Akif Kapaklı was among the crowd marching towards the Presidential Complex to stop the coup attempt on July 15th. Akif read from the Quran that night, before making his way to Beştepe, to join in the resistance against the FETÖ traitors. He was martyred by a bomb dropped near the Gendarmerie General Command while he was resisting in front of the tanks.
“After I read the last fascicle...”
Akif was a former Motherland Party district head in Sungurlu, Çorum, and became a parliament member candidate in the 1999 elections. He was 63 years old and the father of seven children. He heard about the coup attempt from his son on the night of July 15th. Saying, “I will check the news after I read the last fascicle,” and finishing his reading of Quran and praying. He went out upon President Erdoğan’s call, saying to his son, “We should fill the car with gas, we might go to many different places,” and set off.
Akif was wounded after the bomb dropped on the intersection near the Gendarmerie General Command around 00:00. The left side of his body was splintered with shrapnel. His son, Faruk was also with him at the time and had been shot. Being conscious as he was being taken to the hospital along with his wounded son, Akif Kapaklı recited God’s name also saying, “I shall give my blessings to everyone, ask for people’s blessings on my behalf.” Taken into operation, Akif Kapaklı fell a martyr at the hospital.
Veteran son, martyr father
Ömer Faruk Kapaklı attended his father’s funeral in a wheelchair on July 17th, he lives on with four shrapnel pieces remaining in his body from the night of attacks. Becoming a veteran after the explosion where his father was martyred, Ömer stated that they first went to Etimesgut Municipality then to the Presidential Complex on the night of coup attempt. Ömer also stated that his father was arguing with soldiers on the tanks saying, “Are my own country’s soldiers going to shoot me? What wrong did this country do to you?” Reporting what happened during that night, Ömer said, “He was conscious until he was taken into operation. On the way, he said to me, ‘Don’t you ever complain, send my regards to everyone. My blessings go for all. Ask for their blessings on my behalf.’ He kept reciting God’s name until he was gone. I had been wounded, but I wasn’t aware of it in the heat of the moment. They took both me and my father to surgery. I was informed of his status after I was released from my own operation.”
63-year-old retiree Akif Kapaklı was buried in his hometown of Çorum, on July 17th
Martyr Akif Kapaklı’s name was given to an Anatolian vocational and technical high school in his hometown Sungurlu, Çorum.
