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ISTANBUL: Police report links Cage plan to Ergenekon

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  • ISTANBUL: Police report links Cage plan to Ergenekon

    Today's Zaman, Turkey
    Jan 4 2010


    Police report links Cage plan to Ergenekon

    A detailed report recently prepared by the Ä°stanbul Police Department
    suggests that a number of planned attacks against civilians mentioned
    in the Cage Operation Action Plan were devised by Ergenekon, a
    clandestine terrorist organization accused of plotting to overthrow
    the government.

    According to the 200-page report, the killings of Armenian-Turkish
    journalist Hrant Dink, Catholic priest Father Andrea Santoro and three
    Christians in Malatya were planned by Ergenekon in order to create
    chaos in the country that would prepare the necessary grounds for a
    coup d'état.

    The Cage plan was retrieved from a CD seized in the office of retired
    Maj. Levent BektaÅ?, an Ergenekon suspect, in April. The CD exposed the
    group's plans to assassinate Turkey's prominent non-Muslim figures and
    place the blame for the killings on the Justice and Development Party
    (AK Party). The desired result was an increase in internal and
    external pressure on the party, leading to diminishing public support
    for the government.

    The Cage plan calls the killings of Santoro, Dink and the three
    Christians an `operation.' According to the police report, the
    mastermind behind the Cage plan was Ä°brahim Å?ahin, the former deputy
    chief of the National Police Department's Special Operations Unit.

    Å?ahin is currently under arrest on charges of Ergenekon membership.
    During an interrogation last year, Å?ahin said he was ordered by a
    general to assemble members of the Special Operations Unit into death
    squads to assassinate community leaders.

    The discovery of the Cage plan came shortly after the exposure of a
    large cache of munitions on land owned by the Ä°stek Foundation in
    İstanbul's Poyrazköy district. The munitions are believed to have been
    buried underground to be used for the planned assassinations.

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

    The police report underlined that a number of hand-drawn maps seized
    in Å?ahin's house showing the location of munitions buried underground
    were very similar to those seized during an operation launched to
    uncover the Cage plan. The plan document included a long list of
    weapons to be used in the scheme. The list showed the scale of threat
    which Turkey would have faced.

    Since the launch of the investigation into Ergenekon, which began in
    2007, wide range of weapons and munitions have been uncovered, either
    buried underground or even hidden underwater and at times abandoned on
    roadsides. The secret caches included anti-tank weapons, assault
    rifles, hand grenades, 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 about the weapons listed in the Cage plan.



    04 January 2010, Monday
    SALIH SARIKAYA Ä°STANBUL
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