TİT Sent Fourth Death Threat to Rights Defender Oran

Minority rights defender Prof. Baskın Oran received his fourth threat of the Turkish Revenge Brigade (TİT) on 2 June. The threatening message was sent by e-mail to the Armenian Agos newspaper where Oran is working as a columnist.

While the TİT threatened Oran four times in total so far, the lecturer at the Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences received countless threats from so-called "sensitive citizens". Also after the latest threat, Oran applied to the prosecution and filed a criminal complaint.

"If the judiciary proceeds this way, the threats will go on"

In an interview with bianet Oran, fromer member of the Prime Ministry's Human Rights Advisory Board (BİHDK), held the judiciary responsible for the death threats he received because, in his opinion, the courts did not fulfil their duty accordingly.

"If the supreme Turkish judiciary proceeds this way, these people will continue threatening me", Oran stated and continued: "I will file a criminal complaint every time they are threatening me. Yet, as long as the judiciary continues not fulfilling their duty, these people will continue threatening me and this process is going to carry on that way".

Oran told bianet that he was under personal protection ever since the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in January 2007. However, this protection does not serve its purpose while facing a judiciary that is working this way, Oran thinks.

Threatening message sent to Baskın Oran

The threatening letter contained a death list including Turkish-Armenian journalist Etyen Mahçupyan and leading Kurdish politicians Osman Baydemir, Sebahat Tuncel and Akın Birdal. The letter was signed by the TİT and read as follows:

"He leads a dishonourable life by currying favour with the Armenians. Baskın Oran, you still cannot put up with the word 'Turk' on Turkish soil. (...) Take your dogs and go to Armenia. Otherwise, death will be the inevitable end for you. (...) Your time has come to die. (...) We hereby announce as the Turkish Revenge Brigade that we will close this account. On 17 June, we will remove the bastard called Baskın Oran and we will show the power of the Turkish reputation".

The long journey of the case file

Oran received the first death threat from the TİT on 30 May 2008. He received two further threats in the same year saying "You will not gain anything by complaining about us to the state".

Oran lodged a criminal complaint to the Special Authority Ankara Prosecution about the sender of the first threatening message which was signed "What do you care what do I care". The Ankara authorities decided for "lack of jurisdiction" since the message had apparently been sent from an internet café in Istanbul. The file was transferred to Istanbul. The file was forwarded to a court in Adana when the sender of the message was determined as a person called Bilal Şekerlisoy resident in Mersin. Since the mail had been sent to a recipient in Istanbul, the file was again returned there. However, the Istanbul court decided for lack of jurisdiction because Oran lived in Ankara. So eventually, the file was sent back to Ankara.

Baskın Oran wrote in an article published on 12 June 2011 in his column in 'Radikal Iki', a supplement of the Radikal newspaper : "This carries a maximum penalty of six months, if a sentence will be handed down at all, and the pronouncement of judgement is going to be postponed. (...) Regarding two other threats, the Ankara 4^th Criminal Court of First Instance and the Ankara 9^th Magistrate Criminal Court decided for acquittals. The sender was determined as well as the time and the computer it was sent from. But the supreme judiciary sent the file to an expert. The report that came from there stated that 'everybody can enter somebody else's account and send a message from there'. The file is currently pending at the court of appeals". (EKN/VK)