Major hearings in the trials of the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey have started. So far the military personnel, accused of involvement of in the failed coup, were heard in some crucial trials. Most of the suspects, especially low rank soldiers, have denied that they had a direct role in the coup attempt. They claimed that their superiors told them there was a huge terror attack or a major military drill, and they just followed the orders.However, the high-ranking soldiers have mostly accepted that they intended to stage a coup although their defenses were varied. More intriguingly, all have denied their links with the U.S.-based Fetullah Gülen, the leader of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).Frustrating the judges, the prosecutors, and the public as well, some said they were 'die-hard Kemalists' while others alleged that they were nationalists, adding that they attempted to stage a coup just because they were patriots.For instance, during the trial in Turkey's western city of Muğla, Brig. Gen. Gökhan Şahin Sönmezateş, who was the leader of the Marmaris attack aiming to kill President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, or at least take him hostage, defended himself saying, "I am coup maker but not a Gülenist. I joined the operation, and I am now paying the price. The orders were given by Brig. Gen. Semih Terzi. He told that Turkish Army had taken over the government and the orders were in the chain of command."Semih Terzi was believed to be the leader of around 40 Special Forces operatives who came to Ankara from southeast Turkey on the coup night to organize attacks against Parliament and government agencies. He was killed by a noncommissioned officer with the Turkish military's Special Forces Command, Senior Master Sgt. Ömer Halisdemir, who played a crucial role to prevent the coup makers succeed. Halisdemir had got a phone call from the commander of the Special Forces, Maj. Gen. Zekai Aksakallı, and learnt that Terzi was taking part in the coup. Aksakallı had ordered Halisdemir to kill Terzi at the cost of his life. Halisdemir had successfully executed the order but was killed by other soldiers who were acting together with Terzi.Well, we, maybe, would believe that the coup attempt was planned and staged by a military junta, not the Gülenists, if the people involved in the heinous attack were only soldiers.I was with friends in a café on a side street very close to the Vatan Boulevard in Istanbul, when the tanks appeared in a row. Two young men ran into the garden of the café shouting that the tanks were coming. I was in the first crowd headed there taking pictures and video, and I posted them on social media to show the people what was going on. The first crowd parked the cars and buses on the road to stop the tanks pass and go to the police headquarters on the boulevard. I was standing in front of the tanks, shouting with the crowd. There were two soldiers on top of the tank, one of them, who was shooting at us, looked to be of high-rank.At that moment I thought that he was a Gülenist soldier. But he was more than that. The day after the failed coup attempt, we learnt that the one who was wearing a high-rank officer uniform was Mithat Aynacı, a Gülenist police officer, who was suspended from duty in 2014 due to his ties with the FETÖ. Amateur video showed that he jumped in one of the tanks on the road, changed his clothes inside, and pretended as if he was a soldier.During his interrogation, he said that he was trying to negotiate with the soldiers, and he was taken hostage. But what kind of a hostage would wear a military uniform, sit on top of a tank, acting like he was the one who was in charge, and open fire at a crowd several times?Moreover, at least five civilians among all the soldiers were spotted at the Akıncı 4th Main Jet Base, which was used a headquarters by the coup plotters in Ankara. The jets that bombed Ankara took off from that base, and senior military officers, such as the Army's Chief of Staff Hulusi Akar, were held prisoner there.Adil Öksüz was one of the five civilians who were found in and around the air base after the coup attempt was repulsed. He was released in a controversial verdict only hours after his detention. It is believed that the Gülenists still nested inside the judiciary helped him get out.Öksüz, who was an associate professor of Islamic theology at Sakarya University, remains at large since then. The videos displaying him and his family were visiting Fetullah Gülen in the U.S. as a loyal follower shows that he is a Gülenist with no doubt. Referred to as the 'black box' of Gülen, he was acting as the 'Imam of the Air Forces' of the Gülenists (the terror group uses the word of 'imam' as the one who is 'responsible').Kemal Batmaz, another civilian who was spotted in the Akıncı Jet Base that night on July 15, was the general manager of Kağıt A.Ş., a company owned by the Gülen-linked Kaynak Holding.Hakan Çiçek, who was also at the same base that night, is the founder of the Anafartalar College, a well-known Gülenist private high school. He said that he was at the base for a social activity in the middle of the night during his interrogation.Harun Biniş, who was also there, formerly worked for Turkey's Telecommunication Directorate, or TİB. It was revealed in 2014 that the Gülenists turned TIB into a headquarter to wiretap thousands of people's phones illegally, including the then Prime Minister Erdoğan, the head of intelligence Hakan Fidan, as well as many journalists and business people. The TİB was supposed to be an independent regulatory body, but the Gülenists made it a 'mole hole.' It was shut down in 2016. Harun Biniş was already one of the suspects in the phone tapping investigations.The fifth civilian, Nurettin Oruç, who was also detained near the base, claimed that he was a filmmaker, and he was visiting a village near the base in preparation to shoot a documentary.However Oruç said in his initial statements that he was visiting a village near the base to purchase land like Adil Öksüz, Kemal Batmaz and Harun Biniş, but somehow some of them were spotted inside the base in CCTV footage. According to reports based on the chief prosecutor's statements, Öksüz, Batmaz, Oruç, and Çiçek visited the U.S. at the same days in March and June 2016.Are those just coincidences? Hardly for me, for us…