Naval junta under Ergenekon control, document shows

The CD was found along with many others in Bektaş's office during a police raid in April, which came after the discovery of munitions on land owned by the İstek Foundation in Poyrazköy the same month. The CD exposed the group's plans to assassinate Turkey's prominent non-Muslim figures and place the blame for the killings on the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) as part of an action plan called the Cage Operation Action Plan. The desired result of the killings was that an increase in internal and external pressure on the party would ensue, leading to diminishing public support for the AK Party.

A document titled “My Agendas” on the same CD revealed that the assassination plans were directed by retired Col. Levent Göktaş, who is in jail for suspected membership in Ergenekon, which suggests that the Naval Forces Command junta was under the control of Ergenekon. “Send what is in Dilek Bozkaya's possession to L. Göktaş through the lawyer Serdar Öztürk,” reads a directive on the said document. Both Bozkaya and Öztürk are currently imprisoned for suspected Ergenekon membership. Another note on the same document reads: “We have contacted the Fabricator. The movement for a more brilliant future needs to be more active.” Fabricator is an alias for the Workers' Party's (İP) jailed leader Doğu Perinçek. The document also mentions another Ergenekon-linked plot to launch a bloody attack on students visiting the Rahmi M. Koç Museum in İstanbul. According to the document, the attack was to be launched at a time when many students were visiting the museum.

The plan was exposed in May after a large number of explosives were discovered in a submarine at the museum during the investigation into Ergenekon.

After an investigation by the military, they announced that the explosives at the bottom of the submarine had been forgotten by commandos.

Ergenekon prosecutors, however, decided that the findings of the military investigation were too weak to ease concerns over the discovery of explosives at the museum. The prosecutors examined the submarine in the museum and reached the conclusion that it was not possible for the commandos to forget that a large amount of explosives were in a submarine.

The same document also includes confidential information about the private lives, wives, children or girlfriends of a number of high-ranking members of the military. The document suggests that some of those members of the military were blackmailed with that information and urged to work in line with the ambitions of the Naval Forces Command junta.

Part of the document was dedicated to the junta’s “friend” organizations. Among those organizations were groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir and their leaders, including İskender Evrenesoğlu, Haydar Baş, Abdullah Ağar and İsmail Yavuz. Most of those figures are known to be members of hard-core religious fundamentalist groups.

What is the Cage Plan?

The plan was signed by Lt. Col. Ercan Kireçtepe and was planned to be put into operation by a team comprising 41 members of the Naval Forces Command. The hoped-for result from the assassinations of prominent non-Muslim figures and related propaganda would be an increase in internal and external pressure on the AK Party, leading to its political demise, according to the plan.

The action plan would be implemented to lend support to the suspects arrested so far as part of the Ergenekon investigation; render ineffective the so-called psychological warfare waged by the AK Party and its supporters (against the military); change the course of the agenda in Turkey; boost the morale of the junta within the Naval Forces Command; and win the appreciation and support of the public. The blame for each of the assassinations by the junta would be put on the AK Party.

The plan was divided into four phases; “Preparation,” “Raising Fear,” “Shaping Public Opinion” and “Action.”

The action plan also called the killings of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, Catholic priest Andrea Santoro and three Christians in Malatya an “operation.” The group aimed to generate chaos in society with those killings, but complained that the plan failed when large groups protested the killings in mass demonstrations.

The plan also revealed that the anti-democratic formation within the Naval Forces Command was being led by three admirals, identified with their initials F.Ö., K.S. and M.F.İ. Bektaş, Kireçtepe, Göktaş and Maj. Emre Onat also worked for the junta. All of them were arrested as part of the ongoing Ergenekon probe.