Conversations in the Bus Departing to Diyarbakir Airport on the night of July 15

Conversations Between the Special Forces Personnel Going to the 8th Main Jet Base from OBA IHU in Diyarbakır on the night of July 15

Since the statements made by the defendants in the Special Forces Trial were not published by journalists following the case as they were—some parts of the defenses had been intentionally removed, we have not been aware of the statements that have not been reported in the press until now. However, there are new things that we learned after the SEGBİS analyzes were handed over to the defendant and complainant lawyers.

A new case that we encountered from this new information is that in those turbulent moments of the night of July 15, while some (even some high-ranked officers) had no idea about who was doing what, some lower ranking officers know who was doing what.

One of them is the team commander of the 12th Battalion, who came to Ankara from Diyarbakır with Semih Terzi on the night of July 15, Captain Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz. We examined some of the points in Captain Yılmaz’s statement and compared them with the statement of his deputy, Mihrali Atmaca.

During the hours when the personnel of the 12th and 16th Battalions under the command of Colonel Altan Bora were transported from Special Forces-controlled OBA IHU to Diyarbakır Airport (8th Main Jet Base) and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım were making a statement on television, the conversation on the bus between Captain Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz and Mihrali Atmaca, who killed Ömer Halisdemir later, is remarkable.

According to the statement written by Mihrali Atmaca in handwriting and sent to his lawyer, at around 22.30 on the night of July 15, personnel of the 12th and 16th Battalions get on two separate buses. Buses under the command of Colonel Altan Bora arrive at Diyarbakır Airport from Diyarbakir OBA IHU. During the transfer, Battalion Commander Fatih Şahin receives questions like “where are we going” from his staff and he tells them that “there may be a coup attempt and we can take the task of suppressing the coup attempt.” Before the personnel arrive at the airport, while still in the bus, they hear from the radio broadcast the statement made by Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım that a small group was attempting a coup and being taken under control and suppressed.

From the statement of Team Commander Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz, we learn that:

After hearing the statements of Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, “an attempt of a small group,” on the radio while they were still on the bus, he tells to the Operations Officer Captain Fatih İpek and Mihrali Atmaca sitting next to him that “this is the coup of the parallelists, there is a coup attempt only in Istanbul and Ankara. Not all the elements of the Turkish Armed Forces have taken action. The Prime Minister is making a statement, this is an activity of the parallelists.”

In response to Yılmaz’s statement, assistant to the Team Commander, Mihrali Atmaca, says, “are we going now to fight with the parallelists?”

In response, Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz says, “yes Mihrali, get prepared to do so.”

Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz states that Mihrali was happy after hearing these words, laughing happily, rubbing his hands, and leaning back.

Meanwhile, after hearing from a friend sitting in the back of the bus that “the news of the coup was published on the General Staff’s website,” Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz says, “they must have hacked the website, do not rely on it” and tells Mihrali that they should organize the team according to the residential area operations.

However, neither Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz nor Mihrali Atmaca do not report these findings and speeches to their subordinates. The first group of soldiers randomly selected by Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz, who did not know where they were going, received life imprisonment just because they were close to the landing gate.

Even though he first wanted to go with the first helicopter, Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz even disobeyed the order of Fatih Şahin, “you will come with the second helicopter,” and did not get on the second helicopter and not go to Gölbaşı. Now he is free with the other 6 personnel who stayed with him in the Special Air Regiment.

Whereas, they belong to the same group who met with Semih Terzi at the Diyarbakır 8th Main Jet Base Airport and came to Ankara together with the cargo plane that belongs to the Special Air Regiment.

However, nobody can explain on what grounds the court sentenced Mihrali Atmaca and his team to life imprisonment, who were trusted for their attitude on the night of July 15, had been on duty in the Special Forces headquarters for fifteen days, including Zekai Aksakallı’s corridor, supervised the personnel detained in the headquarters, and were allowed to roam with guns in the headquarters.