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ERHAN TUNCEL ACQUITTED OF MURDERING HRANT DINK, ARMENIAN JOURNALIST IN TURKEY
International Business Times News
January 17, 2012 Tuesday 10:50 PM EST
A court in Turkey has sentenced a man named Yasin Hayal to life in
prison in connection with the murder of prominent Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink. However, another suspect, Erhan Tuncel, was acquitted of
murder charges.
Moreover, the two aforementioned defendants, along with all 19
suspects, were cleared of charges that they belonged to a secret
terrorist organization.
Tuncel did receive 10 years in prison for an unrelated charge of
bombing a McDonald's restaurant in 2004.
The murder trial brings to an end a five-year odyssey that brought back
terrible memories of Turkey's troubled relations with its minorities,
particularly Armenians.
Dink, who was the editor of a weekly publication called Agos, was shot
dead in January 2007 in Istanbul by an ultra-right wing nationalist
in broad daylight outside his office. For years prior to his death,
he had been threatened by nationalists for "insulting Turkishness"
for writing articles critical of the country.
The actual hitman, Ogun Samast, was sentenced to nearly 23 years last
summer. But many more people are believed to be behind the conspiracy
to murder Dink.
Indeed, the murdered man's supporters and others believed the
killing was a conspiracy by an underground nationalist right-wing
group called Ergenekon that seeks ultimately to topple the elected
civilian government of Turkey.
Tuncel reportedly confessed in the trial that Dink's murder was the
work of Ergenekon.
Former top military officials accused of links to Ergenekon are
currently facing trial in an alleged plot to overthrow the government
of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Meanwhile, Dink's supporters are outraged by the acquittals and by
the court's determination that the defendants did not belong to any
terrorist group.
The Dink family's lawyer, Fethiye Cetin, told reporters that the
state itself was directly responsible for his killing because they
did not adequately protect Dink from those who threatened to kill him.
"They made fun of us throughout the five-year trial process. We did
not know they saved the biggest joke to the very end," she said.
"This ruling means a tradition was left untouched. The state tradition
of political murders. The tradition of state discriminating against
some of its citizens and turning them into enemies."
A supporter of Dink, Garo Paylan, said in a statement: "The ruling
is the state's decision. The ones who decided to take Hrant from us
five years ago -- the security forces, gendarmerie, intelligence,
judiciary, media, government, opposition -- will once again make a
decision in the courthouse. They will say that the murder is the job
of two or three hitmen. They will try to hide in their dark world. But
we know them. They don't know a thing: This case will not end before
we say that it did."
In addition, according to Turkish media, the trial has unearthed
secret links between the defendants and Turkish police officials.
Tuncel himself was unmasked as a police informant.
Amnesty International's Turkey researcher, Andrew Gardner, told the
Guardian newspaper of Britain: "There has been evidence since the
time of the murder five years ago indicating that those on trial were
working as part of a network, that state officials were complicit in
the murder. This has been acknowledged by the Dink family lawyers,
defendants in the case, the prosecutor and a state administrative
investigation. Yet those individuals were not investigated effectively,
they were not prosecuted. The court concluded that there was no
organization behind the murder, moving still further from the weight
of evidence."
Gardner added: "It is a damning indictment of justice in Turkey,
sending the message that those in positions of power will be protected
and human rights violations by state officials will go unpunished. The
investigation, the prosecution and the verdict were largely irrelevant
to achieving justice for Hrant Dink."
From: A. Papazian
International Business Times News
January 17, 2012 Tuesday 10:50 PM EST
A court in Turkey has sentenced a man named Yasin Hayal to life in
prison in connection with the murder of prominent Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink. However, another suspect, Erhan Tuncel, was acquitted of
murder charges.
Moreover, the two aforementioned defendants, along with all 19
suspects, were cleared of charges that they belonged to a secret
terrorist organization.
Tuncel did receive 10 years in prison for an unrelated charge of
bombing a McDonald's restaurant in 2004.
The murder trial brings to an end a five-year odyssey that brought back
terrible memories of Turkey's troubled relations with its minorities,
particularly Armenians.
Dink, who was the editor of a weekly publication called Agos, was shot
dead in January 2007 in Istanbul by an ultra-right wing nationalist
in broad daylight outside his office. For years prior to his death,
he had been threatened by nationalists for "insulting Turkishness"
for writing articles critical of the country.
The actual hitman, Ogun Samast, was sentenced to nearly 23 years last
summer. But many more people are believed to be behind the conspiracy
to murder Dink.
Indeed, the murdered man's supporters and others believed the
killing was a conspiracy by an underground nationalist right-wing
group called Ergenekon that seeks ultimately to topple the elected
civilian government of Turkey.
Tuncel reportedly confessed in the trial that Dink's murder was the
work of Ergenekon.
Former top military officials accused of links to Ergenekon are
currently facing trial in an alleged plot to overthrow the government
of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Meanwhile, Dink's supporters are outraged by the acquittals and by
the court's determination that the defendants did not belong to any
terrorist group.
The Dink family's lawyer, Fethiye Cetin, told reporters that the
state itself was directly responsible for his killing because they
did not adequately protect Dink from those who threatened to kill him.
"They made fun of us throughout the five-year trial process. We did
not know they saved the biggest joke to the very end," she said.
"This ruling means a tradition was left untouched. The state tradition
of political murders. The tradition of state discriminating against
some of its citizens and turning them into enemies."
A supporter of Dink, Garo Paylan, said in a statement: "The ruling
is the state's decision. The ones who decided to take Hrant from us
five years ago -- the security forces, gendarmerie, intelligence,
judiciary, media, government, opposition -- will once again make a
decision in the courthouse. They will say that the murder is the job
of two or three hitmen. They will try to hide in their dark world. But
we know them. They don't know a thing: This case will not end before
we say that it did."
In addition, according to Turkish media, the trial has unearthed
secret links between the defendants and Turkish police officials.
Tuncel himself was unmasked as a police informant.
Amnesty International's Turkey researcher, Andrew Gardner, told the
Guardian newspaper of Britain: "There has been evidence since the
time of the murder five years ago indicating that those on trial were
working as part of a network, that state officials were complicit in
the murder. This has been acknowledged by the Dink family lawyers,
defendants in the case, the prosecutor and a state administrative
investigation. Yet those individuals were not investigated effectively,
they were not prosecuted. The court concluded that there was no
organization behind the murder, moving still further from the weight
of evidence."
Gardner added: "It is a damning indictment of justice in Turkey,
sending the message that those in positions of power will be protected
and human rights violations by state officials will go unpunished. The
investigation, the prosecution and the verdict were largely irrelevant
to achieving justice for Hrant Dink."
From: A. Papazian