The two soldiers from the northeastern city of Trabzon, Okan Simsek and Veysel Sahin, were the first members of security forces to stand trial in the Black Sea city of Trabzon, where the murder was allegedly planned.
Simsek and Sahin, who were charged with failing to inform officials about the plot, said they told the head of the Trabzon ‘gendarmerie’ and their unit chief that they heard from a police informer that a relative of his, Yasin Hayal, was planning to kill Dink. Hayal is currently on trial as one of the murder’s masterminds.
The confessions of the two soldiers "are chilling" advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said. "The security forces in Trabzon might have been able to prevent Dink’s murder if they had taken action. All those who were aware of this information and did nothing must be severely punished."
KEY TEST
This investigation is seen as a test for Ankara’s resolve to eliminate the "deep state" — a term used to describe security forces acting outside the law to preserve what they consider Turkey’s best interests.
The 52-year-old Dink, whom Turkish nationalists hated for calling the World War I massacres of Armenians, including many Christians, genocide, was shot dead in central Istanbul on January 19, 2007, outside the offices of Agos, the weekly newspaper he ran.
The court trying the two soldiers has summoned all 10 senior officers who were allegedly told at a meeting of the plan to murder Dink.
A criminal court in the Istanbul suburb of Sili meanwhile reportedly sentenced Zafer Filiz this week to three years in prison for sending a racist and threatening email to the headquarters of Dink’s newspaper, Agos, on 1 February 2007, 12 days after his murder.
SEVEN SUSPECTS
It came as in a separate case a court postponed a trial hearing against the seven alleged murderers of Christians Tilman Ekkehart Geske, Necati Aydin and Ugur Yüksel who were killed on April 18, last year in a Christian publishing house in the southeastern town of Malatya.
Four of the detained suspects on trial were caught at the scene and identified as Salih Gürler, 20, Abuzer Yildirim, 19, Cuma Özdemir, 20, and Hamit Ceker.
A fifth defendant, Emre Günaydin, allegedly jumped out of a third-floor window in the building, but was arrested after hospital treatment. Two other suspects are not yet in custody.
TRIAL POSTPONED
The fourth trial hearing was postponed till April 14 by a Malatya court as it did not yet receive the plaintiff lawyers’ request to remove the judge, accused of bias. There was also no sign of a ruling in the case of two Turkish converts to Christianity accused of “denigrating Islam and Turkishness."
Three soldiers were reportedly summoned last week to testify before the Silivri Criminal Court in northwestern Turkey as witnesses for the prosecution, but two of them failed to show up.
Defense lawyers have expressed some optimism that their clients will be found innocent. However Turkish authorities have so far refused to change legislation under which the Christians are charged, despite mounting pressure from the European Union to the dreaded Article 301.
