Journalist Cevheri Güven has examined the role of an Air Force lieutenant general who was already in the Marmaris area before the soldiers accused of attempting to assassinate President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived on the night of July 15, 2016.
Lt. Gen. Yılmaz Özkaya, then head of the Air Force Evaluation and Inspection Department, was staying near Marmaris instead of attending a wedding in İstanbul where much of the Air Force leadership had gathered.
As senior commanders at the wedding were detained, Özkaya appeared at the center of military operations around Dalaman and Marmaris.
Güven’s video asks why Özkaya was in this critical location, how he assumed control of decisions involving aircraft and helicopters and why his presence was never subjected to the same scrutiny as that of officers later sentenced to life in prison.
Özkaya said he was vacationing at a military facility in Aksaz and learned from television that a military uprising was underway.
He later went to the Dalaman military airfield, contacted commanders in Eskişehir and took steps to prevent unauthorized aircraft from leaving the area.
He also instructed personnel not to provide fuel to helicopters that arrived after the attack near Erdoğan’s hotel.
The helicopters belonged to the unit led by Brig. Gen. Gökhan Şahin Sönmezateş, whose members were later convicted of attempting to assassinate Erdoğan.
However, testimony in the Marmaris trial revealed that Özkaya’s role went beyond refusing fuel.
Former pilot Lt. Col. Davut Uçum told the court that Özkaya ordered two F-16s to take off and shoot down the helicopters carrying the team.
The pilots initially refused because Özkaya lacked direct authority and had not provided a written order.
Uçum said Özkaya then contacted the Combined Air Operations Center in Eskişehir to secure authorization.
The F-16s were eventually cleared for takeoff, but the helicopters had left the area by then.
“Someone wanted to kill these helicopters and this team,” Uçum told the court.
UNIDENTIFIED TEAM REPORTED BEFORE ACCUSED SOLDIERS ARRIVED
Güven also examines accounts indicating that armed personnel and helicopters were present near Erdoğan’s hotel before Sönmezateş and his team arrived.
The soldiers prosecuted in the Marmaris case reached the area at around 3 a.m., hours after Erdoğan had left.
Yet police officers and other witnesses described helicopter noise, gunfire and armed men near the hotel before that team arrived.
Güven argues that this earlier activity raises questions about whether another unit was sent to the area and whether the deaths of two police officers were automatically attributed to the soldiers who arrived later.
The identity of the earlier personnel, their point of departure and the orders they received were never established in court.
Özkaya’s presence becomes more significant within this timeline.
He was a senior Air Force commander positioned near the scene, communicated with military operations centers and sought to have the later helicopters destroyed before their crews could be detained and questioned.
ÖZKAYA LATER LED AIR FORCE INVESTIGATION
After July 15, Özkaya headed the Air Force panel assigned to investigate the events.
The resulting report did not resolve questions about unidentified helicopters reported around Dalaman and Marmaris.
Records concerning the night also contained unexplained date changes, missing radio communications and gaps in radar information.
Some entries concerning July 15 were recorded under July 17, while air traffic recordings from several towers were reported missing.
The same commander whose actions required investigation was therefore placed in charge of examining the evidence.
Güven’s video also addresses the failure of F-16 pilots to immediately obey the order to attack the helicopters, the disappearance of flight records and the presence of other military figures near Erdoğan’s hotel.
The central question is why a senior Air Force commander was positioned at the most disputed location of July 15, assumed control of critical operations, tried to have potential witnesses in the helicopters killed and then helped oversee the investigation into the same events.
