TURKISH COURT SEEKS TO LINK MURDER OF CHRISTIANS TO ‘CAGE PLAN’
Christian Post
Dec 29 2009
ISTANBUL (Compass Direct News) – Malatya’s Third Criminal Court on
Friday took further steps to connect the murders of three Christians
in southeastern Turkey to a Turkish military plan to destabilize the
pro-Islamic government.
Evidence surfaced in Turkish press last month linking the murders of
the three Christians in the southeastern city of Malatya with army
activities to overthrow the government in a special operation called
the "Operation Cage Action Plan." The Malatya prosecutor and plaintiffs
on Friday requested that the Istanbul prosecutor further probe links
between the Malatya case and the Cage Plan, which included an elaborate
scheme to attack Muslim-majority Turkey’s religious minorities.
They also requested that the Malatya court open to plaintiffs the
currently "classified" prosecutor’s investigation into links between
the Malatya murders and an alleged operation by the military and other
political figures to destabilize the government known as Ergenekon.
Evidence of the Cage Plan, believed to be part of Ergenekon, centers on
a compact disc found in April in the house of a retired naval officer;
it was decrypted and leaked to the press last month. The plan, to be
carried out by 41 named naval officers and dated March 2009, termed
as "operations" the murders of the three Christians in Malatya, the
2006 assassination of Catholic priest Andreas Santoro and the 2007
slaying of Hrant Dink, Armenian editor-in-chief of the weekly Agos.
"This Cage Plan starts with a reference to the Malatya, Dink and
Santoro cases and mentions them as previous ‘operations,’" said one of
the plaintiff lawyers, Orhan Kemal Cengiz, adding that a connection
of the murders with the Cage Plan would be difficult for any court
to ignore.
Hearings for Ergenekon are ongoing in Istanbul. Istanbul prosecutors
handling the Ergenekon case sent a response to the Malatya court this
month in which they reported they have not been able to find a direct
connection with the Malatya murders yet. The Malatya court is waiting
for further investigations into possible connections with Ergenekon.
Cengiz said that although investigations are moving slowly, he is
pleased with the willingness of the Malatya prosecutor to cooperate
and find who is behind the murders.
"I see a good will on the part of the prosecutor," said Cengiz. "He’s
really trying to discover the possible links, and I’m glad to see
his effort, and he was helpful and supportive to us. It was important."
Turkish Christians, Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel and German Christian
Tilmann Geske were tortured and stabbed to death in Malatya on
April 18, 2007 at Zirve Publishing Co., which distributed Bibles and
literature in the area.
Suspects Emre Gunaydin, Salih Gurler, Cuma Ozdemir, Hamit Ceker and
Abuzer Yildirim, who were caught at the crime scene, are still held
in prison in Malatya. Two other suspects, journalist Varol Bulent Aral
and Huseyin Yelki, a former volunteer at Zirve, are not under arrest,
but the court expects them to attend all hearings.
Aral and Yelki are believed to have crucial links with the alleged
masterminds of the murder plot.