Five Turkish pilots who played a critical role to foil the controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016 have been suspended from their duties, they were detained and questioned over their links to the Gülen movement, according to a report by Cumhuriyet daily on Tuesday.
Accoridng to the report, the Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office has deepened an investigation into alleged members of the Gülen movement and also probed the five pilots, identified as B.T., S.A., F.Ö., A.A. and A.O.U, who used fighter jets departed from the airbases in Afyon, Eskişehir, Erzurum and Diyarbakır to struggle against the putschists and forced the fighter jets used by the putschists to land.
These five pilots, who were detained and questioned on their alleged Gülen links, were then released on judicial probation. The pilots, who were also reportedly participated in the military operations in Syria and northern Iraq, were suspended from their duties.
The report stated that following the instructions of then-Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım “to force flying fighter jets in Ankara to land and shoot them if necessary,” F-16 pilots S.A. and F.Ö. departed in Afyon airbase and bombarded the Akıncı Airbase in Ankara, where was allegedly used by the putschists as a headquarters.
Following the controversial coup attempt was foiled, the helicopter which was planned to move Gen. Akın Öztürk from Akıncılar Airbase was hit by the same pilots. The pilots, identified as S.A. and F.Ö., also forced the F-16 fighters flying over Ankara skies to land through a dog fight.
Also an F-16 fighter jet, departed from Erzurum and used by a pilot, who was also later detained, identified as B.T., reportedly forced an F-16 fighter jet, which bombarded the garden of the Presidential Palace in Ankara, to land.
An F-4 fighter jet, which was used by a pilot identified as A.A., departed from Eskisehir and bombarded the Akıncı Airbase, where was under the control of the putschists, in order to prevent them to fly new fighter jets.
An F-16 fighter jet, used by a pilot identified as A.O.U., which departed from an airbase in Diyarbakır, was also able to force an F-16 fighter, which allegedly bombarded the Turkish Parliament, to land.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Turkey have been the subject of legal proceedings in the last two years on charges of membership in the Gülen movement since the coup attempt in July 2016, a Turkish Justice Ministry official told a symposium on July 19, 2018.
“Legal proceedings have been carried out against 445,000 members of this organisation,” Turkey’s pro-government Islamist news agency İLKHA quoted Turkish Justice Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Ömer Faruk Aydıner as saying.
Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Turkey has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July 15. On December 13, 2017 the Justice Ministry announced that 169,013 people have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup.
Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced on April 18, 2018 that the Turkish government had jailed 77,081 people between July 15, 2016 and April 11, 2018 over alleged links to the Gülen movement.
The post Five Turkish pilots, who prevented putschists in 2016, suspended, detained over links to Gülen movement appeared first on Stockholm Center for Freedom.
from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/five-turkish-pilots-who-prevented-putschists-in-2016-suspended-detained-over-links-to-gulen-movement/
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