Who is Metin Göktepe?

Metin Göktepe entered the world on April 10, 1968 in Çipil village attached to the Gürün sub-province of Sivas province. Spending the first eleven years of his life here, Metin was the seventh child of an eight-child working family that earned its living from agriculture and husbandry.

Attending primary school in a combined class in the village’s only school, Metin came to Istanbul along with his brother Aziz in 1979. He was enrolled at Harp Dinçsoy Primary School in Esenler and he attended fifth grade here. He started middle school at what was then called Esenler High School and, also attending high school here, graduated in 1986 from what is now known as Bakırköy İbrahim Turhan High School. He entered the Finance Department of Istanbul University’s Faculty of Economics in 1989. Metin was an active member of the student youth struggle at university. He was arrested several times in these periods in which the student and worker movement was quite lively.

On learning in March 1992 that the magazine Haberde ve Yorumda Gerçek (Truth in Reporting and Interpreting), a magazine that would focus on the workers and toilers’ movement, was to appear, he started working there. Working as a reporter at the Haberde ve Yorumda Gerçek magazine for its entire publishing life, Metin joined Evrensel newspaper in June 1995. Metin was found dead close to an indoor sport hall where he had been taken following his arrest by the police while covering a story on January 8, 1996 in Istanbul Eyüp.

The police officers responsible for his murder benefitted from the conditional release under the pardon known as the "Rahşan pardon” and served a total of twenty months. Metin Göktepe was the first journalist killed under arrest whose murderers faced trial.

“I MUST ABSOLUTELY FOLLOW IT, FRIENDS”

Saying “I must absolutely follow it, friends,” the story Metin Göktepe went to cover saw him arrested and beaten to death by the police. The date was January 8, 1996. He had gone to Alibeyköy to witness the funeral of detainees killed in Ümraniye Jail. However, he was denied admission to the sub-province for not having a “Yellow Press Card.” On “sticking to his guns” over following the story, he was arrested and taken along with hundreds of people to Eyüp Indoor Sports Hall. He was killed here under police officers’ violent truncheon blows.

STATE OFFICIALS TRIED TO COVER UP THE MURDER

State officials tried to cover up the murder, making contradictory statements. Prime Minister of the day, Tansu Çiller, and Istanbul Police Chief, Orhan Taşanlar, claimed Metin Göktepe had not been arrested, Eyüp Republic Prosecutor Erol Canözkan that he had been arrested but fell from a chair while sitting in the tea garden having turned faint and Interior Minister Teoman Ünüsan, conversely, that he died haven fallen from the sports hall wall.

At 8 pm on January 8, 1996, Eyüp Republic Prosecutor Erol Canözkan compiled an incident and death record and sent Metin’s body to Forensic Medicine. For their part, those who had been released after having been held for a time under arrest insisted that Metin had been killed by the police while under arrest and his body had been taken from among the other arrestees and carried off.

Metin’s big brother, İbrahim Göktepe, gave a statement to Eyüp Republic Prosecutor Erol Canözkan and said he was making a complaint, declaring that Metin had been killed by the police while under arrest.

HOW DID THE TRIAL PROCESS PLAY OUT?

Evrensel newspaper proprietor Vedat Korkmaz petitioned Istanbul Provincial Governate for the opening of an administrative investigation into the police officers. Istanbul Police Chief Orhan Taşanlar alleged it was established from camera footage that Göktepe was not among the arrestees and his name was not on the list. However, he accepted that Göktepe had been arrested in later comments.

January 11, 1996: Vedat Korkmaz's complaint petition and Forensic Medicine’s autopsy record were sent by the provincial governate to Chief Inspector of Police Yaşar Gökışık for the conducting of an administrative investigation.

January 13, 1996: Visiting Association of Turkish Journalists Chair Nail Güreli, ANAP General Mesut Yılmaz said the announcements made by official bodies concerning Göktepe's death were unsatisfactory and stated he would be following the affair.

January 15, 1996: Under a “non-jurisdiction decision,” Eyüp Republic Prosecution remitted the investigation case to Eyüp Sub-Provincial Governate pursuant to the provisions of the Provisional Law on the Trial of Civil Servants, on the grounds that the police officers under investigation committed the imputed offences while carrying out administrative duties.

January 16, 1996: The Ministry of State with Responsibility for Human Rights brought out its report. It was said in the report, “Metin Göktepe was arrested and killed by the police under arrest.”

As of the day Metin was arrested and killed, young journalists who were Metin’s colleagues started to live up to the slogan “With insistence, each of us is Metin” that they would chant while monitoring hearings. Through the persistent efforts of the Göktepe family, journalists, lawyers and Metin’s paper, Evrensel, the Interior Ministry was obliged to launch an investigation.

January 19, 1996: Receiving a group of journalists at the Çankaya Mansion, President Süleyman Demirel said, “I don’t care for it being phrased as the police committed the murder. We must read events within their own boundaries. Let us draw a conclusion from isolated events and not put the state on trial. The ones to be tried are whoever committed the crime. It is wrong for us to try the police force. But if individuals A or B did it while wearing police uniforms, we’ll collar them. Murder cannot be covered up.” Visiting Evrensel newspaper’s Ankara office on the same day, DSP General Chair Bülent Ecevit spoke of Metin’s killing as being a stain on democracy and said they as the DSP would do what they could for light to be shed on the incident.

January 22, 1996: Prime Minister Tansu Çiller announced that Göktepe had not fallen from a wall and had been arrested.

February 7, 1996: The Interior Ministry inspectors’ probe was concluded. The trial of 49 police officers was called for in the 38-page case report drawn up by the inspectors.

July 5, 1996: At the Justice Ministry’s behest, Penal Chamber 10 of the Court of Cassation ordered the transfer of the trial to Aydın on the grounds that security could not be provided in Istanbul.

November 4, 1996: Some time after the hearing in Aydın, at the behest of Aydın Republic Chief Prosecution and Aydın Provincial Governate, Penal Chamber 10 of the Court of Cassation ordered that the case be transferred to Afyon. However, the removal of the case from Istanbul did nothing to lessen interest in the trial. On the contrary, the number of determined observers increased a little more at each hearing. Thousands of people, saying, “Wherever the trial that’s where we are,” came in buses from many provinces to the hearing venue of Afyon. Indeed, almost every hearing was also monitored by delegations coming from abroad.

The Göktepe Trial, transferred to Afyon, concluded on September 28, 2000 with the upholding of jail terms of seven years each handed down to five police officers on the counts of “involuntary manslaughter” and “manslaughter in a manner to make the perpetrator undetectable.” One police officer, for his part, was sentenced to twenty months imprisonment and five months’ exclusion from public service following the quashing of the judgment by the Court of Cassation. The Conditional Release and Suspension of Sentence Law prevented the convicted police officers from serving out their entire sentences.