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 ISTANBUL
(Today’s Zaman)—The assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink, who was fatally shot outside his office by an
ultranationalist teenager, was the work of the secret
gendarmerie intelligence unit, know as JITEM, whose existence
has been denied by officials, according to a document included
in the third indictment into Ergenekon, a clandestine gang
accused of plotting to overthrow the government.
According to the document,
seized from the computer of Turhan Comez, a former deputy from
the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and a suspect at
large in the Ergenekon trial, a man called Yusuf Ziyad, who is
said to be a Kurd living in the Kurdish-controlled region of
northern Iraq, says JITEM; retired Gen. Veli Kucuk, who is
currently under arrest as part of the Ergenekon investigation;
and the National Police Department were behind the Dink murder.
According to the online
encyclopedia, Wikipedia, “Gendarmerie Intelligence and
Counterterrorism center [JITEM] is a wing of the Turkish
Gendarmerie, active in the Turkey-PKK conflict. Officially it
does not exist, however this claim is widely rejected outside
official circles.
It is also claimed in the
document that Kucuk and another retired general, H.K., were
behind a number of unsolved murders and terrorist activities in
northern Iraq. On the 13th page of the document, Ergenekon
suspects including Comez, retired Gen. Hursit Tolon, former
National Police Department Special Operations Unit Deputy
Chairman Ibrahim ?ahin, retired Gen. Sener Eruygur, retired
Capt. Muzaffer Tekin, lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz, former Organized
Crime Unit Director Adil Serdar Sacan, Workers’ Party (?P)
Chairman Dogu Perincek and journalist Yalc?n Kucuk are mentioned
under the title of “Those leading these formations.”
In the indictment, a
conversation between Emin Gurses, an associate professor who is
currently under arrest as part of the Ergenekon investigation
and another Ergenekon suspect, Lt. Col. Mustafa Donmez, also
gives clues about the Dink murder. In the phone recording,
Gurses tells Donmez, “The murder of Hrant Dink has been a good
kind of warning to those people.”
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