ANKARA: Armenian Origin Soldier’s Murder Witness Admits Altering Sta

ARMENIAN ORIGIN SOLDIER’S MURDER WITNESS ADMITS ALTERING STATEMENT UNDER DURESS

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Dec 20 2013

Ýsmail SaymazISTANBUL – Radikal

An eyewitness to the murder of a soldier of Armenian origin who was
killed while performing his military service in 2011 has admitted
that he altered his testimony under pressure from a relative of the
suspected murderer.

Eyewitness Halil Ekþi had first said that suspected murderer Kývanc
Aðaoðlu shot soldier Sevag Þahin Balýkcý, but later claimed not to
know how Balýkcý was killed. He now says that he was forced to change
his witness testimony after being threatened by Aðaoðlu’s relative,
Bulent Kaya.

Armenian-Turkish soldier Balýkcý was shot in a gendarmerie station in
Batman province by another soldier, Kývanc Aðaoðlu, who was stationed
at the same post and also performing his military service.

Ekþi had confirmed that suspect Aðaoðlu had pointed his weapon at
Sevag in his first testimony, but then claimed the incident was just
an accident at a later hearing.

While the trial of suspect Kývanc Aðaoðlu is continuing on charges
of murder, Ekþi and Kaya are now also facing lawsuits on charges of
“false statements” and “instigation of false statements” respectively.

Ekþi admitted providing testimony in the first hearing of the lawsuit
that took place on Dec. 19.

He said Kaya called him repeatedly after he completed his military
service and returned to the Aegean province of Aydýn, where he resides,
asking him to change his statement.

“Later on this man [Kaya] came to Aydýn. He talked to someone on
the phone and wrote down the parts of my testimony that needed to
be changed. After being pressured into doing so, we rearranged the
respective parts of my testimony,” Ekþi said.