33 suspects in Cage Plan to stand trial in Turkey

PanARMENIAN.Net - Thirty-three suspects, all retired and active duty naval officers, are set to appear before a judge as part of the trial into an alleged Naval Forces Command plan, the Cage Operation Action Plan, at the Istanbul 12th High Criminal Court. In the first hearing today, the court is expected to announce whether it will merge the Cage indictment with an indictment into the Poyrazkoy munitions, Today’s Zaman reported.

The Cage plan is a suspected Naval Forces Command plot to undermine the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) by assassinating prominent non-Muslim figures in Turkey and putting the blame for the killings on the party. The plan was intended to intimidate the country’s non-Muslim groups, which was expected to increase internal and external pressure on the ruling party. In turn, weakening public support for the party was intended to eventually lead to a military takeover.

Prosecutors overseeing the Cage investigation believe the plot was to be put into operation through the use of a large cache of munitions buried in Istanbul’s Poyrazkoy district. The munitions were discovered by police in April of last year on land owned by the Istek Foundation, which belongs to former Istanbul Mayor Bedrettin Dalan. The discovery was made as part of an investigation into Ergenekon, a clandestine gang whose suspected members are currently standing trial on charges of having plotted to overthrow the government.

The 65-page Cage indictment says the naval plot team was coordinated and led by retired Adm. Ahmet Feyyaz Ogutcu. The document points to Vice Adm. Kadir Sagdic and Rear Adm. Mehmet Fatih Ilgar as the “number two and number three men” behind the plot. The two were interrogated in February by Izmir prosecutors as part of the Ergenekon probe. The indictment calls for jail sentences of up to 15 years for the three admirals on charges of membership in a terrorist group. It also seeks lengthy prison terms for 30 other defendants on similar charges.

The Poyrazkoy indictment demands life sentences for five naval officers - Lt. Col. Ercan Kirectepe, Lt. Col. Mustafa Turhan Ecevit, Maj. Eren Gunay, Maj. Emre Onat and retired Maj. Levent Bektas - on charges of “attempting to destroy Parliament and the government.”

In April of this year, the Cage plan indictment was added to the case file of the 2007 Malatya murders, in which three missionaries were brutally killed at a Christian publishing house.

The Cage plan called the killings of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, Catholic priest Father Andrea Santoro and three Christians in Malatya an “operation.”

The Cage plan also contained a frightening planned act of terror against young students visiting the Rahmi M. Koc Museum. According to the plan, several blocks of TNT and other explosives placed at the bottom of a submarine exhibited at the museum were to be detonated while a large group of students was visiting the museum.

After the discovery of explosives in the submarine, a military investigation found that the explosives had been forgotten by commandos. Ergenekon prosecutors, however, decided that the findings of the military investigation were too weak to ease concerns over the discovery of explosives at a museum. The prosecutors examined the submarine at the museum and reached the conclusion that it was not possible for the commandos to forget such a large amount of explosives in a submarine.

Cage documents noted that the explosion was to occur on a day when the museum was visited by a large group of students. “Materials to be planted at the museum have reached operators. We should increase the number of visitors to the museum. C.G. will tell us when the visitor numbers at the museum are at their highest. We should increase publicity and activities [about the museum] in schools. Students are the most important elements of this project. We should confirm the day of the operation,” read one of the documents.

The Cage action plan was signed by Lt. Col. Kirectepe and was to be put into operation by a team of 41 members of the Naval Forces Command. The action plan would be implemented to lend support to the suspects arrested so far as part of the Ergenekon investigation, render ineffective alleged psychological warfare waged by the AK Party and its supporters (against the military), change the course of the agenda in Turkey, boost the morale of the junta within the Naval Forces Command and win the appreciation and support of the public. The blame for each of the assassinations by the junta would be put on the AK Party.