The name that attracted attention the most in the coup attempt was Infantry Commander Levent Türkkan, aide to Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar.
Türkkan was one of the figures acting with the head of the Strategic Transformation Department of the General Staff, Mehmet Dişli, who entering the room of Gen. Akar and tried to persuade him to support the coup attempt. Türkkan was waiting with Col. Orhan Yıkılkan, Principal Clerk Col. Ramazan Gözen, Cpt. Serdar Teken, Cpt. Serdar Tekin and Senior Master Sgt. Abdullah Erdoğan of the protective force outside Akar’s office when Dişli entered. Türkkan, who took part in the team responsible for Akar’s detention and transfer to the Akıncı 4th Main Jet Base Command, remained at the headquarters after Akar was relocated. Türkkan supported the coup attempt from the General Staff Command on July 15 and shared important information about the FETÖ coup attempt after his arrest.
Türkkan said he wanted to benefit from effective repentance provisions in his statement to the prosecutor. He is accused of attempting a coup. Türkkan's statements to the prosecutor's office contained shocking statements.
"For the first time in my life, I speak with free will," Türkkan said, reporting that he did not even know that he was a member of "a terrorist organization" when he was in the first year of secondary school.
Speaking at the Criminal Court of Peace, Türkkan said that after he became a commanding officer under retired Gen. Necdet Özel, the former chief of General Staff, the person he referred to as "Brother Adil" gave him a wire and Türkkan placed it in the office in the morning and took it out in the evening everyday for four years.
Türkkan said: "I am a member of the parallel structure," admitting that he had served Fetullah Gülen voluntarily for many years and that he has obeyed his elders in the community until now and that he has followed their orders so far.
'I don’t know the actual identities of the people I'm in contact with'
Türkkan said the code names of the people whom he was in contact with within the community were “Murat,” “Selahattin” and “Adil.” He said:
"I know where Murat's house is. It’s on the way to Konya, I can show you. I don’t know what the others and the rest of them are doing and I don’t know their addresses or their actual identities. I had routine meetings with these elders at Murat's house once a month or once every two months. I have never believed that the Fetullah Gülen community was a traitorous community. I only thought that they were working for the cause of God. I only understood what they actually were after the coup attempt. The use of the word traitor for those who are members of this community is insufficient. I now know that these people are murderers. I have never seen Fetullah Gülen himself, but what I say is also true for him. "
'I met the elders of the community in secondary school'
Explaining that he is from a poor farmer's family in Karacabey, Bursa, Türkkan said that his father worked for a daily wage and that he was the youngest of five brothers.
He said that he met the Gülen community for the first time in the middle school. He said:
“At that time I was studying at Bursa Cumhuriyet High School’s Secondary School. I was a brilliant student with a promising future. There were university students with the nicknames ‘Serdar’ and ‘Musa’ at that time. I was staying at the official dormitory of the high school. Those two elders would come and go there. They were leading me and other students during prayers. They then started to take me to their community houses. I had dreamed of being an officer since I was five years old, and my family was also supporting me in this. This ideal of mine came in handy to actualize the community’s plan. They were very pleased by the fact that I wanted to become an officer. I entered the exams for Işıklar Military High School in 1989. I was confident that I would pass the exam with my own efforts, and my elders in the community had faith in me too. But still, they gave me the exam questions the night before the exam. Brother Serdar brought the questions. He had printed out the exam questions. The right answers were already marked. They were things that I already knew. I read and memorized them. They gave me these questions in a community house in Bursa. I assume that they gave the same questions to others as well. But I do not know the names of other students that they might have given the questions to. Years later, I lost my connection with Serdar and Musa. Since time has passed, I can’t give you any information about their identities either. But I could recognize them in photos. That's how I passed the military high school exams. As far as I remember, I ranked 100th on that exam. I could not get in to the top ranks. As I recall, they purposely didn’t show me all the questions.
'My elders taught me how to pray secretly’
"I continued to meet with Serdar and Musa while I was at Işıklar Military High School. We saw each other once a month. We usually met on weekends, praying, chatting and reading Fetullah Gülen's books. My elders taught me how to pray secretly and perform ablution in the bathroom in military schools so that my identity wouldn’t be exposed. In that way, we were able to pray anywhere we wanted. I would think of a prayer and repeat the lines in my mind."
'My elders didn’t give me any duties while I was at the military high school'
Türkkan said that he was not directed toward any political channel, and that he does not have any political views now. He said: "I usually voted for the AKP. When I went to the polls, I voted according to the circumstances of the time. During the two years before I went to military high school, brother Serdar took care of me, and later, brother Musa did. My elders from the community didn’t give me any duties while I was at military high school. And I didn’t engage in any activity on behalf of the community.”
'I had monthly meetings with the community'
Türkkan said that he had enrolled directly to the Military Academy when he finished military high school in 1993, that he came to Ankara in this way and that there was a disconnection between him and the community. He said: "Obviously, I was also questioning myself for a while. I had girlfriends back then. The people in the community were angry with that." Türkkan said that he did not do any work related to the community at the Military Academy. He said that he worked in Istanbul, Trabzon, Diyarbakir, Nicosia, Kızıltepe and lastly Ankara and that he had monthly meetings with the community during his duties as a soldier and that his elders who had been in contact with the community were constantly changing according to the city he was in.
'I thought that Gülen was a divine personage'
Türkkan said that none of his elders were soldiers and not all of them were university graduates. He never asked what their professions were and he said that these people used to tell him not to ask anything, mind his own business and go study. Türkkan said that he did not remember the names of the elders whom he was in contact with while living in these cities, except the ones he went to for military duties, but he might be able identify them in pictures. He said that until the coup attempt, he saw the community as an "organization that follows God’s path" and that he thought “Fetullah Gülen was a divine personage."
‘I was constantly listening to Commander Necdet Özel with a wire’
Türkkan said that a now retired colonel recommended him in 2011 to Chief of General Staff Gen. Necdet Özel for the position of deputy assistant officer, and that he worked as deputy assistant officer to the chief of General Staff between 2011 and 2015. When the assistant officer retired, he was promoted to assistant officer. After he became an order officer in the General Staff, Türkkan began to fulfill his organizational duties given to him on behalf of the community. He said:
"I was constantly listening in on Chief of General Staff Necdet Özel with a wire. I placed the wire, which was called a ‘radio’ and was the size of half a finger, every day in the commander’s room and took it out in the evening. It had a memory card. It had the capacity to record 10 to 15 hours. My brother before brother Murat, whose name I can’t recall right now, was working at Türk Telekom and he gave me the device. His house was in Alacaatlı near İncek. I could find the house if I went there. He gave me the device and instructed me to record the commander’s conversations. I didn’t ask any questions and took the device. I recorded the commander every day. There were two or three devices. I would take the device to my elder from the community once a week. Then I would take the empty one. I never listened what I recorded. I didn’t have the necessary equipment to connect the device and listen to the recordings. The chief of General Staff’s room was occasionally, examined for wires. Since I knew when those examinations would take place, I wouldn’t place the wire on those days. I didn’t experience any problems with the listening device. I did what I was ordered to do."
'The community was listening to the commanders'
Türkkan said: "Both Commander Hulusi Akar and Commander Yaşar Güler were deputy chiefs of General Staff for two years each under Commander Necdet Özel. Both had the same aide, Maj. Mehmet Akkurt. Mehmet Akkurt is also a member of the Fethullah Gülen community. We wiretapped the commanders together. He was also placing wires in the rooms of the deputy chiefs of General Staff I mentioned. I didn’t know who his brother from the community was. I do not know where Mehmet Akkurt is right now or whether he is in custody or not. On the day of the coup attempt, his task was to neutralize the deputy chief of General Staff. Presumably, the community was listening to these commanders to know what was going on in the armed forces. "
"Sixty to seventy percent of the officers who have been admitted to military since the 1990s are from the community"
Levent Türkkan said: "I terminated the voice recording task when the chief of General Staff changed, when I became the aide to Commander Hulusi Akar. Brother Murat told me I wouldn’t be placing the wire anymore after I become an aide. A few months later, the same task was assigned to Sergeants Serhat and Şener, whose surnames I don’t know. Sgt. Serhat and Sgt. Şener were both commanding officers under Commander Hulusi Akar."
About FETÖ Türkkan said: "There is strict discretion and confidentiality in the community. Everyone knows their own elders, studies, prays, gets involved in conversations, completes his tasks that are related to his own mission, and doesn’t know much and doesn’t ask much. In my opinion, 60 to 70 percent of the officers who have been admitted to military or who have passed the exams since the 1990s are from the community. Usually, most of the officers from the community are staff officers. That is my conclusion as a person from the community, but I have no concrete evidence. I know for a fact that the following people belong to the community: Maj. Mehmet Akkurt, Master Sgt. Serhat and Master Sgt. Şener, Captain Serdar Tekin, Lodgment Master Sgt. Veysel Tokmak and Sgt. Ömer Gürsel Çetin among guards; Abdullah Erdoğan, Chief of General Staff Special Principal Clerk Ramazan Gözel, Special Clerk Hüseyin Hakan Öcal, Chief of Staff Principal Consultant Staff Col. Orhan Yıkılkan, Chief Military Assistant to the President Col. Ali Yazıcı, Commander of the Presidential Troop of Guardsmen Muhsin Kutsi Barış, Deputy Chief of General Staff former guard Cpt. Abdurrahim Aksoy, Deputy Chief of General Staff Special Principal Clerk Lt. Col. Bünyamin Tuner, his assistant Maj. Recep, Chief of Branch at the Personnel Divison Col. Cemil, Lt. Gen. Mustafa Özsoy, Lt. Gen. Salih Ulusoy, Col. Muharrem Köse and Brig. Gen. Mehmet Partigöç at the Personnel Division. According to my estimates, there is a 99 percent chance that they belong to the community. They didn’t put one in charge of being a brother to another person inside the military. Being an elder is not an upper task for the community, but they are more knowledgeable, they read more books and have much religious knowledge. We must also bear in mind that they assign missions to others. For example, I fulfilled the task of listening to the commanders that the elders gave me."
‘I learned about the coup on Thursday, July 14, 2016, around 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.’
Türkkan said in his statement given to the prosecutor's office that he learned about the coup on Thursday, July 14, 2016, around 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and that the chief of Staff advisor, Staff Col. Orhan Yıkılkan, told him a coup was being planned.
Türkkan said that Yıkılkan specified that "the president, prime minister, ministers, chief of General Staff, force commanders and generals would be taken one by one, the work would be done silently and it would be done during the night of July 15-July 16 at 03:00 a.m." He said:
"He invited me out for a cigarette. He gave me this information when we were alone. He also told me that my duty on the day of the coup attempt was to neutralize Commander Hulusi Akar so that the process would become easier. He also said that after I neutralize Commander Hulusi Akar , the Special Forces would come and take him. I accepted the duty Orhan Yıkılkan gave me without question. I went to the house of brother Murat, who was in charge of me, which is on the way to Konya behind an Opet gas station. I went there after I learned the news about the coup, mostly out of curiosity. It wasn’t a scheduled, routine meeting. Normally, you are supposed to visit an elder’s house after determining a date, but because this was an important situation I went there without notice. Selahattin and Adil were there but brother Murat wasn’t there despite the fact that it was his house. Brother Selahattin is senior to brother Murat, and brother Adil is senior to brother Selahattin. They asked me why I came there. They did not give me any information about the coup. I asked them: 'Are you informed about the events planned for tomorrow evening?' They got angry and asked me: ‘How do you know about this? Did you tell anyone? Who told you about it?' I told them that it was Col. Orhan Yıkılkan. They knew Orhan Yıkılkan. I don’t know how they knew each other. They warned me and told me: 'You won’t tell anyone anything on this subject. Everything will be carried out in secret, nothing will be revealed.’ They didn’t say anything about the assignment given to me. That’s how I left. At first I didn’t say because I forgot, but Mehmet Akkurt also came to brother Murat’s house with me. At home, there were four people, including brother Adil, brother Selahattin, me and Mehmet Akkurt, and there was no one else."
‘I informed my team, nobody objected’
Aide Levent Türkkan said that Serhan Tekin and Master Sgts. Serhat Pahsa, Veysel Tokmak, Abdullah Erdoğan and someone called Şener were also community members.
Türkkan said that he told everyone on his team about the task given to him by Yıkılkan step by step and individually, and that nobody objected. He also said that Yıkılkan had also said that Master Sgt. Ömer Gürsel Çetin and Maj. Mehmet Akkurt who are among the guards of Chief of General Staff Akar, would be at his command.
‘Dişli told me that I will ask Akar: 'Will you be the next Kenan Evren or not?’ ’
Türkkan said that on July 15, Col. Yıkılkan came by in the afternoon and that they went to Maj. Gen. Mehmet Dişli’s office together. He said:
“He is also from the community. Mehmet Dişli is the Chairman of the General Staff Project Management Directorate. Only us three were in the room. We started talking about the coup attempt the moment we entered the room. Mehmet Dişli said he would go to Commander Hulusi Akar’s room alone when the coup attempt started, and upon his acceptance, he would be the head of the coup. While explaining this, he told us: ‘I will ask Akar: 'Will you be the next Kenan Evren or not?’ He notified us that while informing the chief of General Staff, he would say that we love him and respect him, and he would lead the military coup if he accepted. He was holding a paper in his hands. He wrote down everything he would tell the Chief of General Staff there. According to what he said, if Hulusi Akar agreed to lead the coup attempt, Akın Öztürk would be the deputy chief of General Staff. Since the operation would start at 3:00 a.m., we decided to meet at the chief of General Staff’s residence at 2:30 a.m. According to what we had said, if Commander Hulusi Akar didn’t accept our proposal, my team and I would neutralize him. On this matter, they told me that the former special principal clerk, Ramazan Gözel, and the new special principal clerk, Lt. Col. Hakan Öcal, would help me. Personnel from Special Forces would take Commander Hulusi Akar."
‘Hulusi Akar didn’t accept the proposal’
Türkkan said that he understood that Orhan Yıkılkan had more information on the matter than Dişli and that the proposal made to Commander Hulusi Akar wouldn’t be made to other force commanders or generals. Türkkan said that he thought Hulusi Akar would accept the proposal and he would drag force commanders and other generals into the coup activities. He said that Hulusi Akar didn’t accept the proposal made to him. Therefore they couldn’t persuade the force commanders. We can say that the failure of the coup attempt started with Hulusi Akar’s rejection of the proposal.
Türkkan was asked why the chief of General Staff was left blank on the list that was prepared in case the coup was successful. He said that it might have been left blank considering Akar's answer was unknown.
Türkkan said: “As far as I know, the force commanders and the Gendarmerie General Command are not from the community.” He also said that he did not know why the task assigned to Land Forces Commander Gen. Salih Zeki Çolak was left blank and why "continue" was written for the task assigned to Gendarmerie General Command Commander Gen. Galip Mendi. Türkkan said that those about whom it is written "to continue the duty after the coup " could be the ones they trust. He said he was not aware of the list.
“After Dişli left Akar’s room, he said: ‘In the middle, enter’”
Levent Türkkan said that he was in the office of Chief of General Staff Akar between 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. on July 15, and that he was there as well. He continued:
“Everything happened so fast. Chief of General Staff Akar had a one-hour meeting with MİT Undersecretary Hakan Fidan. Mr. Hakan would always visit us and we would also visit him. He and the commander liked each other. I didn’t feel anything extraordinary related to that meeting. Shortly after Hakan Fidan left the office, about 20 soldiers from the Special Forces fully equipped entered the army headquarters. Both Orhan Yıkılkan and Mehmet Dişli were there. Mehmet Dişli knocked on the commander’s door and went in. Commander Dişli stayed inside for about five minutes. We didn’t hear what they were talking about. When he left the room, he said: “In the middle, enter.” I went in with Cpt. Serdar Tekin, Master Sgt. Abdullah, Special Principal Clerk Col. Ramazan, and Orhan Yıkılkan. Commander Dişli was also there. Referring to us and Commander Dişli, Commander Hulusi Akar said: 'You are doing wrong, it should not go this way.’ I had a gun in my hand. Commander Hulusi was sitting next to a table near his chair. While holding the gun, I said to Commander Hulusi: 'Commander, let's take you to the seats.' When everyone came in, he panicked and said: 'Bring me water.' Cpt. Serdar brought water. He took and drank it. He said: 'I will perform ablution and pray and change my clothes.'
“They entered the recreation room at the back with Cpt. Serdar and Master Sgt. Abdullah. He changed his clothes there and prayed. I didn’t know what kind of prayer it was. In the meantime, referring to us, he was saying: 'You are doing wrong.' I remember telling Commander Hulusi: 'Commander, I have been with you for years. Have I ever been treacherous, have I ever betrayed you? Please do as we say. Everything will be fine.’ I don’t remember what he said in return. He wore his coat after he finished his prayers. The officers from Special Forces came in and took him away."
'I called Akar's wife on the military phone line'
Türkkan said that Abdullah Erdoğan could be the one who escorted Hulusi Akar to the exit. He said:
“He might have gotten in the same helicopter with him. They told me: ‘You will not come.’ I stayed there and secured the office. We packed up commander’s personal stuff, put them in his bag and left his bag there. I was always at the office that night. There were no visitors. I had Cpt. Serdar and Master Sgts. Serhat and Şener with me. We sat and watched the events on TV. We didn’t talk about anything, we just waited. After the commander was taken away, Commander Dişli called me on the phone. He told me that he wanted me to call the commander's wife. I called her on the military phone line. I told her: 'Our commander is okay, there aren’t any problems,’ in order to comfort her. She was crying on the phone. I also told her: ‘No one came to the office that night’, but Col. Yıkılkan was in the special principal clerk’s room. Actually, a lot of people were entering the room. At some point, the coup attempt was being organized in that room, but later on, from the news on the television and from what was being talked about, I realized that the main activity was organized at Akıncı Air Base. In my department, there was no brawl, conflict or injury at headquarters."
In his statement, Türkkan said that the General Staff’s surroundings were "like the day of Judgment," that civilians had gathered, the police arrived, weapons were fired occasionally and F-16s had made low flights.
'I regret being a member of the Gülen community'
Türkkan said that he learned that the Turkish Grand National Assembly was bombed from television. He said:
"I started to feel regret upon learning that bombs had exploded and civilians were being hurt. What was happening sounded like a massacre. It was done by my community that I thought was working for the cause of God. In the morning, around 9:00 a.m., the corridor in the headquarters was filled with those who participated in the coup. Everybody was talking and saying: “We have failed. We are surrendering.” Brig. Gen. Mehmet Partigöç was directing. He asked for personnel from the military prosecutor and the Central Command to surrender. The staff surrendered when those requested came in. Cpt. Serdar and I surrendered 10 minutes after that group. I called Special Forces Commander Zekai Aksakallı on my cellphone. I knew him because he was visiting the office. I told him: 'Commander, let me concede the office to you.' He did not accept and said to surrender with the others. Therefore, we went to the front door with Cpt. Serdar and surrendered to the Special Forces. They took us to Başkent Gym. I didn’t resist in any way while surrendering. I regret it sincerely. I am very sorry, not only for participating in the coup attempt, but also for belonging to the Fethullah Gülen community. I was involved in the events, so I have responsibilities, but I am not a traitor. I would definitely not shoot a civilian or police. And I never did that. I absolutely disapprove of the use of guns on civilians or police, the bombing and the use of tanks during the coup attempt. I am very frank in what I say. I told you everything I know. I would like to point out that I have not been persuaded to say these things. I would like to especially indicate that I was not convinced to talk during the interrogation at the police station. I asked for a piece of paper and a pen and wrote my statement while I was waiting at the police station. No one ever suggested that I give such a statement. In this sense, I would like to take advantage of effective repentance provisions if legally possible. "
