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Colonel, retired major testify on military plots
Erzincan Provincial Gendarmerie Commander Col. Ali Tapan was interrogated by Erzurum public prosecutor Osman Şanal over a military plot drafted by a colonel in order to undermine the AK Party and the faith-based Gülen movement. A Turkish daily claimed on Thursday that Tapan put the plot into operation in the southeastern province of Gaziantep.
According to the daily, Tapan ordered that the activities of Gülen’s followers be monitored in the city. He also ordered a group of gendarmes to monitor the activities of other religious groups. The surveillance was part of a plan, named the Action Plan to Fight Reactionaryism, which was drafted by Col. Dursun Çiçek. According to the plot, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) had a systematic plan to destroy the image of the AK Party government and the Gülen movement in the eyes of the public and to play down the investigation into Ergenekon, a criminal organization accused of plotting to overthrow the government.
Tapan hoped to portray members of religious groups as being part of an illegal terrorist organization.
The colonel was brought to a court to be arrested, but the court released him. The court also banned Tapan from traveling abroad.
Also on Thursday, retired Maj. Levent Bektaş, who is currently in jail for suspected links to Ergenekon, was taken from his prison cell to the İstanbul Courthouse in Beşiktaş to testify about a document known as the Cage plan, which outlines a plot to assassinate non-Muslim community leaders and was allegedly prepared by a group within the military.
A list of munitions attached to the Cage plan strongly indicates that it was aimed at creating chaos in society and sparking clashes between the country’s Muslim and non-Muslim citizens, which would eventually lead to a military intervention. The plan was detailed on a CD seized in Bektaş’s office. Bektaş was arrested in April and is currently being held in Silivri Prison.
In the meantime, the lawyer for three officials of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) appealed his clients’ arrests. The head of MİT’s Erzincan branch and two other MİT officials were arrested on Tuesday on charges of membership in Ergenekon. After a sizeable stock of munitions, including hand grenades, was found on Oct. 27 in a reservoir in Erzincan, the Erzurum Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into the apparent existence of a clandestine network in Erzincan connected to Ergenekon.
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