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COUP-PLOT LINK ALLEGED IN DINK MURDER
Hurriyet Daily News
Sept 19 2011
Turkey
Demonstrators carry placards during a protest in front of the
BeĊ~_iktaĊ~_ courthouse before a Dink trial hearing on Monday. DAILY
NEWS photo, Emrah GUREL
The assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink may
be connected to the ongoing Ergenekon coup-plot case, according to
the trial's chief prosecutor, who requested life imprisonment for
suspected conspirators Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel on Monday.
"The assassination of Hrant Dink is the latest assassination enacted by
the deep [state.] The suspects acted with ideological motivations. The
Turkish Republic and public order [were] the targets. There are
[reasons] to suspect that the murder is connected to the Ergenekon
organization," the chief prosecutor said.
Meanwhile, Hrant Dink's acquintances and his family's lawyers stormed
out of the courtroom when the chief prosecutor requested to state
his opinion on the case, claiming that many of their requests had
not been met over the course of the trials.
"Not an inch of progress has been made in five years. [The authorities]
do not want to investigate the truth behind this murder," said Fethiye
Cetin, a lawyer for the Dink family.
It was unacceptable for the judge to grant the prosecution permission
to issue his opinion before the collection of all the evidence,
Cetin said.
The family's lawyers had earlier demanded that the trial be merged
with the Ergenekon case but the request was rejected by the court.
Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin, was the chief editor
for weekly Agos, a paper published in both Turkish and Armenian. He
was shot in front of his office in January 2007; triggerman Ogun
Samast was sentenced to 22 years in prison last month for the murder.
Ergenekon is an alleged ultranationalist, shadowy gang accused
of planning to topple the government by staging a coup, initially
by spreading chaos and mayhem. It is an alleged extension of the
"deep state," an unofficial organization within the state that has
operated independently of elected governments since the beginning of
the Cold War.
Hurriyet Daily News
Sept 19 2011
Turkey
Demonstrators carry placards during a protest in front of the
BeĊ~_iktaĊ~_ courthouse before a Dink trial hearing on Monday. DAILY
NEWS photo, Emrah GUREL
The assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink may
be connected to the ongoing Ergenekon coup-plot case, according to
the trial's chief prosecutor, who requested life imprisonment for
suspected conspirators Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel on Monday.
"The assassination of Hrant Dink is the latest assassination enacted by
the deep [state.] The suspects acted with ideological motivations. The
Turkish Republic and public order [were] the targets. There are
[reasons] to suspect that the murder is connected to the Ergenekon
organization," the chief prosecutor said.
Meanwhile, Hrant Dink's acquintances and his family's lawyers stormed
out of the courtroom when the chief prosecutor requested to state
his opinion on the case, claiming that many of their requests had
not been met over the course of the trials.
"Not an inch of progress has been made in five years. [The authorities]
do not want to investigate the truth behind this murder," said Fethiye
Cetin, a lawyer for the Dink family.
It was unacceptable for the judge to grant the prosecution permission
to issue his opinion before the collection of all the evidence,
Cetin said.
The family's lawyers had earlier demanded that the trial be merged
with the Ergenekon case but the request was rejected by the court.
Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin, was the chief editor
for weekly Agos, a paper published in both Turkish and Armenian. He
was shot in front of his office in January 2007; triggerman Ogun
Samast was sentenced to 22 years in prison last month for the murder.
Ergenekon is an alleged ultranationalist, shadowy gang accused
of planning to topple the government by staging a coup, initially
by spreading chaos and mayhem. It is an alleged extension of the
"deep state," an unofficial organization within the state that has
operated independently of elected governments since the beginning of
the Cold War.