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Today's Zaman, Turkey
May 4 2011
Prime minister approved probe into MÄ°T agents over Dink murder
04 May 2011, Wednesday / TODAY'S ZAMAN WITH WIRES, Ä°STANBUL
Two members of the National Intelligence Organization (MÄ°T) who
reportedly `warned' Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink to be
careful in his articles prior to his assassination in 2007 have been
under investigation since Jan. 21, 2011, when Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip ErdoÄ?an issued permission to start a probe into the agents,
news reports said on Wednesday.
According to Dink's account published in Agos, where he was
editor-in-chief, on Jan. 12, 2007, MÄ°T Marmara Regional Deputy
Director Ã-zel Yılmaz and another agent summoned Dink to the Ä°stanbul
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 an article asserting that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's
daughter Sabiha Gökçen was of Armenian descent. After Dink's
assassination, one of the MÄ°T 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
say might also be responsible for Dink's murder.
In response to a query about the meeting from the Ä°stanbul 14th High
Criminal Court, MÄ°T said the organization was aware of the `meeting'
with Dink and its agents at the time.
The Ankara Prosecutor's Office requested the Prime Ministry's
permission to investigate the two agents in 2010, but the request was
turned down. On Jan. 21, 2011, the prosecution filed another request
and it was approved the second time.
In a related development, also previously unknown to the public,
inspectors from the State Audit Institution (DDK), an investigative
body under the president's office, had a meeting with members of the
Dink family on April 25. Earlier this year, President Abdullah Gül
said the DDK could also launch a separate investigation into the Dink
murder. Sources say the family complained about the lack of progress
in exposing the alleged roles played by officers from the Trabzon
Gendarmerie Command, the Ä°stanbul Police Department and MÄ°T, who
appear to be implicated in the plot.
Dink was killed in broad daylight outside his newspaper's offices on
Jan. 19, 2007 by Ogün Samast, who was a minor at the time of the
murder. The ensuing investigation and trial exposed the hitman's
questionable links to various individuals tied to the Ä°stanbul Police
and Trabzon Gendarmerie Command. Despite significant evidence pointing
to the involvement of various officers in organizing the plot to kill
Dink, the identity of the masterminds of his assassination remains
elusive.
From: A. Papazian
May 4 2011
Prime minister approved probe into MÄ°T agents over Dink murder
04 May 2011, Wednesday / TODAY'S ZAMAN WITH WIRES, Ä°STANBUL
Two members of the National Intelligence Organization (MÄ°T) who
reportedly `warned' Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink to be
careful in his articles prior to his assassination in 2007 have been
under investigation since Jan. 21, 2011, when Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip ErdoÄ?an issued permission to start a probe into the agents,
news reports said on Wednesday.
According to Dink's account published in Agos, where he was
editor-in-chief, on Jan. 12, 2007, MÄ°T Marmara Regional Deputy
Director Ã-zel Yılmaz and another agent summoned Dink to the Ä°stanbul
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 an article asserting that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's
daughter Sabiha Gökçen was of Armenian descent. After Dink's
assassination, one of the MÄ°T 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
say might also be responsible for Dink's murder.
In response to a query about the meeting from the Ä°stanbul 14th High
Criminal Court, MÄ°T said the organization was aware of the `meeting'
with Dink and its agents at the time.
The Ankara Prosecutor's Office requested the Prime Ministry's
permission to investigate the two agents in 2010, but the request was
turned down. On Jan. 21, 2011, the prosecution filed another request
and it was approved the second time.
In a related development, also previously unknown to the public,
inspectors from the State Audit Institution (DDK), an investigative
body under the president's office, had a meeting with members of the
Dink family on April 25. Earlier this year, President Abdullah Gül
said the DDK could also launch a separate investigation into the Dink
murder. Sources say the family complained about the lack of progress
in exposing the alleged roles played by officers from the Trabzon
Gendarmerie Command, the Ä°stanbul Police Department and MÄ°T, who
appear to be implicated in the plot.
Dink was killed in broad daylight outside his newspaper's offices on
Jan. 19, 2007 by Ogün Samast, who was a minor at the time of the
murder. The ensuing investigation and trial exposed the hitman's
questionable links to various individuals tied to the Ä°stanbul Police
and Trabzon Gendarmerie Command. Despite significant evidence pointing
to the involvement of various officers in organizing the plot to kill
Dink, the identity of the masterminds of his assassination remains
elusive.
From: A. Papazian