Solution of Dink Murder still in the Dark after Three Years

Joint attorneys of the Hrant Dink murder case Fethiye Çetin and Deniz Tuna highlighted the fact that three years have already passed since the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, then editor-in-chief of the weekly Armenian Agos newspaper. The assassination will not be solved by the investigations and inquiries carried out till the present, lawyers Çetin and Tuna pointed out.

The lawyers repeated that the time before and after the murder on 19 January 2007 should be approached as an entity in order to merge all side tracks with the main lawsuit tried before the Istanbul 14^th High Criminal Court.

The joint attorneys mentioned that vital information was conveyed by the "determination" not to protect Hrant Dink although it was known that he was going to be killed and by treating the murder suspect like a hero.

All pieces of evidence should be assessed, parts must be put into place

* We have come to a point where the mistakes in cooperation and coordination of the responsible people of the National Intelligence Agency (MIT), the Gendarmerie and the police became crystal clear. The organizations have obviously hidden information from each other and in order to save themselves they blamed each other. It is remarkable that despite the clashes between the three institutions being at loggerheads with each other they do harmonize on two topics and act united.

* For revealing this extremely professional organized structure all embodied pieces of evidence must be gathered, every single part that might potentially be embodied must be put together, all hints which could decipher the organization should be assessed. This is also crucial for an efficient and effective investigation.

Where are the ones who facilitated the murder?

* There are several issues that should be evaluated altogether and: the people who, together with the triggerman, made Dink an open target during the preparation period of the murder; the people who isolated him from society; the elements of the plan in the media, the positions of the members of the judiciary in this campaign; the people who facilitated the murder by not fulfilling their duty. Their roles in this criminal action and the relation to the organization should be investigated

* The organization moved according to a certain plan and realized the murder step by step by actions stretched over a period of time. The entire actions of this organization  could be determined by analysing them under the microscope.

* In the light of the revealed evidence it shows that the stones that paved the way to the murder of Hrant Dink were laid by the people who put Dink into the position of the target and by the security forces whose duty it was to prevent the murder. It is neither wrong nor exaggerated to say that the triggermen suspects proceeded in the same way with the murder of Dink.

General Staff, government, media, politicians...

* Judicial authorities of the General Staff Presidency, security units of the government spokespeople and paramilitary forces from the media and all official and political people involved each bear responsibility for Dink's murder since they were not able to prevent the murder and to find the real perpetrators.

* We indicated that starting from the phase of investigation all cases and investigations related to the murder should be handled by one single lead at all stages of the litigation. We said that it is impossible to reveal concrete facts in a case and in investigations that merely deal with fractions of the whole picture. Unfortunately, all our requests to merge the relevant cases were rejected by the courts.

* We filed criminal complaints about officials of the Trabzon Police, the Trabzon Gendarmerie and the Istanbul Police at the Istanbul Chief Prosecution. All the complaints were dropped because of lack of jurisdiction. We sent the complaints to places said to be in charge and they were dropped once more due to lack of grounds for legal action.

* Considering all developments one clear and precise conclusion can be drawn: This murder will not be solved by the means that could be observed until the present. (EÖ/VK)