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THE HRANT DINK CASE, TURKEY'S CASE
Today's Zaman
Jan 20 2012
Turkey
Following a five-year-long trial, the court last week announced the
verdict in the Hrant Dink murder case.
The judge declared at the end that this hideous murder was an ordinary
crime and not one committed by a shady network. In order words, the
court wants us to believe that the killing of the editor-in-chief of
the Armenian weekly newspaper Agos was not a political murder and that
the "deep state" was not involved at all. This verdict proves once
more that in this country the law exists to protect primarily the
state and not the individuals. It is true that the judicial process
of this case is not totally over as the court of appeals can still
overturn this. However, we can already say that Turkey is about to
miss a golden opportunity as the Dink case is not only about the
murder of an individual; it has many other dimensions.
Studying the process leading to the murder of Dink offers us the
opportunity to discuss the freedom of expression issues in our
country. During this process, we've seen with our own eyes that
the state felt free to threaten a journalist, asking him to be
"more careful" in his publications. His killing has also reminded
everyone of the complexity of the Armenian problem and the problems
all minorities face in Turkey. Naturally, initiating a fair debate
about the Armenian issue involves a discussion about the deep state
and its evolution in Turkish political history.
During the trial, some people tried to limit the case to the person
who pulled the trigger in order to hide an entire mechanism that led
to this murder. Besides, as the killer is identified as a minor who
was misled, they have managed to prevent a comprehensive discussion
about racism or discrimination issues.
Racist and discriminatory practices are so frequent in our daily lives
that sometimes we don't even notice them. People are so used to it
that they don't even think of these behaviors as crimes. There are
still people in Turkey who think that the army's role in political
life is acceptable and that the deep state's actions in order to pave
the way for a military coup can sometimes be justified.
The Dink case was a good opportunity for a big "cleanup" by linking
all cases related to the coup attempts because the very background
of the Dink murder can be traced to laying the groundwork for a coup.
If the court of appeals chooses not to change the verdict, the social
conscience will be hurt again. Besides, people will believe more than
ever that the deep state's crimes will never be punished. It will
also damage the court cases of the coup perpetrators, and some people
will be able to claim that the suspects in the Ergenekon case are in
prison not because they were plotting against the government but simply
because they are against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
If the Ergenekon case loses credibility, then the Kurdish Communities
Union (KCK) members will be the only ones who remain in prison. That
will severely hurt the AK Party as people will then be able to claim
that the government is antagonizing the Kurds.
>From his murder until the court's verdict, every aspect of the Dink
case was used against the government. Perhaps some people have tried
to achieve through this case what they couldn't by force.
This scenario shows that there are still people who target the
AK Party through the deep state mechanisms, but this truth is not
enough to say that the AK Party is the victim here. Because it is a
fact that the government didn't put all its weight behind solving the
Dink case and it didn't accelerate reforms at legal, administrative
and functional levels to prevent similar situations in the future.
Today's Zaman
Jan 20 2012
Turkey
Following a five-year-long trial, the court last week announced the
verdict in the Hrant Dink murder case.
The judge declared at the end that this hideous murder was an ordinary
crime and not one committed by a shady network. In order words, the
court wants us to believe that the killing of the editor-in-chief of
the Armenian weekly newspaper Agos was not a political murder and that
the "deep state" was not involved at all. This verdict proves once
more that in this country the law exists to protect primarily the
state and not the individuals. It is true that the judicial process
of this case is not totally over as the court of appeals can still
overturn this. However, we can already say that Turkey is about to
miss a golden opportunity as the Dink case is not only about the
murder of an individual; it has many other dimensions.
Studying the process leading to the murder of Dink offers us the
opportunity to discuss the freedom of expression issues in our
country. During this process, we've seen with our own eyes that
the state felt free to threaten a journalist, asking him to be
"more careful" in his publications. His killing has also reminded
everyone of the complexity of the Armenian problem and the problems
all minorities face in Turkey. Naturally, initiating a fair debate
about the Armenian issue involves a discussion about the deep state
and its evolution in Turkish political history.
During the trial, some people tried to limit the case to the person
who pulled the trigger in order to hide an entire mechanism that led
to this murder. Besides, as the killer is identified as a minor who
was misled, they have managed to prevent a comprehensive discussion
about racism or discrimination issues.
Racist and discriminatory practices are so frequent in our daily lives
that sometimes we don't even notice them. People are so used to it
that they don't even think of these behaviors as crimes. There are
still people in Turkey who think that the army's role in political
life is acceptable and that the deep state's actions in order to pave
the way for a military coup can sometimes be justified.
The Dink case was a good opportunity for a big "cleanup" by linking
all cases related to the coup attempts because the very background
of the Dink murder can be traced to laying the groundwork for a coup.
If the court of appeals chooses not to change the verdict, the social
conscience will be hurt again. Besides, people will believe more than
ever that the deep state's crimes will never be punished. It will
also damage the court cases of the coup perpetrators, and some people
will be able to claim that the suspects in the Ergenekon case are in
prison not because they were plotting against the government but simply
because they are against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
If the Ergenekon case loses credibility, then the Kurdish Communities
Union (KCK) members will be the only ones who remain in prison. That
will severely hurt the AK Party as people will then be able to claim
that the government is antagonizing the Kurds.
>From his murder until the court's verdict, every aspect of the Dink
case was used against the government. Perhaps some people have tried
to achieve through this case what they couldn't by force.
This scenario shows that there are still people who target the
AK Party through the deep state mechanisms, but this truth is not
enough to say that the AK Party is the victim here. Because it is a
fact that the government didn't put all its weight behind solving the
Dink case and it didn't accelerate reforms at legal, administrative
and functional levels to prevent similar situations in the future.