BIA, Turkey
June 21 2008
Trabzon Police Knew Dink’s Murder A Year Before It Took Place
Two more witnesses in the Gendarmerie Neglect Trial in Trabzon say
that they knew the murder. One of them added that it was not their
concern since it was not a terrorist act.
Bia news center
21-06-2008
Erol Ã-NDEROÄ?LU
The trial of the accused gendarmerie petty officer Okan
Å?imÅ?ek and the gendarmerie master sergeant Veysel
Å?ahin continues at Trabzon. Both gendarmerie officials are
accused of negligence of duty before the murder of Hrant Dink, the
founder and chief editor of Agos, the Armenian-Turkish weekly, who was
slained brutally on February 19, 2007.
Veysel Å?ahin, gendarmerie sergeant major, and Hacı
Ã-mer Ã`nalır, the gendarmerie master sergeant, both
stationed at Trabzon Gendarmerie Command Post, were present at the
court as witnesses held yesterday (June 19).
Yılmaz and Ã`nalır’s statements confirmed that Dink’s
murder at Istanbul was accomplished owing to the negligence of the
high level gendarmerie authorities; foremost among them was Trabzon
Gendarmerie Commander Colonel Ali Ã-z. In yesterday’s hearing,
Ã`nalır said that the warnings about the murder were
received a year before.
Yılmaz: Ali Ã-z said `let us discuss this in private’
Yılmaz said that the first time he heard about the intelligence
report was in August 2006 from Petty Officer Å?imÅ?ek and
that the information that Yasin Hayal was planning an assassination,
which Å?imÅ?ek was planning to bring up during the
meeting, was raised by Metin Yıldız, the branch head of
the intelligence at the time.
`When the subject brought up, our regiment commander Ali Ã-z closed
the subject by saying that we should discuss it in private. I had the
chance to meet Okan Å?imÅ?ek two or three days later. He
told me the incident in more detail. He said that Hayal was planning
to murder the Agos writer Krant Dink together with three or four of
his friends. We put in writing what Å?imÅ?ek told me. When
we investigated the matter further, we found out that there was such a
newspaper and such a journalist. However, his name was not Krant, but
Hrant.’
Yılmaz said that when he took some time off and went on a
vacation for a short time, he called Ã`nalır and asked him
if he had received an order regarding Hayal. In return,
Ã`nalır told him that he had met with Å?imÅ?ek
and learned that the director had told Å?imÅ?ek that they
were going to send them an order about the subject.
Furthermore, Yılmaz said that Ã`nalır called him on
the day (January 19, 2007) the journalist was shot and told him to
turn on the TV. Upon seeing the news, he went to the center and
continued watching the news there: `We went to the Trabzon Police
Department. There I found out that they had taken O.S.’s father’s
statement. We did not enter the room where the statement was being
taken.’
He added that when they returned to the Gendarmerie Command Post he
saw Å?imÅ?ek, Å?ahin, Metin, the branch director,
and Gazi Günay, the Law and Order Commander, preparing an
intelligence form in order to pass it to their superiors: `We went
back to the Police Department after we saw this.’
When Yılmaz was reminded Å?imÅ?ek’s statement that
he handed over his duty about this subject to him, he said that this
was not possible because of his position and rejected the allegation.
Ã`nalır: We received the order six months before the
incident and the police received it a year before `nalır, who
stated in his statement that they received the intelligence about the
murder six months before the incident, also said that he found out,
when he was at the Police department, that the police had received
this information a year before the incident and that he did not take
any part in the operations after this.
Answering a question asked by Dink’s lawyers Ergin Cinmen and Hakan
BakırcıoÄ?lu, Ã`nalır said, `In our
work, in order to have a terrorist act, there needs to be an
organization. Dink’s murder was not a terrorist act, but a law and
order case.’
The court decided to wait for the replies to its letters that were
sent to take instructed statements. The trial will continue in
September. (EÃ-/EZÃ-/TB)
lish/kategori/english/107801/trabzon-police-knew-d inks-murder-a-year-before-it-took-place