ANKARA: Zirve Prosecutor Asks Testimony Of Witness Mentioned In Book

ZIRVE PROSECUTOR ASKS TESTIMONY OF WITNESS MENTIONED IN BOOK

Today’s Zaman
Feb 22 2011
Turkey

A specially authorized prosecutor overseeing the case into the
2007 Zirve publishing house murders has demanded the court listen
to a secret witness that a recently published book says previously
testified to Ä°stanbul prosecutors.

The witness is mentioned in “Bi Ermeni Var: Dink Operasyonunun
Å~^ifreleri” (There’s this Armenian: The Codes of the Dink Operation)
authored by journalist Adem Yavuz Arslan, who seeks to shed light
on some of the suspicious aspects of the murder of Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink, who was shot dead by a nationalist teenager in
broad daylight in front of his office four years ago. The book also
has a section on the Zirve murders, which the author says were part
of the same plot to kill Dink.

The Anatolia news agency reported yesterday that the Malatya specially
authorized prosecutor sent a statement to the Ä°stanbul Chief Public
Prosecutor’s Office and demanded all related documents be sent to
Malatya. He also asked the Malatya 3rd High Criminal Court, which is
currently hearing the Zirve case, to hear the secret witness.

In the book, Arslan quotes the secret witness who reportedly testified
to Ä°stanbul prosecutors in late 2010, saying the gendarmerie organized
the Zirve murders.

In April 2007, two Turkish nationals, Necati Aydın and Ugur Yuksel,
and a German national, Tilman Ekkehart Geske, were tied to chairs,
tortured and repeatedly stabbed at the Zirve Publishing House in the
southeastern Anatolian city of Malatya before their throats were slit
as police arrived on the scene. The publishing house they worked for
printed Bibles and Christian literature.

Suspects Abuzer Yıldırım, Cuma Ozdemir, Salih Gurler and Hamit Ceker
were apprehended at the scene and immediately taken into custody,
while Emre Gunaydın jumped from a third-story window in an attempt
to escape from police and was taken into custody after being treated
for injuries. A total of nine men have been charged in connection
with the murders.

From: A. Papazian