The plan was exposed during 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 İstanbul's Poyrazköy district in April. Called the “Cage Operation Action Plan,” the desired result of the intimidation of Turkey's non-Muslims and the assassination of prominent non-Muslim figures 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
The Cage plan document also includes a list of weapons to be used in the plan. This list has shown once again the scale of the threat which Turkey is confronted with. Since the investigation into Ergenekon -- a clandestine gang charged with plotting to overthrow the government -- began in 2007, a large amount of weapons and munitions have been uncovered, either hidden underground or even in the sea, and at times abandoned on road sides. The secret caches found included a wide range of weapons and munitions from anti-tank weapons, assault rifles and hand grenades to flame throwers and explosives. The Turkish Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKE) confirmed that these weapons belonged to the military. However, the military has been silent on the weapons listed in the Cage Plan. Ümit Kardaş, a retired military judge, told Today's Zaman: “The General Staff is not making any statements on this. It is too risky for them to deny that the arms belong to them. Earlier, such a statement from Chief of Gen. Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ was negated by a MKE report, which said the weapons found in İstanbul's Poyrazköy district had been manufactured by the military. The investigation should be carried out by civilian prosecutors. First, civilian prosecutors should investigate to whom these weapons really belong and then the military judiciary can investigate later. Since these weapons were going to be used “to create chaos,” this falls into the scope of the civilian judiciary.
Caches found earlier in the investigation Various supplies of munitions have been found hidden in shanty houses or buried underground since the start of the investigation into Ergenekon, which apparently have been taken out of the arms depots of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). The Ergenekon investigation itself started in June 2007 with the discovery of weapons belonging to the military in a shanty house in İstanbul’s Ümraniye district. Since the start of the investigation, hand grenades, explosives, LAWs, rocket launchers, Kalashnikov rifles, assault rifles, thousands of bullets and various other munitions have been discovered in secret depots or buried underground in various cities including Eskişehir, Ankara and Sapanca. Most of these weapons were manufactured by the MKE and NATO, neither of which supplies any institution in the country other than the military. None of the suspects arrested in relation to the discoveries have admitted any connections to the weaponry found. One of the largest caches discovered was in April in İstanbul during excavations to uncover more ammunitions and weapons as part of the Ergenekon investigation in İstanbul’s Poyrazköy district. LAWs, hand grenades, explosives and rocket launchers were unearthed during April’s excavations on land owned by the İstek Foundation, which was set up by a fugitive suspect in the Ergenekon investigation, former İstanbul Mayor Bedrettin Dalan, the chairman of the foundation. Three military officers currently on active duty were arrested as part of the probe. Those detained included Maj. Bektaş, Lt. Col. Ercan Kireçtepe and Maj. Emre Onat, all members of the Turkish Naval Forces. In the excavations in Poyrazköy, 10 LAWs, 20 percussion bombs, three other bombs, 250 grams of C4 explosive, 19 emergency flares, 10 hand grenades, 800 G3 bullets and a large number of bullets for revolvers were found. The discovery came after the unearthing of similar underground weapons sites earlier in January. The police, as part of the January investigation, carried out a series of excavations at a number of sites around the capital in a search of weapons linked to Ergenekon. An arms cache was unearthed in the Zir Valley in Ankara’s Sincan district, which was found based on a map discovered in the house of Lt. Col. Mustafa Dönmez. Thirty hand grenades, nine smoke bombs and more than 800 bullets for G3 assault rifles were found there. Around the same time, two hand grenades were found buried in a park in an industrial zone. Nearly 200 bullets were discovered also in Ankara in early January, in a vacant lot across from a housing complex in the Oran neighborhood, formerly reserved for members of Parliament and their families. |
The Cage Plan is horrendous. It is a very serious allegation that they planned to use these weapons to create fertile grounds for a coup d’état. The military doesn’t really need arms to stage a coup. The military is already equipped with arms. However, gangs were to be used to prepare the atmosphere for a coup. The weapons on the Cage plan list are enough for that.”
When will the admiral show?
Meanwhile, observers of the Ergenekon case have been stating that they expect former Senior Naval Forces Adm. Feyyaz Öğütçü, whose name appears in Operation Cage documents as “the president,” to be summoned by the prosecution soon. Öğütçü was forced to retire at this August’s Supreme Military Council (YAŞ) meeting, reportedly due to his suspected ties to Ergenekon.
Öğütçü was thought to be the most likely candidate to become the new naval forces commander. Observers believe the reason behind his retirement was his links to Ergenekon. According to a National Intelligence Organization (MİT) document, Öğütçü was one of the founders of the Karargah houses, which the Ergenekon investigation has revealed were meeting spots for generals plotting a coup d’état in addition to housing hit men and serving as a storage place for munitions.
Öğütçü was implicated in the placement of blocks of TNT and other explosives at the bottom of a submarine exhibited at the Rahmi M. Koç Museum. The TNT and other explosives were found by police in July after a document was discovered on a computer owned by a suspect previously detained as part of the Ergenekon probe. The explosives were to be detonated while a group of students visited the museum.
Weapons and chaos
Small weapons can achieve much, as Turkey’s past experience has shown. Ergenekon suspect Alparslan Arslan, who killed a judge on May 17, 2006 -- an attack attributed to religious fundamentalism until investigators revealed its links to Ergenekon -- used a Glock handgun. The attack, which created widespread public outrage and fear, is now treated as one of the biggest actions of Ergenekon by the prosecutors. Retired military judge Kardaş notes that this is but one argument to refute the pro-Ergenekon circles’ argument that “the amount of weaponry they had is not enough for a coup d’état.” The weapons and ammunition listed in the Cage plan, in a list compiled by Naval Maj. Eren Günay, include five Glock handguns that could be used in creating the chaotic environment.
In earlier excavations carried out in August, two light anti-tank weapons (LAW) were found in Ankara’s Gölbaşı district. The investigators have established that these weapons were going to be used by the group to assassinate Armenian community leader Minas Durmaz Güler and Armenian Patriarch Mesrob Mutafyan as well as Alevi leaders Ali Balkız and Kazım Genç.
Meanwhile, some past incidents indicate that the Cage Plan has already been put into action. The police have found threatening letters sent to Armenian leaders on a CD ROM found in Ret. Maj. Bektaş’s home. Such letters are included in the Cage Plan’s initial stages.
The long list of weapons the Cage Plan planned to use include LAW weapons, various explosives, two tons of ammonium nitrate, five Glock handguns, four Uzi guns, four long-range assault rifles, two Accuracy 12.7 sniper rifles and 50 regular guns. The prosecutors are now trying to locate those weapons that are on the Cage Plan list but have not been so far found in the investigation.
Benzer Haberler 
National
