ATHENS: Secret Turkish Organization Planned Ecumenical Patriarch’s A

SECRET TURKISH ORGANISATION PLANNED ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH’S ASSASSINATION

Athens News Agency, Greece
July 25, 2007 Wednesday

ISTANBUL (ANA-MPA/A.Kourkoulas) – A network of retired Turkish officers
was planning the assassination of Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos,
an inquiry by Turkish judicial authorities in the activities of a
network dismantled last month, revealed

The network was discovered following the finding of arms and explosives
in Istanbul’s Umraniye district

According to information provided by investigation authorities and
published in the Aksam newpaper, in the personal computer data of
the President of the "Association of National Forces" Bekir Ozturk,
were found data from preparations of the Patriarch’s assassination

The assassinations of Armenian Patriarch Mesrop Mutafian and
businessman Isaak Alaton were also planned by the same organisation.

Alaton’s partner was murdered some time ago in the Istanbul district
of Eyioup

The Ecumenical Patriarchate has been the target of many attacks
by grenades in the past. An organisation named IBDA has assumed
responsibility for the attacks