Dink murder will not be left in the dark: PM

ANKARA

PM Erdoğan speaks at a ceremony for an urban development project in Ankara. DAILY NEWS photo, Selahattin SÖNMEZ

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed the killing of Hrant Dink will be thoroughly uncovered as he angrily rejected criticism of the government’s reluctance to expose the wrong-doing of state officials before and after the murder.

“The Hrant Dink case will not be lost in the dark corridors of Ankara. No provocation, no plot will remain concealed,” Erdoğan said at a ceremony for the inauguration of an urban development project. “No one should hold the government responsible as if we were conducting the judicial process. And when it comes to the affiliations [of the convicted perpetrators], the executive authorities do what the judicial authorities request,” he said.

The prime minister voiced hope the judiciary “will take steps to eradicate the suspicions and soothe public conscience” when the Supreme Court of Appeals takes over the case.

The premier also rejected accusations his government was becoming increasingly authoritarian and said “the people would never allow the reversal of democracy.” He charged that opposition parties and Kurdish militants were united in efforts to discredit the government.

Brushing aside uproar over a prosecutor’s move to indict Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for criticizing the judiciary, Erdoğan hit back with a reference to the CHP’s single-party rule. “The CHP has only once climbed to the gallows: to place the noose on the neck of innocent people. Partial judiciary existed under CHP rule,” he said.