Mustafa Azimetli

Turkish court jailed 337 former pilots and other suspects for life in one of the largest trials stemming from the bloody 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The radio conversations of pilots who participated in the failed July 15, 2016 coup attempt have revealed how critical state institutions were bombed in the capital Ankara. 

On the night of the coup attempt of July 15, 2016, an order from the Akıncı Base was given to the quartet F-16 team that had recently taken off, according to radio records of the 141st fleet at 10:15 p.m.  

"If you detect a move, shoot," went the order.

Hasan Hüsnü Balıkçı who flies with the call sign "ASLAN 5" says, "We are going towards the target and dropping [the bomb]."

Mustafa Azimetli who flies with the call sign "ASLAN 1" says, "Okay," and adds, "May God help you…"

The wish "May God help you" is not communicated in the skies of Northern Iraq in Kandil, but the airspace above the capital Ankara's city center. 

Thirty civilians were among the directors of the failed July 2016 coup at the Akıncı Air Base, which was used as the headquarters of the coup plotters, according to an indictment prepared regarding the coup activities at the base. 

An indictment into the July 2016 coup attempt has revealed that İlhan Talu, one of the high-ranking alleged putschist soldiers, allegedly ordered mobilization earlier than planned after seeing National Intelligence Agency (MİT) chief Hakan Fidan speaking with the top brass. 

Lt.-Gen. Talu was detained on July 16, 2016, one day after the failed coup.