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Three Years After Dink Murder, Case Remains Unsolved

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  • Three Years After Dink Murder, Case Remains Unsolved

    THREE YEARS AFTER DINK MURDER, CASE REMAINS UNSOLVED

    Asbarez
    Jan 19th, 2010

    ISTANBUL (Today's Zaman)-Three years after Turkish-Armenian journalist
    Hrant Dink was fatally shot outside his office by an ultranationalist
    teenager, the investigation into his murder has stalled as the
    suspected perpetrator and his immediate accomplices have been put on
    trial, but those who masterminded the plot to kill him still wait to
    be revealed.

    While the anniversary of Dink's murder is being commemorated today
    with a series of ceremonies in Turkey and abroad, Dink's lawyers,
    domestic and international rights organizations and activists
    express their frustration that the murder investigation has not been
    progressing. There is a lengthy list of suspicious irregularities
    in the investigation, including deleted records and hidden files
    suggestive of an attempted police cover-up.

    "Much of the evidence indicates that the murder could have been
    prevented," said Deniz Tuna, one of the family lawyers. "We filed
    lawsuits indicating that security forces should have been tried
    for manslaughter because they caused Dink's death from negligence,
    but they are continuing to be tried only for negligence," she told
    Today's Zaman.

    Dink was editor-in-chief of the bilingual Agos daily until he was
    killed on Jan. 19, 2007. Lawyers representing the co-plaintiffs in
    the Dink trial have long alleged that the murder was the doing of
    Ergenekon, a clandestine group charged with plotting to overthrow the
    government. In the latest hearing they also petitioned the 14th High
    Criminal Court to contact the prosecutors investigating Ergenekon
    to request a copy of the documents that describe the organization's
    schemes against religious minorities in Turkey.

    At the last hearing of the Dink trial in October of last year
    co-plaintiff lawyer Fethiye Cetin stated that Dink's murder, along
    with that of an Italian priest in 2006 and the 2007 slaying of
    three Christians in Malatya, was part of an operation carried out
    by Ergenekon.

    On Saturday, a group known as "The Friends of Hrant" called on people
    to participate in a demonstration to be held in front of the Agos
    daily headquarters today, the third anniversary of Turkish-Armenian
    journalist Hrant Dink's death.

    Cetin also said that the acts of some Ergenekon suspects in turning
    Dink into a target for ultranationalists were very "open." She
    recalled that when Dink was facing charges under Turkish Penal Code
    (TCK) Article 301, which then criminalized "insulting Turkishness,"
    some of the people who are in jail now as alleged Ergenekon members
    brought crowds of protestors and even attacked Dink and his supporters
    as they entered and left the courtroom.

    Indeed, this is what co-plaintiff lawyers Cetin and Tuna point out
    in their "Third Year Report on Hrant Dink's Murder," referring to a
    devious plan called the Cage Operation Action Plan, which aimed to
    intimidate Turkey's non-Muslims and assassinate prominent figures. The
    plan, revealed during the Ergenekon investigation, was allegedly
    designed by a group of members of the Naval Forces Command.

    Lawyer Tuna said that all the indications point to Dink's murder being
    part of a plan. "There is a willpower and a determination [outside of]
    the court, and this is what needs to be exposed," she said.

    Asked by Today's Zaman who could expose it, she said, "the government."

    "The security personnel were informed beforehand about the
    assassination plot and did not take steps to stop it. They are being
    protected by certain authorities in an attempted cover-up. We are
    talking about the state's security forces: the gendarmerie, police
    and intelligence agencies. Therefore, it is the government which
    is supposed to demonstrate the political will to make progress in
    Dink's murder."

    She also explained that an inspection board under the Prime Ministry
    had started an investigation in response to a petition by Dink's wife
    in April 2007. The investigation requested that some intelligence and
    security forces personnel in Trabzon be investigated, and the board
    approved this report at the end of 2008.

    "We don't know the result of the investigation in Trabzon. We requested
    to be joint attorneys in those cases but were not allowed," Tuna
    said, adding that they were prevented from doing this under Law 4483,
    which relates to the judicial process for trying public officials.

    "What we need is a government initiative to show the necessary will
    in order to solve the problems in Dink's murder which relate to the
    bigger picture," she said.

    The report prepared by Tuna and Cetin concluded that it is impossible
    to shed light on Dink's murder using the methods employed thus far.

    "As it is impossible to believe that the murder is the work of
    three to five youths who have nationalistic feelings, it is also
    impossible to believe that an organized structure which has illegal
    powers of authority and influence within the intelligence units and
    the gendarmerie could have committed the murder by using those youths.

    >>From the General Staff to the judiciary, from government spokespeople
    to the security units, from the media to paramilitary forces, all
    legal and political actors have responsibility in Hrant Dink's murder,
    by not preventing the murder and not exposing the real perpetrators."
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