Second MİT officer accused of Ergenekon involvement

The third indictment, accepted by a court last week, accuses MİT officer Özel Yılmaz of warning former İstanbul Mayor and Ergenekon-suspect-at-large Bedrettin Dalan shortly before a raid on Dalan's house last year. In April weapons and munitions believed to belong to Ergenekon were found buried on property owned by Dalan's İstek Foundation in İstanbul's Poyrazköy district.

The prosecution says the investigation into Yılmaz's link to Ergenekon is still under way.

Yılmaz is also believed to be the MİT officer who late journalist Hrant Dink -- assassinated in 2007 -- said had threatened him to be less outspoken on the Armenian question at the İstanbul Governor's Office on Feb. 24, 2004. Dink said he had been called to the governor's office and warned by individuals, whom he had not been introduced to, to be careful about what he wrote in the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, where he was editor-in-chief.

Yılmaz is the second MİT officer to be implicated in the case after former MİT İstanbul Region Chairman Nuri Gündeş. Yılmaz was recently assigned as the head of the agency's regional branch in İzmir.

The Dink speech

Prior to his death, journalist Dink wrote that in 2004, shortly after writing an article in which he claimed that Atatürk's adopted daughter, Sabiha Gökçen, was an Armenian orphan, he was called to the İstanbul Governor's Office where he was threatened by a MİT officer who did not identify himself . The Turkish media, based on various sources, has written that the mysterious officer was Yılmaz.

In an article published on Jan. 12, 2007 -- just seven days before he was shot dead outside his office -- Dink claimed he was chosen as a target and recounted the incident, saying that in addition to Deputy Governor Ergun Güngör, a woman and a man had attended the 2004 meeting. He said the governor's office called him on Feb. 22, 2004, saying they would also like him to bring the documents regarding his claims about Gökçen's ethnic origin. Dink wrote that the male individual was the only person who spoke before the end of the Feb. 24 meeting. Dink wrote: “I realized that they did not even want to see the documents that I had taken with me. I reminded them that they had wanted to see the documents and handed them the documents. But the content of the talk made it clear why I had been called there: I had to know where to stop. I had to be careful. Otherwise it wouldn't be good.”

The identities of the two individuals remained a source of curiosity for a long time. In response to a later parliamentary inquiry, Abdülkadir Aksu, the interior minister at the time, did not identify the individuals, but said they were both MİT agents.

A statement from Governor Muammer Güler on Sept. 27, 2007 to the court hearing the Dink murder trial denied Dink had been threatened at the meeting. “The meeting in question was conducted in a polite tone and in compliance with the general rules of official etiquette and no threat was directed at him in the meeting,” Güler's statement said.

Yılmaz and Dalan operation

In May, the prosecution in the Ergenekon trial said Yılmaz had informed former İstanbul Mayor Dalan, currently being sought as a fugitive in the probe, that he was wanted as a suspect before the operation to detain him was carried out.

The prosecutor said MİT İstanbul Regional Deputy Chairman Yılmaz, who had frequent meetings with Dalan's personal assistant İlhami Ümit Handan, informed Dalan that he would be detained by police in the investigation.

Dalan fled to the US three months before a wave of Ergenekon-related detentions in January. New evidence indicates that Dalan was informed about the detentions by sources inside the MİT. Dalan's son Barış Dalan, his personal assistant Handan and driver Coşkun Ömür were detained in the probe into the arms found on land belonging to Dalan's İstek Foundation. Sources say two MİT officials, including Yılmaz, paid a visit to Ergenekon prosecutor Zekeriya Öz after these detentions, calling on him to release Handan, saying he was an important MİT employee. During this visit, Yılmaz also said MİT Undersecretary Emre Taner was in the know and had personally requested that he visit Öz. When prosecutor Öz contacted Taner about the visit, the MİT undersecretary said he had not requested the visit. The MİT has launched an investigation into the two officials who visited Öz.

In a related development, an investigation has been started into Deputy Police Chief S.H. over alleged links with Handan. Sources note that S.H. was in charge of the operation into the İstek Foundation and a probe into this individual was launched when it was discovered that he had frequent contact with an individual from the foundation being monitored by the police at the time of the İstek probe.