Same commanders implicated in all illegal coup attempts

The Action Plan to Fight Reactionaryism, the Cage Operation Action Plan, the Poyrazköy arms cache, the Sledgehammer Security Operation Plan, Moonlight (Ayışığı), Blond Girl (Sarıkız), Thunderstorm (Oraj) and Suga coup plans are among recently exposed coup plots devised by the junta nested within the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). Recent investigations have revealed the details of these plans -- which all aimed to foment chaos in the country in order to lay the groundwork for a coup d’état -- and interestingly enough, the indictments filed against these plots point to the same senior commanders, who are suspected to have played a major role in these anti-democratic attempts.

Former Naval Forces Commander Adm. Özden Örnek is one of them. He is mentioned among the group of military officers who devised the Sledgehammer plan, a suspected coup plot concocted in 2003 at a military gathering. According to the plan, the military was to systematically foment chaos in society through violent acts, among which were planned bomb attacks on the Fatih and Beyazıt mosques in İstanbul. The plot allegedly sought to undermine the government to lay the groundwork for a military takeover. Örnek currently on trial for his role in the plot. Örnek is also remembered due to his journal detailing plans to stage a coup d’état against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government. Adm. Örnek is alleged to be the person to which the journal detailing the coup plans Moonlight, Blonde Girl and Glove belongs to.

Retired Air Forces Commander Gen. İbrahim Fırtına is also a prime suspect in the Sledgehammer probe and is suspected to have devised the Oraj plan, a sub-plot of Sledgehammer. He is also accused contributing to the Moonlight, Blonde Girl and Glove coup plots.

Retired Adm. Ahmet Feyyaz Öğütçü is accused of devising the Suga Action Plan but is also named as the prime suspect in the Cage indictment. The Cage Operation Action Plan includes a subversive military plan to kill prominent non-Muslim residents of Turkey and to put the blame for the killings on the AK Party. The hoped-for result from the murders would be an increase in internal and external pressure on the ruling party, leading to its demise, according to the plan.

The Cage indictment points to Vice Adm. Kadir Sağdıç as the “number two man,” and is also mentioned in the Sledgehammer plan. Also, according to confidential documents seized from the Gölcük Naval Command in December, the TSK decided to bury a large number of weapons and other munitions in Poyrazköy upon an order by Sağdıç. The same documents revealed that the burial of Poyrazköy weapons was not an individual plan but was linked to the Sledgehammer plan.

Col. Dursun Çiçek, the main suspect in the investigation into the Action Plan to Fight Reactionarysm -- which details a plan to undermine the AK Party government and frame religious individuals and groups by planting weapons in their buildings -- is also suspected to have contributed to the Sledgehammer plan.

Retired Gen. Çetin Doğan, the prime suspect in the Sledgehammer case, is accused of having devised the plot planned as part of the recently abolished Protocol on Cooperation for Security and Public Order (EMASYA), which allowed operations and intelligence gathering in cities without the approval of the civilian administration. He was also the head of West Study Group (BÇG), which was known to be active in most of the events that led up to the Feb. 28, 1999 unarmed military intervention.