Hrant Dink Murder Suspect Caught

ISTANBUL — Erhan Tuncel, the main suspect behind the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, has been caught in Istanbul’s Kumburgaz district. He is said to have been hiding in a villa. Dink, the editor-in-chief of Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos, was shot dead in in Istanbul on 19 January 2007.

“This is the price of having served my country,” Tuncel told reporters as he was taken into custody by police officers.

“It is an honor to be arrested the day Adnan Menderes was hanged,” he also said, in reference to the former Turkish prime minister who was sentenced to death following the Yassiada trials in the sequel to the 1960 military coup.

This development comes after he spent 38 days on the run from the Turkish authorities. Tuncel had previously said he would surrender in 15 days, in an interview that was released by the Star newspaper on Wednesday.

Tuncel was an informant in the Black Sea province of Trabzon ahead of the murder of Dink.

Tuncel stated that there was another organization within the state “higher than Ergenekon [an allegedly shadowy organization accused of planning to overthrow the Turkish government], that is being prevented from shedding light on this murder. I am a little piece of all these.”

He particularly pointed to Trabzon’s police department and gendarmerie.