THREE YEARS AFTER DINK MURDER, CASE REMAINS UNSOLVED
Asbarez
Jan 19th, 2010
ISTANBUL (Today’s Zaman)-Three years after Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink was fatally shot outside his office by an ultranationalist
teenager, the investigation into his murder has stalled as the
suspected perpetrator and his immediate accomplices have been put on
trial, but those who masterminded the plot to kill him still wait to
be revealed.
While the anniversary of Dink’s murder is being commemorated today
with a series of ceremonies in Turkey and abroad, Dink’s lawyers,
domestic and international rights organizations and activists
express their frustration that the murder investigation has not been
progressing. There is a lengthy list of suspicious irregularities
in the investigation, including deleted records and hidden files
suggestive of an attempted police cover-up.
"Much of the evidence indicates that the murder could have been
prevented," said Deniz Tuna, one of the family lawyers. "We filed
lawsuits indicating that security forces should have been tried
for manslaughter because they caused Dink’s death from negligence,
but they are continuing to be tried only for negligence," she told
Today’s Zaman.
Dink was editor-in-chief of the bilingual Agos daily until he was
killed on Jan. 19, 2007. Lawyers representing the co-plaintiffs in
the Dink trial have long alleged that the murder was the doing of
Ergenekon, a clandestine group charged with plotting to overthrow the
government. In the latest hearing they also petitioned the 14th High
Criminal Court to contact the prosecutors investigating Ergenekon
to request a copy of the documents that describe the organization’s
schemes against religious minorities in Turkey.
At the last hearing of the Dink trial in October of last year
co-plaintiff lawyer Fethiye Cetin stated that Dink’s murder, along
with that of an Italian priest in 2006 and the 2007 slaying of
three Christians in Malatya, was part of an operation carried out
by Ergenekon.
On Saturday, a group known as "The Friends of Hrant" called on people
to participate in a demonstration to be held in front of the Agos
daily headquarters today, the third anniversary of Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink’s death.
Cetin also said that the acts of some Ergenekon suspects in turning
Dink into a target for ultranationalists were very "open." She
recalled that when Dink was facing charges under 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.
Indeed, this is what co-plaintiff lawyers Cetin and Tuna point out
in their "Third Year Report on Hrant Dink’s Murder," referring to a
devious plan called the Cage Operation Action Plan, which aimed to
intimidate Turkey’s non-Muslims and assassinate prominent figures. The
plan, revealed during the Ergenekon investigation, was allegedly
designed by a group of members of the Naval Forces Command.
Lawyer Tuna said that all the indications point to Dink’s murder being
part of a plan. "There is a willpower and a determination [outside of]
the court, and this is what needs to be exposed," she said.
Asked by Today’s Zaman who could expose it, she said, "the government."
"The security personnel were informed beforehand about the
assassination plot and did not take steps to stop it. They are being
protected by certain authorities in an attempted cover-up. We are
talking about the state’s security forces: the gendarmerie, police
and intelligence agencies. Therefore, it is the government which
is supposed to demonstrate the political will to make progress in
Dink’s murder."
She also explained that an inspection board under the Prime Ministry
had started an investigation in response to a petition by Dink’s wife
in April 2007. The investigation requested that some intelligence and
security forces personnel in Trabzon be investigated, and the board
approved this report at the end of 2008.
"We don’t know the result of the investigation in Trabzon. We requested
to be joint attorneys in those cases but were not allowed," Tuna
said, adding that they were prevented from doing this under Law 4483,
which relates to the judicial process for trying public officials.
"What we need is a government initiative to show the necessary will
in order to solve the problems in Dink’s murder which relate to the
bigger picture," she said.
The report prepared by Tuna and Cetin concluded that it is impossible
to shed light on Dink’s murder using the methods employed thus far.
"As it is impossible to believe that the murder is the work of
three to five youths who have nationalistic feelings, it is also
impossible to believe that an organized structure which has illegal
powers of authority and influence within the intelligence units and
the gendarmerie could have committed the murder by using those youths.
>>From the General Staff to the judiciary, from government spokespeople
to the security units, from the media to paramilitary forces, all
legal and political actors have responsibility in Hrant Dink’s murder,
by not preventing the murder and not exposing the real perpetrators."