Colonel Ali Öz’s Testimony: Total Amnesia
The court was finally able to take Trabzon Provincial Gendarmerie Regiment commander Colonel Ali Öz’s statement after one and a half years. Colonel Öz is accused of not taking into consideration the warnings of the Gendarmerie organization about Hrant Dink’s murder.
Giving his statement at Bursa’s 1st Criminal Court of Peace today (July 21), Öz argued that Intelligence Office Director Captain Metin Yıldız informed him about Hrant’s Dink murder of January 19, 2007 by calling him on his cellular phone during his visit at Zigana Mountain in the Black Sea region of Turkey.
“The intelligence tip about Dink’s assassination did not come up; I do not remember”
When asked about the statements of Okan Şimşek and Veysel Şahin that the intelligence reports about Dink’s assassination plans had come up at a meeting with Trabzon gendarmerie officials, Öz, who appeared at the court as a witness, said, “This subject did not come up at this meeting. I do not remember it.”
“I did not understand why he changed his statement.”
About Şimşek’s changing his statement in the second hearing of the trial where he is on trial for negligence, Öz said, “I did not understand why he changed his statement. I have no knowledge of it.”
Öz said, “If there was such intelligence, Şahin and Şimşek were trained for this and they should have known what to do about it. What they needed to do in these situations was notified in the “Task Definition Form”given to them. They should have recorded the information as soon as it was received. It is not important whether it is brought up in a meeting or not. As I said, I do not remember if it was brought up.”
Question about animosity became “a military matter.”
Describing Metin Yıldız, Ali Oğuz Çağlar, Hüsamettin Polat, Gazi Günay, Hüseyin Yılmaz and Gökhan Asla as his staff, Öz declined to answer lawyer Cinmen’s question if there was an animosity between him and them by saying that he did not want to answer, that this was a military matter.
When Dink’s lawyers asked if the signature on the Form for Recording and Communicating Information of the Provincial Gendarmerie Command was his, Öz’s answer was affirmative.
When Öz claimed he did not know Yasin Hayal, who is on trial for instigating Dink’s murder, he was reminded that the Information Record Form said, “Yasin Hayal, son of Bahattin, residing in Trabzon’s Pelitli region, who had bombed McDonald’s in Trabzon, organized this activity as a reaction to Hrant Dink’s recent speeches against Turkey.”
When asked how he knew that Hayal organized Hrant Dink’s murder for the reason mentioned in the form, Öz said, “we know this because of the intelligence information given by Intelligence Office Drector Yıldız, Veysel and Okan. I was not there when this text was prepared.”
"I did not know Dink and Agos until the murder”
When asked about the document how they knew that the murder was committed by a handmade Ardeşen type gun, Öz said, “I did not know. I learned this from the intelligence information I received. Metin Yıldız knows this better.”
When Dink’s lawyers asked if he signed everything that came before him without checking what it was about, Öz answered, “I sign every report that comes to me and is prepared according to the regulations. I cannot know whether the report is true or not. He also said that he did not know Hrant Dink and Agos until the murder. <
When he was reminded that Yıldız stated for Bolu Criminal Court of Peace on June 9 that he had told him during an intelligence meeting where Okan Şimşek, Veysel Şahin and other commanders were present as well that Hrant Dink was going to be murdered, Öz said that he did not remember if this subject was brought up.
Öz does not remember that he met with Yıldız alone
Regarding Yıldız’s statement that he had gone to Öz’s room two days after this meeting and brought up the same subject, Öz said, “I do not remember that he came to my room for this subject.”
Answering the question if Dink’s murder was a law and order crime or a terror crime, Öz said, “I would look at it as a law and order crime if it was done for an individual purpose, but a terror crime if 3 to 5 people got together and organized it.”
He does not remember if he assigned them
Öz said that he did not remember if he had assigned Şimlek and Şahin to meet with the gendarmerie informant Coskun İğci: “If they were assigned, then it should be in the records. Intelligence office director gives the assignments. I only approve them.” (EÖ/EZÖ/TB)