Former Istanbul Provincial Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah, who is a defendant in the case into the murder of Istanbul-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, made a shocking testimony during the recent court hearing into this case.  

Cerrah made a statement in his defense claiming that he has no culpability in Dink’s murder, and demanded that he be acquitted, reported Cumhuriyet daily of Turkey. 

“It’s illogical for me be guilty [in Dink’s murder] only for being the Provincial Police Chief [at the time],” he said. “In the same logic, the Minister of the Interior should be guilty, too.

“If we move with the same logic, the three secretaries working in Agos newspaper also should have been tried on negligence because before the murder, [Dink’s killer] Ogün Samast had come to the newspaper and wanted to meet with Hrant Dink; when not seeing Dink, Samast waited outside [for him] for two hours. Despite knowing that Dink was being threatened, these secretaries gave information to neither the police nor Dink.”

Hrant Dink was the founder and chief editor of Agos Armenian bilingual weekly of Istanbul. He was gunned down on January 19, 2007 in front of then office of Agos.