Incredible claim from former chief aide: 'How Erol Olçok would be killed was discussed in the US'

Ali Yazıcı, the former staff colonel who served as Erdoğan’s chief aide during the coup attempt, was sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment, and has sent various messages to the Palace at almost every hearing, has now claimed that how Erol Olçok—who was martyred alongside his son on July 15—would be killed was discussed at a dinner in the US.

The Court of Cassation’s conclusion, while finalizing the General Staff 'Main Case', that 14 of the 38 members of the so-called Peace at Home Council—who were alleged to have carried out the July 15 coup attempt—were not actually council members, has also affected other cases opened regarding the martyrs and wounded of July 15 concerning these individuals.

Following this finding by the Court of Cassation, it was decided to separate the files of defendants Ali Yazıcı, Ayhan Çarık, Doğan Öztürk, Ertuğrul Terzi, İlhan Talu, Murat Aygün, Osman Ünlü, Ramazan Gözel, Osman Kardal, Ahmet Bican Kırker, Halil Gül, Mehmet Şahin, Özcan Karacan, and Ünsal Coşkun during the fifth session on December 23 of the case being heard on charges of wounding 3,000 of our citizens. After the separation decision, the first hearing was held today by the Ankara 17th High Criminal Court in the courtroom at the Sincan Prison Complex.

At the beginning of the hearing, the Prosecutor requested that the requests to join the case be accepted and that time be granted to prepare the opinion on the merits.

Upon the Prosecutor’s opinion, defendant Ertuğrul Terzi, a former lieutenant colonel who was a battalion commander at the 28th Mechanized Infantry Brigade Command on July 15, stated that there was not a single piece of evidence regarding his membership in the Peace at Home Council, claiming that the 38-person council was created entirely through opinions and assumptions, and said: “By making generalizations, we were held responsible for all deaths and injuries across the country. Without establishing a causal link between the so-called members and the injuries, they wanted to pin it on the so-called council using a wholesale method.”

THEY ACCUSED MUSTAFA ÖNSEL AND ZEKİ ÜÇOK

Former Brigadier General Ahmet Bican Kırker, who was the Head of the Personnel Planning Department of the Land Forces Command during the coup attempt and attended the hearing via SEGBİS from Diyarbakır Prison, explained that he was transferred to Diyarbakır with fabricated, bogus documents, experienced many hardships, and was forced to connect via SEGBİS to avoid being subjected to the same struggles again and to avoid giving up on his family and coming to Ankara, and then said:

“You divided and fragmented the cases. You destroyed the integrity and context of the event. Now you are trying to feed it to the Turkish Nation piece by piece. Fine, hold me responsible for 251 martyrs and 3,000 wounded. And let me hold the responsible parties accountable when the rule of law returns to the country. There is no council. It is already written in the indictment. My case was heard in Etimesgut, and my verdict was given by the Ankara 17th High Criminal Court. You threw everyone into one sack with Mustafa Önsel’s words. You are clipping and cropping to legitimize this conspiracy. The prosecutor practically watched Victoria's Secret and then came back and said ‘council’ again. All these cases must be merged. They took the death, the scene of which was in front of the AKP Headquarters, and stuck it to Etimesgut. The Court of Cassation also approved this slander. Hold me responsible for everything; you did this before, do it again.”

Defendant Murat Aygün, former commander of the Polatlı 58th Artillery Brigade, also stated that he worked with Ahmet Bican Kırker at the General Staff for 3 years, saying, “His grandfather and father were soldiers. His grandfather has a photo with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Gallipoli. I agree with what he said, and I have nothing else to say.”

Ramazan Gözel, a former staff colonel who was the Chief of Staff to General Hulusi Akar on July 15, spoke as follows:

“We were removed from the non-existent council, but more than 60 compensation and foreclosure lawsuits were filed. A verdict was reached without waiting for the outcome of this case. I do not want to be acquitted either. Let the files of the wounded be heard here one by one. Let everyone who wants to join the case join.”

Osman Kardal, a former staff colonel who was in charge of the General Staff Operations Center at the time, noted the following:

“You separated us from the wounding file. Then why are you judging us? When they showed me as a council member, there was no indictment. It was published in the newspapers. My wife lost her job that week and could never return. What happens if you acquit me? I am the only one whose car was seized due to enforcement proceedings. I am proud of this. Why did I spend 6 years as a dangerous prisoner? Because of the Peace at Home Council. What are you judging? Everything is a lie. The decision you made is void because you did not touch the evidence.”

MESSAGES TO ERDOĞAN AND ÖZGÜR ÖZEL

Former staff Colonel Ali Yazıcı, who was Erdoğan’s chief aide on July 15, made the following claims:

“I was beaten for 6 months in prison. I am the President’s greatest protector and supporter. I am one of the 100 people who know him best. I am from Trabzon, what terrorist? If there is a wounded person, it is my family. I will never tell state secrets. I am a chief aide, a staff colonel. A man from Trabzon named Ahmet Zeki Üçok, the man is a foreigner, a non-Muslim. For weeks, he described me as ‘he got the questions and entered.’ Yaşar Güler’s in-law specially chose me and made me secretary general. The Reis chose me. How could I have gotten the questions and entered? Hulusi Akar was meeting with me every week. Since he didn’t say anything against me, I won’t say anything against him either. The man at the head of the main opposition says, ‘They are dealing with families, with children.’ He targeted me in March 2020, and they tortured me that night. I wrote an 8-page letter to Ekrem İmamoğlu, saying, ‘The one who put you in, the one who gave the documents is Özgür Özel.’ You are judging me for 3,000 wounded. Let me not talk about Bakat Village or South Ossetia. You will go to jail tonight too.”

Upon this statement, the Presiding Judge intervened and asked, “Why would I go?”

Yazıcı replied, “If I tell you, they will put you in jail tonight too, so let me not tell,” and continued as follows:

“One day, a chief advisor said, ‘We are going to take him down.’ I asked, ‘What’s going on?’ He said they would bring the person currently at the head of the opposition in his place, but they would finish FETÖ first. When I said, ‘FETÖ will be finished in 2 years,’ he said, ‘No, you don’t understand, commander; we will finish it in 10 years, then we will take him down.’ Should I tell you about Merkel? I know German. Let me not tell you what he told the person next to him, what he told the Reis. Stop torturing my family. I went somewhere with the President twice. If I told you about one, it would explode. I would explode too, that’s another matter. I know the Reis’s private life, his legal life, and his family. Don’t mess with me. I’m not saying cancel my sentence. I want to live like a human being. I want my daughter, whom the Reis named, not to be victimized. I won’t tell you that it was discussed at a dinner in America how Turkey would be parceled out and how Erol Olçok would be killed. The Reis says this: ‘In this country, the people vote, but they don’t determine the government. To rule the country, you have to keep the opposition in your pocket.’”

When defendant Mehmet Şahin said, “Judge us like men,” the Presiding Judge reacted by saying, “You cannot say that. Use more proper expressions,” while former lieutenant colonel Özcan Karacan said, “We were acquitted of the Peace at Home Council. Can I be acquitted of 100 foreclosure files? No, because they don’t accept it. Who will cover my damages, which one will you compensate? There is no Peace at Home Council. So what is there?”

Former Brigadier General Ünsal Coşkun also noted that they had been accused of being members of the Peace at Home Council 10 years ago and had been trampled upon, but that they were not told now that they had been acquitted of council membership.

After the statements of the defendants and their lawyers were completed, the Presiding Judge announced that it had been decided to grant the Prosecutor time to prepare his opinion on the merits, and that the hearing was adjourned to November 3 to receive defenses against the opinion.

Müyesser YILDIZ

June 16, 2025