Özkan Özendi prepared to go into the streets as soon as he heard about the coup attempt on the night of July 15th. He headed to the General Staff Headquarters after the President’s call.
Özendi stood against tanks to stop the putschists that were targeting citizens. He had told his wife that he was okay right before he was shot by the puschists. He was taken to the hospital severely injured but was not able to survive.
He was not able to finish his book
The martyr, born in Ankara in 1961, was his family’s second child and only son. The Özendi family is from Malatya. He was married with 6 children. He had retired from the Ankara Transmission Facility and Operation Group Directorate in February 2010.
Özendi held his first grandchild 3 months before he was martyred. He read his own name into the baby’s ear. When he left his house to resist against the terrorists, there was an open book on Sufism on his desk that was left unfinished.
Özkan Özendi was martyred while holding a Turkish flag, during his fight against traitors in front of the Ankara Parliament Building and General Staff Headquarters. He was buried on July 15th in the Democracy Martyrs’ Graveyard in Karşıyaka, Ankara.
