Following the news of the clashes coming from the General Staff, a coordination center was established at the Çankaya Mansion under the chairmanship of Prime Ministry Undersecretary Fuat Oktay. At the same time, the Ministry of the Interior also called all provincial governorates and provincial police directorates and ordered them to be on red alert. The Ministry of Interior called all policemen for duty and canceled their permits.
At around 10.30 p.m., the ministers started to move toward the Çankaya Mansion. Studies were initiated to take necessary measures in cooperation with the Coordination Center. In the meantime, security officers fired with long-barreled guns at unidentified drones that had started flying over the Çankaya Mansion, and removed them from the area.
As teams from the prime ministry could not contact TRT which had been seized by coup makers, they contacted NTV news channel at 10.56 p.m. under the instruction of Prime Ministry Undersecretary Fuat Oktay, so that Prime Minister would join its live broadcast by phone.
After Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar had been brought to the Akıncı base, gunshots came from the headquarters. Anti-coup soldiers and police officers clashed with putschist soldiers who had seized the General Staff Headquarters. During the clashes, Cobra helicopters opened fire on police officers in front of the General Staff Headquarters which had been seized by putschist soldiers. A number of ambulances stated arriving in front of the headquarters around 10.40 p.m.
Civilians built a ‘human wall’ around the General Staff headquarters
Tanks crushed the people of Ankara
Ambulance sirens heard at the General Staff Headquarters
Chief of Personnel Lieutenant General İlhan Talu, one of the highest-ranking soldiers at the General Staff Headquarters, claimed that he and his companions had locked the door, turned the lights off and hid themselves in his room during the night of the coup.
On July 15, coup troops took the Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar in the Headquarters of the General Staff hostage and seized the headquarters. Akar was taken to the Akıncı 4th Main Jet Base by helicopter. Akar, who was kept there for the night, was rescued by the operation on the morning of July 16 and brought to Çankaya Palace Complex.