Prosecutors in the capital city of Ankara have wrapped up an indictment against officers accused of being involved in the July 15 coup attempt last year which has been blamed on infiltrators from the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ). Lt. Col. Ejder Yıldırım, who ordered his troops to shoot anyone confronting them, is among the 268 defendants and faces multiple life imprisonment sentences.
Other defendants in the case testified that Yıldırım, who was assigned to capture the police headquarters in the capital by the military junta, ordered them to shoot anyone, armed or unarmed, and threatened to kill them if they disobeyed him during that fateful day when 248 people opposing the putschists were killed.
Yıldırım was commanding troops, including conscripts who were unaware that they were being deployed for a coup attempt by the so-called putschist Peace At Home Council when they were ordered to leave the military base and head to police headquarters.
The lieutenant colonel, who was arrested and dismissed from the army after the putsch bid was quelled, has claimed Brigadier General Ali Kalyoncu, a fugitive pro-coup officer, ordered him to command the troops at the 28th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, which hosts a large contingent of tanks. Yıldırım has denied he was involved in the coup and claimed he only realized it was a putsch bid in the late hours of July 15. He has admitted that he ordered his troops to fire at civilians even though he claimed the order was for "self-defense purposes."
His subordinates, however, dispute Yıldırım, including Mehmet Nahırcıoğlu, a specialist sergeant who said they were ordered to fire anti-aircraft guns at police vehicles outside the police headquarters. Another sergeant testified that Yıldırım ordered everyone to fire.
Caner Kaynar, another soldier under the command of Yıldırım, said in his testimony that he saw Yıldırım himself firing on civilians and police outside the police headquarters. Other eyewitnesses said despite pleas from civilians and policemen outside the headquarters, Yıldırım fired his gun and shot a policeman in the knee. Ferhat Sak, a conscript, said Yıldırım ordered them to shoot and said he would "shoot them" if they did not fire their guns. Sak said he saw Yıldırım firing his rifle at a woman in an anti-coup crowd gathered outside the police headquarters.
