Investigation into Hrant Dink murder case will progress as much as the Turkish ruling party wants it to, Turkish studies expert Ruben Melkonyan told the journalists today.

According to him, the trail continued for over 2 years and Dink’s lawyers expressed concern over certain points in their report. They think that the case should be considered as a whole, including preparation stage, the murder itself and further events.

“The lawyers believe that unless it is considered as a whole, unbiased investigation should not be expected. However, judicial authorities have separated the stages. Various Turkish structures, such as police, security service and prosecutors were not cooperating and exchanging information. Moreover, they were hiding some facts impeding investigation,” the expert stressed. Presently there are certain officials who tried to withhold information on Dink’s case getting advantage of their post.

Melkonyan considers that initially Turkish authorities made a hero of Dink’s murderer. He had privileged conditions in jail and even managed to get married. Besides, the authorities have decided he would be tried at a juvenile court which will ease his sentencing by 5 years. He will not be sentenced to life imprisonment and will manage to join the list of Turkish heroes.

“Murder committed by hands of an underage is typical of Turkey, it is a mission of youth organizations. Ogun Samast was a youth organization member as well. Taking into account the developments, Dink’s lawyers think that if the trial continues like this, the case will not be cracked,” he concluded.

Hrant Dink, chief editor of Agos bilingual Armenian-Turkish newspaper was killed in Istanbul on January 19, 2007.