TR724 news website has launched the first episode of a seven-part YouTube series examining disputed events before, during and after Turkey’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt.
The series, titled “July 15 Conversations,” focuses on actors, contradictions and unresolved questions surrounding the coup attempt and the crackdown that followed.
The first episode asks what happened on the day the “operation” began and in its aftermath, using the term to refer to the counter-narrative argument that the events of July 15 involved more than the official account has acknowledged.
Topics include events on the Bosporus Bridge in İstanbul, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s stay in Marmaris, the role of then-National Intelligence Organization chief Hakan Fidan, then-chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar and Erdoğan, as well as debates involving Cihat Yaycı, Semih Terzi and Ömer Halisdemir.
The program also discusses the EMASYA military-security framework, the signing of a 60-year extradition agreement, presentations reportedly made to Erdoğan, the actions of Şirin Ünal and the preparation of profiling lists before the coup attempt.
According to the program’s promotional text, one focus is the claim that profiling lists prepared before July 15 contained the same errors as names in the martial law directive issued on the night of the coup attempt.
The episode also examines what it describes as a media-driven perception before July 15 that “the Gülen movement will stage a coup.”
The Gülen movement is a transnational civic initiative inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.
Ankara blames the coup attempt on the movement and designates it as a terrorist organization. The movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
The program further addresses terrorist attacks that paralyzed major cities, particularly Ankara and İstanbul, and intelligence reports reportedly sent by the National Intelligence Organization two days apart warning of an “expected terrorist attack.”
Another subject is the detentions in İzmir over alleged “military espionage,” a case often cited in debates over profiling inside the Turkish Armed Forces before the coup attempt.
The Tr724 series presents itself as an attempt to revisit July 15 through questions that, according to critics of the official narrative, were never fully examined by courts, parliament or the media.
The first episode is available on Tr724’s YouTube channel.
