Hulusi Akar allowed flights in the Ankara and Aegean airspace on July 15
Colonel Osman KARDAL, who is on trial at Ankara's 17th High Criminal Court, made striking statements in court regarding the order given by the then Chief of General Staffof Turkish Armed Forces, Hulusi AKAR (later also mentioned as the First Chief as there is also the Second Chief of General Staff of Turkısh Armed Forces, who was Yaşar Güler at that time), to close Turkish airspace.
Colonel KARDAL began his defense by responding to the question, "Did the Armed Forces Command and Operations Center (SKKHM) play a role in the coup?" by stating, "The answer is no. Is there evidence? Yes, there is." He referred to the expert report included in the case file and noted that the SKKHM had examined 157 messages from the General Staff through the MEDAS system from 00:00 on July 14 to 23:59 on July 16, nearly up to July 17, and no messages supporting the coup attempt were found. He emphasized that he was being tried as a coup plotter in a place that had no function related to the coup.
After explaining that every second of the personnel working at the SKKHM was recorded and that all events were registered in logs, Colonel KARDAL detailed to the court what happened at the SKKHM by matching the videos and phone records included in the case file:
“At 18:29 that day, we received the direct order from the First Chief (Hulusi Akar): 'Close the airspace of the First, Second, and Third Armies, and do not allow subsequent flights until further notice.' This was the exact order.” He then showed the court the video of the moment when the order was written into the log. Additionally, he presented the phone conversation record sheet between Colonel Armağan Ustael, who was on duty at the SKKHM, and the First Chief of General Staff,Hulusi Akar. He continued his statement by saying:
“If the entire airspace was supposed to be closed, the first place that should have been called would be the Air Force Operations Center. Was it called? No!”
Colonel KARDAL highlighted that after the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) Undersecretary Hakan FİDAN left the General Staff Headquarters, flights were allowed by the orders of the First,Hulusi Akar, and Second,Yaşar Güler, Chiefs of the General Staff: "After 18:30, the first flight clearance started at 19:30... Despite the airspace being restricted, and even though the MİT undersecretary was expected to be apprehended, flights were allowed. What changed that allowed for these clearances, and why hasn't anyone been prosecuted for this?"
Colonel KARDAL underscored that the General Staff deliberately left the airspace over Ankara and the Aegean, where President Erdoğan was located, open: “The aircraft and helicopters of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Armies were grounded; however, the Ankara Akıncı Air Base, which played a central role in the coup, and the Aegean airspace, where the President was, were left open. Why?”
He then presented to the court a Post-It note found in the case file that read, “For every aircraft used for personnel transport, authorization was obtained from the Second Chief of General Staff.” Colonel KARDAL showed this to the court and said:
“This is the statement. I claim this is evidence. Whoever is to examine this handwriting, let them do it. This note belongs to General İlhan KIRTIL, and it states that he released these aircraft with orders from the First and Second Chiefs. When? After 20:00. So, who was being transported by these cargo planes? Were they coming from Kayseri, or were they going to Ankara or Çakır Söğüt? The transport of Special Forces, the arrival of Semih TERZİ with three CASA planes to Ankara, was all carried out by these transport aircraft. So, why did you allow this, knowing what was happening?”
Colonel KARDAL presented the logs of the Air Force and Special Forces, stating that the release of the transport planes was ordered by the First and the Second Chiefs of General Staff, and the Chief of Current Operations, Brigadier General İlhan KIRTIL. He submitted four separate logs from three different units as evidence to the court and stated: "Three different units wrote the same thing in four separate logs, but General İlhan KIRTIL, under oath as a witness, says, 'I did not give such an order.'"
Colonel KARDAL emphasized that the release of the transport planes was coordinated by the the First and the Seconds Chiefs of General Staff and Brigadier General İlhan KIRTIL and added:
“These calls have been concealed from both the public and the courts. There is no mention of the release of the planes in any testimony. They've hidden everything. What are they hiding? If this is a coup, and if those who carried it out are going to be executed, why are they hiding something? The Chief of General Staff made numerous phone calls between 19:45 and 20:30. I will show you all of them. The Second Chief also made many calls. Where are these? Where are the written orders about opening the airspace? Where are the handwritten logs? Who covered them up? Did I cover them up? I was imprisoned. Why are they missing? Why were these records cut off after 19:45 by the shift supervisor or duty officer? Look here, the logs regarding the release of the transport planes and the flights of Special Forces, especially the flights during those hours, have been lost.”
Colonel KARDAL also presented the phone conversations made by Brigadier General İlhan KIRTIL after a meeting in the General Staff Operations Center, where KIRTIL remained for 2 hours and 26 minutes:
“After his meeting on terrorism that day, I painstakingly reviewed all the phone calls of General İlhan KIRTIL. He entered the operations center at 18:51, after the meeting, and stayed until 21:17. During his time at the SKKHM, he made 10 calls with the Second Chief of General Staff, 6 with the Chief of General Staff, 14 with the 8th Corps (Elazığ), 4 with the Air Force Operations Center, 1 with Army Aviation, and 1 with the 7th Corps (Diyarbakır), with a total talk time of 40 minutes. The phone records show that he did not call any army or corps regarding the airspace over Ankara, Istanbul, or the Aegean.”
By matching the phone traffic, video footage, and logs, Colonel KARDAL presented evidence to the court that contradicted the Chief of General Staff’s statement that the entire airspace of Turkey had been closed.
Colonel KARDAL emphasized that after coordinating the departure of the Special Forces CASA plane from Etimesgut to Diyarbakır at 21:21, Brigadier General İlhan KIRTIL left the SKKHM and went home:
“The Chief of General Staff told you, 'Ground all the planes.' The principle of the military is that you cannot leave until all of them have landed. But if you know something, or if someone gave you orders, and said, ‘OK, now go home,’ then someone gave that order, and I believe they did, otherwise he wouldn’t have left. No one does anything without orders.”
Colonel KARDAL accused Brigadier General İlhan KIRTIL of making false statements, trying to save himself, denying everything, but also following orders given to him. He stated:
“He says, ‘I did nothing,’ but the evidence before the prosecutor says otherwise. He was given orders, and he followed them! He’s just a poor servant of those orders. İlhan KIRTIL is the one who made the most serious accusations against me, and whatever General KIRTIL told the prosecutor has included them in the indictment. Your Honor, I have written to you, both in writing and here verbally, requesting to have him come here and talk. Let’s discuss these pieces of evidence, and I will expose how many lies he has told, but he did not come. There were 35 of us there; we were all together, everyone did the same thing, but one person has to be blamed for someone else to be saved.”
Colonel Osman KARDAL’s testimony in court aims to prove that the flights on July 15 were conducted with the knowledge and permission of Chief of General Staff Hulusi AKAR. It is clear that Hulusi AKAR’s failure to close the airspace over the Aegean, where President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was on holiday (in Marmaris), and the airspace over Ankara, where Akıncı Air Base was located, as well as the authorization for cargo planes to fly from Elazığ and Diyarbakır to Ankara, raises significant questions.
