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ANKARA: TÄ°T Sent Fourth Death Threat To Rights Defender Oran

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  • ANKARA: TÄ°T Sent Fourth Death Threat To Rights Defender Oran

    TÄ°T SENT FOURTH DEATH THREAT TO RIGHTS DEFENDER ORAN

    BIAnet.org
    http://www.bianet.org/english/minorities/130744-tit-sent-fourth-death-threat-to-rights-defender-oran
    June 15 2011
    Turkey

    Journalist and academic Baskın Oran received his fourth death threat
    signed by the Turkish Revenge Brigade. The message was sent to the
    Armenian Agos newspaper and read "your time has come to die".

    Ekin KARACA [email protected] Ankara - BÄ°A News Center15 June 2011,
    Wednesday Minority rights defender Prof. Baskın Oran received his
    fourth threat of the Turkish Revenge Brigade (TÄ°T) on 2 June. The
    threatening message was sent by e-mail to the Armenian Agos newspaper
    where Oran is working as a columnist.

    While the TÄ°T threatened Oran four times in total so far, the
    lecturer at the Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences
    received countless threats from so-called "sensitive citizens". Also
    after the latest threat, Oran applied to the prosecution and filed
    a criminal complaint.

    "If the judiciary proceeds this way, the threats will go on" In an
    interview with bianet Oran, fromer member of the Prime Ministry's
    Human Rights Advisory Board (BÄ°HDK), held the judiciary responsible
    for the death threats he received because, in his opinion, the courts
    did not fulfil their duty accordingly.

    "If the supreme Turkish judiciary proceeds this way, these people
    will continue threatening me", Oran stated and continued: "I will
    file a criminal complaint every time they are threatening me. Yet,
    as long as the judiciary continues not fulfilling their duty, these
    people will continue threatening me and this process is going to
    carry on that way".

    Oran told bianet that he was under personal protection ever since
    the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in January 2007.

    However, this protection does not serve its purpose while facing a
    judiciary that is working this way, Oran thinks.

    Threatening message sent to Baskın Oran The threatening letter
    contained a death list including Turkish-Armenian journalist Etyen
    Mahcupyan and leading Kurdish politicians Osman Baydemir, Sebahat
    Tuncel and Akın Birdal. The letter was signed by the TİT and read
    as follows:

    "He leads a dishonourable life by currying favour with the Armenians.

    Baskın Oran, you still cannot put up with the word 'Turk' on Turkish
    soil. (...) Take your dogs and go to Armenia. Otherwise, death will be
    the inevitable end for you. (...) Your time has come to die. (...) We
    hereby announce as the Turkish Revenge Brigade that we will close
    this account. On 17 June, we will remove the bastard called Baskın
    Oran and we will show the power of the Turkish reputation".

    The long journey of the case file Oran received the first death threat
    from the TÄ°T on 30 May 2008. He received two further threats in the
    same year saying "You will not gain anything by complaining about us
    to the state".

    Oran lodged a criminal complaint to the Special Authority Ankara
    Prosecution about the sender of the first threatening message which
    was signed "What do you care what do I care". The Ankara authorities
    decided for "lack of jurisdiction" since the message had apparently
    been sent from an internet café in Istanbul. The file was transferred
    to Istanbul. The file was forwarded to a court in Adana when the sender
    of the message was determined as a person called Bilal Å~^ekerlisoy
    resident in Mersin. Since the mail had been sent to a recipient in
    Istanbul, the file was again returned there. However, the Istanbul
    court decided for lack of jurisdiction because Oran lived in Ankara. So
    eventually, the file was sent back to Ankara.

    Baskın Oran wrote in an article published on 12 June 2011 in his
    column in 'Radikal Iki', a supplement of the Radikal newspaper :
    "This carries a maximum penalty of six months, if a sentence will be
    handed down at all, and the pronouncement of judgement is going to be
    postponed. (...) Regarding two other threats, the Ankara 4th Criminal
    Court of First Instance and the Ankara 9th Magistrate Criminal Court
    decided for acquittals. The sender was determined as well as the time
    and the computer it was sent from. But the supreme judiciary sent
    the file to an expert. The report that came from there stated that
    'everybody can enter somebody else's account and send a message from
    there'. The file is currently pending at the court of appeals".

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