SOLUTION OF DINK MURDER STILL IN THE DARK AFTER THREE YEARS

BIAnet
Jan 14 2010
Turkey

The murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Dink can only be solved by
merging cases and pooling all facts from before and after the murder,
joint attorneys Cetin and Tuna declared. "This murder cannot be solved
by the measures taken until the present", the lawyers said.

Joint attorneys of the Hrant Dink murder case Fethiye Cetin and
Deniz Tuna highlighted the fact that three years have already
passed since the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink,
then editor-in-chief of the weekly Armenian Agos newspaper. The
assassination will not be solved by the investigations and inquiries
carried out till the present, lawyers Cetin and Tuna pointed out.

The lawyers repeated that the time before and after the murder on 19
January 2007 should be approached as an entity in order to merge all
side tracks with the main lawsuit tried before the Istanbul 14th High
Criminal Court.

The joint attorneys mentioned that vital information was conveyed by
the "determination" not to protect Hrant Dink although it was known
that he was going to be killed and by treating the murder suspect
like a hero.

All pieces of evidence should be assessed, parts must be put into
place * We have come to a point where the mistakes in cooperation and
coordination of the responsible people of the National Intelligence
Agency (MIT), the Gendarmerie and the police became crystal clear. The
organizations have obviously hidden information from each other and in
order to save themselves they blamed each other. It is remarkable that
despite the clashes between the three institutions being at loggerheads
with each other they do harmonize on two topics and act united.

* For revealing this extremely professional organized structure all
embodied pieces of evidence must be gathered, every single part that
might potentially be embodied must be put together, all hints which
could decipher the organization should be assessed. This is also
crucial for an efficient and effective investigation.

Where are the ones who facilitated the murder?

* There are several issues that should be evaluated altogether and:
the people who, together with the triggerman, made Dink an open
target during the preparation period of the murder; the people who
isolated him from society; the elements of the plan in the media,
the positions of the members of the judiciary in this campaign; the
people who facilitated the murder by not fulfilling their duty. Their
roles in this criminal action and the relation to the organization
should be investigated

* The organization moved according to a certain plan and realized the
murder step by step by actions stretched over a period of time. The
entire actions of this organization could be determined by analysing
them under the microscope.

* In the light of the revealed evidence it shows that the stones that
paved the way to the murder of Hrant Dink were laid by the people
who put Dink into the position of the target and by the security
forces whose duty it was to prevent the murder. It is neither wrong
nor exaggerated to say that the triggermen suspects proceeded in the
same way with the murder of Dink.

General Staff, government, media, politicians…

* Judicial authorities of the General Staff Presidency, security
units of the government spokespeople and paramilitary forces from
the media and all official and political people involved each bear
responsibility for Dink’s murder since they were not able to prevent
the murder and to find the real perpetrators.

* We indicated that starting from the phase of investigation all
cases and investigations related to the murder should be handled by
one single lead at all stages of the litigation. We said that it is
impossible to reveal concrete facts in a case and in investigations
that merely deal with fractions of the whole picture. Unfortunately,
all our requests to merge the relevant cases were rejected by the
courts.

* We filed criminal complaints about officials of the Trabzon Police,
the Trabzon Gendarmerie and the Istanbul Police at the Istanbul
Chief Prosecution. All the complaints were dropped because of lack of
jurisdiction. We sent the complaints to places said to be in charge and
they were dropped once more due to lack of grounds for legal action.

* Considering all developments one clear and precise conclusion can
be drawn: This murder will not be solved by the means that could be
observed until the present.