FAMILIES OF MURDERED INTELLECTUALS FOLLOW UP DINK MURDER CASE

BIA Net
Feb 8 2010
Turkey

Families and friends of murdered journalists, writers, intellectuals
and artists gathered before the 12th hearing of the Hrant Dink case
to demand justice in respect to the Dink murder and other political
murders. They stated, "We are interveners of the Dink case as well".

Bawer CAKIR bawer@bianet.org Istanbul – BIA News Center08 February
2010, Monday "We gathered here as the brothers and sisters of Arat,
Delal and Sera. We came here to share the injustice we have experienced
for years and to bear witness of it. We came here to remind once
more the fact that this kind of organized political murder is being
concealed ever since the murder of Sabahattin Ali".

More than 700 people gathered today in BeÅ~_iktaÅ~_ (Istanbul)
prior to the 12th hearing of the case regarding the murder of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, then editor-in-chief of
Armenian Agos newspaper. Among the crowd were families and friends
of journalists that were killed in Turkey throughout the last couple
of decades.

The Dink family was supported today by the presence of the daughter of
writer Sabahattin Ali, the wife and daughter of prosecutor Dogan Oz,
the daughter of journalist Abdi Ä°pekci, the son and daughter-in-law
of writer Umit Kaftanoglu, the daughter of unionist Kemal Turkler,
the son and daughter of journalist Ugur Mumcu, the son of musician
Nesmi Cimen, the daughter of poet Metin Altıok, the sibling of
archaeologist Yasemin Cebenoyan, the brother and sister of journalist
Metin Göktepe, and the family of journalist Cihan Hayırsevener.

The writing read out aloud during the meeting was signed by the
families of Cevat Yurdakul, Musa Anter, Behcet Aysan, Hasret Gultekin,
Turan Dursun, Sevinc Ozguner and Cavit Orhan Tutengil.

This was the first joint announcement of the families after the
release from prison of Mehmet Ali Agca this January, triggerman in
the murder of Abdi Ä°pekci in 1979.

*Click here to view the photo gallery.

"We are interveners in this case as well" Filiz Ali, daughter of
murdered Sabahattin read out the joint press release at 10.00 am:

"Most of our cases have already been closed since they reached the
statute of limitation. As far as the Dink case is concerned, it is
still in the process of being concealed. The crimes have not yet
fallen under their statute of limitation", Filiz Ali opened the speech.

"The state has still got the possibility to dissociate itself
from the infiltrated and destructive focus in order to reveal the
truth. Even with a murder as well concealed as this one, we still
have the opportunity not to hand down this contempt of the state to
the generations coming behind us, these affiliated crimes constituted
after the murder".

"We are not here based on feelings of hatred, anger and revenge. We
are here because of our responsibilities as citizens and because of
our never-ending demand for justice. We are part of an ever growing
family living in a country where people are getting killed constantly.

We do not want the number of our family to increase any further. We
hold all state institutions responsible for revealing the organizations
behind the murders of our relatives. They will all remain guilty in
our eyes until the truth will have been revealed. And they will convey
the thought that they can easily commit this kind of crime any time",
Ali pronounced.

"We came here to make our voices heard to the ones carrying the
official capacity, addressing the ones in responsible positions. We
are not addressing the people in despair who are sensitive about this
issue. We came here to be together with Rakel Dink and our friends
Arat, Delal and Sera. We are interveners in this trial as well and
today we will follow up that the list of demands submitted by the
lawyers will be taken into account by the court".

"We did not come here to have the pain and sorrow of our families
depicted in the press but to pass on our demand for justice", Ali
finished her speech.

After the announcement, the families together with the crowed walked
to the Istanbul 14th High Criminal Court where the hearing was going
to be held. On the way they shouted slogans such as "The killer state
will be taken to account", "Long live the people’s brotherhood" and
"We are all Hrant, we are all Armenian". The families entered the
court house to attend the hearing.

Claim for Justice in BeÅ~_iktaÅ~_ Among the crowd that demanded
justice for Hrant Dink and the other victims of political murder
were the following journalists, intellectuals, authors and artists
and activists:

Mustafa SutlaÅ~_, Umit Kıvanc, AyÅ~_e Gul Altınay, Nadire Mater,
Ä°pek CalıÅ~_lar, Ertugrul Kurkcu, Tayfun Mater, Hayko Bagdat,
Pınar Ogunc, Zeynep Tanbay, Merve Erol, Siren İdemen, Bulent Aydın,
Gencay Gursoy, Erol Kızılelma, Murat Celikkan, Murat Utku, Cigdem
Mater, Ozlem Dalkıran, Ragıp İncesagır, Nilgun Yurdalan, Dogan
Tarkan, Omer Madra, Ahmet Ä°nsel, Muhsin Kızılkaya, AyÅ~_e Berktay,
Yıldız Onen, Nemciye Alpay, Ahmet Tulgar, Ufuk Uras, Banu Guven,
Masis Kurkcugil, Hakan Tahmaz, Aydın Cubukcu, Alper TaÅ~_, Yalcın
Ergundogan, Yıldırım Turker, Socialist Feminist Collective,
Lambdaistanbul, members of Nor Zartonk (BC/VK)