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Eight Years After His Politically Motivated Death, Hrant Dink Still

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  • Eight Years After His Politically Motivated Death, Hrant Dink Still

    Global Voices Online
    Jan 19 2015

    Eight Years After His Politically Motivated Death, Hrant Dink Still
    Cannot Rest in Peace

    Posted 19 January 2015


    On January 19, 2007, Hrant Dink, an Armenian journalist, was murdered
    by 17-year-old Ogün Samast, an ultra-nationalist from the Turkish city
    of Trabzon. After a trial spanning half a decade, Samast was sentenced
    to nearly 23 years in jail in 2011.

    Dink was viewed by many as a leader of the Armenian community in
    Turkey, that pressed for a recognition of the 1915 Armenian Genocide,
    while also being a proud citizen of Turkey.

    Supporters of Dink, who edited the bilingual Turkish-Armenian
    newspaper Agos, believe that the murder was an organized act, which
    included officials in the upper echelons of the government. In order
    to answer these claims, another trial was held in Istanbul lasting
    five years. Despite all the evidence compiled by Dink's legal team,
    only one other man faced an aggravated life sentence for soliciting
    the murder, while 19 suspects were acquitted of being members of a
    terrorist organization. The verdict was met by public outcry as the
    Turkish state was once again shown incapable of shining a light on
    political murders.

    In May 2013, the Istanbul court's verdict was found to be
    unsatisfactory by Turkey's Supreme Court of Appeals in Ankara. This
    court argued that the government had bungled and eliminated evidence
    that could lead to the arrest of officials, and ordered a retrial.

    Nationalism's Nest in the Turkish State

    The idea that nationalism is welcome in Turkey is nothing new, but,
    the initial arrest of Ogün Samast was a particularly ugly sort of
    confirmation of its pervasiveness: when taken back to the station
    after being detained Samast posed for photos with police officers and
    a Turkish flag.

    Ogün Samast, assasin of Hrant Dink, and police taking a picture in
    front of the Turkish flag after his arrest in Samsun, 2007. Widely
    shared.

    The five years following this arrest witnessed false statements from
    different state officials, disappeared evidence, and a reluctance on
    the part of officials to question and punish highly ranked officials.

    Writing in 2012, just as a separate investigation into an
    ultranationalist group -- Ergenekon - believed to be plotting the
    overthrow of the ruling Justice and Development (AKP) party was being
    carried out very thoroughly, one blogger, Gün Zileli, railed against
    the seeming hypocrisy of the situation:

    Translation
    Original Quote

    Ogün Samast and couple of his friends were on trial for five years.
    Hrant Dink's friends and lawyers made an enormous effort to reveal the
    instigators of the murder inside the state, their relationship [to the
    killing], and the identities of the state and police officials who
    organized the murder. Yet, both public prosecutors and the court
    itself tried very hard to limit the case to people that had already
    stood trial. For example, while the 'Ergenekon case' was widened to
    the maximum in the name of 'finding various connections' and
    [targeting] everyone opposed to the government, the Hrant Dink case,
    was, with a conscious effort, limited only to the already prosecuted,
    and the court decision itself obstructed anyone wanting to follow the
    obvious connections.

    Ogün Samast ve birkaç arkadaþý beþ yýl boyunca yargýlandýlar. Hrant
    Dink'in arkadaþlarý ve avukatlarý, katillerin devlet içindeki
    azmettiricilerini, iliþkilerini, cinayeti örgütleyen devlet ve polis
    görevlilerini ortaya çýkartmak için beþ yýl boyunca büyük çaba
    gösterdiler. Buna karþýlýk, Hrant Dink davasýnýn savcýlarý ve mahkeme
    de, cinayeti sadece yargýlananlarla kýsýtlý tutmak için büyük çaba
    gösterdi. Örneðin, "Ergenekon" davasý, "çeþitli baðlantýlarý bulmak"
    adýna azami ölçüde geniþletilir ve bu davaya, hükümete muhalif herkes
    sokulurken, Hrant Dink davasý, çok bilinçli bir çabayla, sadece
    yargýlananlarla kýsýtlý tutuldu, ayan beyan ortaya çýkan baðlantýlara
    gidilmesi bizzat mahkemenin kararlarýyla engellendi.

    Nationalist sentiment surrounding the Hrant Dink case has been visible
    on the street as well as in the courtroom. The day after his
    commemoration last year, the website of Dink's Agos newspaper was
    hacked by nationalists who superimposed Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a
    powerful symbol of Turkish homogeneity. Police officiating the 2014
    commemoration ceremony wore white berets, similar to the one Ogün
    Samast had worn the day he murdered Hrant Dink. This year hateful
    tweets appeared glorifying the murder and congratulating Samast.

    January 19, 2014, Hrant Dink's commemoration. Police wearing white
    berets. Widely shared.

    Hopes for justice, or just more political retributions?

    The retrial has offered hope that important state officials might face
    prosecution. So far Istanbul city's then-commissioner Celalettin
    Cerrah, deputy governor Erol Güngör, and the intelligence chief of
    Istanbul's police intelligence unit at the time of Dink's murder,
    Ahmet Ýlhan Güler, have all been summoned to court to testify.

    On the day of Dink's commemoration this year, Commisioner of Cizre
    Ercan Demir, also turned himself in in Ankara.

    But many fear the government is now using the retrial to prosecute
    members of the so-called 'parallel state' Turkish President Recep
    Tayyip Erdoðan believes is being supported by US-based scholar and
    acrimonious political rival Fethullah Gülen, and support a purge of
    the government.

    Using the 'cemaat' term that refers to followers of Gülen, one tweep despaired:

    They are trying to say that #HrantDink's murderer is "cemaat". They
    are trying to wash away 12 years long AKP tyranny with "cemaat". If
    you buy it.

    Agos's headline for tomorrow ["This Case Does Not Fit with
    'Parallel'-2") Anyone disagrees?

    Indeed, Hrant Dink's case does not quite fit in with the 'parallel
    state' narrative, since Gülen and Erdoðan were seen as political
    allies during this time. As Ümit Kývanç writes on the Riya Tabirleri
    blog:

    Translation
    Original Quote

    It is time for me to remind the whole government, especially the
    president, of a truth they are trying to make us forget: While
    [Gülen's] armed bureaucrats were acting at the time, unlike today,
    they did not consider themselves as members of a 'parallel
    organization' in conflict with the government. Government [at the
    time] perceived them as its own men as well.

    Baþta cumhurbaþkaný, bu hükümetin özellikle unutturmaya çalýþtýðý bir
    hakikati hatýrlamanýn tam da yeri burasý: Cemaat'in silahlý
    bürokratlarý bu iþleri yaparken, þimdiki gibi, hükümetle kavga
    halindeki bir "paralel yapý"nýn elemanlarý saymýyorlardý kendilerini.
    Hükümet de onlara kendi adamlarý gözüyle bakýyordu.

    January 19, 2015 is the eighth year since Hrant Dink's death, while
    2015 marks the 100th year of Armenian genocide.

    Like the previous years, the walk started from Taksim and ended in
    front of Agos, where he was murdered. Thousands have gathered at his
    commemoration and demanded justice for his murder and recognition of
    the Armenian genocide.

    As was the case last year, people have come together under the
    hashtags #HrantIcinAdaletIcýn (For Hrant, for Justice),
    #FasizmeInatKardesimsinHrant (You are my brother in spite of fascism),
    #BuradayýzAhparig (We are here my brother) and #HrantDink.

    One of the most poignant tweets ahead of Dink's commemoration focussed
    on the journalist's popular appeal to people of all creeds and
    cultures living in Turkey:

    He was one of the very rare ones that we all found meaningful and
    created a real bond with. "We are all Hrant"
    #Buradayýzahparig
    #HrantIcinAdaletIcin


    http://globalvoicesonline.org/2015/01/19/eight-years-after-his-politically-motivated-death-hrant-dink-still-cannot-rest-in-peace/

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