Müyesser Yıldız, the only journalist in Turkey who follows the trials related to July 15th, has prepared 20 questions for Zekai Aksakallı, the former Special Forces Commander who has been in the headlines recently. Yıldız, who will be a guest on a television channel tonight, wants clarity on the issues that still remain unknown about the night of July 15th in the questions she prepared for Aksakallı.
Müyesser Yıldız prepared 20 questions to be asked to Zekai Aksakallı, who was the Special Forces Commander during the July 15th period and announced to participate in the Habertürk television tonight.
Yıldız, who is the only journalist following the July 15th trials in Turkey, shared her questions on her own blog.
In her article, Yıldız stated, “In Aksakallı’s narratives, apart from openly blaming imperialist powers, I did not see any difference in the statements he gave to the Prosecutor during the investigation of July 15th and during the Special Forces trials.” Yıldız added, “To clarify every aspect of July 15th without any doubt is the duty of all of us, but first and foremost, it is the duty of the commanders and politicians of that period.”
Yıldız shared her questions by saying, “As someone who followed two cases related to the Special Forces Command from start to finish and two other cases through the files, I want to ask the following questions, with the hope that they might also be directed to him if it is a live broadcast in tonight’s television program, in their main headings.”
Yıldız’s questions prepared for Aksakallı are as follows:
1- Why was the graduation ceremony of trainees held in August changed to July 14th? What did Hulusi Akar say in his speech at the ceremony? After the ceremony, what did Akar and Hakan Fidan talk about privately until late at night during the dinner? Why did the Deputy Chief of General Staff Yaşar Güler leave before Akar? After Akar left, what did you talk about with Hakan Fidan?
2- On July 15th, did you send a message to Semih Terzi, who was supposed to come to Ankara by transport plane, that you visited the office of Mehmet Partigöç, whose name was mentioned under the coup declaration? In other words, did you know that Terzi would come to Ankara that night?
3- Did you investigate the movement at the Headquarters after Yaşar Güler left the anti-terrorism meeting at the General Staff due to the information from MIT? Or did Yaşar Güler, who is known to trust each other very much, inform you about the developments and warn you about the precautions to be taken in the Special Forces Command?
4- Despite the movement at the General Staff, after you went to the wedding at the Officers’ Club and became suspicious of some things and left, who asked you to cut short your leave and come to Ankara, an officer named Fatih Yarımbaş, who had been assigned from Northern Cyprus to Ankara and was supposed to start his new duty in August?
5- You say, “Throughout the night, we coordinated the fight against the coup by meeting with the Prime Minister, Minister of Interior, Undersecretary of MIT, Deputy Undersecretary, Head of Police Intelligence, and commanders whom we were sure were not affiliated with F..,”. So, didn’t you wonder about the situation of Semih Terzi, who was under your command and was still in Silopi at that time? Were there no commanders or security personnel you trusted in Silopi or Diyarbakır to give the order to neutralize Terzi?
6- Even if you assume that Terzi left Diyarbakır and you learned about it after the plane took off, why didn’t you send a team to the Air Force Base in Etimesgut, where the plane would land, to prevent Terzi from going to the Special Forces Command? By the way, how do you evaluate the fact that the General Staff, which closed the airspace and halted all flights based on the intelligence from MIT, allowed the flights of Solo Türk and transport planes in the following hours? Likewise, what is the reason for not taking any action against the pilots who brought Terzi from Diyarbakır to Ankara, while the pilots who took Terzi from Etimesgut to the Special Forces Command were prosecuted and sentenced to imprisonment?
7- Is it true that you called İsmail Metin Temel, the former Commander of the Gendarmerie Law Enforcement Corps, and informed him that the Headquarters had been occupied and that you were at home, and he told you to return to the Headquarters, and you replied, “I am calming down my wife”?
8- After the Operations Center of the Special Forces Command reported that they received the so-called coup assignment order, what were your instructions to them? Did you ask them to stop all entries and exits to the Special Forces Command and not allow anyone, even a general, to enter? If so, after giving this order to those inside, was it not a contradiction that would lead to major conflicts to send some commanders who were under your command to the Special Forces Command and ask them to save the Headquarters without knowing who was guilty and who was innocent?
9- Did you have any differences of opinion with Semih Terzi, especially regarding the training of the Syrian opposition, relations with Barzani, and fuel smuggling in the region? Did Semih Terzi send any messages to the General Staff that would be detrimental to you about some incidents in the region?
10- Did you give the order to neutralize Semih Terzi at the hospital when he was taken to GATA (Gülhane Military Medical Academy) as a wounded person after being shot by martyr Ömer Halisdemir? If so, wouldn’t it have been better to capture this important figure as a wounded person?
11- It was announced that Semih Terzi’s cell phone contained numerous messages related to the coup. Did you know that as a result of the examination conducted by the General Directorate of Security on this cell phone, a report was given stating that the messages were uploaded after Terzi’s death?
12- Did you give a score of 100 as the immediate superior to the former colonels Fırat Alakuş and Fatih Yarımbaş, whom you emphasized were “F..Ö” members?
13- After going to the Headquarters the next day, did you assign Mihrali Atmaca, the former second lieutenant who was known as the person who fired the last shot at Ömer Halisdemir and neutralized the personnel at the Special Forces Command based on the instructions he received from you after learning about the coup attempt, and his friends as your protection team, even if you didn’t kiss Atmaca on the forehead?
14- Before the personnel who were detained on the grounds of being “F..Ö” members were handed over to the security forces, were they subjected to a “questioning” for 15 days? Under what conditions were these “questionings” conducted?
15- Were ballistic examinations conducted on all the weapons at the Special Forces Command?
16- Did you watch the footage of that night at the Special Forces Command, which your Orderly Noncommissioned Officer Makbul Uluğ mentioned in court for the first time? Was any selection made in these footage before they were submitted to the Prosecutor’s Office?
17- After July 15th, you also provided security at the General Staff, and you were the first to watch the “captured camera recordings.” What did you see especially about what happened on the Commanders’ floor on July 15th? Also, were these footage submitted to the Prosecutor’s Office and Courts in their complete and original form?
18- While the events at the Special Forces Command on July 15th were tried in four separate cases, why didn’t you go to any court and testify in front of the defendants and lawyers like Hulusi Akar and Yaşar Güler, and preferred to give statements by order?
19- Since you accused the “F..Ö” structure in the Turkish Armed Forces and your commanders regarding July 15th, are you considering at least filing a criminal complaint for “negligence of duty”?
20- In one of your statements, you criticized Hulusi Akar by saying, “In the Turkish Armed Forces, as soon as a crisis or emergency situation is heard, the order is given that ‘Personnel should not leave the barracks.’ Unit commanders continue their duty at the barracks. This basic and simple rule, which is always applied, was not applied when the news of July 15, 2016, was first heard. If it had been applied, the coup attempt would have been revealed from the beginning.” Are you still of the same opinion?
