Tweet
TURKISH SECURITY OFFICIALS ADMIT COVER-UP IN DINK MURDER CASE
By Gareth Jenkins
Eurasia Daily Monitor
March 21 2008
DC
On March 20, two members of the Turkish Gendarmerie admitted receiving
detailed intelligence regarding a plot to assassinate Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink and then, after Dink's murder, trying to cover
up their knowledge by lying to investigators.
The confessions came as two Gendarmerie officers, known by their
initials as O. S. and V. S., went on trial for dereliction of duty
after evidence emerged that the security forces in the eastern Black
Sea city of Trabzon had been informed of the plot to assassinate Dink
months in advance but had failed either to apprehend the plotters or
attempt to protect Dink (Anadolu Ajans, CNNTurk, NTV, March 20).
On January 19, 2007, the 52 year-old Dink was shot dead
outside the Istanbul office of the Agos newspaper where he
worked as editor-in-chief and which serves Turkey's dwindling
Armenian community. Dink was killed by Ogun Samast, an unemployed,
poorly-educated 17 year-old who had traveled from Trabzon to carry out
the assassination. Minors are often used to carry out murders in Turkey
as, under Turkish law, anyone under 18 they can only be sentenced to a
maximum of a few years in jail. It later emerged that Samast had been
a member of a ultranationalist gang with strong Islamist sympathies
led by the then 24 year-old Yasin Hayal. Hayal and his associates were
well known to the security forces in Trabzon and some of them worked
as police informants. On March 20, the gendarmerie officers admitted
that, in August 2006, one of Hayal's relatives had warned them that
Hayal was planning to kill Dink and had given him YTL 500 (around $400)
to buy a gun for the assassination. The officers were also told that
someone linked to the gang had carried out surveillance of Dink in
Istanbul and even drawn up diagrams showing the route taken by Dink
as he traveled from his home to the Agos office (Radikal, Milliyet,
Sabah, Hurriyet, Cumhuriyet, March 21).
A soft-spoken advocate of reconciliation between Turks and Armenians,
in February 2004 Dink wrote a series of articles in Agos calling for
dialogue without any preconditions. He maintained that an insistence
that Turkey should first recognize the tragic events of 1915 as a
genocide was an obstacle to reconciliation. In an article he wrote in
Agos, Dink called on Armenians to "cleanse their blood of the poison
of genocide" and engage in dialogue with Turks.
However, the mere mention of the word genocide resulted in Dink being
prosecuted under the notorious Article 301 of the Turkish Penal
Code, which makes it a criminal offence to denigrate the concept
of "Turkishness." In October 2005, Dink was convicted and given a
suspended prison sentence of six months. Even though he never served
time in jail, the publicity surrounding his trial made Dink a hated
figure for many Turkish ultranationalists. Extraordinarily, given the
numerous calls for him to be killed in the Turkish ultranationalist
press and Internet chat rooms and the telephoned death threats that
Dink himself reported to the Istanbul police, and unlike almost any
prominent Turkish Muslim who receives similar threats from extremists,
Dink was not given police protection. When he was killed by Samast
as he left the Agos office to pay some bills at his local bank,
Dink was completely alone.
In their statements to the court, both O. S. and V. S. insisted that
they had forwarded the intelligence of the plot to kill Dink to their
commanding officer, Colonel Ali Oz, the head of the Gendarmerie in
Trabzon. They claimed that Oz had not only failed to take action but,
during the investigation that followed Dink's murder, had instructed
them to deny any prior knowledge of the plot to kill Dink.
When taken in isolation, it would be possible to attribute the cover-up
simply as an attempt to hide incompetence. But, when combined with
other evidence that has emerged since Dink's murder, the conclusions
are more disturbing. When Samast was captured, some of the arresting
officers took photographs of him posed heroically in front of the
Turkish flag. Ultranationalist publications and chat rooms buzzed
with praise for the killing. There were even songs written in Samast's
honor and posted on YouTube.
There is little doubt that the majority of Turks, even many Turkish
nationalists, were appalled by Dink's murder. Indeed, one of the most
moving tributes to him appeared in Yeni Cag, the main ultranationalist
daily newspaper. On the evening of January 19, 2007, thousands of
Muslim Turks joined with Armenians to march through the center of
Istanbul chanting "We are all Dink" and "We are all Armenians." On
January 19, 2008, Muslim Turks also dominated the numerous ceremonies
held to remember Dink on the first anniversary of his murder.
Nevertheless, the confessions by the two gendarmerie officers will
reinforce suspicions that racial and religious prejudice remains
a serious problem both in Turkish society as a whole and in the
country's security forces. Earlier this year, it emerged that, at
the time of his death, Andrea Santoro, a Roman Catholic priest who
was shot by Oguzhan Akdin, a 16 year-old youth with ultranationalist
and Islamist sympathies, was under surveillance by the police on the
ludicrous suspicion that he was plotting to facilitate the annexation
of Turkey's eastern Black Sea coast by Greece. On April 18, 2007,
three Christian missionaries in the southeastern city of Mardin were
tortured and then had their throats cut by a group of students from
a hostel run by an Islamic foundation. During their trial, evidence
has emerged that these students too were in contact with members of
the local security forces. Lawyers acting for the families of the
victims claim that they have been receiving numerous death threats,
are being harassed by security officials and that key evidence -
such as tape recordings of confessions detailing links between the
accused and security officials - that was present at the beginning
of the trial, has now disappeared.
There is no suggestion that any high-ranking members of the ruling
Justice and Development Party (AKP) were involved either in any of
the killings or in the subsequent cover-ups. But neither does the
government appear to understand the extent of religious and racial
prejudice in Turkey or the need to amend legislation that fuels it.
The effective protection of minorities is a prerequisite for Turkish
accession to the EU, which has long pressed for the abolition of
legislation such as Article 301 of the Penal Code (see EDM, January
8). However, since the beginning of the year, the AKP has preferred
to focus almost exclusively on trying to push through legislation to
lift the headscarf ban that prevents pious Sunni women from attending
university (see EDM, February 11, February 25) and, most recently,
on legislative changes to circumvent the party itself being outlawed
following the public prosecutor's application for its closure on
March 14 (see EDM, March 17).
By Gareth Jenkins
Eurasia Daily Monitor
March 21 2008
DC
On March 20, two members of the Turkish Gendarmerie admitted receiving
detailed intelligence regarding a plot to assassinate Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink and then, after Dink's murder, trying to cover
up their knowledge by lying to investigators.
The confessions came as two Gendarmerie officers, known by their
initials as O. S. and V. S., went on trial for dereliction of duty
after evidence emerged that the security forces in the eastern Black
Sea city of Trabzon had been informed of the plot to assassinate Dink
months in advance but had failed either to apprehend the plotters or
attempt to protect Dink (Anadolu Ajans, CNNTurk, NTV, March 20).
On January 19, 2007, the 52 year-old Dink was shot dead
outside the Istanbul office of the Agos newspaper where he
worked as editor-in-chief and which serves Turkey's dwindling
Armenian community. Dink was killed by Ogun Samast, an unemployed,
poorly-educated 17 year-old who had traveled from Trabzon to carry out
the assassination. Minors are often used to carry out murders in Turkey
as, under Turkish law, anyone under 18 they can only be sentenced to a
maximum of a few years in jail. It later emerged that Samast had been
a member of a ultranationalist gang with strong Islamist sympathies
led by the then 24 year-old Yasin Hayal. Hayal and his associates were
well known to the security forces in Trabzon and some of them worked
as police informants. On March 20, the gendarmerie officers admitted
that, in August 2006, one of Hayal's relatives had warned them that
Hayal was planning to kill Dink and had given him YTL 500 (around $400)
to buy a gun for the assassination. The officers were also told that
someone linked to the gang had carried out surveillance of Dink in
Istanbul and even drawn up diagrams showing the route taken by Dink
as he traveled from his home to the Agos office (Radikal, Milliyet,
Sabah, Hurriyet, Cumhuriyet, March 21).
A soft-spoken advocate of reconciliation between Turks and Armenians,
in February 2004 Dink wrote a series of articles in Agos calling for
dialogue without any preconditions. He maintained that an insistence
that Turkey should first recognize the tragic events of 1915 as a
genocide was an obstacle to reconciliation. In an article he wrote in
Agos, Dink called on Armenians to "cleanse their blood of the poison
of genocide" and engage in dialogue with Turks.
However, the mere mention of the word genocide resulted in Dink being
prosecuted under the notorious Article 301 of the Turkish Penal
Code, which makes it a criminal offence to denigrate the concept
of "Turkishness." In October 2005, Dink was convicted and given a
suspended prison sentence of six months. Even though he never served
time in jail, the publicity surrounding his trial made Dink a hated
figure for many Turkish ultranationalists. Extraordinarily, given the
numerous calls for him to be killed in the Turkish ultranationalist
press and Internet chat rooms and the telephoned death threats that
Dink himself reported to the Istanbul police, and unlike almost any
prominent Turkish Muslim who receives similar threats from extremists,
Dink was not given police protection. When he was killed by Samast
as he left the Agos office to pay some bills at his local bank,
Dink was completely alone.
In their statements to the court, both O. S. and V. S. insisted that
they had forwarded the intelligence of the plot to kill Dink to their
commanding officer, Colonel Ali Oz, the head of the Gendarmerie in
Trabzon. They claimed that Oz had not only failed to take action but,
during the investigation that followed Dink's murder, had instructed
them to deny any prior knowledge of the plot to kill Dink.
When taken in isolation, it would be possible to attribute the cover-up
simply as an attempt to hide incompetence. But, when combined with
other evidence that has emerged since Dink's murder, the conclusions
are more disturbing. When Samast was captured, some of the arresting
officers took photographs of him posed heroically in front of the
Turkish flag. Ultranationalist publications and chat rooms buzzed
with praise for the killing. There were even songs written in Samast's
honor and posted on YouTube.
There is little doubt that the majority of Turks, even many Turkish
nationalists, were appalled by Dink's murder. Indeed, one of the most
moving tributes to him appeared in Yeni Cag, the main ultranationalist
daily newspaper. On the evening of January 19, 2007, thousands of
Muslim Turks joined with Armenians to march through the center of
Istanbul chanting "We are all Dink" and "We are all Armenians." On
January 19, 2008, Muslim Turks also dominated the numerous ceremonies
held to remember Dink on the first anniversary of his murder.
Nevertheless, the confessions by the two gendarmerie officers will
reinforce suspicions that racial and religious prejudice remains
a serious problem both in Turkish society as a whole and in the
country's security forces. Earlier this year, it emerged that, at
the time of his death, Andrea Santoro, a Roman Catholic priest who
was shot by Oguzhan Akdin, a 16 year-old youth with ultranationalist
and Islamist sympathies, was under surveillance by the police on the
ludicrous suspicion that he was plotting to facilitate the annexation
of Turkey's eastern Black Sea coast by Greece. On April 18, 2007,
three Christian missionaries in the southeastern city of Mardin were
tortured and then had their throats cut by a group of students from
a hostel run by an Islamic foundation. During their trial, evidence
has emerged that these students too were in contact with members of
the local security forces. Lawyers acting for the families of the
victims claim that they have been receiving numerous death threats,
are being harassed by security officials and that key evidence -
such as tape recordings of confessions detailing links between the
accused and security officials - that was present at the beginning
of the trial, has now disappeared.
There is no suggestion that any high-ranking members of the ruling
Justice and Development Party (AKP) were involved either in any of
the killings or in the subsequent cover-ups. But neither does the
government appear to understand the extent of religious and racial
prejudice in Turkey or the need to amend legislation that fuels it.
The effective protection of minorities is a prerequisite for Turkish
accession to the EU, which has long pressed for the abolition of
legislation such as Article 301 of the Penal Code (see EDM, January
8). However, since the beginning of the year, the AKP has preferred
to focus almost exclusively on trying to push through legislation to
lift the headscarf ban that prevents pious Sunni women from attending
university (see EDM, February 11, February 25) and, most recently,
on legislative changes to circumvent the party itself being outlawed
following the public prosecutor's application for its closure on
March 14 (see EDM, March 17).