HRANT DINK’S ARREST PLANNED AS PART OF MILITARY COUP

Tert.am
17:34 â~@¢ 22.01.10

The Turkish daily Taraf continues to raise the curtain on secret plans
and military coups in Turkey’s internal politics. This time the paper
has reported on former General Cetin Dogan’s 2002-2003 Balyoz plan,
which was prepared immediately after Turkey’s Justice and Development
(AK) Party came into power.

Taraf claims generals attempted to stage a military coup in 2003
by bombing Fatih and Beyazit mosques and carrying out terrorist
activities, with the aim of overthrowing the government.

The Balyoz plan, according to Taraf, also included the arrest of 36
journalists, as well as the attempt to enlist and use 137 journalists
for their purposes. Included in the list of 36 journalists, the
generals planned to arrest was former chief editor of Armenian-Turkish
weekly Agos, Hrant Dink, and current editor-in-chief Etyen Mahcupyan.

Taraf gave a deposition to the Istanbul Prosecutors’ Office and
delivered four CDs including documents about the Balyoz plan to
the prosecutors’ office in BeÅ~_iktaÅ~_, where the Ergenekon case
is being heard. Taraf said Wednesday that it has up to 5,000 pages
of documents and voice records related to the alleged coup plan,
reports Turkish Weekly.

It’s not the first time that Taraf has made such scandalous claims: In
November 2009, the paper published a story on Operation Kafes (meaning
"cage"), which was initiated by officers of Turkey’s Naval Forces. The
most interesting part of this operation was that Hrant Dink’s death was
described as an "organized operation." According to the plan, Operation
Kafes included the assassination of prominent non-Muslim figures and
the spreading of propaganda to increase internal and external pressure
on the Justice and Development (AK) Party, leading to its demise.