WE ARE EMBARRASSED, WE ARE ANGRY

“Dink insulted Turkishness, spoke hate. Such articles provoke the pblic, they amount to public offense”, “If Dink was under a real and imminent danger, he would have applied to the local authorities and ask for protection” pleaded the murderer.

Oh no, we totally misunderstood; this was the Turkish government’s defense statement submitted to the ECtHR with regards to the Dink case opened by Dink family. The experts appointed by the government prepared it. And they refer to the Nazi leader Kuhnen v. Germany case for comparison with Hrant Dink, reminding that he was convicted of “insulting Turkishness and inciting the public”.

We, the victims, the pursuers and the witnesses of his case; we, the friends of Hrant Dink, are embarrassed with the state and the government who gave this statement, who accuse Hrant Dink instead of prosecuting the public authorities who had neglected their duty regarding the murder, who compare Hrant Dink to a Nazi leader and who apparently are not ashamed in doing so. We deeply feel a growing anger.

Do they expect us to agree with the plea they submitted to the ECtHR? Do they expect us to believe that the justice will eventually be done in Dink’s case? Do they think that the decision will set a sense of justice and hope that will prevent similar murders or will it enhance the feeling of “getting away with the crime”?

We are aware that the public authorities who had been accomplices to Dink’s murder, who had neglected their duty -like the former Governor of Istanbul, Muammer Guler, who kept silent when Hrant Dink was called in to his office and threatened, and like the former Head of Security of Istanbul, Celalettin Cerrah, and others who are demanded to be brought to justice by Dink’s lawyers are promoted, let alone prosecuted.

We demand that the defense statement be withdrawn and an investigation be initiated for those who prepared and approved it. We demand that the government and all the public institutions who took part of the preparation of this plead explain themselves and that the State of Turkish Republic publicly apologizes to Dink family and to everyone that’s been following the Dink case.

FRIENDS OF HRANT