Why did the Team Commander Coming from Diyarbakır not get on the helicopter?
Why did the Team Commander Coming from Diyarbakır not get on the helicopter that went to the Special Forces Command Barracks on the night of July 15?
On the night of July 15, the 1st and 3rd teams belonging to the 12th Battalion, who came to Ankara from Diyarbakır with Brigadier General Semih Terzi, were selected due to their higher number and superior equipment compared to the teams of the 16th Battalion. So, the main criterion was the large number of people on the teams. When the teams were selected, it was looked at the excess of the number rather than who was in the team. Under normal circumstances, in coup attempts that took place outside the chain of command — as in the 1960 coup, for example — the people and groups that would participate in the coup were carefully selected from those who would faithfully serve, and large troops were planned to join the initiative later.
However, neither Brigade Commander Semih Terzi nor Battalion Commander Fatih Şahin did not do this and gave the order to immediately prepare two teams with large numbers, regardless of who the teams consisted of. While Fatih Şahin was ordering the 1st and 3rd teams to board on the plane there was no special purpose in choosing these teams regarding their personnel and equipment. The normality of this incident was stated both by the Team Commander Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz and his assistant, First Lieutenant Mihrali Atmaca at the court with their own words: “everything was within the legal framework.”
In the statement of Colonel Altan Bora, who took away the buses from OBA IHU to the airport, we can see that Colonel Bora asks Semih Terzi as “Sir, what is going on, what are we doing?” Semih Terzi replies, “The General Staff Headquarters needs us Colonel Bora. You stay here and send the remaining battalions to Ankara with the incoming planes.” In other words, Semih Terzi did not make a selection in the troops that would come later and left the command to Colonel Bora.
On the night of July 15, at around 23:00, the buses, carrying the personnel from the IHU headquarters who would be going to Ankara without any obstruction or problem, arrived at the 8th Main Jet Base Airport in Diyarbakır and met Brigadier General Semih Terzi, who came to Diyarbakır from Silopi by helicopter. It is also worth noting that no aircraft other than cargo planes were allowed to fly during these hours and it is still a mystery how Semih Terzi's helicopter was allowed to take off from Silopi and arrived at Diyarbakır.
In the morning of July 16 at around 01.00, before the CASA type cargo plane, which took off from Diyarbakir landed in Ankara, Team Commander Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz told First Lieutenant Mihrali Atmaca that there was a possibility of fighting when the plane landed. Also, Yılmaz ordered Atmaca not to inform the team about this issue in order not to cause panic on the team.
Also, Captain Yılmaz stated that he had some question marks in his mind about what the battalion commander had said, but he told Mihrali Atmaca that he should definitely not reflect these to the Battalion Commander Fatih Şahin.
Upon the question of Sergeant Ismail Çınar, who asked “Sir, who is who, what is happening,” Captain Yılmaz replied as “let the plane come down, then we will understand. We are not on anyone’s side; we are only on our side. We will not fire unless we are fired at. Civilians, police, and soldiers will not be shot. When the time comes, I will give the fire order. Everything will be clearer after the plane lands on the ground.”
Meanwhile, Fatih Şahin summoned Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz while they were on the plane and told him that they would go to Gölbaşı. He also told him that if there was one helicopter, 14 people could go and the rest would go with the second sortie; if there was more than one helicopter, they would go together. Later, he ordered him to designate 14 men to get on this first helicopter, consisting of one military communications officer, two snipers, and one non-commissioned officer guard for Semih Terzi. When Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz told Fatih Şahin that he wanted to come with the first helicopter, Yılmaz states in his statement that Fatih Şahin said "don't come, you will come in the second sortie."
The Personnel Getting On The Helicopter Going To The Special Forces Barracks Is Randomly Selected
In his statement, Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz remarks that he determined 14 people on the plane on the morning of July 16, at around 01.30, ordered Mihrali Atmaca, Erkan Kütükçü, Hasan Aksoy, Mehmet Bilge and Ahmet Muhammed Demirci to go on the first helicopter, and randomly selected the remaining men from those who were close to the landing gate, and thus completed the number to 14. NCO Ali Güreli, who was a member of Yılmaz’s team, states that while the plane was landing, Captain Yılmaz ordered the team to load the guns and make them fully loaded and ready to fire.
The plane, which took off from Diyarbakır, landed at Ankara Etimesgut Airport at around 01.45 in the morning of July 16. When the crew got off from the plane, they saw that two helicopters were ready and running. 14 crew members, who would board the first helicopter, together with Brigadier General Semih Terzi, got on the helicopter without a delay, which was 50-75 meters from the plane, and the helicopter started to arrive upon the Oğulbey Barracks.
At around 02:00 in the morning of July 16, despite the rapid movement of the crew personnel and the suggestions of the aircraft pilots toward him to get on the helicopter, Captain Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz did not get on the second helicopter, stating that "there are bags, I have to unload the bags." Despite the pilots saying that they would send their bags later, Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz said, "stop the engine, I am not going." Thus, once saying “I will go with the first helicopter,” Yılmaz did not even get on the second helicopter and disobeyed Fatih Şahin’s order.
Also, in order to provide safety at his location, Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz ordered the six soldiers to stay with him after the remaining 14 soldiers left with the first helicopter. When the remaining two personnel asked him what to do, he told them to go with the second helicopter. But still, he didn’t get on that helicopter.
On July 16 at 02.04, Yılmaz called Captain Fatih İpek on his cell phone, who was the operations officer in the 12th Battalion in Diyarbakır. He asked him whether Semih Terzi was a Fetoist or not. Captain İpek said, “I don’t know, don’t get on a helicopter. F-16s shot a Skorksy helicopter. I learned this from Colonel Fırat Çelik.”
At 02.10 in the morning of July 16, the first helicopter, including Semih Terzi, arrived at the Gölbaşı Facilities of the Special Forces Command. The helicopter landed close to the headquarters building. The following events were also served to the press from the Special Forces Command’s camera recordings.
Following his stay in the Special Air Regiment Command, Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz contacted Zekai Aksakallı. Even though there were Lieutenant Colonel- and Colonel-ranked deputy commanders in the Special Air Regiment, Aksakallı ordered Yılmaz to take command, and Yılmaz followed that order and took command. We read these from the court records. Therefore, we are curious why nobody asked Yılmaz the following questions: Even though you said that you wanted to go with the first helicopter, why didn’t you go? Why did Zekai Aksakallı give you the command order while there were many lieutenant colonels/colonels in the Special Air Regiment Command?
In his testimony at the court, Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz said "I would hate it with one word" when asked about Fatih Şahin and said, "He is a very good Commander, a very decent person" about Brigadier General Semih Terzi. Then, it must be asked why he did not go to the Special Forces barracks with Semih Terzi that night?
Lastly, let us also state that in his testimony at the court, Ahmet Kemal Yılmaz stated that he randomly selected all the personnel who got on the helicopter and that none of them had any faults and that he had the command responsibility. But the chief judge of the court acted as if he had never heard these statements.