Turkish authorities foiled an assassination attempt on Israeli honorary consul Jak Eskinazi in Turkey’s western İzmir province, which led to the arrest of seven people, including three government officials, an investigative journalist reported, saying that despite the seriousness of the case, the operation was not made public.
İzmir’s counterterrorism police, with the support of special forces, intercepted a vehicle at the Kemalpaşa toll booth in İzmir on May 4.
Taşkın Yorulmaz and Berk Yalçın, the two main suspects, were in the car, which was traveling from İstanbul to İzmir.
According to investigative journalist Cevheri Güven, who cites the public prosecutor’s office in his YouTube video published on Thursday, Yorulmaz had recruited Yalçın as a hitman and personally transported him from İstanbul.
The plan initially included an attack on the now-closed Israeli consulate in İzmir, followed by the assassination of Eskinazi, who is also president of the Aegean Exporters Association and an important figure in the textile industry.
The first operation led to four detentions. Further investigation led to the detention of five more people by May 7, bringing the total number to nine. Seven of the suspects were arrested, including three state employees: Yunus Emre Şehri, a correctional officer at İzmir’s Buca Prison; Yavuz Ceylan, an İzmir Municipality employee; and Özkan Keser, a municipal employee in İzmir’s Çiğli district.
During police raids on Yorulmaz’s home and workplace, officers discovered four firearms, one of which was legally owned by Şehri. The other three were unlicensed.
The evidence showed that Yorulmaz was in contact with Ceylan and Keser, who identified themselves as agents of Turkey’s intelligence service.
They allegedly encouraged Yorulmaz to carry out a high-profile attack on the Israeli consulate, claiming that it would be done with the approval of the state.
Yalçın agreed to take part in the attack and was photographed with Yorulmaz before the planned operation. The photo was shared on social media with a caption that condemns silence in the face of injustice to publicly associate Yorulmaz with the anti-Israel sentiment that has been running high in Turkey since Israel began pounding Gaza.
Israel launched a military campaign that started with aerial bombardment of Gaza and continued with a ground invasion in retaliation for an unprecedented attack by militant group Hamas in the south of Israel on October 7, which claimed around 1,200 lives. The death toll in Gaza, in the meantime, has exceeded 36,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
After Güven posted the video, Eskinazi on Friday confirmed that he had been warned of a possible assassination attempt a month earlier, speaking to local media. “I have been under protection for a long time, and these measures were tightened after the warning,” Eskinazi was quoted as saying. He did not comment on the details of the arrests or the investigation.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, who regularly updates the public on police operations in the country, has not commented on this major incident. Both the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Interior have remained silent, Güven points out, sparking speculation about the reasons for this secrecy.
Yorulmaz, who has also been linked to notorious mob bosses such as Alaattin Çakıcı and Sedat Peker, was previously charged in another murder plot against former İzmir mayor Tunç Soyer. Although Yorulmaz was initially accused, the charges against him were later dropped and he was instead charged with leading a criminal organization.
Peker, who lives in exile in the UAE, sent shockwaves across the country in the summer of 2021 through scandalous revelations he made on social media about state-mafia relations, drug trafficking and murders implicating former and current state officials and their family members.
Çakıcı, on the other hand, is Turkey’s biggest mafia boss and is known for his ties to Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, an ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.