Former F-16 pilot Aykut Coşkun says in a new book that Turkey’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt turned him from a career officer into a victim of the post-coup purge.
Coşkun, who served for 22 years in uniform and was a major at Konya 3rd Main Jet Base in 2016, tells the story of his years in the Turkish Air Force and the legal violations he says he and his family faced after July 15.
The book, titled Erdoğan’ın “Bizim Mete” dediği Albay: Biz bu darbeyi bir ay sonra bekliyorduk, was published as an e-book in July 2020.
Its subtitle describes it as the account of an F-16 pilot’s experiences before and after July 15.
Coşkun writes that before the coup attempt he had been a successful F-16 pilot who took pride in serving his country and people, even at the expense of his family.
He says the post-coup period turned him into a person “crushed under oppression” in a country that denied him and his family the right to live.
“This book is the story of how I was transformed from a successful F-16 pilot and an officer who wore his uniform with pride for 22 years into a victim crushed under oppression, and of the struggle for survival I waged together with my family,” Coşkun writes.
The book presents the Turkish Air Force’s July 15 period through the eyes of an officer serving at Konya 3rd Main Jet Base, one of the country’s main fighter jet commands.
“In this book, you will find, on one hand, a reflection of the Turkish Air Force’s July 15 period, before and after, as seen through my eyes while I served as a major at Konya 3rd Main Jet Base in 2016,” Coşkun writes. “On the other hand, you will read about the violations of legal rights and helplessness that my family and I endured.”
The account adds to the body of first-person narratives by former Turkish military officers who say the aftermath of the coup attempt was used to purge, prosecute and punish people without individualized evidence.
The Turkish Air Force was one of the branches most affected by the post-coup purge, with fighter pilots among the personnel dismissed, detained or prosecuted after July 15.
Coşkun’s book focuses on that period from inside the force, presenting the purge not only as a professional rupture but as a family ordeal.
The title’s reference to “Bizim Mete,” or “our Mete,” points to Col. Mete Kuş, a military figure whose name appears in debates over what senior officers knew before the coup attempt.
The phrase “We expected this coup one month later” signals one of the book’s central claims: that parts of the military environment before July 15 were more complex than the official account suggests.
The book was released as Turkey continued to mark July 15 through official commemorations while former officers, cadets and their families challenged parts of the government’s narrative in court cases, memoirs and online testimony.
