WE CAME HERE TO SAY THAT WE ARE FOLLOWING YOU (Press statement read by Filiz Ali on behalf of the families of the political murder victims)

08 Feb 2010

We are the “deep” family of Hrant Dink.

Friends of Hrant gave permission to us today. We will speak instead of them.

We came here as brothers and sisters of Arat, Delal and Sera. We came to share and bear witness of the injustice we have been enduring for many years.

We came to remind how organized political murders are covered up, which we already memorized since the murder of Sabahattin Ali.

Most of our case files have been closed, faced with the statute of limitation. But Hrant Dink murder is yet in the process of efforts to cover it up. The perpetrators can still be prosecuted. The state still has the chance to reveal and disintegrate the destructive powers that leaked in it. We still have the opportunity not to leave the shame of the state of many covered up murders, the crime of accomplice to murder after the assasinations to the next generations.

We are here not with feelings of revenge, rage and hostility; we are here to show our responsibility as citizens and never ending demand for justice. We are a family which grows by the people who live in a country in which people are constantly killed. We do not want to grow any more. We hold all the state institutions whose duty is to reveal the organization which is behind the ones who killed us, responsible. Unless they fulfill their duty, they will always stay guilty in our eyes. And they will pass the message that the ones who carry on similar crimes will get away with it.

We came here to say that we are following you. We do not believe that no secret can be so important to carry the burden of this dishonour, this humiliation. We came here to express our wish that this court, which will start the hearing in a few minutes, is powerful enough to bring down all the secrets.

For years, we are forced to say that “existing laws did not allow us to defend our deads”. But we repeatedly witnessed the enormous efforts of the institutions to cover up their crimes while it can easily leave its citizens vulnerable. We saw how many officials were eager to protect the criminals. All these we have seen made the state demean in our eyes over and over again.

We do not think that there can be a bigger humiliation, a bigger insult than this. Let any institution, any notable person in any institution get hurt, get harmed, lose his repetition. We have to understand and we have to explain that this will not be heavier than losing a life.

We came here to make our voice heard by the officials who are in duty, who sit in responsible positions; not to those who are already sensitive and suffer in despair. We came here to unite with our brother Arat, our sisters Delal and Sera and with Rakel Dink. We are the intervening parties to this case and we will closely follow to see that the demands of the lawyers that will be submitted to the court today will be considered.

And lastly, we came here not to provide an opportunity to the press for them to make us third page news as “grieving families”, but to publish our demand for justice as we declare it.

02.04.1948 Sabahattin Ali’s Family
24.03.1978 Doğan Öz’s Family
01.02.1979 Abdi ipekçi’s Family
28.09.1979 Cevat Yurdakul’s Family
07.12.1979 Cavit Orhan Tütengil’s Family
11.04.1980 Ümit Kaftancıoğlu’s Family
23.05.1980 Sevinç Özgüner’s Family
22.07.1980 Kemal Türkler’s Family
07.11.1980 İlhan Erdost’s Family
07.03.1990 Çetin Emeç’s Family
04.09.1990 Turan Dursun’s Family
20.09.1992 Musa Anter’s Family
24.01.1993 Uğur Mumcu’s Family
02.07.1993 Nesimi Çimen’s Family
02.07.1993 Metin Altıok’s Family
02.07.1993 Behçet Aysan’s Family
02.07.1993 Hasret Gültekin’s Family
30.12.1994 Yasemin Cebenoyan’s Family
11.01.1995 Onat Kutlar’s Family
09.01.1996 Metin Göktepe’s Family