With a decision today to give life in prison for one of the several suspects in the 2007 murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, an Istanbul court brought the drawn-out and controversial case to a close, but offered little closure to Dink's family and supporters and found itself facing strong criticism over its verdict.
Dink, the outspoken editor of the Armenian-Turkish weekly Agos newspaper, was gunned down in front of the paper's Istanbul offices on Jan. 20, 2007. His assassin, a 17-year-old named Ogun Samast, was sentenced (as a minor) to 22 years in jail in July. But the sentencing of Samast still left open the question of what role did the 19 other people arrested in the case play in the murder and, more importantly, what was the involvement of certain elements of the police and other state bodies in the killing?
Today's verdict did little to answer those questions. Despite fairly strong evidence indicating there was an organized plot with links to the police, all 19 were acquitted of being part of a conspiracy (or a "terrorist organization," as the indictment put it) to kill Dink and only one of them convicted for instigating the murder. As the New York Times reports, the verdict was swiftly criticized by Dink's lawyers and other observers:
The Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, which is leased out to the United States, is among Washington's most important strategic assets, serving as a logistics and support hub for American military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places. But a lawsuit working its way through a California court alleges that the air base sits on land that was illegally taken from an Armenian family in 1923. Some background:
The lawsuit, which was filed past year against these banks and under American Armenian Alex Bakalian’s guidance, states that in 1923 the lands—in Adana, Turkey—belonging to their families were transferred to the Bank of Agriculture. On one of the 4 plots of these lands the Incirlik military base was built, which is leased to US. The lawsuit demands the value of these lands, which comprise $63 million US, and part of the income received from the lease of Incirlik, which totals $100 million.
Turkish human rights lawyer and columnist for the Today's Zaman newspaper Orhan Kemal Cengiz has written some good columns about the case recently, offering more details about the case. This column of his reprints a very interesting interview with Bakalian's lawyer, in which he lays out the legal framework for the case. In a subsequent column, Cengiz details the defense submitted by the Turkish banks being sued in the case (the Turkish governmnet itself has not submitted a defense, according to the columnist). Both columns are worth reading -- this case could prove to be a very significant one.
Although Ogun Samast, the young man who murdered Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink in 2007, was recently sentenced to 22 years in jail, court proceedings against several others who were involved in the plot continue. In a recent hearing leading up to the case's finale, the prosecutor representing the state told the judge he believes the murder was ordered by a cell of Ergenekon, a shadowy ultra-nationalist organization that is alleged to have been behind various attempts to destabilize or overthrow the current Turkish government. From Today's Zaman:
A Turkish prosecutor conducting the investigation into the assassination of Turkish- Armenian journalist Hrant Dink said on Monday that the murder was committed by Ergenekon's cell in the Black Sea province of Trabzon.
Prosecutor Hikmet Usta announced his opinion as to who masterminded the assassination and as to the accusations directed at suspects during the 20th hearing of the 20-suspect Dink trial at the İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court. The prosecutor said the murder was the work of Ergenekon's Trabzon cell and demanded life imprisonment for seven suspects, including key suspects Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel, on charges of attempting to destroy the constitutional order.
“The Dink assassination was the latest assassination of the deep structures. The suspects acted on ideological motives. The target was the Turkish Republic and public order. There is suspicion that the murder is linked to the Ergenekon network. We have reached the conclusion that the Dink murder was committed by the Trabzon cell of the Ergenekon terrorist organization,” Prosecutor Usta said.
