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 Sahin, retired Gen. Sener Eruygur, retired Capt. Muzaffer Tekin, lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz, former Organised Crime Unit Director Adil Serdar Sacan, Workers' Party (?P) Chairman Dogu Perincek and journalist Yalcin 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."