Turkey drew up plans to invade Greece and Armenia – Nordic Monitor
Turkey developed a plan for a possible invasion of Greece named after an 11th century Turkish military commander, Nordic Monitor reported citing secret documents, according to The Jerusalem Post.
The documents were part of a PowerPoint presentation that was supposedly planned by the Turkish general staff for internal planning review.
Titled “TSK Çakabey Harekât Planlama Direktifi” (Turkish Armed Forces Çakabey Operation Planning Directive), the presentation was dated June 13, 2014. According to the Nordic Monitor report, this suggests the plan was likely updated and finalized after a review of some earlier draft, and that the plan could still be active.
Also included in the same document were plans to invade Armenia, the operation in this case being titled “TSK Altay Harekât Planlama Direktifi,” which was dated August 15, 2000.
The documents were exchanged by top general staff commanders via a secure internal email system, the news portal reported. They appear to have been accidentally leaked in a court case file in Ankara that prosecutor Serdar Coşkun submitted to the court as part of an investigation into the failed military coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in July 2016.
All of the general staff's emails from the two months preceding the coup were seized by the prosecution.
The general staff had panicked over the possible leaking of the classified documents and urged the court to allow the documents to be screened before being presented. It appears, however, that the prosecutors ignored these concerns, the Nordic Monitor reported.
However, while the plans were named in the document, any specific details were omitted, likely being classified and therefore not shared through the network.
It is believed that the plans were prepared as a contingency regarding developments in Syria, in order to maintain offensive and deterrence capabilities on the Western front while moving troops, according to Nordic Monitor.
Earlier in 2019 Nordic Monitor reported that Turkey planned a military operation against Armenia code-named ALTAY. It cited a secret memo that reported missing pages from classified documents which detailed the action plan.