The plot is aimed at undermining the power of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the faith-based Gülen movement. An officer anonymously mailed the original copy of the plot to İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor Aykut Cengiz Engin last week. The officer also included a letter with the document, which revealed the existence of a would-be junta within the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). In his letter, the officer pledged that he was ready to testify as a witness in an investigation into the plot.
Prosecutors are now looking for a way to contact the unnamed officer. İstanbul Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Turan Çolakkadı announced on Thursday that Ergenekon prosecutors do not know who the officer is. “It is not that we know who the officer is but do not share it with the public. We do not know who he is either,” he remarked.
The prosecutors plan to make an open request to the officer to testify as part of the probe. If the officer agrees to testify, his identity will not be shared with the public.
Çolakkadı also said Ergenekon prosecutors have reached the conclusion that the officer’s letter reflects the truth. “A forensic examination showed that the plot was produced by Col. [Dursun] Çiçek,” he noted.
The military officer claimed in his letter that the order for the preparation of the action plan came from 1st Army Corps Commander Gen. Hasan Iğsız. Iğsız was serving as the deputy chief of general staff at the time. “In accordance with a directive by Gen. Hasan Iğsız, the necessary work was initiated by Lt. Gen. Mehmet Eröz and Maj. Gen. Mustafa Bakıcı, and the action plan was prepared by Col. Dursun Çiçek,” the letter reads.
The plot detailed a systematic plan within the TSK to destroy the image of the AK Party government and the faith-based Gülen movement in the eyes of the public, to play down the investigation into Ergenekon, a criminal organization accused of plotting to overthrow the government, and to gather support for members of the military arrested as part of the Ergenekon probe.
