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TURKEY INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS 'WARNED' DINK TO BE CAREFUL: FAMILY APPEALS PROSECUTOR DECISION
epress.am
12.15.2011
The family of Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink has appealed a
decision by an Ankara prosecutor to dismiss proceedings regarding two
members of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) who allegedly
"warned" Dink to be careful in his articles prior to his assassination
in 2007, Today's Zaman reports.
Lawyers Fethiye Cetin and Hasan Urel submitted the petition on behalf
of the family concerning the Ankara court's Oct. 29 decision to the
Sincan High Criminal Court on Tuesday.
In 2004, Dink published an article in Agos claiming that Sabiha Gokcen,
the adopted daughter of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk, and Turkey's first female pilot, was an Armenian orphan.
The petition indicated that following the publication of Dink's
story the Hurriyet daily reprinted it saying that "Ataturk's adopted
daughter was an Armenian girl," and then the General Staff issued
harsh statements against those news stories.
The lawyers also pointed out Dink's accounts and some facts:
"After being called to the İstanbul Governor's Office, where two
intelligence officers were present, Hrant Dink wrote about this
meeting because he was being warned and felt that he was being
targeted. When one of the two people, Ozel Yılmaz, became a defendant
in the Ergenekon case, it was revealed that the intelligence officials
were high-level members of MİT. MİT admitted in a statement to the
court three-and-a-half years after the murder that those who attended
the meeting were intelligence officers."
According to Dink's account published in Agos, where he was
editor-in-chief, on Jan. 12, 2007, MİT Marmara Regional Deputy Director
Ozel Yılmaz and Handan Selcuk summoned Dink to the İstanbul Governor's
Office and issued a warning, telling him to "be careful" about what
he writes. The meeting took place on Feb. 4, 2004, shortly after Dink
wrote the article about Gokcen. After Dink's assassination in January
2007, one of the MİT agents who talked to him at the governor's office
that day was revealed to be Yılmaz, who is currently a suspect in
the investigation into Ergenekon, a clandestine gang charged with
plotting to overthrow the government which prosecutors said might
also be responsible for Dink's murder.
Lawyers for the Dink family also indicated that Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan had given permission in January of this year for the
start of a probe into the MİT agents and that this is why the Ankara
prosecutor had opened an investigation.
"The actions of the suspects are clear. If they performed their duties
well, they would have prevented Hrant Dink's murder, but they did not.
Therefore, they are responsible for negligent homicide," the lawyers
stated, adding that it is not MİT officials' area of responsibility to
"warn" or "threaten" journalists because of their writings.
The court admitted the fact that the MİT officials' actions were in
line with "negligence and misconduct in office," but since the statute
of limitations had passed, the proceedings were dismissed; however,
the lawyers said the date of the crime should have been Jan. 19,
2007, when Dink was assassinated, not 2004, when the meeting at the
governor's office took place.
epress.am
12.15.2011
The family of Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink has appealed a
decision by an Ankara prosecutor to dismiss proceedings regarding two
members of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) who allegedly
"warned" Dink to be careful in his articles prior to his assassination
in 2007, Today's Zaman reports.
Lawyers Fethiye Cetin and Hasan Urel submitted the petition on behalf
of the family concerning the Ankara court's Oct. 29 decision to the
Sincan High Criminal Court on Tuesday.
In 2004, Dink published an article in Agos claiming that Sabiha Gokcen,
the adopted daughter of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk, and Turkey's first female pilot, was an Armenian orphan.
The petition indicated that following the publication of Dink's
story the Hurriyet daily reprinted it saying that "Ataturk's adopted
daughter was an Armenian girl," and then the General Staff issued
harsh statements against those news stories.
The lawyers also pointed out Dink's accounts and some facts:
"After being called to the İstanbul Governor's Office, where two
intelligence officers were present, Hrant Dink wrote about this
meeting because he was being warned and felt that he was being
targeted. When one of the two people, Ozel Yılmaz, became a defendant
in the Ergenekon case, it was revealed that the intelligence officials
were high-level members of MİT. MİT admitted in a statement to the
court three-and-a-half years after the murder that those who attended
the meeting were intelligence officers."
According to Dink's account published in Agos, where he was
editor-in-chief, on Jan. 12, 2007, MİT Marmara Regional Deputy Director
Ozel Yılmaz and Handan Selcuk summoned Dink to the İstanbul Governor's
Office and issued a warning, telling him to "be careful" about what
he writes. The meeting took place on Feb. 4, 2004, shortly after Dink
wrote the article about Gokcen. After Dink's assassination in January
2007, one of the MİT agents who talked to him at the governor's office
that day was revealed to be Yılmaz, who is currently a suspect in
the investigation into Ergenekon, a clandestine gang charged with
plotting to overthrow the government which prosecutors said might
also be responsible for Dink's murder.
Lawyers for the Dink family also indicated that Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan had given permission in January of this year for the
start of a probe into the MİT agents and that this is why the Ankara
prosecutor had opened an investigation.
"The actions of the suspects are clear. If they performed their duties
well, they would have prevented Hrant Dink's murder, but they did not.
Therefore, they are responsible for negligent homicide," the lawyers
stated, adding that it is not MİT officials' area of responsibility to
"warn" or "threaten" journalists because of their writings.
The court admitted the fact that the MİT officials' actions were in
line with "negligence and misconduct in office," but since the statute
of limitations had passed, the proceedings were dismissed; however,
the lawyers said the date of the crime should have been Jan. 19,
2007, when Dink was assassinated, not 2004, when the meeting at the
governor's office took place.