Colonel Çiçek to testify Tuesday

Navy Col. Dursun Çiçek, who allegedly signed a document said to be a military plan to discredit the ruling party and an affiliated religious movement, was set to testify to the chief public prosecutor Tuesday.

Çiçek was originally due to testify earlier, but a statement released by his lawyer, Mustafa Çelik, on daily Hürriyet’s Web site said he would accompany Çiçek to the Beşiktaş courthouse Tuesday.

A prosecutor from the ongoing Ergenekon case said statements made Tuesday demanded Çiçek be “brought by force.”

The document allegedly drafted by the General Staff’s operations division is said to have contained plans to fight fundamentalism and end the activities of religious movements – particularly the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government and the group led by cleric Fethullah Gülen.

Both the AKP and the Gülen movement are accused of trying to undermine Turkey’s secular order and establish an Islamic state.

Daily Taraf first published a report in June about a copy of a suspected document that allegedly outlines military plans to oust the government and bring an end to the pro-Islamic Gülen network as well as the ruling party.

Col. Dursun Çiçek, whose signature was said to be at the bottom of the document, has denied all accusations against him. Military prosecutors had to put their investigation on hold because the original document was missing.

An anonymous officer recently sent what is purportedly the original copy of the document to the prosecutors in Istanbul who have been dealing with the Ergenekon case.

Ergenekon is the name of a suspected gang with pro-Islamic roots that was allegedly established to topple the government.

The anonymous officer also sent an e-mail to prosecutors and media outlets last week claiming some officers working for Col. Çiçek had deleted evidence found on computers after daily Taraf published its report.