The Cage Operation Plan, a devious plan by a group of members of the Naval Forces Command to intimidate the country’s non-Muslim population by assassinating some of their prominent figures, was revealed to the public last week when the Taraf daily uncovered it. In the plan, the assassination of Hrant Dink, a Turkish Armenian writer, is considered as an “operation” and the widely participated-in demonstrations in the wake of Dink’s murder spoiled the junta’s plans aiming to create provocation with the murders of non-Muslims in Turkey, as noted in the same plan.
Hrant Dink was assassinated on Jan. 19, 2007 in İstanbul and just a few hours later, thousands of people rushed to the Agos Daily building where Dink was working as a chief editor to voice their protest against the murder. At Dink’s funeral, a demonstration took place in İstanbul with a remarkable number of participants. The motto of the demonstration was “We are all Armenians, we are all Hrant Dink.”
If the crowds had not taken to the streets to raise their harsh criticism of the assassination and stood against the murder of an Armenian and a non-Muslim writer, the cage operation plan would have been successful as the plan notes.
The participants in the demonstrations targeting Dink’s assassination confessed proudly that “Yes, we spoiled the junta plans.”
The head of the Revolutionary Socialist Workers’ Party (DSİP), Doğan Tarkan, said that he agrees with the cage plan that the junta’s attempts were ruined by the people who chanted “We all are Armenians” in the demonstrations after the murder. “We are still saying we are all Armenians, we are all Hrant Dink. Dink was murdered by an Ergenekon gang. The files of the Dink, Santaro and Malatya murders should be merged with the Ergenekon file,” Tarıkan said.
Andrea Santaro, 60, the Italian priest at Santa Maria Catholic Church in Trabzon, a northern Turkish city, died in an armed attack in 2006, and in the Malatya-based Zirve Publishing House three people who sold Christian literature were killed in 2007.
Zeynep Tanbay, a performance artist, stated that she was surprised when she saw the large crowd joining the demonstration. “Dink’s murder made a number of people you could not imagine take to the street. This crowd rejected the system which is responsible for the murder. I think the coup could not be accomplished because of that demonstration.”
“Since the beginning we have always claimed that the murder was premeditated and well planned. Whenever we say this, we are always asked whether we have enough evidence to prove our claims. Now, it has been revealed that an organization carried out the murder. Not only members of the junta but also the state officials at that time should be tried,” said Özlem Dalkıran from Helsinki Citizens Assembly, a human rights association.
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