A Turkish opposition lawmaker has alleged that Defense Minister Fikri Işık met Adil Öksüz in Sakarya on the night of July 14, 2016, one day before the coup attempt in Turkey.
Eren Erdem, an İstanbul lawmaker for the Republican People’s Party (CHP), made the allegation during an appearance on Tele1. He said footage of the meeting existed and that the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) knew who possessed it. Erdem did not release the alleged footage or present other evidence publicly.
The allegation is significant because Turkish prosecutors accuse Öksüz, then a theology lecturer at Sakarya University, of coordinating the air force component of the coup attempt. That accusation has not been established through a credible, independent process. Öksüz was detained near Akıncı Air Base on the morning after the attempted coup but was released under judicial supervision two days later. His whereabouts remain unknown.
Journalist Adem Yavuz Arslan drew attention to Işık’s movements on July 14 after locating an interview in which the defense minister described meeting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Marmaris that day.
“We had a program on Wednesday, July 13,” Işık said. “The following day, Thursday, the president summoned me to Marmaris so that we could make an assessment concerning the Supreme Military Council, one day before the coup. We went to Marmaris on Thursday, and from there I traveled to Kocaeli.”
The Supreme Military Council, commonly known by its Turkish abbreviation YAŞ, makes decisions concerning senior military appointments, promotions and retirements.
Işık’s account confirms that he met Erdoğan in Marmaris before traveling to Kocaeli. Sakarya, where Erdem alleges the meeting with Öksüz occurred later that night, borders Kocaeli; the two provincial centers are approximately 50 kilometers apart.
That proximity does not prove that Işık met Öksüz. It does, however, make Erdem’s allegation concrete and potentially verifiable through official schedules, security records, vehicle movements, telephone-location data and the footage he says exists.
The Defense Ministry dismissed Erdem’s claim as having “no connection with reality” and described it as “nonsense.” It also announced that legal proceedings had been initiated against the lawmaker. The ministry’s reported response did not disclose Işık’s complete itinerary or address Erdem’s claim that MİT knew who held the alleged footage.
A threat of litigation cannot settle the underlying factual question. The government can do that by releasing Işık’s movements and meeting records for July 14 and explaining whether MİT possesses—or knows the location of—the footage described by Erdem.
