TÄ°T SENT FOURTH DEATH THREAT TO RIGHTS DEFENDER ORAN
BIAnet.org
June 15 2011
Turkey
Journalist and academic Baskın Oran received his fourth death threat
signed by the Turkish Revenge Brigade. The message was sent to the
Armenian Agos newspaper and read “your time has come to die”.
Ekin KARACA [email protected] Ankara – BÄ°A News Center15 June 2011,
Wednesday Minority rights defender Prof. Baskın Oran received his
fourth threat of the Turkish Revenge Brigade (TÄ°T) on 2 June. The
threatening message was sent by e-mail to the Armenian Agos newspaper
where Oran is working as a columnist.
While the TÄ°T threatened Oran four times in total so far, the
lecturer at the Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences
received countless threats from so-called “sensitive citizens”. Also
after the latest threat, Oran applied to the prosecution and filed
a criminal complaint.
“If the judiciary proceeds this way, the threats will go on” In an
interview with bianet Oran, fromer member of the Prime Ministry’s
Human Rights Advisory Board (BÄ°HDK), held the judiciary responsible
for the death threats he received because, in his opinion, the courts
did not fulfil their duty accordingly.
“If the supreme Turkish judiciary proceeds this way, these people
will continue threatening me”, Oran stated and continued: “I will
file a criminal complaint every time they are threatening me. Yet,
as long as the judiciary continues not fulfilling their duty, these
people will continue threatening me and this process is going to
carry on that way”.
Oran told bianet that he was under personal protection ever since
the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in January 2007.
However, this protection does not serve its purpose while facing a
judiciary that is working this way, Oran thinks.
Threatening message sent to Baskın Oran The threatening letter
contained a death list including Turkish-Armenian journalist Etyen
Mahcupyan and leading Kurdish politicians Osman Baydemir, Sebahat
Tuncel and Akın Birdal. The letter was signed by the TİT and read
as follows:
“He leads a dishonourable life by currying favour with the Armenians.
Baskın Oran, you still cannot put up with the word ‘Turk’ on Turkish
soil. (…) Take your dogs and go to Armenia. Otherwise, death will be
the inevitable end for you. (…) Your time has come to die. (…) We
hereby announce as the Turkish Revenge Brigade that we will close
this account. On 17 June, we will remove the bastard called Baskın
Oran and we will show the power of the Turkish reputation”.
The long journey of the case file Oran received the first death threat
from the TÄ°T on 30 May 2008. He received two further threats in the
same year saying “You will not gain anything by complaining about us
to the state”.
Oran lodged a criminal complaint to the Special Authority Ankara
Prosecution about the sender of the first threatening message which
was signed “What do you care what do I care”. The Ankara authorities
decided for “lack of jurisdiction” since the message had apparently
been sent from an internet café in Istanbul. The file was transferred
to Istanbul. The file was forwarded to a court in Adana when the sender
of the message was determined as a person called Bilal Å~^ekerlisoy
resident in Mersin. Since the mail had been sent to a recipient in
Istanbul, the file was again returned there. However, the Istanbul
court decided for lack of jurisdiction because Oran lived in Ankara. So
eventually, the file was sent back to Ankara.
Baskın Oran wrote in an article published on 12 June 2011 in his
column in ‘Radikal Iki’, a supplement of the Radikal newspaper :
“This carries a maximum penalty of six months, if a sentence will be
handed down at all, and the pronouncement of judgement is going to be
postponed. (…) Regarding two other threats, the Ankara 4th Criminal
Court of First Instance and the Ankara 9th Magistrate Criminal Court
decided for acquittals. The sender was determined as well as the time
and the computer it was sent from. But the supreme judiciary sent
the file to an expert. The report that came from there stated that
‘everybody can enter somebody else’s account and send a message from
there’. The file is currently pending at the court of appeals”.
http://www.bianet.org/english/minorities/130744-tit-sent-fourth-death-threat-to-rights-defender-oran