The plan was exposed at a police raid on the office of retired Maj. Levent Bektaş as part of a probe launched after the discovery of a large arms cache in the Poyrazköy district in April.
Called the “Cage Operation Action Plan,” the desired result from the intimidation of Turkey’s non-Muslims and the assassination of prominent ones, was that an increase in internal and external pressure on the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) would ensue, leading to diminishing public support for the party.
A series of incidents that Kurtuluş residents experienced in August suggest that the plan was put into operation by “dark powers.” The neighborhood is home to dozens of non-Muslim families.
On Aug. 7, 2009, some non-Muslim residents of the neighborhood found colored stickers on the doors of their buildings, which sparked increased fear among the residents. Police launched an investigation into the stickers, but failed to find out who was responsible. The stickers disappeared “mysteriously” at night the very same day, leaving unanswered questions behind as to who took them away.
Ahmet Günel, the mukhtar or neighborhood head, said the stickers aimed at fomenting unease and fear among the neighborhood’s non-Muslims. Selami Melemşe, a lawyer who is also a resident of Kurtuluş, said the “sticker campaign” had achieved its objective. “The stickers managed to provoke fear among our residents. I do not think those stickers were placed on doors in Kurtuluş ‘just by coincidence.’ Some circles did it on purpose,” Melemşe added.
The action plan has sent shockwaves across İstanbul’s Adalar district, which is home to hundreds of non-Muslim families. Raffi Hermon Araks, the chief adviser to the mayor of Adalar in charge of cultural and arts affairs, said some non-Muslims in the district had receive threats to their lives for the past few months. “We experienced such incidents in Heybeliada, Kınalıada and Büyükada. We thought these were separate incidents, but when we saw the Cage plan, we understood that they were all part of a detailed plot,” Araks remarked.
A non-Muslim resident of the district, who wanted to remain anonymous, said he had been told several times by people he did not know to leave the country. “They told me the places I belong to. ‘You do not belong to this place. Muslims will send you away. The order has changed,’ they told me. I was very afraid. My neighbors and relatives experienced similar incidents. We do not wish to experience another Sept. 6-7 trauma,” he added.
The Sept. 6-7, 1955 events started after a newspaper headline said Atatürk’s home in Greece had been bombed by Greek militants. In revenge, Turkish nationalists attacked the houses and business places of non-Muslims, destroying 5,300 businesses and houses owned by Greeks, Armenians and Jews.
Etyen Mahçupyan, editor-in-chief of the Agos weekly, said the names of the country’s minorities, Alevis and Kurds will be mentioned in many other action plans unless Turkey embraces a stronger democracy. According to Mahçupyan, the Cage Operation Action Plan is a strong indication of a war between “good Turks” and “bad Turks.” “What I mean is, there is a difference and quarrel between those who have a statist and totalitarian mindset and those who are pro-freedom and democrat,” he said and added that such action plans have a single aim: to destroy the AK Party. “To attain this target, non-Muslims get killed; clashes are sparked between Sunnis and Alevis; Turks and Kurds are made to fight; and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK] is lent support,” he remarked. Fethiye Çetin, a lawyer representing the family of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was assassinated in 2007 by a young man strongly influenced by ultranationalism, said the Turkish military sees some of the country’s citizens as an “enemy” and produces plans against them.
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