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ISTANBUL: For Hrant, and for justice...

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  • ISTANBUL: For Hrant, and for justice...

    Today's Zaman, Turkey
    Jan 19 2015

    For Hrant, and for justice¦

    by CAFER SOLGUN
    January 19, 2015, Monday


    A full eight years have passed since journalist Hrant Dink was
    murdered on the sidewalk in front of the newspaper that he had
    founded, and of which he was the editor-in-chief. Yes, a full eight
    years¦ and we are still waiting for justice.

    It would be difficult to find another murder that had announced itself
    so openly in advance, the way the murder of Dink's did.

    We all remember: A legal case was brought against Dink on the charges
    that he had `insulted Turkishness.' The case was based on the racist
    Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). It would also be
    difficult to find an example of a court case as clearly unfair as this
    one was because, the truth is, `insulting Turkishness' was something
    that would have never even occurred to Hrant Dink. But in the end, he
    was targeted by dark forces.

    Court hearings on his case turned into stages for racist shows by
    Ergenekon-type forces. In the end, Hrant was sentenced by the court
    for `insulting Turkishness,' and he said he was truly embarrassed of
    being sentenced on such an accusation. For, after all, Dink was from
    Turkey. He was a Turkish intellectual and journalist. He had nothing
    to do with racism, with nationalism, with ignorance or with fanatical
    thinking. He believed in the brotherhood of all peoples.

    When the French Parliament accepted a law making it a crime not to
    recognize the Armenian genocide, Hrant said, `I'm going to go to Paris
    and yell in the city squares, `There was no Armenian genocide!'' He
    was a democrat. And in the kind of democracy in which he believed,
    there was no place for `buts,' for bans, for limitations.

    But he was under threat. Instead of offering him protection, the state
    made sure he was called into the Ä°stanbul Governor's Office, where he
    was `officially' threatened; at this meeting, Hrant was told, `Watch
    yourself.'

    Hrant sensed that he was going to be killed. The final column he wrote
    before his murder was titled `My state is like that of a nervous
    pigeon.' And like a pigeon, he was in a constant state of jumpiness.
    He didn't trust the state, but he trusted in society, in the prudence
    and conscience of the Muslim majority of Turkey.

    Here is some of what he said in his final published words, just nine
    days before his death: `Yes, I can see that my state is one of the
    kind of nervous jumpiness that pigeons have, but at the same time I
    know that the people of the country never harm pigeons. Pigeons are
    able to carry on with their lives right in the middle of the city, in
    the midst of crowds. Yes, they are a bit jumpy and scared, but they
    are also completely free.'

    And then, on Jan. 19, 2007, at 3:05 p.m., Hrant Dink was shot and
    killed in front of his newspaper's building.

    The murderer and those who had encouraged him were captured. And the
    triggerman, Ogün Samast, was treated like a hero at the local police
    station, where his photo was even taken in front of the Turkish flag.

    The courts sentenced the suspects in this crime, but the court also
    ruled that this was no organized crime. When objections started to
    come in, the justice process was restarted. From the very start of the
    process, intelligence sources and public officials were protected,
    with the court decision rendered that there had been no negligence on
    this front.

    But last year, the stance taken by the government in this all, as well
    as the stance of the investigation itself, suddenly changed. And
    permission was finally granted for police officers connected to this
    case to be investigated. In fact, some intelligence agent police
    officers were even arrested, and now, the investigation continues.

    But even with these latest developments in mind, there is no sense
    that this renewed justice process is actually going to bring about
    results, and more importantly, justice. Those who just yesterday saw
    Hrant's murder as the result of a `sudden and unpredictable' action of
    a young person are the same who today clamor to prove that it was a
    job done by the `parallel state.' And so, just as they failed to tell
    the truth in the past, they are not telling the truth now either. The
    only real interest the ruling party has in this case is political.
    There is no real effort, no interest, no worry about seeing justice
    served.

    It was the widow of Hrant Dink, Rakel Dink, who reminded us all of the
    dimension in this murder that calls for real questioning, when,
    referring to murderer Samast -- who was not even 18 years old when he
    pulled the trigger -- she noted, `Without investigating the darkness
    that turned this child into a murderer, nothing can be done.'

    In dying, Hrant Dink turned into a symbol of Turkey's quest for
    justice. Without illuminating the darkness, we cannot look to our
    future with any sense of trust.


    http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/cafer-solgun/for-hrant-and-for-justice-_370242.html

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