Journalist Ahmet Nesin has questioned whether then Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar was involved in preparations for Turkey’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt before abandoning the alleged plot and presenting himself as a hostage.
Nesin based his allegation on what he described as frequent meetings before July 15 between Akar and Air Force Maj. Gen. Kubilay Selçuk, one of the senior officers later convicted in the main coup trial.
Selçuk was commander of the 2nd Main Jet Base in Çiğli, İzmir, at the time. He traveled to Ankara on July 15 and was found at Akıncı Air Base, where prosecutors said the air operations connected to the coup attempt were directed.
Akar was also taken to Akıncı that night.
Under Ankara’s official account, soldiers detained Akar at General Staff headquarters, took him to the base by force and pressured him to assume leadership of the coup. Akar said he refused and was later released.
Nesin argues that Akar’s alleged contacts with Selçuk before July 15 require scrutiny because Selçuk was among the officers in the room with Akar at Akıncı.
The journalist asked whether the meetings concerned preparations for a military intervention and whether Akar later withdrew his support, allowing the other officers to be prosecuted while he emerged as a central figure in the government’s account of resistance to the coup.
“Did Hulusi Akar sell out his own coup?” Nesin asked.
Defendants and witnesses said Akar appeared to exercise authority, held meetings with generals and communicated through officers moving in and out of the room.
Akar maintained that he was held hostage and acted only to stop the attempted takeover.
Nesin argues that the dispute cannot be resolved without the release of Akar’s meeting calendar, telephone records, security footage and communications with Selçuk and other officers before July 15.
Until those records are examined through an independent process, he says, the possibility that Akar knew more about the attempted coup than he has acknowledged will remain an unanswered question.
