This shameful ruling argued that Dink's murder was not an organized crime. Karin Karakaşlı, one of Hrant's friends who spoke to the croweds gathered in front of the Agos paper, spoke to the audience and reached out to their emotions and wisdom. I would like to take some excerpts from her speech:
“And they did not kill him one time. First, they killed him with the General Staff's declaration following the Sabiha Gökçen article. They killed him when he was threatened by members of the National Intelligence Organization [MİT] at the İstanbul Governor's Office. They killed Hrant Dink by declaring him an enemy of Turks based on quotations from his peaceful articles.”
“It was known while Hrant Dink was still alive that many Ergenekon suspects, including Veli Küçük and Kemal Kerinçsiz, were working on lynching campaigns and a judicial process. And then the Cage Action Plan was revealed. However, no connection was established between this case and Ergenekon.”
“They surrounded us by lies; this has been the case for five consecutive years. And in the end they picked two as culprits. They told us that we have to be satisfied with this outcome.”
“Given that there was no organized armed group, we cannot talk about its masterminds and members. They made this decision by looking directly in our eyes. We saw their recklessness and the fear behind this decision. We said the state is naked; the state is naked.”
“Can I say that this is my country and this is my state? There is only one way I can say this: End this disgrace.”
“We all lost Hrant Dink; but you can appreciate that his absence is a bigger loss for us, Armenians.”
“We came to this point through the constant denial of history.”
“This decision has brought us back to the day of the murder, Jan. 19, 2007. The state has apparently not been able to figure out how to deal with the life and death of one of its Armenian citizens. This means that we will have to teach it how to do so.”
“They told us the case is closed. Is it really? Hrant Dink is not a file, so it is not closeable. He is a bleeding wound.”
“We promise that we will not live a decent life so long as this state of injustice remains.”
I think Karakaşlı's remarks translated the emotions of the people who gathered to remember Hrant and those who want justice in Turkey. Everyone knows the Dink murder was a planned and organized attempt. I have written many columns on this murder. I do not want to repeat what I previously said.
In her speech, Karakaşlı points to the network as being behind the murder. Dink was murdered by a deep state gang involving right and left-wing Turkish nationalists called Ergenekon. But the road to his death was laid down very easily, and no significant progress has been made over the last five years with respect to the case despite all the concrete evidence; as noted by Karakaşlı, this can only happen in a nation and society that has failed to confront its past.
The deep state killed Dink; but the recruitment of murderers would not have been so easy had there been no hatred of Armenians or racism in Turkey. Had there been no institutionalized racism within the state apparatus in Turkey, the Dink murder would not have been committed by organized efforts within the state.
I hope the growing outrage at the court's ruling and the rage as evidenced by the popular anger we've seen leads to the resumption of the trial following the verdict of the İstanbul High Criminal Court. Otherwise, I think justice will not be done and that the relative peace in Turkey will be negatively affected. The deep state in Turkey has not been able to commit murders since the start of the Ergenekon investigations. Their last murderous action was the Malatya massacre of April 2007, when they barbarously killed three Christians.
I am afraid this decision in the Dink case is a blank check to potential executioners and the deep structures that would use them. The message the Dink judgment delivers to the deep state says they can commit additional crimes and murders without being held responsible for their actions; but this is extremely dangerous. Unless the Dink decision is overturned by an appellate court and the trial continues, the 100-year-old murder network will continue with what it has been doing. This case should resume -- for Hrant, for justice and for a livable Turkey.
