The prosecution is investigating allegations that an alleged military plot drafted by an active duty colonel was put into operation in Erzincan. According to the documents, the plot was put into operation in the province after a visit by Col. Dursun Çiçek and retired Gen. Ergin Saygun to Erzincan in April 2009. Titled the Action Plan to Fight Reactionaryism, the plot was drafted by Çiçek, a naval colonel.
The plot contains a plan to plant weapons and ammunition at the homes of members of certain religious communities. Police raids at these houses would result in the arrest of those individuals. The public would then start believing that religious communities had “terrorist intentions.”
According to another allegation in the indictment, Gen. Saygun ordered CHP politicians and some academics to prepare documents “to manipulate public opinion.” The prosecution bases this allegation on a mysterious whistleblower officer whose exposure of the action plan launched the Erzincan investigation. The same officer claims in a letter written to the prosecution that Col. Çiçek compiled a blacklist of certain civil society organizations. He says in the letter that he stole the action plan. “There was a crisis when they found out that the original document was lost. But later they adopted the view that the document must have been destroyed by a member of the junta. As an officer who has served the Turkish Armed Forces [TSK] for many years, I would like to do yet another service [for the TSK].”
The officer also says that there was a period beginning in September of 2007 when Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Saygun ordered “the preparation of various documents seeking to manipulate public opinion.” Work in this regard was supported by some university academics and politicians from the CHP. The letter says General Staff Operations Commander Gen. Nusret Taşdeler oversaw the project. Colonels Çiçek, Sedat Özüer, İlker Ziya Göktaş and Fuat Selvi worked on the project. “The aforementioned individuals have carried out certain activities that were way outside the scope of their assigned duties,” the letter says.
