The State of Constant Vigilance Before 15 July Raised the Thoughts of a Violent Terrorist Attack

The 17th High Criminal Court of Ankara, which made the trials regarding the events that took place at the General Staff on the night of 15 July, acquitted one of the personnel who exhibited the same behavior and sentenced the other. It is possible to see an example of this in the file of First Lieutenant Vahit Güllü. Lieutenant Vahit Güllü was summoned to the Guard Regiment Command on the grounds of the exercise on the night of 15 July, where he was assigned to reinforce the security of the General Staff Barracks in order to prevent a possible terrorist attack against the General Staff Headquarters. Güllü stated that he could not imagine that the legal orders given to him that night could be a part of a coup plan, as he had no previous knowledge or experience of any coup. “The result of the combination of the vigilance created by the fact that terrorist incidents accelerated and bloody acts were carried out in our country and the intelligence information about the terrorist attack was that there would be a very comprehensive and severe terrorist attack that night.”

Zekai Aksakallı: “The team personnel may not perceive the activity.”

Güllü summarized the reason for what happened to him that night as follows: “The only reason for the situation I am in right now is of course my sense of duty, my love of homeland and the feeling of absolute obedience that has been systematically and continuously trained to make it almost a part of my character since the first day I wore this uniform at the age of 13."

In his defense, Güllü also referred to Zekai Aksakallı's statement on July 15 that "the team personnel may not be able to perceive the activities carried out", that is, it may not be possible for them to be aware of the coup attempt, and that the team personnel have no choice but to obey the orders of their superiors.

Ercihan Özden, who was heard as a witness in the file, stated that they heard two gunshots while they were waiting in the guard's room and that they saw Burak Akın lying on the floor, shot. Even though he could not make sense of the events, he stated that they thought it was a part of the drill they were told that night. Özden continued to consider the tying of his hands and the removal of their weapons and radios as part of the exercise, after he was placed on the ground at gunpoint that night. Although the court found Özden's statement reasonable, it did not consider it normal that Lieutenant Vahit, who came there for the purpose of security against a possible terrorist attack without knowing anything and encountered a group of people he did not know, could not understand the coup. Although Vahit Güllü did not take any action against the coup that night, he was sentenced to 11 times aggravated life imprisonment within the scope of joint perpetration.

Lieutenant Güllü entered the General Staff headquarters at around 00.17 that night and was assigned to ensure the security of the support buildings. Here, he saw Mahir Eser and Ercihan Özden, whom he had known before, and tried to understand what was going on from them. Mahir Eser said that after the MIT Undersecretary left, Special Forces personnel came, they were told there was an exercise, clashes broke out, there were people shot, and it was not clear who did what. Ercihan Özden also told Güllü the same things.

Lieutenant Güllü later saw Yusuf Yalçın and Ali Taş, two of the Second President's guards. Yusuf Yalçın stated that they were standing in the room like this with the knowledge of Abdurrahim Aksoy, that he did not know anything, and demanded from Güllü to untie the three people whose hands were tied before. Lieutenant Güllü untied the hands of these people and then waited with these people whose hands were undone.

Police officer engraved the first letter of lieutenant Vahit Güllü’s name on his arm. Having found himself in such a mixed environment, Lieutenant Güllü went to Colonel Murat Korkmaz, the deputy Group Commander, Murat Korkmaz. Korkmaz told him that "there may be things that we are not involved in, stay calm, do not take orders from anyone but me, and wait for my orders." Upon the order of his supervisor, Murat Korkmaz, Güllü came to the Headquarters with the other personnel in the morning, where he left his gun and surrendered voluntarily, knowing that he was innocent. Yusuf Yalçın and Mahir Eser stated to the police at the time of Vahit Güllü's delivery that Güllü was innocent and that they were in the same place until the morning. After Güllü surrendered to the police, he was tortured and a police officer carved the first letter of his name on his arm.

Additional Notes

It is possible to see the double standard applied by the court in the statements of other witnesses. One of the witnesses, Mert Çınar, stated that he only started to understand that the incident was a coup attempt after watching the television for half an hour after escaping around 08:00-09:00 in the morning. Witness Muhammet Reşit Budak stated that he did not fully understand that the incident was a coup, although he saw the helicopters, the crowd, and the firing on the people. He evaluated the incident as events related to an attack by the PKK terrorist organization. The court helped Budak by saying "you don't know because you have never experienced a [coup]". Although Budak was outside, saw the people and talked to others around him, it was considered normal by the court that he did not understand that the incident was a coup, Güllü, on the other hand, was expected to understand the coup even though he was in a closed place that night and had no contact with anyone.

In his statement, Mahir Eser stated that Vahit Güllü was stressed and worried that night and that he had come there on orders and that he did not know anything. Later, Eser and Güllü sat down and tried to understand what was going on, had a meal and a cigarette together. Lieutenant Vahit Güllü, later on, had similar conversations with Ercihan Özden and Yusuf Yalçın to understand the situation, and these people stated that they were told that there was an exercise.

In his statement, Mahir Eser also stated that Yusuf Yalçın, Ali Taş, and Uğur Kent acted very comfortably.

In his statement, Uğur Kent stated that although there was no armed person, they did not move to escape from the room they were in that night because they did not know who was outside. Kent stayed in the room until 10 am, although they learned that they were able to enter and exit when Murat Bingül came to their room at 4 in the morning.

Güllü gave his statement under custody in a state of hunger, thirst, sleeplessness and exhaustion, wearing only underwear.

He gave his statement on 29 November 2017, in the absence of the expert report and digital data, unaware of the statements and evidence about him. No questions were asked by the court and the lawyers of the complainant regarding the accusation of membership of a terrorist organization.