The Istanbul 9^th High Criminal Court decided to release another twelve people in the scope of the investigation into the "Sledgehammer Coup Plan".

"Sledgehammer" (Balyoz) is the name for a coup plotted by the armed forces. Apparently, a group of people mapped out a 5,000 pages strong plan from the end of 2002 till March 2003 called the "Sledgehammer Operation Plan. It was aimed at creating disorder in the country by bombings of mosques, crashing a Turkish jet plane and warplanes flying over the parliament, which should eventually lead to martial law and a coup.

Released were former National Security Council (MGK) Secretary General retired Gen. Şükrü Sarışık, retired Staff Colonel Mümtaz Can, retired Major General Behzat Balta, retired Major General Tuncay Çakan, Brigadier General Mehmet Kaya Varol, retired Colonel Emin Küçükkılıç, retired Major General Halil Kalkanlı, retired Major General İzzet Ocak, Colonel Recep Yıldız, Staff Colonel Murat Özçelik, retired Colonel Suat Aytın and retired Colonel Ali İhsan Çuhadaroğlu.

The same court had already decreed for the releases of 14 people on Friday (20 June), among them former 1^st Army Commander Çetin Doğan. Retired Colonel Kulibay Aktaş, Colonel Cengiz Köylü and army officer Musa Fariz remain in detention.

The court saw the possibility of "a change of the nature of accusation in favour of the suspects". The 12 suspects are not allowed to leave the country.

The Operation Plan

The so-called Sledghammer plan was initially published by Taraf newspaper. Subsequently, military units agreed on the following allegations put forward by the plan:

In December 2002, The Sledgehammer Martial Law Command prepared the "Sledgehammer Security Operation Plan". Only a few units and a limited number of personnel were informed about the plan. Reason for the plan was the Sledgehammer Command's "duty to watch for and protect the Turkish Republic" as defined by the Domestic Services Law. Seminars regarding the plan were held by the Istanbul 1^st Army Command in 2003.

Following an investigative section, plans with the code names "Chador", "Beard", "Suga" and "Thunderstorm" were prepared with the 'purpose to create strategic conditions for a coup'. However, these plans were not included in the seminar of the 1^st Army Command. (EÜ/EÖ)