Talu, who joined hands with pro-junta soldiers on the night of July 15, was at the General Staff Headquarters to support them. Claiming that he was not involved in the coup at the investigation initiated after the coup attempt. Talu did not experience any intervention, unlike the commanders who were detained at the headquarters.
Talu asserted that after hearing the sound of gunfire on the night of insurgency, he locked himself up in his room and waited there until 01:00 p.m. However, surveillance camera footage of the General Staff Headquarters which were examined as part of the investigation, revealed that he left his room around 01:00 a.m. and escorted putschist soldiers to the command floor. Talu was arrested on charges of violating the Constitution, attempting to assassinate and assault the President, committing crimes against the legislative body and the government, establishing or managing an armed organization, and committing murder.
According to Talu, in the testimony he gave to the public prosecutor of the Bureau of Investigation of Crimes Committed against the Constitution, Talu stated that he gave some information to the Chief of General Staff, General Hulusi Akar and Deputy Chief of General Staff, Yaşar Güler at their offices on the evening of July 15. He continued, "When I exited the office of the Deputy Chief of General staff and approached the checkpoint, I saw that a group from the Special Forces Commandership entered the office of the Deputy Chief of General Staff and I guessed that another group was going to the office of the Chief of General Staff. I was worried as the group was running to the office and it was around 08:50 p.m. and I immediately entered my office."
Talu, who was a lieutenant general at the date of the crime and who was expelled from the Turkish Armed Forces following the coup attempt, stated that they did not duly leave the headquarters before the Chief of General Staff and the Deputy Chief of General Staff had officially left the General Staff's headquarters. He stated that he, Chief of General Staff, and Deputy Chief of General Staff were at the headquarters around 08:30 p.m. on the night of the coup attempt, adding that executive assistant of chief of staff, Major Fatih Koç and his aide Bayram Aydemir were on duty at that same time.
Talu continued, “There was General Staff Legal Counsellor Brigadier General Hayrettin Kaldırımcı and Military Prosecutor Major Kurtuluş Kaya in my office around 08:30 p.m. These two people came to talk about the files of Colonel Mustafa Dağlı, who would be arrested on charges of being a Fetullah Terror Organization (FETÖ)- member at the Army Aviation Commandership, and Battalion Commander Major Deniz … The Chief of General Staff called me to his office around 08:30 p.m. He wanted the career summary of Dağlı and Deniz. When I went to his office upstairs, National Intelligence Organization (MIT) Undersecretary Hakan Fidan was there. I shared the information with the commander and showed the overall list to him. Fidan told the Chief of General Staff, ‘Yes, these are the people we know.’ I stayed nearly five minutes at the commander’s office.”
"I was worried, I just got into my office"
When I came out of the office of the Chief of General Staff, Fidan was there. Later, I entered the office of the Deputy Chief of General Staff Yaşar Güler. I gave the same oral report to him as well. Then we went to the office. When I exited the office of the Deputy Chief of General staff and approached the checkpoint, I saw that a group from the Special Forces Commandership entered the office of the Deputy Chief of General Staff and I guessed that another group was going to the office of the Chief of General Staff. I was worried as the group was running to the office and as it was around 08:50 p.m. And I immediately entered my office."
"We evaluated it was conducted by the Fetullahist group”
“Brigadier General Hayrettin Kaldırımcı, Military Prosecutor Major Kurtuluş Kaya, and Judge Colonel Mehmet Oğuz Akkuş were all at my office. I told my aide, ‘There is mobility in the upstairs. Lock the door from inside and turn off the lights.’ I turned on the television. After a while, we began hearing sounds of gunshots from around the General Staff Headquarters. I looked through the window and saw tanks and their shots. Also, I heard plane and helicopter sounds from above the headquarters. I and my office guests evaluated that the coup attempt was staged by the Fetullahist group.”
Acording to Talu, Akkuş and Kaya, they went to the office of Brigadier General Uğur Şahin around 01:00 a.m and his aide stayed at his office. He said he thought that the executive assistant of the chief of staff, Major Fatih Koç, had been arrested. However, he learned around 10:00 a.m. that he spent the night at the operations center of the General Staff. He argued that he had phoned 2nd Army Commander General Adem Huduti, Aegean Army Commander General Abdullah Recep and 3rd Army Commander General İsmail Serdar Savaş and told them that, “the coup had nothing to do with the General Staff.”
"I do not know why I was allowed"
In response to the question of why he had not called 1st Army Commander General Ümit Dündar, who had a firm stance against the coup, Talu said, “I called him by phone, but could not reach him. I spoke to his aide, who told me that the army commander was in a safe place.”
Talu stated that he had understood that a coup attempt was taking place while he was watching the incidents on the television. He had then evaluated that the coup attempt was staged by Fetullahist soldiers who infiltrated the Turkish Armed Forces. He was reminded that General Dündar had announced on television on the night of the coup attempt. He announced that the coup attempt had not been staged within the command chain of the Turkish Armed Forces. Then, he was asked, “Although you were the highest-ranking military officer at the General Staff Headquarters during the coup attempt and knew that the offices of Chief of General Staff and Deputy Chief of General Staff had been raided during the coup attempt, why did you not share this information with the media; that their offices had been raided?”
Talu answered, “I did not have weapons with me and soldiers at my command. If I had made such a statement, they would have neutralized me in my office. So, this is why I did not make a statement.”
During the interrogation, it was said to Talu that high-ranking commanders, who had not acted in unison with the coup makers at the Air Forces Command and the Naval Forces Command, had not been accepted into the headquarters, and the commanders at the headquarters had been seized and kidnapped. He was asked why he had been at the General Staff headquarters on the night of the coup, although two higher-ranking generals, Chief of General Staff and Deputy Chief of General Staff had been there. He answered, “I do not know why I was allowed to stay at the headquarters.”
"We surrendered to the soldiers at the headquarters"
He was asked why executive assistant to the chief of staff, Major Fatih Koç, stayed at the armed forces operations center of the General Staff Building until the next morning, although he was not authorized to do so. He claimed, “I do not know how he entered the operations center and what he did there. In the hours I stayed there, I called the operations center several times, but my calls were not answered.”
He said, “I know Fetullah Gülen from the media and did not meet with him. I went to Washington from 2006 to 2009, but did not go to Pennsylvania. For me, Fetullah Gülen is the greatest source of discord managed by foreign forces. I was not involved in the coup activity, I do not accept these accusations.”
Talu stated that he left his office around 01:00 p.m. the next day (Saturday), adding that he understood from his telephone messages, that he received during the night, that Brigadier General Mehmet Partigöç and Staff Colonel Cemil Turan, had a part in the incidents. According to Talu, he then called Partigöç and asked what had been happening.
He said, “I told him on the phone around 11:00. a.m. that ‘I spoke to the Chief of General Staff. The personnel who were involved in the coup in Akıncılar will surrender without engaging in a conflict. You also surrender.’ Then civilian prosecutor and commandership staff came. We, the soldiers at the headquarters, surrendered. I was not involved in the coup. I am innocent.”
Talu claimed that he was not a Fetullahist, but someone who struggled against Fetullahists. He was reminded that he would remain the Chief of Personnel of General Staff according to the assignment list of putschists. He answered, “I have no intervention in this assignment. I am already maintaining the same task.”
