THE ‘CAGE’ STARTS TO BE OPENED
Hurriyet
March 16 2010
Turkey
The ‘Kafe’ (Cage) Operation indictment into an alleged plan to defame
the government through acts of terrorism by Navy personnel has been
presented to the court. The plan is believed to be related to the
munitions unearthed from Poyrazköy and the Ergenekon Case. An Istanbul
court will announce whether it will accept the Cage indictment Friday
Judiciary observers are awaiting a court’s decision, expected Friday,
whether or not to accept an indictment in a recent coup plan that
allegedly targeted non-Muslim figures and a school trip to a museum.
Public Prosecutors Murat Yönder and Ercan Å~^afak, who are also
investigating the Ergenekon case, are waiting to hear whether the
12th Istanbul Court of Serious Crimes will accept their "Kafes"
(Cage) Operation indictment.
At the same time, the prosecutors have demanded the case be merged
with the Poyrazköy case, an investigation into the discovery of
munitions in the Istanbul neighborhood of the same name.
The Cage indictment, which consists of 65 pages and six files of
evidence, was delivered to the court by Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor
Turan Colakkadı on Monday.
If the indictment is accepted, the court will then consider merging
the file with the Poyrazköy case.
The Cage plan is an alleged anti-government conspiracy prepared by
Turkish Navy personnel to weaken the ruling Justice and Development
Party, or AKP.
According to allegations, the suspects planned to stage attacks on
non-Muslim minorities to spread the perception that fundamentalism
was on the rise in the country. At the same time, the officers also
planned to bomb a submarine at the Koc Museum in Istanbul during a
student trip, it was alleged.
Explosives were found in the submarine on Nov. 14, 2008 but were
disposed of by Navy personnel without further investigation.
Cage allegations flow from Poyrazköy
The Cage allegations emerged in the wake of the Poyrazköy excavations
in April 2009 that unearthed a large amount of ammunitions.
The dig was conducted on land belonging to the Ä°stek Foundation, which
was founded by former Istanbul Mayor and Ergenekon suspect-at-large
Bedrettin Dalan.
Further investigation into the Poyrazköy munitions revealed the
Cage plans at the office of retired Maj. Levent BektaÅ~_ and led to
Yönder’s questioning of many Navy officers on the plan afterward.
According to the Cage indictment, the top suspect is retired Adm. Ali
Feyyaz Ogutcu, former commander of the North Sea zone. He, meanwhile,
has already been arrested in the scope of the "Balyoz" (Sledgehammer)
Operation, an alleged military coup plan drafted in 2003 that is also
under investigation.
Following Ogutcu, the indictment lists Admirals Kadir Sagıc and
Mehmet Fatih Ilgar as the next top two suspects.
The case has 33 suspects in total and, if the indictment is accepted,
they will be charged with membership in an armed terrorist organization
and would face sentences of between 7.5 and 15 years if found guilty.
Lawyer group intervenes
Lawyer groups from the provincial bars of Ankara, Mersin, Karaman,
Kayseri and Konya, represented by a core team of seven, have
applied to be complainants in the case, saying, "They would not stay
silent anymore toward plans to disrupt the environment of peace and
brotherhood."
The lawyers’ application was accepted despite rejections of similar
legal interventions by various bars and lawyers in the scope of the
Ergenekon case.
Although the indictment includes allegations that readers of the daily
Agos, an Istanbul newspaper published in both Turkish and Armenian,
were being monitored, neither the paper nor any of its readers have
applied to be complainants in the case.
The Ergenekon case is an ongoing investigation into an alleged coup
plot by a group that aimed to overthrow the government by sewing
turmoil in society.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
