Trial in Editor’s Killing Opens, Testing Rule of Law in Turkey

[Gavur]

By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: July 3, 2007
ISTANBUL, July 2 — Eighteen young men charged in the assassination of the newspaper editor Hrant Dink went on trial here on Monday in what has been described as a test of the rule of law in Turkey.

Mr. Dink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, was shot dead in front of his office on Jan. 19. A day later, a Turkish teenager, Ogun Samast, was arrested and charged with the murder. The government has brought charges against 17 other people.

Mr. Dink, the editor of Agos, a bilingual newspaper, challenged the official Turkish version of the 1915 Armenian genocide, which holds that hundreds of thousands of Armenians perished because of hunger and suffering in World War I.

But he was working to mend relations between Turkey and Armenia and had even taken issue with Armenians who insisted that Turkey’s entry into Europe hinge on its acknowledgment of genocide.

The trial’s verdict will have broad implications for free speech. Ultranationalist Turks have used an article of the country’s criminal code that forbids “insulting Turkishness” to push the government to bring charges against Turkish writers, including Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist. Mr. Dink received a suspended sentence under the statute. His supporters argue that a limp prosecution of his killing will embolden nationalists.

In the trial on Monday, closed to the public because some of the defendants were minors, Mr. Samast exercised his legal right to silence, said Fethiye Cetin, a lawyer for Mr. Dink’s family, according to the state-run Anatolian News Agency.

Four defendants, Erhan Tuncel, Yasin Hayal, Ersin Yolcu and Ahmet Iskender, testified, and two others asked for lawyers before speaking, Ms. Cetin said.

Mr. Samast previously confessed to the killing, according to Turkish authorities, saying he had been angered by Mr. Dink’s columns on Armenian history and had come to Istanbul from the Black Sea town of Trabzon to kill him.

A crowd of Mr. Dink’s supporters stood a short distance from the mustard-colored courthouse, which was used as a military court for years but is now a criminal court as part of a legal reform in preparation for Turkey’s bid to join the European Union.

His lawyers’ main concern is that the trial will not get to the heart of the hate crime they say was highly organized by a network of ultranationalist Turks in collaboration with Turkish authorities. Shortly after the killing, a video surfaced showing the main suspect posing with Turkish police officers. Security officials were fired over the incident.

“The gang does not consist of these suspects only,” Ms. Cetin said of the 18 defendants, according to the news agency. “It is far more planned and organized. There is almost an intentional misconduct of the gendarmerie and police in this incident.”

Lawyers for the defendants say the attention to the case will make a fair trial impossible.

Liberal Turks are skeptical that the trial will result in justice for Mr. Dink. The country’s establishment, which encourages nationalism, was deeply suspicious of him.

“The judgment will not be free,” said Aydin Ozipek, an economics student at Fatih University in Istanbul. “There is a ruling class of people who want everybody to be the same — no Kurds, no Armenians, no head scarves.”

In a petition to the court to allow him to take part in the trial, Mr. Dink’s brother, Hosrof Dink, described their childhood in an orphanage and a lifetime of discrimination.

“We thought we were born as human beings,” he wrote in the petition, circulated by a group of his brother’s supporters. “In time, against our will, we were given many identities; we were labeled.”

The trial, he said, “will be between the people who believe in the rule of law and the people who say: ‘We are the law. We are the state.’ ” His request to take part was granted.

The court worked well into the evening, then adjourned until Oct. 1. Charges continue against all 18 defendants, but only eight were kept in custody, Turkish television reported.

Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/world/europe/03turkey.html?ref=world

[1.5 million]

Regardless of how this turns out I see much useful revleation concerning conditions in Turkey (for Armenians/minorities) and in regards to the neo-fascist hard liners (and hopefully their connections to and encouragement by official/government entities)...we'll see....I'm not expecting miracles however.

[Gavur]

Turkey on trial

Tue, 07/03/2007 - 4:01pm.

BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty ImagesMonday marked the start of the murder trial of Hrant Dink, the editor of a Turkish-Armenian newspaper who was shot in broad daylight outside his Istanbul office in January.

Dink's writings on the Armenian genocide had made him a target for both the Turkish government and ultra-nationalist groups. His assassination by an angry 17-year-old six months ago sparked something remarkable in the Turkish public: Thousands gathered to express solidarity with the Armenian minority and outrage against restrictions on free speech and growing ultra-nationalist sentiment. And for a fleeting second, the government seemed dedicated to real reform and perhaps even the eventual abolishment of Article 301, which was used to try to silence Dink and other famed writers such as Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak for allegedly "insulting Turkishness."

But when it finally comes time for justice to be served for Dink, things get messy. The trial, which will take place behind closed doors since the main defendant is a minor, is already attracting heavy scrutiny. Human Rights Watch warned recently that evidence presented at the trial may raise questions about possible collusion or negligence on the part of security forces. The real test for the Turkish judiciary will be if it can adequately prosecute all those involved—even if this means lifting the huge rock off some dirty internal dealings. In an article in the New York Times, Fethiye Cetin, the Dink family's lawyer, expressed his concern:

The gang does not consist of these suspects only," Ms. Cetin said of the 18 defendants, according to the news agency. "It is far more planned and organized. There is almost an intentional misconduct of the gendarmerie and police in this incident."

Ensuring that all those involved in Dink's murder are exposed and punished is essential not just for his family, but for Turkey as a country. I'm pretty sure the folks in Brussels will be following this case closely. After all, the last thing Turkey needs is another excuse for Europe to slam the door shut on Turkish membership.

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/5338

[Gavur]

As Hrant Dink murder trial opens,court is urged to show it is protecting no one

MONTREAL, July 3 /CNW Telbec/ - Reporters Without Borders today hailed an Istanbul court's decision to expand the investigation into the murder Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink to include those who may have colluded with or supported the suspected murderers.
A representative of the press freedom organisation went to Istanbul for the start of the trial of the alleged killers yesterday.

"The investigation has shown that several of the defendants enjoyed
support within the security forces and that one of them even, in vain, alerted
the police that an attack was being prepared on Dink," Reporters Without
Borders said.
"The judicial authorities must demonstrate that they are not
trying to protect anyone and that all those who in any way contributed to
Dink's murder, including those within the security forces, will be severely
punished."
The press freedom organisation added: "This trial is of historic importance. It is now up to Turkey, which aspires to join the European Union, to reject violence and to choose to respect the rule of law."
Dink's daughter, Delal Dink, told Reporters Without Borders that justice needed to be rendered to her father, who was gunned down on 19 January.
"Otherwise," she said, "there will be more murders that fuel the tension in the population, and if that continues, children will be brought up immersed in hate and it will never stop." She added that her father had told her he knew the threats to his life were "serious" and came from "high-level officials." Reporters Without Borders, the International Pen Club and the Association
of Turkish Journalists asked to be granted civil party status in the trial but
they were not given permission to attend the hearings. Only the Dink family,
their lawyers and the representatives of Agos and Birgun, the two newspapers
Dink worked for, were allowed to remain in the courtroom.

A total of 18 defendants appeared before the 14th chamber of the Besikta
court of assizes when the trial began an hour and a half late yesterday. They
were charged with "murder" and "membership of a terrorist organisation."
Access to the courthouse was blocked but around 2,500 people gathered outside brandishing placards and photos of Dink and chanting: "We are all Hrant Dink,we are all Armenians."
The hearing was held behind closed doors on the grounds that the main
suspect, Ogun Samast, was 17 at the time of Dink's murder. Samast made no
statement yesterday, but he is said to have previously admitted to
investigators that he was the person who shot Dink three times.
Erhan Tuncel, 28, and Yasin Hayal, 26, who are alleged to have been the
two other main perpetrators, reportedly implicated each other.
The prosecutors are requesting sentences of 26 to 42 years in prison for Samast. His two alleged accomplices are facing the possibility of life imprisonment.
The other 15 defendants face sentences of seven to 35 years in prison. The next hearing has been set for 1 October.

As Association of Turkish Journalists representative Ayse Onal was
leaving the courtroom along with all the others who had to leave, she shouted: "We are the ones who are being murdered, we are Hrant Dink." The judge replied: "I know, I am truly sorry, but it is the law." When Dink's wife, Rakel, and his daughter, Delal, arrived at the courthouse, they were accosted by Fuat Turgut, the lawyer representing Yasin Hayal, one of the alleged instigators of the murder. "You are holders of
Armenian passports," he shouted at them.

During the hearing, Turgut argued that the Turkish judicial system had
found Dink guilty of being a traitor to his country when it imposed a
suspended sentence of six months in prison on him for his articles about the
massacres of Armenians in 1915. This prompted Delal Dink to leave the
courtroom in tears.

One of the lawyers representing the Dink family, Fethiye Cetin,
criticised the absence of members of the security forces among the defendants.She also deplored the fact that the investigators ruled out suspects who appeared to have been implicated, and ignored certain evidence (including the recordings of surveillance cameras of stores near to Agos, the newspaper in front of which Dink was shot).

She accused the authorities of Trabzon, Samast's home town, of hampering the investigation and she insisted that the ultra-nationalist groups to which Samast and the other defendants belong enjoyed support within the police and judiciary. "We are convinced that the organisation that planned, organised and carried out this murder is not limited to the city of Trabzon," she said. Tuncel worked as a police informer and had on several occasions reported plans to murder Dink that were ignored by the police.

Born in 1954, Dink waged a determined fight for the Armenian genocide to
be recognised. His murder exacerbated the divisions between nationalists and
the more progressive sectors of Turkish society. The controversial Dink never
flagged in his commitment to national reconciliation. He became a target of
far-right groups, but despite the threats and accusations, he always refused
to leave Turkey.
He said in his last interview: "It is here that I want to pursue the
fight, because it is not just my fight, it is the fight of all those who want
Turkey to be democratised. If I give up and leave the country, it will be a
shame for everyone. My ancestors lived in this country, it is here that I have
my roots, and I have the right to die in the country where I was born."


Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press
freedom throughout the world. It has nine national sections (Austria, Belgium,
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). It has
representatives in Bangkok, London, New York, Tokyo and Washington. And it has more than 120 correspondents worldwide.

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2007/03/c3360.html

For further information: Emily Jacquard, Directrice générale, Reporters
Without Borders, (514) 521-4111, Cell: (514) 258-4208, Fax: (514) 521-7771,
[email protected]

[Gavur]

Trial Begins in Murder of Turkish-Armenian Editor Hrant Dink

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/03/1432256

And finally in Turkey, eighteen suspects went on trial Monday for the murder of Turkish Armenian editor Hrant Dink. Dink was slain outside his office in January in what many believe was a political killing for his efforts to challenge Turkish denial of the Armenian genocide. More than one thousand people demonstrated outside the courtroom Monday demanding a fair proceeding. Several Turkish newspapers have reported one of the main suspects said he murdered Dink on the orders of police officers. The lead-up to the trial has brought accusations of lackluster investigations and state interference.

Fethiye Cetin, Hrant Dink’s lawyer: "Of course our suspicions continue because it is a general problem. What happened during the Semdinli investigation is a clear sign of it. Firstly, all control over the legal system must be removed. This is the biggest problem."
Cetin was referring to the recent overturning of a forty-year jail term for two paramilitary officers over their role in a controversial bombing of a bookstore in the eastern town of Semdinli two years ago.

[Gavur]

Neo-nationalistic gang members are terrorists, prosecutors say

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=116470&bolum=101

The Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office has decided to carry out the investigation regarding the Association for the Union of Patriotic Forces (VKGB), a crime gang recently uncovered through the police counterterrorism operation dubbed “Whirl.”



The VKGB has apparent links to army officers and is being accused of 40 crimes, including attempts at agitating participants of political rallies protesting the government and provoking mourners at martyrs’ funerals, Star daily reported yesterday.

The organization is being accused of “trying to weaken the independence and stability of the state,” among many other crimes. The existence of an armed wing of the association was a major reason for the prosecution to consider the VKGB a terrorist organization.

Earlier prosecutors were investigating the files of a priest shot dead in Trabzon last year, the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in January, a gunman’s attack against the State Council last year and a hand grenade attack against the Cumhuriyet daily’s office also in 2006, the brutal murder of three bible publishers in the province of Malatya earlier this year and an arms-depot discovered in a shanty house in İstanbul’s Ümraniye last month -- now all included in the category of terrorist crimes.

According to the report, police officers conducting the Operation Whirl are still trying to locate arms and explosives the gang is known to have stored in two of Turkey’s major cities, the report said.

The investigation also revealed that some of the organization’s cell members which have not yet been detained are preparing acts of provocation ahead of the elections on July 22. The prosecutors have found that a Black Sea villa belonging to the organization, dubbed a “chateau” by locals, is being used to train armed militants for the group. Evidence proving the group runs military and armed training camps in a forested area in Bolu has also found its way into the file.

Police say the VKGB was preparing for a bloody attack similar to the Maraş massacre of 1978 in which an ultra-nationalist used a bomb to attack the city’s Alevi population.

A curious gang

Links between the VKGB and retired high-ranking military officers has been under the spotlight since the first day of the investigation. Recent evidence proves that the VKGB united with another nationalist organization, the Kuvayi Milliye (National Forces), in a ceremony lead by Lt. Gen. Hasan Kundakçı, former commander of the Gendarmerie Regional Security Command.

The Kuvayi Milliye had made front page news after footage showing its chairman, retired Col. Fkir Karaadğ, leading an oath-to-kill-or-die ceremony was broadcast on the Internet. The pledge, taken with one hand on a rifle, is compulsory for new recruits.

The unification ceremony of the two groups was in March 2005 and organized at the VKGB’s office in Ankara. On behalf of Karadağ, his right-hand man Hüseyin Görüm participated, explaining the group’s activities, including frequent meetings with “top-level big shots” in Ankara. Retired Gen. Kundakçı also delivered a speech in this ceremony.

The investigation also revealed that Gen. Hurşit Tolon, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) President Rauf Denktaş, retired Maj. Gen. Cumhur Evcil, retired Lt. Gen. Suat İlhan and Vural Savaş sent flowers to the meeting.

A VKGB publication counts Professor Erol Manisalı, retired Maj. Gen. Erol Evcil, retired Col. Hüseyin Mümtaz, Honorary Chief Prosecutor of the High Court of Appeals Vural Savaş and Erol Bilbilik from the neo-nationalist Workers’ Party (İP) among its regular contributors.

Meanwhile recently emerged photographs show VKGB Chairman Taner Ünal, Deputy Chairman Vehbi Şanlı (who swindled a martyr’s widow out of YTL 60,000) and former Hakkari Ranger Brigade Commander retired Brig. Gen. Alattin Parmaksız together.

Retired Gen. Kundakçı is the honorary president of the VKGB.

MİT to investigate the case

A military prosecutor is also currently investigating the case because of the links revealed between the gang and retired officers. Phone conversations recorded during the course of the investigation which led to the members arrests also exposed contact made with certain members of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), a Today’s Zaman correspondent in Ankara reports.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

VKGB fact sheet
* Nineteen members of the Association for the Union of Patriotic Forces (VKGB) were taken into custody after an extensive operation by the Anti-Organized Crime and Smuggling Department of the Ankara Police last week.

* The results of the investigation are likely to have heavy political consequences as the group, in addition to suggestions of involvement in organized crime, seems to have planned and staged a number of illegal acts during political demonstrations. Phone records of conversations, recorded during a 14-month police operation that led to Monday’s arrests, reveal links between the suspects and former and currently active members of the military.

* The gang’s ultimate purpose is to disturb peace and stability in the country and overthrow the government, the investigation has revealed so far. Most of the evidence is based on information gathered from phone conversations during police monitoring since the start of the “Whirl” operation over a year ago.

* The criminal network obtains its orders from an individual codenamed “Number One,” however police were not able to determine the identity of the mysterious master. Number One is known to be a retired army general. Speculation suggests this person could be retired Maj. Gen. Veli Küçük or retired Gen. Hasan Kundakçı.

* Phone records also prove that, for the suspects, “funerals of martyred soldiers are events that need to be participated in with enthusiasm.”


12.07.2007

ERKAN ACAR, SEDAT GÜNEÇ İSTANBUL, ANKARA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------


Recent evidence proves that the VKGB united with another nationalist organization, the Kuvayi Milliye (National Forces), in a ceremony led by Lt. Gen. Hasan Kundakçı. Kundakçı (Right) and Taner Ünal (Left), leader of VKGB, are shown in this undated file photo.

[Gavur]

Update

One of journalist Hrant Dink's alleged murderers revives questions about police role

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/84789/

Date: 13 July 2007
Source: Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
Person(s): Hrant Dink
Target(s): journalist(s)
Type(s) of violation(s): killed
Urgency: Bulletin



(RSF/IFEX) - A letter from Tuncay Uzundal, a member of the alleged terrorist group on trial for journalist Hrant Dink's murder, to the prosecutor in charge of the case has revived questions about the role of the police in Dink's death. The contents of the letter were revealed last weekend by several Turkish news media including the daily "Radikal" in its 7 July 2007 issue.


"Once again, the finger has been pointed at the security forces because of their passivity prior to Dink's murder and because of what they could and should have done to prevent it," Reporters Without Borders said.

"The behaviour of the main defendants and their attempts to blame each other for Dink's death should not deflect attention from the urgency to pursue the investigation to the end and to question those police officers whose role has been called into question," the press freedom organisation added. "This is the only way for the Turkish judicial system to maintain its credibility."

In his letter, which the prosecutors received just before the start of the trial, Uzundal reportedly wrote that police officers told him, "It is the state that will break Dink's pencil." He did not, however, explain when and in what circumstances he was told this.

Uzundal also claimed in the letter that he told Yasin Hayal, one of the alleged masterminds of Dink's murder, that his co-tenant, Erhan Tuncel (another of the defendants), was a police informer. According to Uzundal, Tuncel was recruited by Ramazan Akyürek, who was the police chief of Trabzon (their home town) and who is now head of intelligence in the National Security Directorate.

In the letter, he describes how Tuncel warned the Trabzon police of the plan to murder Dink. He allegedly told the police: "Yasin Hayal will not serve his four-year prison sentence and Dink is going to be killed."

Arrested on 1 February, Uzundal is being prosecuted under article 314-2 (membership of an armed organisation) and article 82-1a (premeditated murder) of the Turkish criminal code and faces the possibility of life imprisonment. He told investigators he was present at preparatory meetings between Hayal, Tuncel (also an alleged organiser) and Ogün Samast (who is alleged to be the person who gunned Dink down on 19 January).

Tuncel, for his part, has accused Uzundal of playing a more important role that he acknowledges in Dink's death. He claims, for example, that it was Uzundal who supplied Samast with the Turkish flag found in his possession when he was arrested on 20 January.

The Dink family's lawyers have meanwhile appealed against the release of four other defendants - Salih Hacisalioglu, Osman Alpay, Irfan Özkan and Veysel Toprak - by the Istanbul court of assizes on 2 July. The lawyers say the four must be re-arrested because they are "essential for shedding light on all aspects" of the case.

The next hearing in the trial is not due to take place until 1 October. In the meantime Samast, Uzundal and other defendants have still not appeared before the court and some key witnesses have still not been questioned.



For further information, contact Elsa Vidal at RSF, 5, rue Geoffroy Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 67, fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51, e-mail: [email protected], Internet: http://www.rsf.org

**Updates IFEX alerts of 2 April, 23 and 19 January 2007**