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  • ANKARA: Hrant's Friends Meet In Front Of Agos, Protest Lack Of Justi

    HRANT'S FRIENDS MEET IN FRONT OF AGOS, PROTEST LACK OF JUSTICE

    Today's Zaman
    Jan 20 2011
    Turkey

    Hrant Dink's friends and sorrowful widow Rakel Dink laid carnations
    on the sidewalk in front of Agos, where he fell after being shot from
    behind on Jan. 19, 2007.

    Friends of Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist who was
    assassinated four years ago, once more called for justice as they
    gathered in front of the building where the Turkish-Armenian weekly
    he headed, Agos, is located.

    The crowd, which gathered at 3 p.m., the time Dink was shot by
    17-year-old ultranationalist Ogun Samast, held signs of protest
    against a system that failed to reveal the masterminds of the crime.

    "No justice in four years," "No Parliament in four years," "Justice
    for Hrant" read the placards that they carried along 癬^i癬_li's
    Halaskargazi Street, which was closed to traffic, and as they laid red
    carnations where Dink fell after being shot from behind. Dink's widow,
    Rakel Dink, did not say anything but greeted the crowd from the window
    of Agos. Several groups marched to 癬^i癬_li from different locations
    in 襤stanbul. One of them was led by actor Mehmet Alabora. Another
    group set off from Taksim with placards that read, "We will not forget"
    and "We will not forgive." The families of other prominent people who
    were either killed or suffered due to smear campaigns were also present
    at gathering in front of Agos. The group included the families of Ahmet
    Kaya, Sebahattin Ali, Dogan Oz, Cevat Yurdakul, Cavit Orhan Tutengil,
    Umit Kaftanc覺oglu, Ugur Mumcu, Cetin Eemec, Musa Anter, Ugur Mumcu,
    Metin Alt覺ok, Metin G繹ktepe, Kemal Turkler and Necip Hablemitoglu.

    Nukhet 襤pekci, daughter of journalist Abdi 襤pekci, who was
    assassinated in 1979, said they never want to see such murders again.

    "Future generations should not carry this shame. We will not define
    those crimes as murder, lynching or killing. We know that these are
    crimes against humanity even though current laws are not sufficient
    to see them that way. We want to know who will shed light on those
    crimes. We want to know and see that," she said.

    Meanwhile, Dink's family filed a new suit this week against 31
    officials -- including the former governor of 襤stanbul and the
    former local gendarmerie commander and police chief in Trabzon -- for
    neglect and "aiding the murderer by way of making it easy to commit
    the crime." The investigation into Dink's murder has stalled as the
    suspected perpetrator and his accomplices have been put on trial,
    but those who masterminded the plot to kill him have yet to be exposed
    and punished.

    Dink family lawyers indicated in yet another report that there is a
    striking unity of action between the individuals, institutions and
    mechanisms in the preparation and perpetration of the Dink murder,
    in concealing and tampering with evidence after the murder, in
    burying the truth, in drawing boundaries and limits on how far the
    trial proceedings could go and in ensuring that these boundaries are
    not crossed.

    In addition, a new law restricting the length of time a suspect can
    be kept under arrest while awaiting or standing trial, which went
    into effect as of the beginning of this year, might lead to Samast's
    release. The change to Article 102 of the CMK went into force on Jan.

    1 after it was amended in 2005 to reduce the lengthy trial periods
    and appeals processes in courts that lead to inmates spending long
    periods in jail without ever having been convicted. After going into
    effect, many suspects who had been in detention for five to 10 years
    pending trial were released.

    Samast, arrested on Jan. 24, 2007, a few days after the Jan. 19 murder
    of Dink, has been on trial in a juvenile court since he was a minor
    at the time of the crime and after he confessed to the murder. At the
    15th hearing of the Dink trial in January last year at the 14th High
    Criminal Court, the young man's defense lawyer, Levent Y覺ld覺r覺m,
    reiterated that he had requested that the court allow Samast to be
    tried in juvenile court. Y覺ld覺r覺m, who referred to the Law of
    Amendment to the Counterterrorism Law (TMK) requested a transfer to
    a juvenile court for his client.

    A co-plaintiff attorney for the Dink family, had expressed at the
    time that Samast should be tried with the other suspects in the same
    court, the court has accepted Y覺ld覺r覺m's request. The presiding
    judge decided that according to the new TMK, the current court lacks
    subject-matter jurisdiction. Dink family lawyer Fethiye Cetin also
    said the problem is not the new law but the fact that Samast has not
    received any punishment to this day, and more importantly, the fact
    that the perpetrators of the crime are still free.

    One important development has been the judgment handed down by the
    European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on Sept. 14, 2010 on Dink v.

    Turkey, in which Turkey was found to be in violation of Articles 2
    and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights related to the
    "right to life" and "freedom of expression," respectively. The
    court found Turkey in violation in two major respects -- the first
    was Turkey's inability to protect Dink's life, and the second was
    Turkey's inability to carry out an effective investigation to expose
    and punish those who neglected to protect Dink by not acting on the
    intelligence showing that his life was in imminent danger.

    "This judgment clearly urges Turkey to take serious steps to remedy
    the failures of the Turkish judicial and administrative systems,"
    said Cetin, who filed a petition with the court overseeing the Dink
    murder case on Jan. 17, reminding it of the steps it should take in
    light of the ECtHR's ruling.

    In addition, the head of the court was changed in December of last
    year. The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) removed
    Erkan Canak from the 襤stanbul 14th High Criminal Court, which is
    hearing the Dink case, on grounds that an earlier Ministry of Justice
    report alleged that he had close contacts with suspects in the case of
    Ergenekon, a clandestine underground network accused of creating chaos
    and plotting to overthrow the government. Some Ergenekon suspects
    had repeated appearances in the smear campaign against Dink, but
    the petitions from the Dink family lawyers to have their complaints
    included in the Ergenekon and related deep-state investigations and
    cases have not been approved. Cetin said they have yet to know the
    attitude of the new judge, Rustem Ery覺lmaz, as the next hearing for
    the Dink trial will be on Feb. 7.

    Another call on the government to shed light on political
    assassinations came from the opposition Republican People's Party
    (CHP) leader, Kemal K覺l覺cdaroglu. He said there have been other
    assassinations in the past that targeted journalists and that had
    remained unsolved.




    From: A. Papazian
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