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HRANT'S FRIENDS CALL ON STATE TO PUNISH PERPETRATORS
Today's Zaman
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-270153-hrants-friends-call-on-state-to-punish-perpetrators.html
Jan 31 2012
Turkey
In their ongoing search for justice, a group of people who identify
themselves as "Hrant's Friends" released a press statement on Tuesday
calling on the government to punish the perpetrators in the 2007 murder
of journalist Hrant Drink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent.
Civil society was outraged when the Ä°stanbul 14th High Criminal Court
issued its ruling in the 25th hearing of the Dink case this month,
ending a five-year trial. The main suspects, Yasin Hayal and Erhan
Tuncel, as well as all other suspects were cleared of charges of
membership in a terrorist organization. Tuncel was given 10 years,
six months for an unrelated McDonald's bombing in 2004.
Tuncel was previously a police informant, but was accused of being
an instigator of the Dink murder. He said the murder was the work
of Ergenekon, a clandestine organization whose alleged members are
currently standing trial in court cases on charges of plotting to
overthrow the government.
The late editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, Dink
was shot dead on Jan. 19, 2007 by an ultranationalist teenager, Ogun
Samast, outside the offices of his newspaper in Ä°stanbul in broad
daylight. Evidence discovered since then has led to claims that the
murder was linked to the "deep state," a term used in reference to
a shady group of military and civilian bureaucrats believed to have
links to criminal elements.
Reading the press statement on behalf of Hrant's Friends, journalist
Umit Kıvanc stated:
"The government says: We did everything the judiciary demanded of us.
And we say: It's shameful to say that because, first of all, there
have been so many things that you could have done but did not. Second,
the court was scandalous not because of its verdict but because of the
way it was set up from the beginning. You did not do the things that
were required of you. All of the officials who destroyed evidence,
forged documents, altered documents, made fun of the lawyers who
have been trying hard to make their voices heard during the trial,
they are all your employees. Had you given real support to justice,
none of these disgraceful events would have occurred. You managed to
achieve something unbelievable, being an accomplice, in the act that
appears to have targeted your government. Congratulations."
The statement then provided examples of what was not done in the
trial. The group also gave the names of top officials who allegedly
engaged in gross negligence of duty in the process that led to
Dink's murder.
"No doubt, we should start with MÄ°T [the National Intelligence
Organization]. No information came out from the state's most important
intelligence agency regarding the murder of Hrant Dink. When the court
demanded information from them, they said, 'We have no information.' A
serious government would ask how come they don't have any information
in that regard," the statement said.
The statement also said it became clear that Trabzon police had tapped
the phone lines of some suspects and even physically followed them,
but when the court asked for those records, the Trabzon police said
they did not tap any phone lines in relation to the murder:
"However, the police chief said Trabzon did do it. When their lies
came out, Trabzon police said they erased those records. Some of the
records that could be acquired they forged."
The statement also mentioned the Ä°stanbul Police Department's deletion
of video footage around the murder site:
"The Ä°stanbul Police Department's actions in relation to the
assassination of Hrant Dink are scandalous. Concealing the notification
of the planned murder and then forging documents would be enough. All
of that remained unpunished. Fine. Ä°stanbul police destroyed video
footage of the crime scene on the day of the murder. ...
Did the interior minister and the prime minister ask anyone about
what happened and why that footage was deleted?"
The statement goes on to provide more examples, resistance from the
Telecommunications Directorate (TÄ°B) as it for years failed to provide
the court the records of phone conversations of suspects and the
deletion of Tuncel's MSN conversation records by the Ä°stanbul police.
Hrant's Friends point out "untouchable" officials allegedly responsible
for Dink's murder:
Muammer Guler, who was the governor of Ä°stanbul at the time and
currently a lawmaker, is listed as being responsible because Dink was
threatened by two MİT officials, Ozel Yılmaz and Handan Selcuk,
at the office of Deputy Governor Ergun Gungör. Other individuals
listed as being responsible for Dink's assassination include Osmaniye
Governor Celalettin Cerrah, who was the Ä°stanbul chief of police at
the time of the murder; Ahmet Ä°lhan Guler, then head of intelligence
at the Ä°stanbul Police Department; ReÅ~_at Altay, then Trabzon police
chief; Engin Dinc, then head of intelligence at the Trabzon Police
Department and the man who told the Ä°stanbul Police Department that
Dink was going to be killed; police officers Faruk Sarı, Ozkan Mumcu,
Muhittin Zenit and Mehmet Ayhan, who were in direct contact with Tuncel
at the Trabzon Police Department; Ä°stanbul police officers Ä°brahim
Pala, Ä°brahim Å~^evki Eldivan, Volkan Altınbulak, Bahadır Tekin and
Ozcan Ozkan, who forged documents; Ali Oz, the then commander of the
Trabzon Gendarmerie Command, who covered up information regarding
plans to murder Dink; and Ramazan Akyurek, who was the chief of
police in Trabzon when Tuncel was made an informant and who held
the same position when the information regarding the planned Dink
assassination reached his office.
"They get angry with us when we say the state is a murderer. However,
they have been making fun of us for five years as we have not given
into our anger. These words are not statements made out of anger. They
are an expression of the situation. Come and do something different
and we will never use that word again. Can you do that?" the statement
said in conclusion.
Today's Zaman
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-270153-hrants-friends-call-on-state-to-punish-perpetrators.html
Jan 31 2012
Turkey
In their ongoing search for justice, a group of people who identify
themselves as "Hrant's Friends" released a press statement on Tuesday
calling on the government to punish the perpetrators in the 2007 murder
of journalist Hrant Drink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent.
Civil society was outraged when the Ä°stanbul 14th High Criminal Court
issued its ruling in the 25th hearing of the Dink case this month,
ending a five-year trial. The main suspects, Yasin Hayal and Erhan
Tuncel, as well as all other suspects were cleared of charges of
membership in a terrorist organization. Tuncel was given 10 years,
six months for an unrelated McDonald's bombing in 2004.
Tuncel was previously a police informant, but was accused of being
an instigator of the Dink murder. He said the murder was the work
of Ergenekon, a clandestine organization whose alleged members are
currently standing trial in court cases on charges of plotting to
overthrow the government.
The late editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, Dink
was shot dead on Jan. 19, 2007 by an ultranationalist teenager, Ogun
Samast, outside the offices of his newspaper in Ä°stanbul in broad
daylight. Evidence discovered since then has led to claims that the
murder was linked to the "deep state," a term used in reference to
a shady group of military and civilian bureaucrats believed to have
links to criminal elements.
Reading the press statement on behalf of Hrant's Friends, journalist
Umit Kıvanc stated:
"The government says: We did everything the judiciary demanded of us.
And we say: It's shameful to say that because, first of all, there
have been so many things that you could have done but did not. Second,
the court was scandalous not because of its verdict but because of the
way it was set up from the beginning. You did not do the things that
were required of you. All of the officials who destroyed evidence,
forged documents, altered documents, made fun of the lawyers who
have been trying hard to make their voices heard during the trial,
they are all your employees. Had you given real support to justice,
none of these disgraceful events would have occurred. You managed to
achieve something unbelievable, being an accomplice, in the act that
appears to have targeted your government. Congratulations."
The statement then provided examples of what was not done in the
trial. The group also gave the names of top officials who allegedly
engaged in gross negligence of duty in the process that led to
Dink's murder.
"No doubt, we should start with MÄ°T [the National Intelligence
Organization]. No information came out from the state's most important
intelligence agency regarding the murder of Hrant Dink. When the court
demanded information from them, they said, 'We have no information.' A
serious government would ask how come they don't have any information
in that regard," the statement said.
The statement also said it became clear that Trabzon police had tapped
the phone lines of some suspects and even physically followed them,
but when the court asked for those records, the Trabzon police said
they did not tap any phone lines in relation to the murder:
"However, the police chief said Trabzon did do it. When their lies
came out, Trabzon police said they erased those records. Some of the
records that could be acquired they forged."
The statement also mentioned the Ä°stanbul Police Department's deletion
of video footage around the murder site:
"The Ä°stanbul Police Department's actions in relation to the
assassination of Hrant Dink are scandalous. Concealing the notification
of the planned murder and then forging documents would be enough. All
of that remained unpunished. Fine. Ä°stanbul police destroyed video
footage of the crime scene on the day of the murder. ...
Did the interior minister and the prime minister ask anyone about
what happened and why that footage was deleted?"
The statement goes on to provide more examples, resistance from the
Telecommunications Directorate (TÄ°B) as it for years failed to provide
the court the records of phone conversations of suspects and the
deletion of Tuncel's MSN conversation records by the Ä°stanbul police.
Hrant's Friends point out "untouchable" officials allegedly responsible
for Dink's murder:
Muammer Guler, who was the governor of Ä°stanbul at the time and
currently a lawmaker, is listed as being responsible because Dink was
threatened by two MİT officials, Ozel Yılmaz and Handan Selcuk,
at the office of Deputy Governor Ergun Gungör. Other individuals
listed as being responsible for Dink's assassination include Osmaniye
Governor Celalettin Cerrah, who was the Ä°stanbul chief of police at
the time of the murder; Ahmet Ä°lhan Guler, then head of intelligence
at the Ä°stanbul Police Department; ReÅ~_at Altay, then Trabzon police
chief; Engin Dinc, then head of intelligence at the Trabzon Police
Department and the man who told the Ä°stanbul Police Department that
Dink was going to be killed; police officers Faruk Sarı, Ozkan Mumcu,
Muhittin Zenit and Mehmet Ayhan, who were in direct contact with Tuncel
at the Trabzon Police Department; Ä°stanbul police officers Ä°brahim
Pala, Ä°brahim Å~^evki Eldivan, Volkan Altınbulak, Bahadır Tekin and
Ozcan Ozkan, who forged documents; Ali Oz, the then commander of the
Trabzon Gendarmerie Command, who covered up information regarding
plans to murder Dink; and Ramazan Akyurek, who was the chief of
police in Trabzon when Tuncel was made an informant and who held
the same position when the information regarding the planned Dink
assassination reached his office.
"They get angry with us when we say the state is a murderer. However,
they have been making fun of us for five years as we have not given
into our anger. These words are not statements made out of anger. They
are an expression of the situation. Come and do something different
and we will never use that word again. Can you do that?" the statement
said in conclusion.