Police Looking for Ultranationalist Trace of Dink Assassination

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish police have focussed their investigation into the murder of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink on alleged links between the prime suspect and an ultranationalist group. "We are looking into the political aspect of the murder and possible links with illegal organizations," Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah said. Quoting sources close to the investigation, newspapers on Monday said police were probing links between Ogun Samast and a small, ultranationalist group in his hometown, Trabzon, on the Black Sea Coast. Samast told police he was told to kill Dink by a friend, Yasin Hayal, who spent 11 months in jail for a 2004 bomb attack against a McDonald's restaurant in Trabzon. "Yasin told me to shoot Dink. He gave me the gun. So I did," the teenager said. Turkish newspapers described Hayal, who is also in police custody, as an "older brother" figure who frequently met youngsters in the area and influenced them with his ultranationalist views. Hurriyet said Samast, an unemployed secondary school graduate, was among 10 youths aged 15 to 17 whom Hayal had last year trained to handle and shoot small arms in order to assassinate Dink. "I was chosen because I was the best shot and the fastest runner," Samast told the police. His mother, Havva Samast, said Monday that she believed her son was a mere tool.



Samast's testimony turned the spotlight on Trabzon, a Black Sea port of one million and a hot-bed of nationalism, which hit the headlines in February 2006 with the murder of an Italian Catholic priest by a 16-year-old boy. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday that police would look into possible links between Dink's killing and that of the priest, report Turkish media.