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Turkish journalist: All state authorities are guilty of Hrant Dink’s assassination

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hrant dink murderTurkish journalist Nedim Şener has testified at the subsequent trial session related to the assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

Şener, who wrote a book about Dink, noted that in 2011 he was arrested as a member of Ergenekon terrorist group for his attempt to study the details of Dink’s assassination, Turkish newspaper BirGun reports.

“All the state authorities are guilty. Some of them knew [about the assassination], others intentionally closed their eyes to that, and still others were somehow involved [in that]. Solving Dink’s assassination is the dignity of the state,” Şener noted.

According to him, in order to understand the occurrence, it is necessary to read Dink’s article entitled “80 year-old mystery of Sabiha Gökçen.” “After that article, the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces targeted Dink, the National Security Service following the same path.” Political factors were also present in his assassination. If you want to find those liable for his assassination, listen attentively to the lie told at the trial. It is first of all the judges, who considered his murder case, who should be tried,” the journalist stressed.

Jailed Turkish Journalist Speaks about Dink Assassination Cover-up

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nedim_sener_arrestTurkish journalist Nedim Sener being taken into custody by police

ISTANBUL (Agencia Prensa Armenia)—On the 8th anniversary of Hrant Dink’s murder, Prensa Armenia interviewed Nedim Sener, a Turkish journalist that investigated the large amount of evidence on the role of the police, close to the Gülen Movement, in preparing the ground for the murder of Hrant Dink.

He spent a year at a high security prison in Silivri on charges of being a member of an armed terrorist organization and he is currently facing a possible sentence of 15 years in his trial.

PRENSA ARMENIA: What did Hrant Dink represent for the Turkish society? Was he dangerous?

NEDIM SENER: Hrant Dink was the peacemaker, the representative of peace for the Turkish society, but it was dangerous for the Turkish state. In his youth he had been persecuted accused of involvement in leftist and pro-Armenian activities and after founding the Agos newspaper, he was under close surveillance. All this proves that Dink was seen as dangerous to the state. He wanted to prove that discussions in Turkey about the Armenian Genocide were possible to make them in a language of peace and empathy, but he was not allowed. Instead of friendship, enmity and fear won.

P.A.: Who was behind his murder?

N.S.: The gang who pulled the trigger and the officials that the state had on the street. We know all the names and years ago we wrote about them. The intelligence service of the Police, the National Intelligence Organization and the Border Police are responsible for first-degree murder. A part of the research includes the members of the Gülen community. Soon we will see progress on this issue, and that will open the case again.

A.P.: What was the role of Gülen in the construction of the repressive apparatus in Turkey?

N.S.: The seeds of fear in society were sown long before the growth of the Gülen Movement. The Gülen community is the basis of today’s climate of fear through the state bureaucracy, particularly the police, the intelligence, the Attorney General and through the media that they handle. The news published in their media were the first to support the police and prosecutors operations that filed charged against journalists who were arrested and imprisoned as members of a terrorist organization. In fact, after the documents that I wrote concerning Ergenekon, the books about Fetullah Gülen, assassination of Hrant Dink and the lies of intelligence, I was their target.

A.P.: What is your opinion about the recent raids on journalists in Turkey?

N.S.: Press freedom leads the list of the worst things that happen in Turkey. The previous discussion was on this subject, but the events show us that it is now a matter of freedom of expression. Not only they accuse you for what you write in newspapers or books, but you can also be brought before a judge or tribunal for what you write on Twitter or Facebook. Therefore in Turkey the issue is not only of press freedom but also of what society writes.

Nedim Şener,honored with CPJ’s 2013 International Press Freedom Award (Video)

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VIDEO   At http://vimeo.com/80481176

investigated the 2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

(Courtesy of Univision)

To read Şener’s acceptance speech, click here.

Nedim Şener, a leading investigative journalist with the Turkish daily Posta, is considered a terrorist by his government, which alleges that his critical reporting contributed to an anti-government plot.

His case is emblematic of Turkey’s widespread application of vague laws to prosecute and imprison journalists and pressure them into self-censorship. The laws equate covering terrorism with aiding terrorism, CPJ has found.

Since being detained in 2011, Şener faces charges of supporting an armed terrorist organization in connection with Ergenekon, an alleged anti-government conspiracy. After more than one year in prison awaiting trial, he is currently free on conditional release pending the outcome. If convicted, Şener faces up to 15 years in prison.

The case, also involving investigative reporter Ahmet Şık and eight staffers of the ultranationalist news website Odatv, has been broadly criticized by press freedom advocates and colleagues as untenable. The Odatv defendants, including Şener, have argued that incriminating files were planted on their computers with viruses. Independent technology experts have confirmed that the Odatv computers have been externally manipulated; their analyses, however, have not been admitted as court evidence.

Şener, the author of several books, investigated the 2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. In a book about the killing published in 2009, Şener alleged official involvement in Dink’s murder, including a cover-up of police negligence, concealment of evidence, and failure to investigate threats and surveillance of Dink prior to his death. Following the book’s publication, Şener was prosecuted on several charges, including “revealing secrets” and “attempting to influence a trial.” He faced more than 30 years in prison if convicted–longer than the sentence handed to Dink’s killer. Şener was acquitted of those charges in 2010, only to be imprisoned again, as a suspect in the Odatv case, less than a year later.

In 2012, CPJ found Turkey to be the world’s worst jailer of journalists. Authorities are still holding dozens of Kurdish reporters and editors on terror-related charges and other journalists for allegedly plotting against the government. Şener’s sentence is expected near the end of 2013.