~_iktaÅ~_ Barbaros Square,
not far from the courthouse, protested the Hrant Dink murder by
unrolling posters that read, "For Hrant, for Justice."
Wanting justice for Dink
Actor Mahir GunÅ~_iray, in a statement on behalf of the group, claimed
there were attempts to cover up the real culprits behind the murder.
Indeed, the Dink murder trial has been riddled with controversy
from the day the hit-man, Ogun Samast, was arrested for the murder. A
parliamentary committee investigating the probe established in a report
in April last year that the security forces were tipped off about the
plot to kill Dink before the murder but did not act. This committee
also called on high-ranking gendarmerie officers to testify, but none
of them showed up on the day they were scheduled to testify. Similar
details have come up in previous trials. For example, CoÅ~_kun Ä°gci,
a local security informer n etown of most of the suspects — and
a relative of one of the accused, Yasin Hayal, told the court that
many people, including himself, knew that Hayal had been preparing
to kill Dink for a long time. He also confirmed that he was unable
to stop him from acquiring a gun and out of anxiety got in touch with
two gendarmerie security officials on more than one occasion.