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ANKARA: Trabzon Police Knew Dink Murder A Year Before It Took Place

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  • ANKARA: Trabzon Police Knew Dink Murder A Year Before It Took Place

    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)

    http://www.bianet.org/eng lish/kategori/english/107801/trabzon-police-knew-d inks-murder-a-year-before-it-took-place
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