A Life that Changed on July 15

He asked as “Do you have an order?”, His Life was Turned Upside Down

If you live in a country where there is no law, if you are caught in the middle of a trap, and if those who set the trap need more victims, things might get a bit dicey for you. If, by chance or coincidence, the situation you are in works for someone else, it is a simple matter for you to be declared a putschist (!). We see the best example of this in Supply Noncommissioned Officer (NCO), Harun Yıldız.

The issue raised by Turgay Özcan, the lawyer of Ümit Bak, who is one of the defendants of the Special Forces Command case, is quite remarkable. Harun Yıldız was assigned as the vehicle commander to take the troops coming from the east on the evening of July 15. For this duty, at 9.30 pm, he took a military unit bus with civilian plates with attendant soldiers in civilian clothes and went to the military airport in Etimesgut.

Upon being stopped at the main entrance of the airport and prevented from entering by the military guards, they decided to return to the Special Forces Headquarters in Gölbaşı. Yıldız called Captain Volkan Vural Bal, who was the duty officer, and said "If you do not have an order, we will return." But this time Captain Bal ordered him to go to the Special Air Regiment.

At the main entrance of the Special Air Regiment, once again they were not allowed to enter, and NCO Yıldız was asked why they came. After telling them that he was ordered to take the battalion personnel coming from the east to Oğulbey, he was asked to “wait in the vehicle.” While they were waiting there, they heard gunfire sounds from outside the regiment barracks. Lest it might be dangerous, they went back to the entrance of the barracks and began to wait inside. While they were waiting, the Diyarbakır plane came at around 2 am. Since helicopters took all the arriving personnel, nobody got on the bus. In order to leave the barracks and return to Special Forces Headquarters, this time, NCO Yıldız called the duty officer of the Special Forces Command, Lieutenant Colonel Ümit Koçak, and received a “wait” order from him. Yıldız, who waited at the barracks by orders given by his superiors, was considered a putschist and taken into custody at 13 pm on July 16. Yıldız could not be free again and the Supreme Court upheld his life sentence. His superiors on that night who gave him the orders, Captain Volkan Vural Bal and Lieutenant Colonel Ümit Koçak were only witnesses in his case and they still continue their military duties.

The reason for the big change in the life of NCO Harun Yıldız, who was planning to give a retirement petition, go on a leave and then retire, was not a fair trial, but was his pursuance of only the most basic principles of military service, asking his superior if he had an order as all decent soldiers do after completing a task, and the continuing mischances. It seems that even those who set up the July 15 trap believed that the few soldiers they entrapped would be insufficient for the image of the coup. So, we do not know how many innocents they sacrificed in order to increase the number of so-called putschist soldiers.