Kazan, Ankara

The same thing happens at every hearing in the ongoing trials on Turkey's July 2016 coup attempt: While the hearing is continuing, someone in the audience in the section reserved for the families of those killed or injured stands up and starts shouting.

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.

"At around 8:00 a.m., we got on a vehicle with the commander and arrived in front of a building belonging to the Americans. The commander went inside and I stayed in the vehicle," an eyewitness said. 

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. 

Turkey's EU Ministry has appealed to the Ankara 4th High Criminal Court to become an intervening party in the case on events at the Akıncı air base during last year's coup attempt on the grounds that the coup plotters were aiming to topple the government and ruin Turkey's ties with the EU. 

First lieutenant Müslim Macit is the pilot with the lowest rank who joined the coup attempt on the night of July 15 at Akıncı Air Base.

The conversations between the 93-0671 tail-numbered F-16 jet's pilot who took off with the code name "Lion 6" and the tower at the Akıncı Air Base were fully recorded. The dialogues happened in the morning of July 16, 2016. It was the last F-16 flight to take off from the base used by the coup plotters. 

With the first anniversary of July 15 approaching, understanding what happened that night at the Akıncı air base carries a particular importance in order to properly reveal the essence of this coup attempt. Because Akıncı airbase is the operational brain center for the July 15, 2016, coup attempt.

One of the generals interned at the General Staff Headquarters during the coup attempt on July 15 is a well-known name to the public: Brig. Gen. Ertuğrulgazi Özkürkçü, the head of the Press and Public Relations Department.

On the night of the coup attempt on July 15, 2016, movement was observed at the Akıncı Air Base, which was used by the coup plotters as a headquarters, particularly in the VIP lounge, just across from the commander room. 

According to statements from Air Maj. Gen. Kubilay Selçuk, one of the defendants of the Akıncı case, the incident occurred a little while after it got dark.