"YES, WE SPOILED JUNTA PLANS" SAY PROTESTORS OF DINK MURDER

Today’s Zaman
Nov 23 2009
Turkey

Although many think the period of military interventions when people
died and a considerable number of them were tortured is outdated,
with a recently discovered plot it becomes apparent that there are
still some circles in Turkey with plans to overthrow the government
by triggering provocative actions in the country.

The Cage Operation Plan, a devious plan by a group of members of the
Naval Forces Command to intimidate the country’s non-Muslim population
by assassinating some of their prominent figures, was revealed to the
public last week when the Taraf daily uncovered it. In the plan, the
assassination of Hrant Dink, a Turkish Armenian writer, is considered
as an "operation" and the widely participated-in demonstrations in
the wake of Dink’s murder spoiled the junta’s plans aiming to create
provocation with the murders of non-Muslims in Turkey, as noted in
the same plan.

Hrant Dink was assassinated on Jan. 19, 2007 in Ä°stanbul and just
a few hours later, thousands of people rushed to the Agos Daily
building where Dink was working as a chief editor to voice their
protest against the murder. At Dink’s funeral, a demonstration took
place in Ä°stanbul with a remarkable number of participants. The motto
of the demonstration was "We are all Armenians, we are all Hrant Dink."

If the crowds had not taken to the streets to raise their harsh
criticism of the assassination and stood against the murder of an
Armenian and a non-Muslim writer, the cage operation plan would have
been successful as the plan notes.

The participants in the demonstrations targeting Dink’s assassination
confessed proudly that "Yes, we spoiled the junta plans."

The head of the Revolutionary Socialist Workers’ Party (DSÄ°P),
Dogan Tarkan, said that he agrees with the cage plan that the junta’s
attempts were ruined by the people who chanted "We all are Armenians"
in the demonstrations after the murder. "We are still saying we
are all Armenians, we are all Hrant Dink. Dink was murdered by an
Ergenekon gang. The files of the Dink, Santaro and Malatya murders
should be merged with the Ergenekon file," Tarıkan said.

Andrea Santaro, 60, the Italian priest at Santa Maria Catholic Church
in Trabzon, a northern Turkish city, died in an armed attack in 2006,
and in the Malatya-based Zirve Publishing House three people who sold
Christian literature were killed in 2007.

Zeynep Tanbay, a performance artist, stated that she was surprised
when she saw the large crowd joining the demonstration. "Dink’s murder
made a number of people you could not imagine take to the street. This
crowd rejected the system which is responsible for the murder. I think
the coup could not be accomplished because of that demonstration."

"Since the beginning we have always claimed that the murder was
premeditated and well planned. Whenever we say this, we are always
asked whether we have enough evidence to prove our claims. Now, it
has been revealed that an organization carried out the murder. Not
only members of the junta but also the state officials at that time
should be tried," said Ozlem Dalkıran from Helsinki Citizens Assembly,
a human rights association.