Journalist Cevheri Güven has accused former Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor Kamil Erkut Güre of manufacturing a coup case against Lt. Gen. İbrahim Yılmaz to portray himself as a hero of Turkey’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt.
Yılmaz, then commander of the 7th Army Corps in Diyarbakır, was imprisoned for about three years before his conviction was overturned and he was acquitted of all charges.
Güre, who died of a heart attack in April 2022, had taken office in Diyarbakır shortly before the coup attempt.
The case against Yılmaz centered in part on his arrival at the Diyarbakır courthouse with military personnel during the early hours of July 16.
Prosecutors portrayed the visit as an attempt to occupy the courthouse, claiming that Güre’s resistance forced Yılmaz and the soldiers accompanying him to withdraw.
Evidence presented during the trial told a different story.
The provincial police chief testified that Yılmaz had been summoned to the courthouse to help coordinate operations involving the 8th Main Jet Base and other military units.
Full security camera footage reportedly showed Güre greeting Yılmaz at the entrance to his office, their protection officers sitting together and drinking tea and Yılmaz leaving the courthouse with a prosecutor.
Güre and the police chief later followed Yılmaz to the 7th Army Corps headquarters.
Despite this evidence, Yılmaz was convicted of assisting the coup attempt and sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison.
The Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the conviction, finding no concrete evidence that Yılmaz had participated in the attempted takeover. A Diyarbakır court acquitted him of all four charges in 2020.
Güven argues that Güre transformed a meeting he had requested into an alleged military occupation to strengthen his public image as a prosecutor who had resisted the coup attempt.
Güven also alleged that Güre worked with former members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party to seize the property of businesspeople in Diyarbakır and was responsible for the detention of thousands of soldiers after July 15.
The case of İbrahim Yılmaz shows how an official story promoted immediately after the coup attempt survived for years despite evidence that later led the courts to clear the accused commander.
