Assassination of Hrant Dink

The prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was assassinated in Istanbul on 19 January 2007. Dink was a newspaper editor who had written and spoken about the Armenian Genocide, and was well known for his efforts for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians and his advocacy of human and minority rights in Turkey. At the time of his death, he was on trial for violating Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code and "denigrating Turkishness". His murder sparked both massive national protests in Turkey itself as well as widespread international outrage.
Death threats.
Dink had long endured threats by extreme Turkish nationalists for his statements on Armenian identity and the Armenian Genocide. He regularly received emails threatening his life, responding in one instance by comparing himself to a dove, "equally obsessed by what goes on on my left and right, front and back. My head is just as mobile and fast".
In his final "Agos" column on 10 January 2007, Dink noted that propaganda targeting him led many Turkish citizens to consider him an enemy of Turkey:
He also complained of the indifference of Turkish authorities to his security:
Despite his complaints, Dink never formally requested protection from the authorities because he did not want to lead a sheltered life. His lawyer, Erdal Doğan, confirmed this feeling of Dink. A week before his assassination, Dink wrote that he felt "nervous and afraid" owing to the intensity of the hate mail he had been receiving: "I see myself as frightened, the way a dove might be, but I know that the people in this country would never harm a dove."
Assassination.
Dink was assassinated in Sisli, Istanbul at around 12:00 GMT on 19 January 2007 as he returned to the offices of "Agos". The killer was reported to have introduced himself as an Ankara University student who wanted to meet with Mr. Dink. When his request was rejected, he waited in front of a nearby bank for a while. According to eyewitnesses, Dink was shot by a man of 25 to 30 years of age, who fired three shots at Dink's head from the back at point blank range before fleeing the scene on foot. According to the police, the assassin was a man of 18 to 19 years of age. Two men had been taken into custody in the first hours of the police investigation, but were later released. Another witness, the owner of a restaurant near the "Agos" office, said the assassin looked about 20, wore jeans and a cap and shouted "I shot the infidel" as he left the scene. Dink's friend Orhan Alkaya suggested that the three-shot assassination technique was a signature mark of the Kurdish Hezbollah. Dink's wife and daughter collapsed when they heard the news, and were taken to the hospital.
Capture of the suspected shooter.
One day after the assassination, the police announced that the shooter had been identified in video footage collected through both the Istanbul MOBESE electronic surveillance network (4,000+ cameras throughout the city) and local security cameras. They later released photos to the public while urging every citizen to aid with the investigation. On the same evening, Istanbul Governor Muammer Güler addressed the press to state that special investigation committees were pursuing nearly two dozen leads and that the police were analyzing ten thousand phone calls made from the vicinity of the crime scene.
News agencies reported on Saturday, 18:22 GMT, that the shooter had been identified as "Ogün Samast", a teenager born in 1990 and registered as residing in Trabzon, the same city where, a year before Dink's assassination, the Catholic priest Andrea Santoro was shot dead by a 16-year-old native of the city, in front of the church of Santa Maria of Trabzon, which is a nationalist gathering center. In recent years, Trabzon has become an important recruiting place for ultra-nationalist movements. Samast's father identified him from the publicly released photos and alerted the authorities. Six people, including Samast's friend Yasin Hayal, who had been involved in a bombing of a McDonald's restaurant in Trabzon in 2004, were taken into custody and brought to Istanbul.
Funeral.
Dink's funeral service was held on 23 January 2007 in the Surp Asdvadzadzin Patriarchal Church in the Kumkapı neighborhood of Istanbul. Dink's funeral ceremony developed into a demonstration at which a hundred thousand citizens marched in protest of the killing.
The service was attended by members of the Turkish government and representatives from the Armenian diaspora, as well as religious leaders. Although Turkey had no official diplomatic relations with Armenia at that time, by invitation of the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullah Gül, the Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirakosian was present at the funeral. Prime Minister Erdoğan was not present at the funeral, because he had to attend the scheduled inauguration of the Mount Bolu Tunnel.
After the church services, the hearse made a final tour for the thousands of marchers still gathered at Yenikapı, before proceeding to Balıklı Armenian Cemetery in Istanbul's Zeytinburnu neighborhood, where Dink's body was laid to rest. At the cemetery Rev. Krikor Agabaloglu (Pastor of the Armenian Evangelical Church of Gedikpaşa) and Rev. Rene Levonian (Armenian Evangelical World Council's representative) delivered short speeches in Turkish and in Armenian.
The funeral astonished and changed the thoughts of some diaspora Armenians about Turkey. For example, Isabelle Kortian, an important diaspora (French) Armenian who came to Turkey for the funeral of Hrant Dink, wrote an article for a Turkish newspaper Zaman on 25 January 2007 saying "The Turks' embracing Dink made an effect of an earthquake on us".
Investigation.
The Istanbul Criminology Department stated that from the empty shells, they were able to determine that the assassination weapon used 7.65 millimeter ammunition and had never been used in another crime.
Ahmet Çokçınar, a prosecutor in the city of Samsun told the Anatolia news agency that Samast has confessed to killing Hrant Dink. According to this preliminary news, Samast said the killing was a personal act and did not have any organizational agenda. Samast's uncle Faik Samast has told private NTV television that he didn't think his nephew was capable of acting alone – "He didn't even know his way around Istanbul," "This kid was used." Samast said that he killed Dink for "insulting Turks", and that he doesn't regret it. According to media reports, Samast is a high school dropout and a possible drug addict. Later news reports stated that Samast had had no idea of the significance of his act until watching TV coverage, and that he had ended his written confession with an expression of remorse.
Three people were taken into custody regarding the murder on the day of the killing. However, movements tied to the ultra-nationalist movement are currently suspected of carrying out the murder, in particular after the arrest of Yasin Hayal, a militant who spent 11 months in prison for having taken part in the bombing of a McDonald's in Trabzon in 2004, and of Karadeniz Technical University student Erhan Tuncel, who was close to the Alperen organization, the neo-fascist youth organization associated with the ultra-nationalist and Islamist party Great Union Party (BBP), created by former members of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Yasin Hayal confessed to telling Samast to kill Dink and supplying the murder weapon, while Erhan Tuncel has been charged as a main instigator of the killing, and allegedly directed both Samast and Hayal. The BBP has denied any involvement in the assassination. Hrant Dink was described as a "traitor" by the Turkish far right, and had received up to 2,600 death threats from ultra-nationalist circles. According to rumors reported by Turkish newspapers in late January 2007, Erhan Tuncel was actually a police informer for the Trabzon Police. The rumors also suggested that he warned Trabzon police office before the murder, but that the warnings were ignored.
Investigations concerning the nationalist underground Ergenekon network have led to suspicions concerning Ergenekon's involvement in Dink's assassination. Folder 441 of the Ergenekon indictment's annex contains evidence that Dink's entire family was targeted. Staff colonel Ferhat Özsoy allegedly pressured chief master sergeant Murat Şahan into carrying out the assassination, offering him 300,000 Lira in reward. Şahan, who was undergoing psychiatric treatment as a result of being 70,000 Lira in debt, resisted and filed a complaint from a military hospital, where he was forced to undergo an examination.
Concerns over a possible cover-up.
On 3 October 2007, the TV station NTV reported that the police file on Erhan Tuncel, a prime suspect in the murder case, had been destroyed on the grounds that the file was a "state secret" before the court had a chance to see the document.
The lawyer for the Dink family, Erdal Doğan, repeated the concern that much evidence was destroyed and lost that might reveal relationships between the suspects and members of the security forces, including a tape from a security camera outside a bank near the Agos offices where Dink was killed. Doğan said that the chief of police intelligence (), Ramazan Akyürek, ordered the expungement of a suspect's 48-page testimony.
When the lawyers of the Dink family investigated the security camera records which were screening the street where the assassination took place, they identified four suspects speaking with their cellphones. Thereupon they requested the GSM call operation logs of the Şişli region Turkish Telecommunication Authorities around the time when the murder happened and the time where they identified the cell phone usage from the security cameras. Two major GSM providers reported that they do not have any GSM base station in that region, hence they cannot identify anything. The other major GSM operator in Turkey stated that there was no single call operation during the reported times. The lawyers stated that it is almost impossible that there cannot have been any calls during these hours or that the companies cannot have any base station, because Şişli is one of the most crowded regions in Istanbul at those times. In addition the security camera recordings shows that there was GSM communication indeed during that times.
In 2013 a secret witness told prosecutors of JITEM and Gendarmerie involvement in Dink's murder.
On 12 January 2015, arrest warrants were issued for two police officers, making them the first public servants arrested in the investigation.
On 12 March 2020, retired intelligence sergeant Şeref Ateş, an alleged witness in the assassination was assassinated while driving his vehicle in the town of Düzce by gunman from another car. 3 suspects were subsequently arrested for assassinating Ateş, yet their motive remains unknown.
Gülen movement.
Since 2014, the role of Gülen movement in the assassination was brought to public attention. Four prosecutors in the trial have been dismissed from their posts due to their ties with the movement, and for failing to make progress with the case. Furthermore police commissioners Ramazan Akyürek and Ali Fuat Yılmazer were accused of not sharing their foreknowledge of the attack with the prosecutors, gendarmarie, or the intelligence services despite being briefed of a planned assassination several times. In 2020 Ramazan Akyürek and Ali Fuat Yılmazer were sentenced to 45 and 7 and a half years of prison respectively for illegal audio recordings of senior government officials.
A Turkish court also said that 18 suspects in the case, among them 13 government officials were using the application "ByLock" on their phones, which Turkish Government claims are the communication tool of Gülen movement followers.
Reactions.
After the news of his assassination spread, condemnations came instantly from virtually all major political parties, government officials and NGOs in Turkey, as well as from many international observers.
Trial.
The Dink murder trial opened in Istanbul on 2 July 2007. 18 people were charged at Istanbul Heavy Penal Court No 14 in connection with the journalist's assassination. Since the main suspect, Ogün Samast, was younger than 18, the hearing was not public. Reportedly the defendants Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel repeated their testimonies given to the security forces and prosecutor. The court decided to release the defendants Osman Altay, Irfan Özkan, Salih Hacisalihoglu and Veysel Toprak to be tried without remand and adjourned the hearing to 1 October.
The indictment demanded aggravated life imprisonment for Erhan Tuncel and Yasin Hayal for "inciting the killing of Hrant Dink". Since the alleged killer, Ogün Samast, who was younger than 18 at the time of the murder, was served a sentence between 18 and 24 years imprisonment. Yasin Hayal's brother was charged as an accessory to the crime and has to serve a sentence between 22.5 years and 35 years imprisonment. The other defendants were charged as "members or supporter of a terrorist organisation".
In January 2009 the 8th hearing was held. Seven of eight defendants under arrest attended the hearing. At the end three defendants were released and the hearing was adjourned to 20 April 2009. According to Human Rights Watch, Dink's murder trial is "a critical test of the Turkish judiciary's independence." 
Verdict of courts.
On 25 July 2011, Ogün Samast was convicted of murder and being in illegal possession of a firearm by Istanbul's Heavy Juvenile Criminal Court. He was sentenced to 22 years and 10 months in prison, which was commuted from life sentence under Turkish juvenile law. After serving two-thirds of it, Samast will be eligible for parole in 2021 or 2022. But according to Hürryet, he won't be released as he attacked prison guards with a knife during his imprisonment and has to serve an more than 4 additional years in prison. 
On 16 January 2012, Istanbul's 14. Heavy Criminal Court reached a verdict with the remaining defendants. The court ruled there was no conspiracy behind the assassination, and stated that the assassination was an ordinary killing. Yasin Hayal was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Hayals lawyers appealed the verdict, which later was annulled as special authority courts formerly active in the trial were dissolved by a new law which came into effect in March 2014. Hayal was condemned to 7 years and 6 months in July 2019. Two other men were convicted of assisting him and they were each sentenced to 12 years and 6 months in prison. Erhan Tuncel was initially found not guilty of Dink's murder but later captured in 2013 and subsequently condemned to 99 years imprisonment in July 2019. 
Following about fourteen years of juridical proceedings, the Court in Istanbul read out a verdict on the 26 March 2021. Twenty-six defendants were sentenced due to their involvement in the environment of the assassination. Either for destroying or a forgery of an official document, being a member of an armed terrorist organization, killing by using an other person or deliberate killing with negligent act amongst other crimes. Several of the sentenced were officers from the Turkish Police Intelligence and the Turkish Ministry of the Interior. Four were sentenced to life imprisonment while two to an aggravated life imprisonment. Of all the prosecuted in the trial, thirty-seven were found not guilty.
ECtHR proceedings.
In September 2010, the European Court of Human Rights found that Turkish authorities violated Dink's right to life (Article 2 ECHR) by not acting to prevent the murder and by not punishing the police for inaction.