"I Informed the Police of Dink Assassination," Testifies Witness

Erhan Özen, alleged member of the Gendarmerie Intelligence Anti-Terrorism Unit (JITEM), was heard as a witness in the Hrant Dink murder case. Turkish-Armenian journalist Dink, founder of the Armenian Agos newspaper, was assassinated in front of his office in Istanbul on 19 January 2007. Özen stated, "I reported the Dink murder via 155 [the Turkish emergency phone number]", "Erenerol threatened Dink" and "I hid pictures taken of the Agos office in a bakery".

JİTEM is an unofficial wing of the Turkish Gendarmerie set up in the late 1980s to counter ethnic separatism in the Southeast.

Joint attorney of the Hrant Dink murder case, Fethiye Çetin, indicated that Özen's statements had to be reviewed with caution, saying that every one of them was to be taken seriously.

Özen is currently imprisoned in the Amasya Prison (northern Anatolia) on charges of looting which go back to the year 2006. Milliyet and Vatan newspapers reported about Özen's statement given in a hearing held at the Amasya High Criminal Court on 23 July 2010. Apparently, Özen had claimed that he worked for JITEM since 1997 and that the organization was led by a Brigadier General, who is a witness in the Ergenkon case and whose name he could not disclose.

Özen answered personal questions directed at him as follows:

* Erhan Tuncel, Osman Hayal and Yasin Hayal, (prime suspects of the Dink murder) were agents working for JITEM in the Black Sea region. I overheard their conversations related to assassination plots against people such as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, (religious leader) Fetullah Gülen, (deceased BBP Chair) Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu, Jak Kamhi, (journalist) Mehmet Ali Birand and Hrant Dink. The assassination of Dink had been a topic since 2003.

* I met two people alias Şiran and Yusuf at the military in 2004 who suggested me to join JITEM. We brought Dink to the foreigners' cemetery in Halıcıoğlu on the directive of Şıran, Yusuf and Sevgi Erenerol, spokesman of the Turkish Orthodox Church. Dink and Erenerol spoke in a car with tinted windows. We left Dink in Mecidiyeköy later on (districts of Istanbul). Dink seemed to be very nervous.

* There was a reporter called Inci who also played a role in the murder of (businessman) Üzeyir Garih. He was camouflaged as a worker in the massage place 'Princess Blue Moon' one kilometre away from the Agos newspaper. From there he followed Dink's coming and going.

* In 2005, I was ordered to take pictures of the Agos office. I hid some of my photographs in the stash of the nearby Yakut Bakery.

* I decided to leave the organization when they wanted to use also my wife as they did in the incident of Fadime Şahin. Thereupon, my whole family was threatened. In fact, that is the reason why I reported the Dink assassination plot to the police. I called 155 in the year 2005 and informed the police about the assassination plot.

* Prior to the murder, it was said on behalf of Ogün Samast in the Kritik internet café, where Samast used to spend time, that an action against a missionary in Malatya was planned.

Lawyer Çetin: Statements must be investigated

Lawyer Çetin talked to Markar Eseryan from Taraf newspaper. She said that the bakery where Özen supposedly hid the Agos photographs had really existed. However, it had been torn down in the meantime and a new building was constructed in its place.

Dink had written about his being threatened in an article entitled "Why was I made a target", he did not mention Erenerol though. Çetin added that this left a question mark in her mind.

Çetin argued that Özen's statement had to be taken with caution but that it had to be taken seriously. "Since this is a new statement, we will bring it up in the coming hearing. We will request the court to investigate each statement". (BT/EÖ/VK)