ISTANBUL, Turkey (A.W.)— Six journalists were detained on March 21 as part of an ongoing investigation into the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
A detention warrant was issued for eight suspects by an Istanbul prosecutor for publishing images and footage of Dink’s murder Ogün Samast in various media outlets in 2007 and 2016. These images and footage showed Samast in front of a Turkish flag shortly after his apprehension in the Black Sea province of Samsun.
Just after the warrant was issued, police detained six suspects: Murat Bayrak, Yüksel Avan, Birol Ustaoğlu, Yakup Kurtaran, Ahmet Çetiner, and journalist Muammer Ay.
The six suspects were detained during operations that were conducted throughout six provinces. The search for the other two continues.
In addition, the Istanbul prosecutor’s office demanded an arrest warrant for pro-Gulen prosecutor Zekeriya Öz, lawyer Halil İbrahim Koca, and journalists Faruk Mercan, Adem Yavuz, and Ekrem Dumanlı.
Dink was assassinated in broad deadlight outside the headquarters of Istanbul-based bilingual newspaper Agos on Jan. 19, 2007.
Samast, the 17-year-old high school dropout, confessed to the murder and was sentenced to nearly 23 years in jail in 2011. Tt was revealed later that security forces had been aware of the plot to kill Dink but had failed to act.
I don’t have any special passion for politics, it being a never-ending merry-go-round of bosses big and small, all generally mediocre. I actually find it boring.
Elena Ferrante