Arslan’s new book to shed light on dark points in Hrant Dink murder

Arslan's book, “Bi Ermeni Var: Dink Operasyonunun Şifreleri” (“There's this Armenian: The Codes of the Dink Operation”), which is being put out by Timaş Publishing today, puts forward new evidence which indicates that the murder had been masterminded from the start by dark forces.

“This murder was not committed just by a few ultranationalists, but was carefully planned in minute detail from the start, as part of shady groups' attempts to create chaos in the country,” Arslan told Today's Zaman, asserting that the investigation should start from scratch in light of the evidence he provides in his book.

He alleges that the Dink murder is part of a larger plan to drive Turkey away from the European Union. He also asserts that the journalist's murder is linked to the brutal 2007 killings of three Christians in Malatya.

Arslan’s book details many connections between members of Ergenekon -- a clandestine gang with members nested within the state hierarchy whose members are currently on trial for attempting to overthrow the government by force. Ergenekon is accused of being behind many atrocious crimes and plots that sought to create chaos in Turkey, which they hoped would trigger a military takeover. The book provides new evidence that confirms links that were suspected earlier between key Ergenekon suspect Veli Küçük, a retired general, and Col. Ali Öz, who was gendarmerie regiment commander in Trabzon -- the hometown of hitman, Ogün Samast, and other suspects in the trial and the city where the plot to assassinate Dink was hatched.

A prosecutor filed a lawsuit in 2008 against Öz and six soldiers demanding up to two years of imprisonment for dereliction of duty in the Hrant Dink murder case. The men are being accused of ignoring tips from various sources about the plot being hatched during the run-up to the murder. No convictions have yet been made in that trial.

Küçük had also threatened Dink when he was still alive over his articles and writings. According to different accounts from various members of the Dink family, Küçük and ultranationalist lawyer Kemal Kerinçsiz -- also a suspect in the Ergenekon case -- had threatened Dink. The journalist’s brother, Orhan Dink, remembers that his brother was highly unnerved by the involvement of Kerinçsiz and Küçük.

Arslan, who is also the Ankara representative of the Bugün daily where Dink used to contribute, also points to various shortcomings that he spotted in the investigation. Yavuz asserts in his book that Dink’s murder was a stage in a larger plan to launch an anti-Christian campaign and stir up ultranationalist sentiment.

What went on in Trabzon

According to both the book and the formal findings of the ongoing investigation, a man named Coşkun İğci tipped gendarmerie officers Okan Şimşek and Veysel Şahin, that Yasin Hayal -- who is currently under arrest as a major suspect in the Dink murder -- was planning to kill Dink. Hayal, who hitman Samast said gave him the order to shoot Dink, had earlier been convicted for the bombing of a McDonalds in Trabzon.

According to the book and the investigation, both Şimşek and Şahin informed their superior Ali Öz about the tip, but Öz did not take any action, and told his two inferiors to “keep quiet” shortly after the murder was committed. During the trial, Öz accused İğci of lying, saying they had never received any intelligence on the plan to kill Dink. However, the investigation has found that Öz falsified a record to make it seem like the date they had received the tip about a plan to kill Dink was after the date of the murder, which took place on Jan. 19, 2007.

Arslan’s book also provides evidence that points to close links between controversial lawyer Kerinçsiz and the Gendarmerie Forces. According to his telephone records, Kerinçsiz frequently called numbers registered under the Gendarmerie Force. The total times he called these numbers peaked a few days before and after the murder, when Kerinçsiz spoke with gendarmerie numbers for a total of three hours.

Another point raised in the book is the link between National Intelligence Organization (MİT) official Özel Yılmaz to some of the suspects in the Ergenekon trial. Yılmaz is currently a suspect in the trial into a subversive plot to undermine the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the faith-based Gülen movement. Titled “The Action Plan to Fight Reactionaryism,” the plot details a military plan to destroy the image of the ruling party and the Gülen movement in the eyes of the public, to play down the Ergenekon investigation and to gather support for members of the military arrested as part of the Ergenekon probe.

Shortly before he was killed, Dink wrote in the Agos daily, of which he was the editor-in-chief, that he was forcefully taken to “visit” the Governor’s Office in İstanbul, where he met a person, whose name he did not know, from MİT. This person, Dink wrote, warned him against writing about the Armenian issue and threatened him that it would not “end well.” Earlier in the press, there had appeared claims that it was Yılmaz who had tipped off Ergenekon case fugitive Bedrettin Dalan, a former İstanbul mayor, so that he could flee the country before a police raid could take place that would have led to his arrest.

Other details in the book

Arslan’s book underlines that two official documents released by the Turkish General Staff, one in March of 2003 and the other in November of the same year, refer to “missionary activity” as a threat for Turkey. The book also tries to provide a general portrait of the Black Sea town of Trabzon.

The book also points to the nationalist scene in the Black Sea region, where the killers of Dink are from. Arslan claims that a mosque bombing in Ordu in 2006 was orchestrated by the same shady groups that planned the Dink murder with the purpose of sparking a Kurdish-Turkish conflict. The book also provides evidence that suggests that some officers in the Gendarmerie Forces attempted to provoke similar clashes at Giresun University between students. Other evidence he provides points to links between Dink’s killers and Ergenekon and includes the serial number of a hand grenade used in an attack on a Trabzon café that was frequented mostly by Kurds and which matched the serial numbers of some hand grenades used by Ergenekon in attacks elsewhere.

Arslan said although this Wednesday will mark the fourth anniversary of Dink’s death, the investigation has not yielded any results, adding that it did not look like it was going anywhere. Arslan says the investigators did not ask vital questions during the probe, such as questioning the relationship between the Gendarmerie Force and Kerinçsiz.

“It is very difficult to write on such issues. It is obviously not a very pleasant topic. But I think my book will serve as a good reference for those who would like to look at the Dink murder from a different perspective,” he told Today’s Zaman.

He also explained where the title of his book comes from. According to Samast’s testimony, one day when he was hanging out at a local Internet café playing games, his friend Hayal -- who is now accused of inciting him to murder -- came up and told him: “There is this Armenian. You should kill him.”

Arslan asserts that a new team of investigators has to be brought together and that this group should devote all their time to this single investigation and start from scratch. He adds, “Turkey does not have the luxury of leaving this murder in a cloud of darkness.”

Ret. Gen. Veli Küçük (L) and Col. Ali Öz

Ergenekon leader, Dink murder cover-up official in same photo

Journalist Adem Yavuz Arslan in his new book “Bi' Ermeni Var: Hrant Dink Operasyonunun Şifreleri” (There is an Armenian: Codes of the Hrant Dink Operation) shares new evidence that might change the course of the Dink murder trial, including a photograph that shows Ret. Gen. Veli Küçük, the chief suspect in the ongoing trial of Ergenekon in which the suspects are accused of plotting to overthrow the government, and Col. Ali Öz, who was the commander of the Trabzon Gendarmerie Battalion at the time Dink's killers were conspiring to kill him, standing next to one another.

Dink was killed on Jan. 19, 2007, in broad daylight by an ultranationalist teenager. The hitman and others who were accused of soliciting him to murder Dink were arrested in the ongoing trial, but the Dink family and its lawyers have long claimed that the Dink murder was part of a bigger plan by groups in what is called the deep state -- a structure formed inside the state hierarchy made up of individuals who often want to take the law into their hands and manipulate public opinion, often through staging atrocious crimes, according to what they believe is right for the country.

Two years ago, a prosecutor filed charges against Öz on charges of having ignored tip offs on the plots to kill journalist Hrant Dink. Both the hitman, Ogün Samast, and the main suspect accused of inciting Samast to murder, Yasin Hayal, are from the city of Trabzon. The prosecution demands two years for Öz.

Arslan included a photograph of the two men together, with Col. Öz standing at attention before Gen. Küçük during the latter's visit to the Trabzon Gendarmerie Battalion Command. Küçük was given special importance, the photograph clearly shows, as Küçük is signing the battalion's guestbook. The photograph was found in the archive records of the gendarmerie command.

The book also includes evidence that indicates Col. Öz and three other gendarmerie officers destroyed official documents to hide the fact that they had been informed about the conspiracy. The book also provides documents indicating that the 2007 murders of three Christian missionaries in Malatya were also orchestrated by groups inside the gendarmerie. İstanbul Today’s Zaman