ISTANBUL: Presidential Body To Shed Light On Dink Murder Case

PRESIDENTIAL BODY TO SHED LIGHT ON DINK MURDER CASE

Hurriyet Daily News

Jan 28 2012
Turkey

Certain documents went missing while others were tampered with in
the case of murdered journalist Hrant Dink, an upcoming report by
Turkish Presidency is about to reveal.

Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, the editor-in-chief of weekly
Agos, was commemorated on Jan 19 2012, the fifth anniversary of his
murder. More than 30,000 people gathered together to mark the day
and held a protest in Istanbul.

The State Audit Board (DDK) of the Turkish Presidency has determined
that certain documents went missing while others were tampered with
in the case of Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian journalist murdered
in 2007 in front of his newspaper office in Istanbul.

The DDK will be bringing up a number of contentious issues in an
upcoming report, including a notice provided to the gendarmerie by
instigator Yasin Hayal’s brother-in-law, CoÅ~_kun Ä°gci, in July 2006,
which indicated that Hayal would make an attempt on Dink’s life.

Gendarmerie officials, however, had claimed the intelligence in
question was only provided to them after Dink’s assassination.

Claims Another claim that is expected to make its way into the report
concerns an SMS message sent by Tuncay Uzundal to Erhan Tuncel, which
was also brought up in court by Prosecutor Hikmet Usta, allegedly
indicating that Hayal was asking for 7.65 mm caliber shells.

The SMS message was altered at the police headquarters in the Black
Sea province of Trabzon and the part where Hayal was asking for shells
was deleted, according to allegations.

An investigation may subsequently be launched against certain public
servants once the report gets published, according to the daily
Cumhuriyet.

Former claims were directed at former Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler
as well as the Istanbul Police Department’s Intelligence Director
Ahmet Ä°lhan Guler.

Accordingly, the Trabzon chief of police sent a report to the Istanbul
Police Department to warn of an assassination against Dink, but the
intelligence head Ahmet Ä°lhan Guler did not take it seriously.

Attempts to investigate Guler after the murder have been blocked.

The DDK’s report will also include sections about other administrative
proceedings pertaining to the trial, as well as a series of objections
that were raised by Turkey’s Telecommunications Directorate (TÄ°B)
regarding phone and camera records from the crime scene.

Meanwhile, Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy leader Huseyin
Celik said Dink was the victim of a murder but the real target was
the AKP.

“Dink was the victim of the murder, he was bait, but the real target
was the AKP. The mindset that executed Sept. 6 to 7 is the same
mindset that organized the Dink murder. They wanted to create chaos
in Turkey. They wanted to damage the political stability of Turkey,”
Celik said at a press meeting Jan. 27.

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