Hrant Dink assassination

Another brick in the wall… Mr. Aksu replaces Mr. Fırat

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In another upsetting news,powerful deputy chairman of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat resigns (or replaced by Abdülkadir Aksu).

 

Mr. Fırat was one of the top advisors who has been building AKP’s Kurdish policy. He is said to be disappointed with the latest AKP moves and resigned although the official reason is "personal health issues".

 

The replacement is symbolic: the new deputy Abdülkadir Aksu has a notarious record in political life. As I had noted here,  he was the minister of Interior Affairs when Hrant Dink was assassinated! And guess what:

He happened to be in the same post in four different governments and he happened to be the Police Chief in 1977-78 in Kahraman Maraş when the Maraş massacre happened. During his ministries, Muammer Aksoy, Çetin Emeç, Bahriye Üçok, Turan Dursun, Hiram Abbas, Necip Hablemitoğlu were assassinated….

 


HürriyetUnexpected leave of deputy leader shakes Turkey’s ruling AKP
Hürriyet, Turkey – 33 minutes ago
The unexpected resignation of the powerful deputy chairman of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) could cause a change in the cabinet as 

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"Ergenekon: worries and hopes

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 last week something like a minor judiciary coup happened within judiciary circles. I realize today that I have not emphasized that enough. A prosecutor from Ankara ordered the search of Ergenekon’s Istanbul based prosecutor’s headquarters. The claim was that Ankara prosecutor believed there was illegal phone listening happening in Istanbul prosecutor’s office. So  like an ambush, some officials visited the Istanbul office, then began to  have a look who was being listened.  This is a giant scandal. Some officials were found to be listing those who was being listened. This is a scandal. This is a judiciary intervention to an ongoing trial by another section of Turkish judiciary. I hear that some bureaucrats in Ankara are very anxious because of the Ergenekon trial.

I hear that there are already new ‘understandings’ after the AKP closure case.  One shouldn’t be very hopeful any more (!).

Ergenekon: worries and hopes

What will the outcome of the Ergenekon case be? This question alone is sufficient to explain the hopes and worries about the future of Turkey.

Elder brother caught in Dink case

The older brother of one of the main suspects in the murder of journalist Hrant Dink was detained by police yesterday. Osman Hayal was detained for being in Istanbul when a teenage nationalist

Ergenekon questions in Malatya massacre case

The lead suspect in the Malatya massacre case denied any connection with retired Maj. Gen. Levent Ersöz, who was arrested in relation to the Ergenekon case, in a trial at Malatya’s Third Court

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