‘Hrant Dink’s friends’ demand answers from Turkish president
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
Turkish President Abdullah Gül must give an account of how failure to follow "necessary precautions" resulted in the murder of journalist Hrant Dink, a civil society group said Wednesday.
Speaking at a press conference in Taksim, "Hrant Dink's Friends" issued a statement, saying there were employing their legal right to obtain information and addressed questions to the president, prime minister and the justice, interior and foreign ministers.
Under the law, the state must respond to the questions within 15 business days. After this period, the group will hold a second press conference to evaluate the answers.
Speaking Aug. 16, Gül said, "Unfortunately, Hrant Dink lost his life because the necessary precautions were not taken."
Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin, was assassinated in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007.
In response, the group has demanded to know which precautions were in place, who failed to take them and what was done on the issue in the wake of the murder.
The president has also said in the past that legal investigations had found any civil servant guilty of negligence in the murder.
Gül was also asked why he did not call on the State Supervision Board, or DDK, to investigate the matter, as he immediately did for the recent Public Personnel Selection Examination, or KPSS, scandal and the March 2009 helicopter crash that killed politician Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, meanwhile, was asked why the National Intelligence Organization, or MİT, was not involved in the legal investigations following Dink's murder and whether it was normal that MİT had received no intelligence on the planned assassination ahead of time.
In the event that it did have foreknowledge, the group demanded to know what intelligence was received and what legal procedures had been initiated with regards to MİT employees.
Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin was asked why no action had been taken against people and groups who openly threatened Dink before the murder since open threats and discrimination on the basis of ethnicity and religion are an offense that does not require the target's legal complaint for investigation.
The court decision and the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors, or HSYK, prevention of any investigation of police officers suspected of involvement were also questioned.
In a sarcastic vein, the group demanded to know whether Interior Minister Beşir Atalay had launched an investigation into his own ministry's investigators since it was allegedly obvious that they had framed the civil servants after declaring them innocent of any claims of neglect.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, meanwhile, was asked who prepared the European Court of Human Rights defense for the state in which Dink was compared to a neo-Nazi, who approved the defense and whether any legal proceedings had been launched against these parties.
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