We miss you Ahparig: If the truth could speak for 17 years…

On a cold winter day, my father, whose workplace was in Osmanbey, returned home early for some reason that day. His face was as white as lime. “They shot Hrant,” he said. After a while, the photograph of Hrant Dink at the scene of the crime appeared on the television screen. Who was Hrant Dink, and what had happened to the man lying in front of the Sebat Apartment Building? 

From 19 January 2007, these two images remain indelible in my child’s mind. 

On 19 January 2024, neither my father nor I could have predicted that I would be writing this article for Hrant Dink as a colleague…

Hrant Dink, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Agos Newspaper, was murdered exactly 17 years ago. Far from the dark clouds surrounding the murder dissipating and the criminals receiving the punishment they deserve, the shooter Ogün Samast, who was 17 years old when he shot Hrant Dink 17 years ago, as Hrant’s Friends say, is walking among us freely. 

In the intervening 17 years, dozens of hearings have been held, and many public officials have appeared before the judges in addition to the shooter Ogün Samast and his instigators Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel. So what has happened so far in the Hrant Dink case, which the Dink family and their lawyers continue to fight?

He became a target after ‘The Secret of Sabiha Hatun’

Hrant Dink became a target of ultra-nationalist circles after a news article he published in Agos on 6 February 2004, in which he suggested that Sabiha Gökçen might have been Armenian.

As the calendar showed 24 October 2004, a bomb attack was carried out against the McDonald’s branch in Trabzon. This attack was perhaps the harbinger of Dink’s murder. Because the organizers of the bomb attack were none other than Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel, the defendants of Dink’s murder. 

After the bomb attack in which 6 people were injured, Yasin Hayal, who was arrested for only 11 months, was sentenced at the lower limit. Erhan Tuncel, one of the organizers of the attack, was assigned as an informant by the then Trabzon Police Chief Ramazan Akyürek. 

The possibility of assassination was reported

In his reports dated 15 February and 7 April 2006, Tuncel reported that Yasin Hayal would act as Hrant Dink. Tuncel’s informant status was terminated only a few months before the murder. 

The Trabzon Police Department reported this information to the General Directorate of Security Intelligence Department and the Istanbul Police Department. Erhan Tuncel was not the only one who reported the possibility of action against Dink. The brother-in-law of Yasin Hayal, one of the instigators of the murder, who was assigned to Trabzon Provincial Gendarmerie Command, also reported to the unit that Hayal had asked him for a gun to shoot Dink.

Dink’s Sabiha Gökçen story was published in Hürriyet on 21 February 2007 under the title “Sabiha Gökçen or Hatun Sebilciyan?” citing Agos newspaper as the source. The General Staff stated on the same day, claiming that the news article was “dangerous in terms of national unity, solidarity, and values”, and invited the media to “be more sensitive to the unity and solidarity of the Turkish nation and to review its editorial principles in the light of these considerations”. 

Dink summoned to Istanbul Governor’s Office

On 24 February, the then Deputy Governor of Istanbul summoned Dink to his office and made ‘warnings’. Dink, against whom a lawsuit was filed for “insulting Turkishness”, continued to receive threats. 

On 19 January 2007, 17-year-old Ogün Samast used the gun given to him by Yasin Hayal to kill Hrant Dink, about whom the police had been informed of assassination suspicions and who had received threats.

Security camera footage of the assassination was soon released to the press. Samast was detained at Samsun Bus Terminal 36 hours after the assassination when he was about to go to Trabzon on his father’s tip-off. The weapon used in the murder was also seized. 

Ogün Samast posing with a Turkish flag in the Samsun Police Station accompanied by police officers was one of the memorable photographs of the case. This photograph also raised questions about whether public officials played a role in the murder. 

Samast, who was in custody, said that he had committed the assassination on the instructions of Yasin Hayal but that he did not regret it, while Hayal said in his statement that he had planned the murder together with Erhan Tuncel, who had once worked as an informant for the police. 

The trial process started in April 2007

The trial process related to Dink’s murder started in April 2007 and the first hearing was held on 2 July 2007 at the 14th High Criminal Court in Beşiktaş district of Istanbul. The indictment initially included 18 defendants, 12 of whom were arrested. In 2008 and 2009, the number of defendants increased to 20 with additional indictments. This case was finalized in January 2012.

Yasin Hayal, one of the defendants, was sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment for “instigating premeditated murder”. Erhan Tuncel was also sentenced to 10 years and 6 months imprisonment and was released because he had served his sentence in prison.

The Court of Cassation overturned the verdicts on ‘organization’, and the trial started again

Samast was sentenced to 22 years and 10 years in prison for “premeditated murder” and “possession of an unlicensed weapon” in the verdict issued in July 2011. However, all defendants in the main case were acquitted on the charge of “membership of an armed terrorist organization”.

The 9th Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation overturned the acquittals on the “organization” charge. The trial of the defendants because they were “members of an organization formed to commit a crime” resumed in 2013. Erhan Tuncel, who had been released before, was arrested again but was released again shortly. 

Between 2007 and 2013, the negligence of public officials was underlined in the reports of the Parliamentary Commission to Investigate the Hrant Dink Murder, the Prime Ministry Inspection Board, and the State Audit Board. 

Dink Family applied to the HUDOC, public officials were included in the investigation

The Dink family applied to the European Court of Human Rights (HUDOC) after no investigation was opened despite allegations of negligence. The HUDOC convicted Turkey for “failure to conduct an effective investigation”.

As of 2014, investigations were initiated against the General Directorate of Security, Trabzon, and Istanbul police officials of the period. Former Trabzon Police Chief and Head of the Intelligence Department Ramazan Akyürek, Ali Fuat Yılmazer, Ercan Demir, and Muhittin Zenit were included in the investigation and arrested. 

In 2015, the second indictment was prepared. A lawsuit was filed against former Istanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah and police chiefs İlhan Güler, former Trabzon Police Chief Reşat Altay, and officials Faruk Sarı, Engin Dinç, Ercan Demir, former Intelligence Department officials Sabri Uzun, Ramazan Akyürek, Ali Fuat Yılmazer and Taner Demirel.

Akın Gürlek, known for his controversial judgments, became the presiding judge

In 2017, the indictment establishing the clearest connection between the community and Dink’s murder was prepared. All cases were merged and the number of defendants in the case increased to 85. 

Among the names on trial were Fethullah Gülen, Zekeriya Öz, former FOX TV News Director Ercan Gün, closed Zaman newspaper Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanlı, Trabzon Gendarmerie Commander Colonel Ali Öz, and the police officers who took a photo with the suspect when he was arrested in Samsun.

In 2020, while the hearings continued in February and July, the presiding judge in the Dink case changed for the fifth time. Akın Gürlek, who was on the agenda with his controversies, was appointed as the presiding judge. 

130 hearings were held in the case

The last case of the long legal process after the murder of Hrant Dink was the trial of 76 public officials. 

The court sentenced Ali Fuat Yılmazer, former Istanbul Intelligence Branch Director Ali Fuat Yılmazer, and Ramazan Akyürek, former Head of the Intelligence Department of the General Directorate of Security, to heavy life imprisonment.

The files of 13 fugitive defendants including Fethullah Gülen, Zekeriya Öz, Ekrem Dumanlı, and Adem Yavuz Arslan were separated.

The court decided to file a criminal complaint to the prosecutor’s office against Ogün Samast, Erhan Tuncel, Yasin Hayal, and Tuncay Uzundal on the charge of “FETÖ membership” because the murder was committed “in line with the aims of Fethullah Gülen Organisation”.

Journalist Ercan Gün was sentenced to 10 years in prison for “membership in an armed terrorist organization”. Ali Fuat Yılmazer, who was sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment, was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months for “destroying an official document”.

Ramazan Akyürek was sentenced to 5 years, 7 months, and 15 days for the same offense.

Yavuz Karakaya, a non-commissioned officer in charge of the Istanbul Gendarmerie Intelligence Branch Directorate at the time, was sentenced to life imprisonment for “violating the Constitution” and 12 years and 6 months for “aiding intentional killing”. Former soldier Muharrem Demirkale was sentenced to 2 times aggravated life imprisonment.

Cases dropped due to statute of limitations

The files of former police chiefs Celalettin Cerrah and Sabri Uzun, who were charged with “neglect of public duty”, were dropped due to the statute of limitations.

Former Trabzon Police Chief Reşat Altay was acquitted of the charges of “manslaughter due to negligence” and “destroying an official document”. His file on the offense of “neglect of duty” also expired due to the statute of limitations.

Former Trabzon Gendarmerie Regiment Commander Ali Öz was sentenced to 28 years in prison. Former gendarmerie intelligence officers Okan Şimşek and Veysel Şahin were sentenced to 28 years in prison, while another officer Volkan Şahin was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Former police officer Muhittin Zenit was acquitted and the charge of “neglect of duty” was dropped due to the statute of limitations.

Samast, the perpetrator of the murder, was released

The lawyers of the Dink family appealed the last court decision on 1 April 2021. The 2nd Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Court of Appeals rejected the Dink family and all other appeals on 6 May 2022.

Hakan Bakırcıoğlu, one of the lawyers of the Dink Family, said that they would apply to the Court of Cassation.

While 130 hearings were held and dozens of public officials were tried in the case, the fog cloud over the murder was not lifted, the perpetrator of the murder, Ogün Samast, who had been in prison for 16 years and 10 months, was released on 15 November 2023 on the grounds of “observing his good behavior” and that he met the conditions for conditional release. The decision caused public debate.

Dink will be commemorated on the 17th anniversary of his death in this atmosphere where the perpetrator of the murder can walk among us freely…