ERGENEKON: BERLIN-BASED THINK TANK RELEASES OPERATION CAGE PLAN IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION
by Lou Ann Matossian

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Wednesda y December 16, 2009

In Turkey: Dink murder trial, apology petition, and curriculum changes

Minneapolis – Like Watergate and The Gulag Archipelago, the Ergenekon
investigation challenges "a culture of impunity for crimes committed
by the state," says the Berlin-based European Stability Initiative
(ESI) in a news analysis. "Recent weeks have seen the Turkish veil
of secrecy drawn aside in a spectacular manner."

Ergenekon is the name of an alleged ultranationalist conspirators
aiming to overthrow Turkey’s Islamist-leaning government.

Until recently, only Turkish-speakers were able to read the Operation
Cage Action Plan in horrifying detail. Now, however, an English
translation available at esiweb.org confirms that the four-stage
operation was intended to distract the public from the Ergenekon
investigation by terrorizing "non-Muslims" in Turkey.

The stated aim of Operation Cage was "to increase both local and
foreign pressure on the AKP Government, to keep the public pre-occupied
and to change the agenda, particularly in the Ergenekon case, by
questioning the safety of non-Muslims’ life and property."

ESI notes that the largest community among the 125,000 "non-Muslims"
is the Armenian community of some 60,000 people.

In the preparatory stage, members of the "non-Muslim" population
would be identified through subscription lists, organizational
membership rosters, and the names of students, parents, and employees
of "non-Muslim" schools. Also to be determined were the dates and
locations of religious festivals and holidays where the targeted
community would be likely to gather. "Non-Muslim" cemeteries "which
would be suitable for operations" would be located.

In the "fear creation stage," Agos subscriber lists would be posted
on the Internet, particularly at hostile sites, and left out in the
open at the Princes Islands, an Armenian-inhabited area of Istanbul.

Subscribers and residents would be threatened in phone calls, letters,
and graffiti slogans.

Next, "black propaganda" would mobilize public opinion against the
"insensitive attitude" of the AK Party. The subscriber lists would
be planted in press reports, ensuring further publicity. Indignant
newspaper columns would be commissioned about the issue. False-flag Web
sites would be set up, purportedly to defend Agos and minority rights.

In the final "operation stage," bombings would target Agos and the
Princes Islands while the police were being distracted with bomb
scares. Leading defenders of minority rights would be assassinated.

"Non-Muslim" celebrities would be kidnapped. "Sensational operations"
would attack "non-Muslim" cemeteries. "In regions with a dense
non-Muslim population, vehicles, houses and workplaces will be set
on fire at close intervals," the plan states. Similar actions would
target other provinces with a high population of "non-Muslims,"
such as Istanbul and Izmir.

"Responsibility for sabotage, kidnapping and assassination operations
will be claimed by reactionary organizations," according to the plan.

Senior Naval Forces Admiral Feyyaz Ogutcu, who organized secret meeting
places for the generals who were plotting the Ergenekon coup d’etat,
is listed as the "president" of Operation Cage. Also named in the
plan are 40 naval officers organized into Marmara, Aegean, Black Sea,
and Special Operations commands.

The action plan concludes with a list of weapons, munitions, and
materials, such as sniper rifles, handguns, machine guns, bombs, and
related equipment. Colonel Ercan Kirectepe, whose signature appears
on the Cage plan, was arrested in April during an investigation into
a hidden arms cache in Istanbul’s Poyrazkoy district.

ESI reports that an electronic copy of the Cage Operation Action
Plan was seized in the April raid and a signed copy in June during
the arrests of Turkish military officers suspected of involvement in
Ergenekon. The Turkish General Staff at first dismissed the documents
as fakes, but in October, a whistleblower within the General Staff
sent the original signed copy to a Turkish prosecutor, along with
further details on the individuals involved. Taraf published the plan
on Nov. 19.