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ANKARA: Coup-Plot Link Alleged In Dink Murder

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  • ANKARA: Coup-Plot Link Alleged In Dink Murder

    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.

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