ISTANBUL: Munitions targeted admirals, claims indictment

Today’s Zaman

01 February 2010, Monday

Poyrazköy munitions targeted admirals, claims indictment

An indictment on a subversive naval forces plot against two admirals
claims that a weapons cache buried in Ä°stanbul’s Poyrazköy
neighborhood would be used to assassinate the admirals.

The indictment was forwarded to the Ä°stanbul 12th High Criminal Court
last week. It concerns an ongoing probe into an alleged plot to
assassinate admirals at the Naval Forces Command. In July of last
year, seven naval lieutenants were arrested on charges of plotting to
kill two admirals, Metin Ataç and EÅ?ref UÄ?ur YiÄ?it.

According to the indictment, the munitions discovered during police
excavations in Poyrazköy would be used by a junta nested within the
Naval Forces Command, under the leadership of retired Col. Levent
GöktaÅ?, to assassinate the admirals. The munitions were discovered on
land owned by the Ä°stek Foundation in April 2009. They are covered in
a separate indictment which demands life sentences for five naval
officers and lengthy prison terms for another 11 naval officers. The
officers are accused of `membership in an illegal organization’ and
`attempting to destroy Parliament and the government.’ They are
accused of working to foment chaos in the country through violent acts
to help overthrow the Justice and Development Party (AK Party)
government.

The indictment into the assassination plot accuses 19 suspects, nine
of whom are already under arrest. The suspects are accused of
`membership in a terrorist organization’ and `illegal possession of
explosives.’

The new document claims that the officers hoped to use the munitions
buried underground in Poyrazköy in the planned assassination of the
two admirals. Among a long list of munitions are hand grenades, light
anti-tank weapons (LAWs), rocket launchers, Kalashnikov rifles,
assault rifles, thousands of bullets and various other explosives.

The document also recalled a series of planned attacks against
individuals, included in the Poyrazköy indictment.

Agos staff wants to become co-plaintiff in Poyrazköy case

In the meantime, the staff of the Turkish-Armenian biweekly Agos
newspaper has appealed to the Ä°stanbul 12th High Criminal Court to
become co-plaintiffs in the case against the Poyrazköy defendants.

According to the Poyrazköy indictment, subscribers to the
Turkish-Armenian biweekly Agos newspaper were to be posted on a number
of Web sites in line with the Cage plan. Agos Editor-in-Chief Etyen
Mahçupyan said they were working on becoming co-plaintiffs in the
Poyrazköy case. The former editor-in-chief of the newspaper, Hrant
Dink, was killed by an ultranationalist Turkish teenager in 2007.

01 February 2010, Monday
Ä°STANBUL BÃ`Å?RA ERDAL
From: Baghdasarian