Fighting for the truth

Kayhan Ayhan

Nineteen years have passed since Hrant Dink, Editor-in-Chief of the Agos newspaper and a writer for BirGün, lost his life as a result of an armed attack on 19 January 2007. In the legal process over Dink’s killing, although the gunman Ogün Samast and the team around him were caught and brought to trial, the background to the murder has still not been uncovered despite the 19 years that have passed.

The trial of many public officials connected to the murder began in 2016. On 26 March 2021, İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court concluded the case in which 78 defendants were tried, including FETÖ leader Fetullah Gülen, former prosecutor Zekeriya Öz, journalists, gendarmerie officers and former police officials, with 6 in custody and 13 fugitives. Lawyers for the Dink family applied to the Court of Appeal on the grounds that their requests were not met but their requests were not accepted. An application was then made to the Court of Cassation.

While the Court of Cassation did not accept the lawyers’ requests, it overturned the decision for some defendants. The Dink family’s lawyers then applied to the Constitutional Court regarding defendants in the main case file in which public officials were tried and acquittal and dismissal decisions were issued. No decision has yet been made by the court.

The gunman Ogün Samast was released in 2023. After the reactions following his release, a case was filed under the charge of ‘committing an offence on behalf of an organisation without being a member’ but this case was also dropped due to the statute of limitations. In the ongoing ancillary cases against other defendants, the Dink family’s lawyers continue their search for justice. Despite criminal complaints by the lawyers, no progress has been made regarding some figures such as Kemal Kerinçsiz and Veli Küçük who played a role in the process of targeting Hrant Dink. The Dink family’s lawyers have applied to the European Court of Human Rights regarding this process.

PUBLIC OFFICIALS WERE PROTECTED

One of the case lawyers, Hülya Deveci, told BirGün: "From the very beginning, we tried to explain that this murder could not be handled as ‘an ordinary criminal case’, that many public officials in many different institutions and in many provinces had responsibility in the commission of this murder and in the process leading to it. Most importantly, we stated that without investigating the process by which Hrant Dink was made a target, that is, the process leading to the murder, it would not be possible to uncover this murder in all its aspects. However, until December 2015, no permission was given to investigate any state official and no case was brought, apart from the main case in which the gunman Ogün Samast, Yasin Hayal and the civilian individuals they were in contact with were tried, and the case in Trabzon 1st High Criminal Court in which 8 personnel serving in the Trabzon Provincial Gendarmerie Command were tried. We encountered a reflex and an effort not even to subject public officials to investigation, let alone to try them."

OUR EFFORT WILL CONTINUE

Recalling that the dozens of investigation and case files opened over the 19-year period revealed that prosecutions were not conducted effectively and were not expanded, Deveci said: "The decisions to drop cases due to the statute of limitations are already the result of investigation and prosecution practices that were ineffective, severed from their context and spread out over time. Despite everything, our legal effort to overcome the administrative, political and judicial practice displayed to insistently detach this murder from its context will continue until the truth comes out."

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Hakikate kadar mücadele, published in BirGün newspaper on January 19, 2026.