In Turkey’s Failed Coup, Trainees Face the Same Stiff Punishments as Generals


ISTANBUL — Their happiness shines out of the {photograph}: 14 graduates of Turkey’s Air Force Academy celebrating their completion of a flight coaching program with an image collectively in entrance of a fighter jet.

Within months, all however one in every of the group can be in jail, accused of becoming a member of a 2016 coup try that introduced blood to the streets and threw the nation into turmoil from which it has but to emerge. Last November, 13 of them — the different was not on base, as a result of he was getting married — were found guilty of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and sentenced to life in jail, their navy careers and their desires of flying F-16s dashed.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confronted down the coup try and cracked down onerous in the aftermath, imposing a state of emergency for 2 years, detaining 100,000 folks and purging 150,000 public staff from their jobs. More than 8,000 navy personnel have been prosecuted for his or her half in the riot, together with greater than 600 trainees, cadets and conscripts — most of their early 20s — whose misfortune was to have been given orders that evening.

Their destiny has been largely neglected in Turkey, the place authorities rhetoric towards the coup perpetrators is strident and households and legal professionals of the defendants have been scared to talk out. But after the 13 have been sentenced to life in jail — 12 of them receiving “aggravated life,” the harshest type of life sentence, with out parole — a few of their households determined to interrupt their silence.

“We were not expecting them to be acquitted, to be honest, but we were expecting them to be released at least,” stated Kezban Kalin, whose son Alper, 30, was amongst these sentenced. “But aggravated life?”

At first, the trainee pilots and their households had trusted in the system, partially as a result of Turkey’s historical past has been plagued by coups and lower-ranking troops had by no means been held accountable in such a means.

“When it comes to a coup, it is at the level of generals,” stated Ali Kalin, Alper’s father, who’s himself a retired military sergeant. “I want to emphasize the injustice. What did they do?” he stated of the trainees.

In the summer time of 2016, the group had simply arrived at Turkey’s Akinci Air Base outdoors Ankara, the capital, to begin coaching on F-16 fighter jets — the pinnacle of a 10-year navy schooling. On July 15, they have been referred to as in to the base take an English examination and have been then informed to face by to watch a counterterrorism operation.

But Akinci air base turned out to be the headquarters of the coup plotters, a set of navy personnel and civilians who that night ordered troops to grab management of key installations, planes to bomb Parliament and a unit of commandos to seize Mr. Erdogan.

The president evaded seize, and in a cellphone interview with a tv station, he referred to as on members of the public to face down the putsch. By morning, troops loyal to the authorities had regained management and attacked Akinci air base, detaining lots of these concerned.

The trainee pilots had been largely unaware of what was happening, in accordance with their statements to investigators and in court docket, which the authorities challenged and which couldn’t be independently verified.

Their cellphones had been taken away — which was regular throughout a navy operation — and the tv had been faraway from the mess corridor the place they spent a lot of the evening sitting round, they stated. They moved chairs, made tea. Some stood guard on the again entrance to the squadron constructing, and three have been despatched to the entrance gate and handed rifles, though the court docket discovered that they’d not used them.

As the base got here below hearth from particular forces troops, the trainees have been informed to go away, which most of them did round Eight a.m., driving their very own vehicles. Alper Kalin arrived dwelling scared and exhausted, however his dad and mom reassured him.

“I did not think anything would happen to those trainees,” Ali Kalin stated. “They did not use firearms. They were not involved in anything — just Akinci base was their place of duty.”

Eleven days later, the group was referred to as again to the base to present testimony about the occasions, they usually have been instantly detained. Within hours, their names had appeared on a listing of personnel purged from the navy.

That was a bombshell for the trainees and their households from which they’re nonetheless reeling. The pilots have been in detention ever since. When their dad and mom and siblings tried to seek out them at police stations and military bases, they encountered insults and abuse. From being proud dad and mom of celebrated navy achievers, instantly they have been branded traitors and terrorists.

“I did not go to the hearings,” stated Sumeyra Soylu, 25, whose brother Ali was one in every of the 13 detained. “There was a certain group of people, known as the plaintiffs, who were cursing and swearing loudly at the relatives of the defendants, and he didn’t want us ever to hear them.”

Then adopted 4 and a half years of authorized proceedings as prosecutors indicted greater than 500 defendants in the Akinci base trial. In a courtroom the measurement of a sports activities enviornment at Sincan, outdoors Ankara, 80 trainee pilots went on trial alongside senior commanders and civilians accused of main the coup. The United States-based Islamic preacher, Fethullah Gulen, was charged in absentia of being the mastermind.

Mr. Erdogan was listed amongst the victims of the occasions and was represented all through the trial by his lawyer, Huseyin Aydin, who typically clashed with the defendants and their legal professionals.

“The target of the crime of breach of Constitution that many defendants, including the trainee lieutenants, were charged with was President Erdogan,” Mr. Aydin stated in written solutions to questions from The New York Times.

The trainees have been charged with being members of a terrorist group, attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, homicide and tried homicide, since eight civilians died in clashes at the entrance of the base. But the prosecution didn’t produce proof that implicated them in the coup plot or the clashes that occurred, their lawyer stated. The lawyer requested to not be named to keep away from authorized repercussions for himself.

As trainee officers, they’re nonetheless present process their schooling and might solely take orders, not challenge them, he stated. Akinci base was their administrative center, so that they shouldn’t be thought-about responsible merely for being current there, and their very own commanders testified in court docket that the trainees had performed no half in the occasions, he stated. Yet in the finish, they have been convicted, together with all of the others current at the base that evening, of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order.

“The top commander received the same sentence. The lowest-level soldier received the same sentence,” Ms. Kalin stated. “How is that possible?”

Mr. Aydin stated that trainee pilots had supplied assist providers that evening to the coup plotters rather than the common workers, together with transporting pilots and guarding buildings and captives. “There is no doubt that the trainee pilots contributed to the coup attempt,” he stated, including that the conviction was not closing and nonetheless needed to undergo the enchantment course of.

Many Turks opposed the coup. But as the crackdown has continued for greater than 4 years and swept up many with no connection to the occasions surrounding it, they’ve change into deeply sad with the state of justice.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the chief of Turkey’s largest opposition social gathering, supported Mr. Erdogan towards the coup plotters however has since accused him of orchestrating a civilian coup when he rounded up tens of hundreds of political opponents, lecturers, legal professionals and journalists who had nothing to do with the coup try.

The purges in the armed forces have been systematic, rooting out complete items and conducting yearly roundups. Only two pilots stay in the air pressure from the class of 2010, to which the group of 13 belonged, stated a former classmate who was amongst these purged.

Mr. Kalin, who served a lot of his profession in the gendarme, stated: “Our trust in the law, in the courts, in justice, in the state, in the government fell to zero. Even below zero.”

By now, the purges and prosecutions have included hundreds in the navy — officers and cadets alike.

“Is it OK to darken the lives of that many people without discriminating between the innocent and the guilty?” stated Hatice Ceylan, whose son Burak, 29, is amongst the 13 trainees sentenced. “They are just children. There are plenty like my son, rotting in jail.”



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