Kılıçdaroğlu speaks about coup night

One of the first leaders I spoke to after the July 15, 2016, coup attempt was main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Personally, I believe Kılıçdaroğlu and the CHP as a political party were against the coup without any conditions and with a very clear firm stance. 

As a leader of a party that is remembered with having associations to coups in the past, it was important that Kılıçdaroğlu stood against the coup. It was valuable that CHP deputies rushed to the parliament on the night of the coup and stood beside democracy. 

While Parliament Speaker İsmail Kahraman was opening the historic session, he saw CHP deputies entering the hall. He stepped down the podium, approached them and embraced them with words saying, "Let me give you a democracy hug." 

Keeping the above in mind, let us go back to the night of the coup.  

During the hours when the putschist soldiers were at the Bosphorus Bridge, Kılıçdaroğlu was flying to Istanbul with the 9:50 p.m. flight. He was seated on 1-a, and next to him on 1-b, Deputy Chair of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Hayati Yazıcı was seated. 

The plane touched down the runway of Atatürk Airport at around 11 p.m. While the plane taxied to the boarding field, he turned on his cell phone. His press counselor Okan Konuralp informed him that soldiers were at the Bosphorus Bridge. 

I asked Kılıçdaroğlu what he thought when he heard about this. "When my colleagues told me that the two bridges were closed and that planes were not flying, first I thought they were joking," he said. But I could not sense an atmosphere of jokes. Kılıçdaroğlu realized in a very short time that we were face to face with a coup attempt.

At that point, he...