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ANKARA: Intrigue Grows In Party Chief Crash

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  • ANKARA: Intrigue Grows In Party Chief Crash

    INTRIGUE GROWS IN PARTY CHIEF CRASH

    Hurriyet
    April 4 2009
    Turkey

    ISTANBUL - Great Union Party members believe that the suspicious
    helicopter crash that killed six people, including Muhsin Yazıcıoglu,
    the party's leader, should be investigated with an eye on assassination
    or sabotage. Yazıcıoglu's plans to meet with liberal intellectuals
    increase the intrigue

    Conspiracy theories have swelled over the helicopter crash that
    killed six people including Muhsin Yazıcıoglu, the leader of the
    conservative Great Union Party, or BBP, after plans for an exclusive
    meeting with liberal intellectuals were revealed.

    Conservative-right and nationalist party leader Yazıcıoglu's step
    to exchange ideas with Turkey's liberal intellectuals is an additional
    detail that adds suspicion to the crash.

    Kezban Hatemi, a lawyer, said the BBP asked her and intellectual
    Baskın Oran to bring intellectuals together to exchange ideas at
    a BBP meeting. "They explained the aim of this meeting would be to
    understand and enlighten each other," Hatemi told Hurriyet Daily News
    & Economic Review. The meeting was scheduled to take place in May,
    just two months after the crash.

    After his arrest, Yasin Hayal, a suspect in the murder of journalist
    Hrant Dink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian origin, said he was a
    follower of the BBP. Yazıcıoglu condemned the declaration at
    the time.

    After Yazıoglu's call, Hatemi, also a lawyer for the Dink family,
    said she called Orhan Dink, brother of Hrant Dink, and asked whether
    she should attend Yazıcıoglu's meeting. "Orhan Dink told me that
    I can attend it since they are open to any kind of dialogue and
    cooperation," Hatemi said. Hrant Dink was shot dead on Jan. 19, 2007,
    by Ogun Samast, who was 18 years old at the time.

    Oral CalıÅ~_lar, a daily Radikal columnist, said he was also invited
    to the BBP's meeting. CalıÅ~_lar said Yazıcıoglu would probably
    have expressed his ideas about democracy, freedom, assassinations
    and the Ergenekon case.

    The timing of the crash becomes more striking when Yazıcıoglu's
    planned meeting with intellectuals is taken into account with the
    connection of the Ergenekon case. Rumors claim Yazıcıoglu was
    one of the secret witnesses providing information about ties in the
    controversial Ergenekon case. BBP Vice President Ahmet Å~^anverdi
    dismissed the claims that Yazıcıoglu has given any files or
    information to the prosecutors of the Ergenekon probe, daily Vatan
    reported yesterday. Mehmet Altan, a daily Star columnist, who was
    one of the intellectuals invited to the BBP's meeting in indirect
    ways, said the accident should be investigated more strictly after
    the recent news. "When I look at the whole picture now, I believe we
    have to re-read the whole incident, including Ergenekon incidents and
    ties. Personally, I don't have any concrete information, but I feel
    that this is a suspicious accident and it needs more investigation,"
    Altan told the Daily News.

    The Ergenekon case started after the discovery of 27 hand grenades
    June 12, 2007, in a shanty house in Istanbul's Umraniye district.

    Another intriguing detail is that Yazıcıoglu survived four traffic
    accidents between May 2007 and June 2008. According to BBP officials,
    the helicopter accident was not just an accident. Party members have
    called experts from the United States and Germany to investigate the
    evidence at the crash scene.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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