Hürriyet Yüksel, the mother of imprisoned Turkish Air Force Academy student Berat Yüksel, appealed to authorities after her son received an aggravated life sentence in a trial stemming from Turkey’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt.
In a video posted on Twitter, Yüksel said her son had been in prison for 43 months and called on officials to examine their conscience.
“I am addressing the authorities from here,” she said. “Please search your conscience. I entrusted my child to the Air Force Academy. At the Air Force Academy, I did not choose his commanders, and neither did my child. They sent our innocent children into a fire.”
The Air Force Academy was one of Turkey’s military schools that trained officer candidates for the Turkish Air Force. Several academy students were prosecuted after July 15, with families and rights advocates arguing that young cadets had followed orders from commanders and did not know they were being drawn into a coup-related operation.
Yüksel said the students had already spent nearly three and a half years behind bars.
“Our children have been behind bars for 43 months,” she said. “Please, let justice finally come to our Turkey.”
The case is part of the broader dispute over the prosecution of military students after the failed coup. Families of the students have said many cadets were teenagers or young officer candidates who had no authority to issue orders and were taken from military facilities under instructions from their superiors.
Ankara says Turkey’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt was organized by military officers affiliated with the Gülen movement, a transnational civic initiative inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.
Ankara designates the Gülen movement as a terrorist organization and blames it for Turkey’s 2016 coup attempt. The movement denies involvement in the coup or any terrorist activity.
The prosecutions of military students have drawn criticism from relatives who say the young defendants were punished for obeying commanders they had no power to choose or question.
Yüksel said the students had followed commanders they did not choose and appealed to officials for justice.
“I entrusted my child to the Air Force Academy,” she said. “They sent our innocent children into a fire.”
