Comedy at the army aviation base on July 15

The Turkish public still does not have an answer to the question on whether or not the tip off provided by pilot Major O.K. in the early afternoon of July 15, 2016, by personally visiting the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) headquarters, was properly assessed. 

Undersecretary of MİT Hakan Fidan and Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar, upon the warning given by O.K. that "Helicopters will take off from the Army Aviation Command and will kidnap MİT chief," first wanted to confirm the information. 

This is understandable because at several times there were tip offs to MİT for a coup, and each time they proved wrong. Thus, they were cautious. But there is a counter-risk in this line of action: That the tip off is correct and when you cannot confirm it or while trying to confirm it, the coup happens. 

We need to admit that in the incident Turkey experienced on July 15, 2016, the course of action taken to confirm the tip off has been a failure. 

The method for confirmation was the Chief of General Staff sending Land Forces Commander Gen. Salih Zeki Çolak, together with Land Forces Chief of Staff Gen. İhsan Uyar, to the Army Aviation School Command at Güvercinlik. Çolak was tasked with finding out any suspicious activity.  

The real intention of Çolak's visit to the base was "masked." Çolak called the base commander and asked him to prepare a plane for a flight. 

Çolak entered the base at 6:36 p.m. and he phoned Akar at 7:12 p.m., reporting that everything was calm there. He then went to the hangars, spent about an hour there - again hiding his intention. He called Akar for a second time and reported "nothing extraordinary." Akar this time ordered Çolak to "talk to the pilots, have tea with them and try to...