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THE MURDER OF HRANT DINK: A TURKISH COURT DENIES A WIDER CONSPIRACY
http://lurer.com/?p=67480&l=en
2013-01-09 15:27:54
The journalist Hrant Dink was no stranger to sinister e-mails
and anonymous death threats. Turkish of Armenian descent, he was a
well-known and outspoken advocate for peace between the two bitterly
estranged nations. That won him few friends among rabid Turkish
nationalists who hated Dink because he openly said the killings of
hundreds of thousands of Armenians in the early 20th century was
genocide - a term Turkey rejects.
But things rapidly got worse for Dink in January 2007. Sentenced by
a court for "insulting Turkishness," he was vilified by mainstream
newspapers and called into a meeting at the Istanbul governor's office
to be warned that he had gone too far. "I am now a target," he wrote.
"My soul," he wrote shortly after the meeting, "has the skittishness
of a dove ... a bit frightened, but free."
The day those words were published, Dink was gunned down outside
his newspaper's office, shot in the head three times by Ogun Samast,
then 17, who was later apprehended in Trabzon, a city on the Black Sea
coast, where patriotism and machismo run high. Leaked pictures showed
police and army officers apparently giving the young man a hero's
welcome: they posed, smiling, against the backdrop of a Turkish flag.
According to rights activists, the case file is riddled with
contradictions, misplaced evidence, ATM-camera footage that
mysteriously disappeared and dozens of other suspect details. Even more
striking is that since the trial began in 2007, several individuals
believed to be involved in Dink's assassination have been arrested
in connection with Ergenekon, an alleged ultra-nationalist network
that sought to topple the government. Yet lawyers have been unable to
question them about their connection to the Dink case. "This shows
us that the boundaries between who is immune from prosecution or
not are predrawn, and you can only go after someone when the state
deems it appropriate, which is not the case for Hrant Dink's murder,"
said the Istanbul-based Human Rights Platform in a special report.
Turkey's President Abdullah Gul promised last year to personally
pursue the case - "a clean Turkey," he said, "was a personal
responsibility." He ordered state auditors to look into the
allegations, although little has come of that initiative, and his
reaction to Tuesday's verdict remains to be seen. Dink's family -
his wife, son and daughter - will likely appeal the ruling.
http://lurer.com/?p=67480&l=en
2013-01-09 15:27:54
The journalist Hrant Dink was no stranger to sinister e-mails
and anonymous death threats. Turkish of Armenian descent, he was a
well-known and outspoken advocate for peace between the two bitterly
estranged nations. That won him few friends among rabid Turkish
nationalists who hated Dink because he openly said the killings of
hundreds of thousands of Armenians in the early 20th century was
genocide - a term Turkey rejects.
But things rapidly got worse for Dink in January 2007. Sentenced by
a court for "insulting Turkishness," he was vilified by mainstream
newspapers and called into a meeting at the Istanbul governor's office
to be warned that he had gone too far. "I am now a target," he wrote.
"My soul," he wrote shortly after the meeting, "has the skittishness
of a dove ... a bit frightened, but free."
The day those words were published, Dink was gunned down outside
his newspaper's office, shot in the head three times by Ogun Samast,
then 17, who was later apprehended in Trabzon, a city on the Black Sea
coast, where patriotism and machismo run high. Leaked pictures showed
police and army officers apparently giving the young man a hero's
welcome: they posed, smiling, against the backdrop of a Turkish flag.
According to rights activists, the case file is riddled with
contradictions, misplaced evidence, ATM-camera footage that
mysteriously disappeared and dozens of other suspect details. Even more
striking is that since the trial began in 2007, several individuals
believed to be involved in Dink's assassination have been arrested
in connection with Ergenekon, an alleged ultra-nationalist network
that sought to topple the government. Yet lawyers have been unable to
question them about their connection to the Dink case. "This shows
us that the boundaries between who is immune from prosecution or
not are predrawn, and you can only go after someone when the state
deems it appropriate, which is not the case for Hrant Dink's murder,"
said the Istanbul-based Human Rights Platform in a special report.
Turkey's President Abdullah Gul promised last year to personally
pursue the case - "a clean Turkey," he said, "was a personal
responsibility." He ordered state auditors to look into the
allegations, although little has come of that initiative, and his
reaction to Tuesday's verdict remains to be seen. Dink's family -
his wife, son and daughter - will likely appeal the ruling.