The head of the General Staff Personnel Planning Department, Brig. Gen. Mehmet Partigöç, is one of the prominent figures of the July 15 coup attempt. Partigöç, who is part of the think-tanks who prepared the coup, is the person who prepared the 20-item Operation Lightning Bolt martial law order in which there were appointments and lists.
On July 15th, putschist soldiers logged on to the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) messaging system from the General Staff Headquarters and sent the declaration of martial law, which included the signatures of Col. Cemil Turan and Partigöç, to the troops under their command. The main purpose of the putschists was to release the declaration after getting the signature of Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar. Akar's refusal to sign the coup declaration changed the putschist’s plan to involve the chain of command.
The Ankara Public Prosecutor's Office, investigating the bloody FETÖ coup attempt, revealed that, Partigöç, Brig. Gen. Erhan Caha, Rear Adm. Irfan Arabacı (fugitive), Staff Col. İlhan Karasu, Brig. Gen. Faruk Bal and Capt. Mustafa Şaban Gümüşiğne were the brains of the putschists’ Peace at Home Council. Partigöç, who was at the General Staff Command on the evening of the coup attempt, was detained on charges of preparing the coup plot, violating the Constitution, committing crimes against the legislative body, and the government and establishing or managing a military terrorist organization.
The statement given to the prosecutor's office by Partigöç, who signed the Operation Lightning Bolt declaration and who was appointed by the putschists as responsible for the General Staff Command, said:
"I generally leave work around 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. I was sitting in my office on the day of the event. I heard a noise and I went out to the garden around 8:00 p.m. There was a hustle, they said it was a drill. On the way back to my office, I learned that the branch chief, Cemil Turan, was looking for me at the entrance of the building. Cemil Turan told me during a meeting that we had on an official phone lineDeputy Chief of General Staff Yaşar Güler's aide, Maj. Mehmet, brought orders for sending several messages. I went to the office of the Deputy Chief of General Staff to get confirmation. He was not there. When I asked Special Principal Clerk Bünyamin Tuncer where he was, he said that there is now an uncertain situation and that he was taken out of the barracks. Then I told branch chief Cemil Turan to fulfill whatever his command is.
Tunceli Hozat Motorized Infantry Brigade Commander Brig. Gen. Abdulkerim Ünlü, who was appointed by the Peace at Home Council as Elazığ martial law commander, said in his statement: "I was on leave in Ankara. On July 14, and I met with the head of the General Staff Personnel Department, Brig. Gen. Mehmet Partigöç, in the military lodgings. Partigöç told me that I was in charge as the Elazığ martial law commander for the July 15 coup attempt and gave me the coup memorandum and a list of the personnel that I would work with. I don’t have any connections with FETÖ. I terminated my relations with the Gülen community in 2015."
Partigöç, who said that he saw military personnel wearing military uniforms in the garden when he went outside after the noise he heard, said: "I warned them. I went to Col. Cengiz, who is the commander of the support troops responsible for the security of the military lodging, and asked him what the situation was. He said he didn’t know. He said that he warned him it might not be friendly fire.
"We examined camera footage"
Partigöç, who explained that later on he and Col. Cengiz went to the camera recording room of the military lodging and examined them, said:
"I saw the chief of staff through the camera. He was heading toward the helicopter pad with a general and two guards. Then I went to my own office first, and then I went to the office of the chief of General Staff, which was located on the same floor. I did not enter the commander's room. I sat in a chair next to the aide."
Lt. Fahri Kafkas, team commander in the General Staff Support Troops Group Command, said in his statement: “I did not see how they took the deputy chief of General Staff out. Partigöç came back to the Monitoring Center. They said they had relocated the chief of General Staff to a safe place. In the meantime, Partigöç, called YAŞ [Supreme Military Council] member Akın Öztürk, and said: ‘We have relocated the commander to Akıncı Air Base. You should also go there.’ After finishing the call, he said to the group commander that they should provide environmental safety in case people enter the headquarters. On his way out, he said to a private soldier and a couple of high ranking personnel whose arms were tied were located at the pita oven area, who were made to wait there by the Special Forces Personnel: ‘I will give instructions, they will be released, you will take them safely to the barricades.’
“Partigöç said, "We discussed the situation with the Chief of General Staff Principal Clerk Ramazan Göze and aide, Maj. Levent. Afterward, I called the General Staff Operations Center and I asked them. They told me that they continued doing their own business and that there was no change in their situation. Later on, I called Akıncı Air Base Operations Center around 10:00 p.m. They told me that our commander was there. From that time on, I followed the news in the media."
Lt. Fahri Kafkas, the team commander in the General Staff Support Troops Group Command, said in his statement: “After a while, Partigöç and Lt. Col. Gökhan Eski came to the Monitoring Center. They knocked on the door, we opened and they entered. Partigöç was texting on his cellphone. When Group Commander Cengiz Aydın asked what the situation was, Partigöç, said: ‘We have been hearing things about the security of our commanders for about a week. We heard that they were to be arrested by the government. We'll move before them and we’ll send our commanders to a safe place. The public may be agitated after you relocate the commanders. The safety of the General Staff and its surroundings must be ensured.’ "
Lt. Col. Levent Türkkan, assistant to Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar, said in his statement: “Türkkan said that it was the morning after the events, and that Orhan Yıkılkan was still in a meeting with Mehmet Partigöç at Akıncı Air Base, that he was organizing things like where the helicopters would land and from where the ammunition would be taken. Türkkan reported that there were 30 to 40 people with them on the night of July 15, besides his close team, including Ahmet Binbaşı from Special Principal Personnel, National Defense Minister Special Principal Clerk Col. Tevfik, Mehmet Partigöç and Col. Cemil Turan.”
Later on, Partigöç asserted that he commanded personnel of the support troops and of the Special Forces that there should be no conflict, he said: "The commander of the Support Troops told me that he assigned personnel responsible for environmental safety. Later on, three or four armored vehicles arrived at the General Staff district. I gave the order to take armored vehicles inside ordering not to harm people. They took the vehicles inside.” Partigöç said that he went to his office afterward and followed the news on the media until morning.
‘The prosecutor from the army called me’
Partigöç’s said that his superior, Lt. Gen. Ilhan Talu’s aide called him on the phone. Then he continued:
"Talu said that the situation had developed in a different way [as expected] and that negotiations should be held with those at the General Staff Headquarters. He said that he had orders implying the General Staff personnel should lay down their arms and leave the barracks. I told the situation to the Support Troops commander. He said that he gathered private and noncommissioned officers and that they would leave orderly. When I went to the command echelon’s floor at 10:30 p.m., I saw that Special Forces personnel were deployed. I called the seniors among them. I delivered them the order from the chief of General Staff, and they said they would evaluate it among them. After a while, they called me and said that they accepted it and they would go out. I talked to Lt. Gen. Ilhan Talu again and asked him how we would carry out the process. He said a prosecutor will come to the main entrance and call me.
Partigöç said that the prosecutor called him from the main entrance of the General Staff Command and told him that they should take off their clothes, lay down their weapons and leave. Partigöç said that the Special Forces personnel did not accept it and said that they wanted to go out with their pants and shirts on. Partigöç said that the prosecutor accepted this and Special Forces personnel left the building after placing their arms in sight. They also had eight to 10 headquarters' personnel with them.
‘I didn’t receive any instructions’
Partigöç, telling that later he called the prosecutor again, also said:
"The prosecutor asked me to come as well, so I went to the main entrance. The rest of the personnel were on the buses and the prosecutor separated me from them. He introduced me to the commander of the Special Forces there. He asked: 'What is the situation?' I said: 'The Special Forces have left.’ I was in the prosecutor’s car. Later, the police took me away and I got on the bus. I do not have any relation to the coup attempt. I know of Fetullah Gülen as far as I heard from the media. I am not involved with Fetullah. I didn’t go to their homes, I didn’t go to their private teaching institutions when I was a student. Sometimes there are allegations in the army related to people involved with Fetullah, I, personally, don’t know anything. I didn’t witness anything. I know about these allegations due to my job, and I examine them. Usually, we try to confirm with MİT and police sources. We present these to our own authorities. There has never been anyone that we designated as a Fetullah supporter. However, we wanted suspicious people to be removed from critical posts."
Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar’s aide, Lt. Col. Levent Türkkan said that when it was morning, they started to say: "Let's surrender, the attempt has failed," and that the same decision was made at Akıncı Air Base. In his statement he said: "Commander Mehmet Partigöç was ineffective that night. I understand now that people who planned the coup, not to say planned per se, but who led it, are the class of ’94, because after all, Mehmet Partigöç is their commander. The general was not involved at this stage while leading all the events, but in the morning when things changed, it seemed like the chain of command was shifting and Commander Mehmet Partigöç was in charge. He became in charge of command. Afterward, he talked to someone from downstairs. He said: ‘We don’t want any civilian prosecutor or civilian police here, we are going to surrender to the military prosecutor from the Central Command.’
“Partigöç emphasized that he didn’t discover anyone from personnel under his command among those who participated in the coup attempt, and said: "I didn’t take any instructions from anyone about the coup attempt, and I did not give any instructions to anyone either. I have no information about coup attempt preparations.”
