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TURKISH SOLDIERS TRIED OVER DINK'S MURDER
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Jan 22 2008
Two Turkish soldiers went on trial Tuesday accused of covering up
intelligence about the plan to murder ethnic Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink months before it occurred, Anatolia news agency reported.
They are the first members of the security forces to stand trial in
the Black Sea city of Trabzon, where the murder was allegedly planned,
amid widespread allegations that some officers condoned the killing
and did not act to prevent it.
The 52-year-old Dink, whom Turkish nationalists hated for calling
the World War I massacres of Armenians genocide, was shot dead on
January 19, 2007, outside the offices of his Agos newspaper in downtown
Istanbul. The self-confessed gunman, 17-year-old Ogun Samast, alleged
mastermind Yasin Hayal and 17 suspected associates went on trial in
Istanbul last year.
Hayal's uncle testified Tuesday that he had informed the two defendants
-- members of the Trabzon gendarme, a paramilitary force policing
rural areas -- that his nephew was planning to kill Dink, and accused
the pair of trying to cover up the tip-off. "I told them that Yasin
Hayal was planning to kill Hrant Dink three or four months before
his murder," Coskun Igci told the judge, adding that the soldiers
also knew that his nephew was looking for a gun to buy.
"Several days after Dink was killed, they came to me and asked me
not to speak to anyone about what we had talked before," he said.
The defendants, who were not present at the hearing and were named
by Anatolia only as O.S. and V.S., risk between six months and two
years in jail for "abuse of power".
Dink's murder has prompted fresh calls on Ankara to eliminate the "deep
state" -- a term used to describe security forces acting outside the
law to preserve what they consider Turkey's best interests. Lawyers
for Dink's family say the police withheld and destroyed evidence to
cover up the murder, including footage from a bank security camera
in downtown Istanbul near where Dink was killed.
Prosecutors say police received intelligence as early as 2006 of
a plot to kill Dink being organised in Trabzon. In September, two
policemen went on trial in the northern city of Samsun for their role
in a scandal that saw security forces pose for "souvenir" pictures
with the gunman after he was captured there a day after the murder.
Dink had won many hearts in Turkey with his efforts for
Turkish-Armenian reconciliation and more than 100,000 people marched
at his funeral.
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Jan 22 2008
Two Turkish soldiers went on trial Tuesday accused of covering up
intelligence about the plan to murder ethnic Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink months before it occurred, Anatolia news agency reported.
They are the first members of the security forces to stand trial in
the Black Sea city of Trabzon, where the murder was allegedly planned,
amid widespread allegations that some officers condoned the killing
and did not act to prevent it.
The 52-year-old Dink, whom Turkish nationalists hated for calling
the World War I massacres of Armenians genocide, was shot dead on
January 19, 2007, outside the offices of his Agos newspaper in downtown
Istanbul. The self-confessed gunman, 17-year-old Ogun Samast, alleged
mastermind Yasin Hayal and 17 suspected associates went on trial in
Istanbul last year.
Hayal's uncle testified Tuesday that he had informed the two defendants
-- members of the Trabzon gendarme, a paramilitary force policing
rural areas -- that his nephew was planning to kill Dink, and accused
the pair of trying to cover up the tip-off. "I told them that Yasin
Hayal was planning to kill Hrant Dink three or four months before
his murder," Coskun Igci told the judge, adding that the soldiers
also knew that his nephew was looking for a gun to buy.
"Several days after Dink was killed, they came to me and asked me
not to speak to anyone about what we had talked before," he said.
The defendants, who were not present at the hearing and were named
by Anatolia only as O.S. and V.S., risk between six months and two
years in jail for "abuse of power".
Dink's murder has prompted fresh calls on Ankara to eliminate the "deep
state" -- a term used to describe security forces acting outside the
law to preserve what they consider Turkey's best interests. Lawyers
for Dink's family say the police withheld and destroyed evidence to
cover up the murder, including footage from a bank security camera
in downtown Istanbul near where Dink was killed.
Prosecutors say police received intelligence as early as 2006 of
a plot to kill Dink being organised in Trabzon. In September, two
policemen went on trial in the northern city of Samsun for their role
in a scandal that saw security forces pose for "souvenir" pictures
with the gunman after he was captured there a day after the murder.
Dink had won many hearts in Turkey with his efforts for
Turkish-Armenian reconciliation and more than 100,000 people marched
at his funeral.