Operation Cage

What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination? 

Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and unobtainable dollars! Children screaming under the stairways! Boys sobbing in armies! Old men weeping in the parks! 

Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of Moloch! Moloch the loveless! Mental Moloch! Moloch the heavy judger of men! 

Moloch the incomprehensible prison! Moloch the crossbone soulless jailhouse and Congress of sorrows! Moloch whose buildings are judgment! Moloch the vast stone of war! Moloch the stunned governments! 

Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood is running money! Moloch whose fingers are ten armies! Moloch whose breast is a cannibal dynamo! Moloch whose ear is a smoking tomb!

Cage probe deepens with Poyrazköy indictment

In the wake of a court decision to accept an indictment involving a weapons cache discovered in İstanbul's Poyrazköy neighborhood, the İstanbul Public Prosecutor's Office has decided to deepen a probe into alleged instigators of the Cage Operation Action Plan, which mentions a suspected military plot to assassinate Turkey's prominent non-Muslim figures.

The prosecutor's office initiated a probe shortly after the Cage plan made its way into Turkish dailies in November. The probe gained momentum after a ruling by the İstanbul 12th High Criminal Court to accept the Poyrazköy indictment, contrary to expectations that it would forward the file to a military court. The ruling was applauded by most jurists and observers because it is the first such decision involving army officers in a civilian court since a Constitutional Court annulment of a law allowing military officers to be tried in civilian courts.

A probe by the İstanbul Prosecutor's Office into the Cage plan gained momentum after an İstanbul court accepted the Poyrazköy indictment earlier this week. The indictment concerns a large weapons cache discovered in İstanbul’s Poyrazköy neighborhood last April

The Poyrazköy indictment concerns a cache of munitions discovered in İstanbul's Poyrazköy district in April of last year on land owned by the İstek Foundation. The indictment also covers the subversive Cage plan, which is believed to have been drafted by naval officers to foment chaos in the country to help overthrow the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government.

The plan aimed to kill dozens of young visitors to the Rahmi M. Koç Museum in İstanbul and assassinate Turkey's prominent non-Muslim figures, all the while putting the blame for the killings on the AK Party. The desired result was an increase in internal and external pressure on the party, leading to diminishing public support for the government. Some Turkish dailies reported on Friday that the İstanbul Public Prosecutor's Office has summoned for interrogation admirals Kadir Sağdıç, Mehmet Ilgar and retired Adm. Ali Feyyaz Öğütçü, whose names are frequently mentioned in the Cage plan. None of the admirals have yet testified to prosecutors.

Öğütçü’s name appears in Cage documents as “the president.” Öğütçü was forced to retire after this August’s Supreme Military Council (YAŞ) meeting, reportedly due to his suspected ties to Ergenekon. Ergenekon is a clandestine criminal organization accused of working to topple the AK Party government.

According to a National Intelligence Organization (MİT) document, Öğütçü was one of the founders of the Karargah houses, which the Ergenekon investigation has revealed were meeting spots for generals plotting a coup d’état in addition to housing hit men and serving as storage places for munitions.

Öğütçü was implicated in the placement of blocks of TNT and other explosives at the bottom of a submarine exhibited at the Rahmi M. Koç Museum. The TNT and other explosives were found by police in July after a document was discovered on a computer owned by a suspect previously detained as part of the Ergenekon probe. The explosives were to be detonated while a group of students were visiting the museum.

The İstanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office is deepening a probe into alleged instigators of the Cage Operation Action Plan, which included such heinous plots as detonating explosives during school field trips to military museums.

The Poyrazköy indictment demands life sentences for five naval officers -- Lt. Col. Ercan Kireçtepe, Lt. Col. Mustafa Turhan Ecevit, Maj. Eren Günay, Maj. Emre Onat and retired Maj. Levent Bektaş -- on charges of “attempting to destroy Parliament and government.”

The indictment also demands lengthy prison terms for 11 other naval officers for “membership in a terrorist organization” and “possessing unlicensed weapons.” Up to 15 years in prison is demanded for Adm. Levent Görgeç, navy colonels Tayfun Duman, Şafak Yürekli, Mert Yanık, İbrahim Koray Özyurt, Dora Sungunay, Muharrem Naci Alacalı and Ali Türkşen and navy sergeant majors Halil Cura, Sadettin Doğan and Feridun Arslan.

Indictment verifies Cage museum plan with concrete evidence

The indictment puts forward several pieces of evidence for a frightening planned act of terror of the junta nested within the Naval Forces Command against young students visiting the Koç Museum. According to the plan, several blocks of TNT and other explosives placed at the bottom of a submarine exhibited at the museum would be detonated while a large group of students was visiting the museum.

After the discovery of explosives in the submarine, a military investigation announced that the explosives had been forgotten by commandos. Ergenekon prosecutors, however, decided that the findings of the military investigation were too weak to ease concerns over the discovery of explosives at a museum. The prosecutors examined the submarine at the museum and reached the conclusion that it was not possible for commandos to have forgetten a large amount of explosives in a submarine.

According to the Poyrazköy indictment, a letter reached the İstanbul Prosecutor’s Office on Dec. 15, 2008 about the discovery of explosives in a submarine at the museum. The letter indicated that the explosives were taken away by officers from the Naval Forces Command and the relevant judicial authorities were not informed about the discovery.

Civilian prosecutors interrogated a museum official, also a retired noncommissioned officer, on Jan. 29, 2009 about the claims included in the letter. The official, Hasan Oğuz, said he saw TNT blocks, detonators and other explosives inside a package in the submarine. “We informed the Northern Sea Base Command about the explosives. A major and two noncommissioned officers came and took away the explosives,” the indictment quotes Oğuz as saying.

Another letter sent to the prosecutor’s office by an unidentified individual claimed that the explosives placed in the submarine aimed at killing 200-300 young visitors at the museum as part of the Cage Operation Action Plan to instigate chaos in society.

The claims in the letter came as evidence of a plan mentioned on a DVD seized during a police search at the office of retired Maj. Bektaş. The plan urged an increase in the number of young students visiting the museum so that the planned explosion would foment greater chaos in society. “Materials to be planted at the museum have reached operators. We should increase the number of visitors to the museum. C.G. will tell us when the visitor numbers at the museum are at their highest. We should increase publicity and activities [about the museum] in schools. Students are the most important elements of this project. We should confirm the day of the operation,” read the plan.

In line with the letters and the plan found on the DVD, prosecutors started to monitor the phone conversations of suspected naval officers and discovered that the Cage plan had been put into operation.