{"id":154445,"date":"2012-01-18T11:15:17","date_gmt":"2012-01-18T07:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/?p=154445"},"modified":"2012-01-18T11:24:46","modified_gmt":"2012-01-18T07:24:46","slug":"dink-trial-ends-turkey-continues-state-tradition-of-political-murders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2012\/01\/18\/dink-trial-ends-turkey-continues-state-tradition-of-political-murders.html","title":{"rendered":"Dink Trial Ends. Turkey Continues ‘State Tradition of Political Murders’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Turkish court on Tuesday handed down life imprisonment for Yasin Hayal, a major suspect in the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, of instigating a murder while another suspect Erhan Tuncel was acquitted of murder charges, Today’s Zaman<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span> reported.<\/p>\n

The \u0130stanbul 14th High Criminal Court issued its ruling in the 25th hearing of the case, ending a five-year trial. The two, and all other suspects, were cleared of charges of membership in a terrorist organization. Tuncel was given 10 years and six months for an unrelated McDonalds bombing in 2004.<\/p>\n

The late editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, Dink was shot dead on Jan. 19, 2007 by an ultranationalist teenager outside the offices of his newspaper in \u0130stanbul in broad daylight. Evidence discovered since then has led to claims that the murder was linked to the \u201cdeep state,\u201d a term used in reference to a shady group of military and civilian bureaucrats believed to have links with criminal elements.<\/p>\n

Tuncel, one of the key suspects in the murder who was previously a police informant, had his final defense statement at the hearing. Tuncel, who was accused of being an instigator of the murder, said that the murder was an action of Ergenekon, a clandestine organization whose alleged members are currently standing trial in court cases on charges of plotting against the government.<\/p>\n

Following the announcement of the court ruling, a group of people supporting Dink’s family and demanding justice for Hrant Dink showed outrage with the ruling.<\/p>\n

Dink family’s lawyer, Fethiye \u00c7etin, slammed the ruling, saying it meant that a \u201cstate tradition of political murders\u201d was deliberately left intact because it did not deal with accusations of state involvement in the 2007 murder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey made fun of us throughout the five-year trial process. We did not know they saved the biggest joke to the very end,\u201d she told reporters soon after the verdict was read out. \u201cThis ruling means a tradition was left untouched. The state tradition of political murders. The tradition of state discriminating against some of its citizens and turning them into enemies,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u00c7etin also vowed to pursue all available legal remedies against the ruling, asserting that the verdict marked the end of only an initial phase of the case, which consisted of the trial of hitmen in the murder. The prosecutor in the case also plans to appeal the verdict.<\/p>\n

After the finalization of the case by the \u0130stanbul 14th High Criminal Court, the Dink case is supposed to go to the Supreme Court of Appeals, \u00c7etin had told Today\u2019s Zaman, because the court demanded the prosecution examine the T\u0130B records more thoroughly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is new evidence, the case could be reopened with an additional indictment,\u201d \u00c7etin said.<\/p>\n

Hrant\u2019s Friends vow to fight for justice to be served<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHrant\u2019s Friends,\u201d who hold demonstrations before each trial demanding justice, met at the Be\u015fikta\u015f and Dolmabah\u00e7e Squares yesterday before the hearing of the case started. Carrying a placard that read, \u201cFor Hrant, for Justice,\u201d the group walked to the courthouse.<\/p>\n

Garo Paylan, who read a statement on behalf of the group, said in regards to the expected ruling:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ruling is the state\u2019s decision. The ones who decided to take Hrant from us five years ago \u2014 the security forces, gendarmerie, intelligence, judiciary, media, government, opposition \u2014 will once again make a decision in the courthouse. They will say that the murder is the job of two or three hitmen. They will try to hide in their dark world. But we know them. They don\u2019t know a thing: This case will not end before we say that it did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paylan also reminded that it will be the fifth year of the Dink\u2019s murder on Thursday. \u201cWe will shout out the words we have been shouting at them for five years: You are murderers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also reminded that Hrant\u2019s Friends will gather in Taksim Square on Jan. 19 and walk to the spot where Dink was killed. Similar demonstrations are planned outside of Turkey as well. \u201cWe will be out on the streets until we find you one by one. For Hrant,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Turkish court on Tuesday handed down life imprisonment for Yasin Hayal, a major suspect in the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":127000,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[32735,10910,36946,10425,36945,10222,32736],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154445"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}