A decade after the failed July 15, 2016 coup attempt by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), two Turkish veterans continue to live with bullets lodged in their bodies, carrying permanent physical reminders of the night they took to the streets to resist the coup plotters.
Ismail Acur, who lost his right eye in Istanbul's Saraçhane district, and Musa Ilhan, who was shot in the chest outside the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality's Disaster Coordination Center (AKOM), have lived with the bullets for 10 years because surgical removal could pose life-threatening risks.
Lodged in critical areas, the bullets continue to cause chronic pain and other health problems that affect their daily lives.
Acur and Ilhan recalled the night of July 15 and the moments that changed their lives.
Acur, a father of three, had returned to Istanbul from his hometown of Malatya, eastern Türkiye, and gone to sleep before sirens and commotion outside woke him.
After turning on the television and hearing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's call for citizens to take to the streets, Acur headed to the Istanbul Police Department on Vatan Avenue.
He later learned that many people had been injured in Saraçhane and immediately made his way to the area, joining citizens on the front lines against the coup plotters.
Acur helped carry wounded people to safety before returning to the resistance. Moments later, he was struck by gunfire.
"After taking the wounded to the hospital, we returned and were now on the very front lines. We were saying, 'Either we will die or we will neutralize them,'" he said.
"At that moment, a bullet came. I thought it had only grazed me. I reached toward my eye, and my eye fell into my hand. I recited the shahada. I took another one or two steps and collapsed."
Acur lost his right eye, and a bullet became lodged in his neck between his carotid artery and spinal cord.
"Later, I learned that they thought I was dead and covered me with a Turkish flag. I had lost a lot of blood. When the ambulance arrived, they saw that I still had a pulse and immediately took me to the hospital," he said.
"The bullet remained in my neck, and I lost my eye. I have a prosthetic eye and cannot see from that side. Let it be sacrificed for my homeland. Our lives and our blood are also sacrificed for our homeland."
Ten years later, the bullet remains close to his spinal cord and continues to cause severe pain.
"The bullet is still in my body. Because of it, I sometimes experience dizziness and pain. It is very close to my spinal cord, so sometimes I cannot feel my hand," Acur said, adding that severe pain often prevents him from sleeping.
The bullet also triggers metal detectors when he enters government buildings. Acur recalled telling a police officer who questioned an alarm, "I don't have a weapon, but I have a bullet in my neck."
When the officer jokingly said bullets were not allowed inside, Acur replied, "I can't take it out, but if you can, go ahead."
The officer then hugged him and, unable to hold back his tears, said, "It is thanks to you that we are here today."
Musa Ilhan, 49, was sitting with friends in his neighborhood when he learned of the coup attempt.
Without even returning home, Ilhan headed out wearing shorts and slippers. He initially planned to travel to the airport to welcome Erdoğan but changed course after seeing military activity at the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality's Logistics Support Center in Alibeyköy.
After confronting coup soldiers there alongside other citizens, Ilhan later headed toward AKOM.
"As soon as we entered AKOM, the soldiers opened fire. Bullets were raining down toward our feet," he recalled.
"At first, we were afraid, and my slippers came off my feet. One of the coup soldiers shouted, 'Don't come closer or I'll shoot.'"
Ilhan said his fear soon disappeared. "Then strength came from Almighty Allah. He took the fear out of us. I said, 'I'm coming. If you're going to shoot, shoot.' I walked forward in my shorts and slippers."
Moments later, Ilhan was shot in the chest. "The moment I was hit, I fell to the ground. They were so merciless that even as I lay there, bullets were passing on both sides of me," he said.
"I closed my eyes and prayed, 'Please don't let one hit my eye.' A friend tried to protect me by applying pressure to my chest. I don't remember what happened afterward."
Ilhan spent four days in the hospital. The bullet remains just 2 centimeters (0.8 inches) from his heart and has not been removed because of the risks of surgery.
"The bullet remained 2 centimeters below my heart. I have lived with that bullet for 10 years," he said.
Years later, Ilhan came face to face in court with the lieutenant colonel who shot him.
According to Ilhan, the officer claimed soldiers had occupied the area because they suspected a Daesh terrorist attack. When asked by the judge why he shot Ilhan, the officer said he thought Ilhan was a Daesh member.
"I said, 'What about me looks like a Daesh member? I was wearing slippers and shorts. I had nothing in my hands,'" Ilhan recalled.
The slippers and shorts Ilhan wore that night are now displayed at the July 15 Memory Museum alongside belongings of those killed and wounded during the coup attempt. "Every year when I come here, I relive that night," he said.
