A prosecutor yesterday asked for aggravated life imprisonment for 31 defendants and prison terms up to 15 years for 35 others in a trial of putschists who tried to seize power during the July 15, 2016 coup attempt.
The defendants in the trial in the capital Ankara are members of the Special Forces Command, an elite unit of the Turkish army. They were deployed at the Command's headquarters in Ankara when putschists loyal to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) moved to seize power. All defendants are accused of the takeover of the headquarters and were captured by anti-coup forces after the putsch was quelled. Col. Ümit Bak and Lt. Col. Mehmet Ali Çelik commanded the takeover as the highest-ranking officers at the headquarters at the time of the coup. The other defendants are lower-ranking officers. The indictment against them says they tried to persuade and force other troops at the headquarters to join them.
Zekai Aksakallı, head of Special Forces Command, was the target of the putschists. The general was not at the base at the time and managed to escape abduction when putschist officers tried to grab him from his car. Aksakallı then phoned other top officers in the Command, trying to convince them not to join the coup. Ümit Bak responded to a phone call by Aksakallı, saying his new commander is Semih Terzi. Terzi, a brigadier general stationed in southeastern Turkey, flew to Ankara to assume the command of the Special Forces on behalf of the putschists. Ömer Halisdemir, a non-commissioned officer who served as an aide to Aksakallı, shot Terzi dead but was killed by Terzi's entourage. Halisdemir is hailed as one of the heroes of the coup attempt that killed 251 people as the Special Forces Command was a key location to capture for the putschists.
Since the coup attempt was quelled, Turkey has detained tens of thousands of people linked to the attempt and hundreds are on trial for direct involvement in the attempt. Most trials are expected to wrap up by the end of this year. The Justice Ministry announced earlier this month that there were 32,370 people being held and incarcerated in FETÖ cases and 289 trials directly related to the coup attempt. Some 203 trials were already concluded. A total of 2,619 people have been found guilty, and 1,760 have been sentenced to life imprisonment in the coup trials held across the country so far.
