ISTANBUL. – In an interview with Taraf daily of Turkey, Yasin Hayal, who is sentenced to life in prison in the murder case of Hrant Dink—the founder and former chief editor of Istanbul’s Agos Armenian bilingual weekly, who was gunned down in 2007 in front of his office building—demanded that a lawsuit be filed against Trabzon city’s gendarmerie officers.  

Hayal claimed that he was frequently summoned to Trabzon Gendarmerie and was advised to keep contact with Erhan Tuncel, the Gendarmerie intelligence agent who was acquitted during Dink’s murder trial.

“I received the instructions for the murder by way of Erhan Tuncel. If a lawsuit is filed against the commanders of Trabzon Gendarmerie, I would go and provide testimony. They must be tried in Hrant Dink’s murder case,” Yasin Hayal said. 

To note, a Trabzon court had handed down a comical verdict to six Trabzon Gendarmerie officers: 4-6 months imprisonment for neglect of duty.