No advance in Dink assassination case even after three

No advance in Dink assassination case even after three
Monday, January 18, 2010

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

The Hrant Dink assassination case has not advanced despite the three years since his death. Dink's relatives and friends share the pessimism of the family's lawyers about the future of the case. ‘The Dink murder wouldn't be solved even if the Ergenekon case ends,’ according to Yalçın Çilingir, a close friend of the late Dink

Although some hitmen who have assassinated journalists in Turkey during the last three decades have been caught, their leaders behind the scenes have never been revealed.

Abdi İpekçi, former chief editor for the daily Milliyet was gunned down in the Maçka neighborhood of Istanbul in 1979. The İpekçi assassination was a beginning – more followed afterward. Among those murdered journalists, the assassinations of Uğur Mumcu and Ahmet Taner Kışlalı in 1993 and 1999 had the most tremendous impact.

Three years ago, one of the more infamous recent assassinations occurred. Hrant Dink, chief editor for the daily Agos, published in both Turkish and Armenian, was shot in front of his paper’s office on Jan. 19, 2007.

According to the criminal report, Dink lost his life a few seconds after the first bullet. The significant detail that separates the Dink assassination from the ones of İpekçi, Mumcu and Kışlalı is that he was a Turkish citizen of Armenian origin who strived to bring the sensitive matters of the Armenian problem to Turkey’s agenda.

The Dink family, along with their lawyers, Fethiye Çetin and Deniz Tuna, has reiterated its hopelessness about the progress of the case at every opportunity. The sudden illness of Turkish Armenian patriarch Mesrop II just weeks after the assassination raised many questions that were not answered, even after the official medical diagnosis.

Isolated by both Turks and Armenians

The Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review spoke to Yalçın (Oşin) Çilingir, a close friend of Dink, and lawyer Luiz Bakar, one of Agos’ founders and a press spokeswoman for the patriarchy on the third anniversary of the assassination.

Dink was a figure who attempted to tear down the wall between the people of Armenia and Turkey after the sad events of 1915. He believed the two peoples should build dialogue between themselves without interventions from the outside, stating this opinion at every opportunity. Dink’s stance caused reactions in Armenia and among the Armenian diaspora as much as it did in Turkey. Some Armenians even claimed Dink was a Turkish agent.

“Some people are reborn after death,” said Çilingir. “Hrant perceived both the societies of Armenia and Turkey as psychologically ill when it came to the events of 1915; he said both societies needed treatment. That was why he was isolated by both Turks and Armenians. It was more agonizing that Armenian society left his outstretched hand hanging in air.”

Dink in the history pages

There were times when Çilingir could not control his emotions during the interview. “Hrant ended a 100-year loneliness for Istanbul’s Armenians even though he knew it would cost him his life,” he said. “He managed to make the two peoples get involved in dialogue. The thousands of people who hit the streets after his death are the biggest example of that.”

Describing Dink as his brother and as “a brave person who jumped into the sea without knowing how to swim,” Çilingir said the murdered journalist has already attained his rightful place in the pages of history.

Çilingir is like a member of the family who lacks the surname Dink only. He said he went through great agony after the assassination. “It is not possible for anyone to comprehend the pain his wife Rakel and children experience everyday.”

A critical approach to the Dink case

Çilingir said he is not hopeful about the progress of the Dink case. “The Ergenekon case might come to a result but the Dink murder will not because the ‘don’t let this go too much farther’ mentality is dominant in the Ergenekon case. The hitman will be set free in a few years just like it happened with the İpekçi case.”

Çilingir said Dink had not mentioned the threats he was receiving to either himself or his own brother. “Television shows were making him a target. Being put on trial for Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Law was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Mesrop II and Hrant Dink at the crossroads

Bakar said Hrant became a target because his words were twisted. “This was done on purpose. This situation served the purposes of some people.”

Bakar published the following comment in Agos: “Agos was our child. Before Agos, there were prejudices against the Armenian community in the public opinion. We were perceived as unfavorable citizens. We have showed that we share the fate of this country thanks to our newspaper.”

Agos’ founding figures have split in time. When Mesrop II rose to the patriarchy, Dink supported the idea that the community’s daily affairs be separated from religious ones, a fact that brought the two to a crossroads. “Mesrop II and Hrant were strong characters, that was why they had a conflict but they always kept their love for each other,” Bakar said.

Asked whether he believes there is a connection between Dink’s assassination and the patriarch’s illness, Bakar said: “The doctors do not know what triggered Mesrop II’s illness. It is impossible for me to comment on that.”

Bakar said she is following the Dink case closely with a lawyer’s perspective. “The case is going nowhere fast.”

The Ergenekon case

The Ergenekon case started after the discovery of 27 hand grenades in June 2007 in a shanty house belonging to a retired non-commissioned officer in Istanbul 's Ümraniye district. The grenades were found to be the same ones used in attacks on the daily Cumhuriyet’s Istanbul offices in 2006.

The finding led to scores of arrests, putting more than 100 journalists, writers, gang leaders, scholars, businessmen and politicians into detention in what became a terror investigation to stop the alleged ultranationalist, shadowy gang referred to as Ergenekon. In the later stages of the investigation, those under custody were accused of planning to topple the government by staging a coup in 2009 by initially spreading chaos and mayhem.

The earlier bombings of Cumhuriyet, Dink’s assissination, the murder of the Council of State’s top judge and alleged plans for the assassination of high-profile figures in Turkish politics are occasionally associated with the case.