Prime minister approved probe into MİT agents over Dink murder

According to Dink's account published in Agos, where he was editor-in-chief, on Jan. 12, 2007, MİT Marmara Regional Deputy Director Özel Yılmaz and another agent summoned Dink to the İstanbul Governor's Office and issued a warning, telling him to “be careful” about what he writes. The meeting took place on Feb. 4, 2004, shortly after Dink wrote an article asserting that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's daughter Sabiha Gökçen was of Armenian descent. After Dink's assassination, one of the MİT agents who talked to him at the governor's office that day was revealed to be Yılmaz, who is currently a suspect in the investigation into Ergenekon -- a clandestine gang charged with plotting to overthrow the government -- which prosecutors say might also be responsible for Dink's murder.

In response to a query about the meeting from the İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court, MİT said the organization was aware of the “meeting” with Dink and its agents at the time.

The Ankara Prosecutor's Office requested the Prime Ministry's permission to investigate the two agents in 2010, but the request was turned down. On Jan. 21, 2011, the prosecution filed another request and it was approved the second time.

In a related development, also previously unknown to the public, inspectors from the State Audit Institution (DDK), an investigative body under the president's office, had a meeting with members of the Dink family on April 25. Earlier this year, President Abdullah Gül said the DDK could also launch a separate investigation into the Dink murder. Sources say the family complained about the lack of progress in exposing the alleged roles played by officers from the Trabzon Gendarmerie Command, the İstanbul Police Department and MİT, who appear to be implicated in the plot.

Dink was killed in broad daylight outside his newspaper's offices on Jan. 19, 2007 by Ogün Samast, who was a minor at the time of the murder. The ensuing investigation and trial exposed the hitman's questionable links to various individuals tied to the İstanbul Police and Trabzon Gendarmerie Command. Despite significant evidence pointing to the involvement of various officers in organizing the plot to kill Dink, the identity of the masterminds of his assassination remains elusive.