INTRIGUE GROWS IN PARTY CHIEF CRASH
Hurriyet
April 4 2009
Turkey
ISTANBUL – Great Union Party members believe that the suspicious
helicopter crash that killed six people, including Muhsin Yazıcıoglu,
the party’s leader, should be investigated with an eye on assassination
or sabotage. Yazıcıoglu’s plans to meet with liberal intellectuals
increase the intrigue
Conspiracy theories have swelled over the helicopter crash that
killed six people including Muhsin Yazıcıoglu, the leader of the
conservative Great Union Party, or BBP, after plans for an exclusive
meeting with liberal intellectuals were revealed.
Conservative-right and nationalist party leader Yazıcıoglu’s step
to exchange ideas with Turkey’s liberal intellectuals is an additional
detail that adds suspicion to the crash.
Kezban Hatemi, a lawyer, said the BBP asked her and intellectual
Baskın Oran to bring intellectuals together to exchange ideas at
a BBP meeting. "They explained the aim of this meeting would be to
understand and enlighten each other," Hatemi told Hurriyet Daily News
& Economic Review. The meeting was scheduled to take place in May,
just two months after the crash.
After his arrest, Yasin Hayal, a suspect in the murder of journalist
Hrant Dink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian origin, said he was a
follower of the BBP. Yazıcıoglu condemned the declaration at
the time.
After Yazıoglu’s call, Hatemi, also a lawyer for the Dink family,
said she called Orhan Dink, brother of Hrant Dink, and asked whether
she should attend Yazıcıoglu’s meeting. "Orhan Dink told me that
I can attend it since they are open to any kind of dialogue and
cooperation," Hatemi said. Hrant Dink was shot dead on Jan. 19, 2007,
by Ogun Samast, who was 18 years old at the time.
Oral CalıÅ~_lar, a daily Radikal columnist, said he was also invited
to the BBP’s meeting. CalıÅ~_lar said Yazıcıoglu would probably
have expressed his ideas about democracy, freedom, assassinations
and the Ergenekon case.
The timing of the crash becomes more striking when Yazıcıoglu’s
planned meeting with intellectuals is taken into account with the
connection of the Ergenekon case. Rumors claim Yazıcıoglu was
one of the secret witnesses providing information about ties in the
controversial Ergenekon case. BBP Vice President Ahmet Å~^anverdi
dismissed the claims that Yazıcıoglu has given any files or
information to the prosecutors of the Ergenekon probe, daily Vatan
reported yesterday. Mehmet Altan, a daily Star columnist, who was
one of the intellectuals invited to the BBP’s meeting in indirect
ways, said the accident should be investigated more strictly after
the recent news. "When I look at the whole picture now, I believe we
have to re-read the whole incident, including Ergenekon incidents and
ties. Personally, I don’t have any concrete information, but I feel
that this is a suspicious accident and it needs more investigation,"
Altan told the Daily News.
The Ergenekon case started after the discovery of 27 hand grenades
June 12, 2007, in a shanty house in Istanbul’s Umraniye district.
Another intriguing detail is that Yazıcıoglu survived four traffic
accidents between May 2007 and June 2008. According to BBP officials,
the helicopter accident was not just an accident. Party members have
called experts from the United States and Germany to investigate the
evidence at the crash scene.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
