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Today's Zaman, Turkey
July 4 2012
Dink murder conspirator: Our next target was novelist Pamuk
4 July 2012 / TODAY'S ZAMAN, Ä°STANBUL
Yasin Hayal, one of the main instigators of the murder of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, said the masterminds behind
the murder were planning to kill Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan
Pamuk after Dink, the Taraf daily reported on Wednesday.
Dink was shot dead outside the offices of the Agos newspaper in
Ä°stanbul in January 2007. Police arrested the gunman, Ogün Samast, and
his accomplice, Hayal.
When he was detained and appeared in court in 2007, Hayal had
threatened, `Orhan Pamuk should be careful.'
Hayal elaborated on these statements five years later from his prison
cell in TekirdaÄ?. He said Erhan Tuncel, who worked as an informant for
the Trabzon Police Department and was arrested after the murder of
Dink but subsequently released, told him: `Hrant Dink and Orhan Pamuk
are dangerous to this nation. They should be killed. But Dink has
priority.'
In January, Samast was sentenced to 22 years, 10 months in prison,
while Hayal was given life imprisonment for inciting Samast to murder.
Tuncel was found not guilty of murdering Dink.
Hayal said he made the threatening statement against Pamuk due to
Tuncel's remarks.
Hayal said they shelved their plans to kill Pamuk when the Dink murder
caused outrage in the country and the international community.
He also said he regrets having made those statements about Pamuk,
which he said were a result of ignorance. `They [those remarks] were
due to youth and ignorance. If I happen to get out of this place one
day, I will visit him [Pamuk] and kiss his hand [a show of respect in
Turkish culture] and apologize to him. I am really regretful,' he
said.
Pamuk drew the ire of Turkish nationalist circles when he said during
an interview with Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger in 2005 that `30,000
Kurds and a million Armenians were killed' in Turkey. Turkey denies
that Armenians were systematically killed between 1915 and 1923,
saying both sides suffered losses in internecine fighting during the
breakup of the Ottoman Empire.
July 4 2012
Dink murder conspirator: Our next target was novelist Pamuk
4 July 2012 / TODAY'S ZAMAN, Ä°STANBUL
Yasin Hayal, one of the main instigators of the murder of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, said the masterminds behind
the murder were planning to kill Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan
Pamuk after Dink, the Taraf daily reported on Wednesday.
Dink was shot dead outside the offices of the Agos newspaper in
Ä°stanbul in January 2007. Police arrested the gunman, Ogün Samast, and
his accomplice, Hayal.
When he was detained and appeared in court in 2007, Hayal had
threatened, `Orhan Pamuk should be careful.'
Hayal elaborated on these statements five years later from his prison
cell in TekirdaÄ?. He said Erhan Tuncel, who worked as an informant for
the Trabzon Police Department and was arrested after the murder of
Dink but subsequently released, told him: `Hrant Dink and Orhan Pamuk
are dangerous to this nation. They should be killed. But Dink has
priority.'
In January, Samast was sentenced to 22 years, 10 months in prison,
while Hayal was given life imprisonment for inciting Samast to murder.
Tuncel was found not guilty of murdering Dink.
Hayal said he made the threatening statement against Pamuk due to
Tuncel's remarks.
Hayal said they shelved their plans to kill Pamuk when the Dink murder
caused outrage in the country and the international community.
He also said he regrets having made those statements about Pamuk,
which he said were a result of ignorance. `They [those remarks] were
due to youth and ignorance. If I happen to get out of this place one
day, I will visit him [Pamuk] and kiss his hand [a show of respect in
Turkish culture] and apologize to him. I am really regretful,' he
said.
Pamuk drew the ire of Turkish nationalist circles when he said during
an interview with Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger in 2005 that `30,000
Kurds and a million Armenians were killed' in Turkey. Turkey denies
that Armenians were systematically killed between 1915 and 1923,
saying both sides suffered losses in internecine fighting during the
breakup of the Ottoman Empire.