The denial strategy of Turkey's coup suspects

In Ankara this week I closely followed the defense and questioning of Ahmet Tosun, one of the most critical suspects in the Akıncı Air Base case trial.

Staff captain Tosun, who was discharged from the army with a state of emergency decree law after the coup attempt, is one of the two coup plotting officers who gave the order to the F-16 aircrafts taking off from the Akıncı Base on the night of July 15, 2016. He gave that order from the transmitter on the main table of the 141st Fleet at the base. 

According to the indictment, Tosun gave detailed instructions about where the aircrafts will land, at which fleet they would fly, where they would bomb, and even what type of bomb they would use.

But none of these instructions were a result of decisions by Tosun. They were reported to him over the telephone by Staff Colonel Ahmet Özçetin at the 143rd Fleet, which was the central chain of command hub of the coup attempt. Tosun forwarded these orders to the pilots.

Fleet transmitters record every speech automatically in the system room, and the indictment includes 14 pages of Tosun's transcripts. Tosun's conversations with the pilots match exactly with the reality of what happened above Ankara on the night of the coup attempt.

In the recording at 11:15 p.m. on the evening of July 15, when the pilot Ekrem Aydoğdu, flying over the Security General Directorate Aviation Department in Gölbaşı, asked Tosun whether they should shoot a helicopter taking on fuel for probable flight, Tosun answered as follows: "If you see movement, shoot." Three minutes later on the record Aydoğdu states: "One helicopter is destroyed." In response, Tosun answers: "All right, thank you." Indeed, the helicopter in front of the Security General Directorate was...