How can an acquittal be granted in a trial scheduled for 5 months from now?!

Do you remember Cuma Dağ, who was martyred after being decapitated in front of the Presidential Palace during the July 15 coup attempt, and his wife Rukiye Dağ, who became a veteran that same night? Both were geological engineers. There was hardly any official who did not visit Rukiye Dağ’s home to offer condolences following her husband’s martyrdom. After burying her grief deep inside, Rukiye Dağ spent years speaking about “FETÖ” at conferences she attended.

However, when she revealed in an interview during her 2018 candidacy for AKP parliamentary nomination that she had been insulted with the words, “You are a widow. You are divorced from your husband,” she was subjected to numerous verbal attacks. When government ministers and the July 15 Association did not stand by her during these attacks, she rebelled, saying, “If it is a crime to describe the rudeness shown to me by a sea of arrogance, then yes, I am guilty. I am speaking for my husband and myself; we are the fools who went out into the streets that night... If I had known it would be like this, that I would be subjected to a trial by media, I would have just buried my head and slept like some others did.”

Despite this rebellion, Rukiye Dağ continued her fight against the “FETÖ structure” within her own institution, the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), and frequently brought up the fact that certain high-level managers had not been held accountable after July 15.

''HE IS NOT A FETÖ MEMBER, HE IS A MENZİL MEMBER''

One of the individuals Rukiye Dağ accused of being a “FETÖ” member was the then-General Manager of TPAO, B.Ş.

So much so that she even mentioned him to the wife of a top-level bureaucrat at the Palace who had come to her home to offer condolences after July 15, but received the reply, “Our B....? No, he is not a FETÖ member, he is a Menzil member.”

B.Ş. was only dismissed from his post in 2018 and retired in 2023. Rukiye Dağ, however, did not let it go and spoke about him to everyone at every opportunity. Eventually, B.Ş. filed a lawsuit against Dağ for calling him a “FETÖ member.” At the end of the trial, Dağ was sentenced to a judicial fine equivalent to 71 days, and the sentence was suspended for 5 years.

When it came to light last year that B.Ş. was to become the secretary-general of a metropolitan municipality in one of our Southeastern provinces, Rukiye Dağ called the municipal authorities and asked, “How can you appoint a FETÖ member to this position?”

Dağ did not come empty-handed. She had found a statement given in December 2018 by someone named Ö.K., who worked in the Human Resources department at TPAO and had been detained for “FETÖ.” Ö.K., who explained the structure within TPAO by benefiting from effective remorse laws, had also named B.Ş. in his statement. Following Rukiye Dağ’s submission of this statement to the aforementioned metropolitan municipality, the appointment of B.Ş. was abandoned.

''IS IT A CRIME TO CALL A FETÖ MEMBER A FETÖ MEMBER?''

Rukiye Dağ also sent the statement in question from Ö.K. to the authorities who had not believed her or taken any action regarding B.Ş. until then. But she received no results. Upon this, she shared parts of the statement on the LinkedIn social network, hiding Ö.K.’s identity information.

And what happened?

Ö.K. filed a complaint against Rukiye Dağ through the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, to be sent to the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office of the district where he lived.

According to Ö.K., Dağ had committed the crime of “obtaining and disseminating personal information and documents found in TPAO inventory personnel files marked as confidential.”

The District Prosecutor’s Office immediately took Rukiye Dağ’s statement. In her statement, Dağ, noting that her husband was a July 15 martyr and she was a July 15 veteran, said:

“In the post I made, I hid the complainant’s identity information and filed a complaint for action to be taken against FETÖ members in the institution where I work. The issues forming the basis of the complaint are confessions contained in the statement of a confessor. I have not committed any crime against the complainant.”

As a result of the investigation, the Prosecutor’s Office, concluding that there was sufficient evidence that Rukiye Dağ had committed the alleged crime through her posts and that a public lawsuit should be filed, first sent the file to the conciliation bureau. However, Rukiye Dağ refused conciliation, saying, “I do not sit at the table with terrorists. It is not a crime to call a FETÖ member a FETÖ member.”

Upon this, the Prosecutor’s Office prepared an indictment against Rukiye Dağ on October 27, charging her with “insult via audio, written, or visual message,” and sent it to the court with a request for her to be sentenced to imprisonment from three months to two years or a judicial fine, and to be deprived of certain rights.

The court accepted this indictment and set April 22 for the first hearing.

ANKARA IS IN A MESS

When Rukiye Dağ saw this indictment, especially after being called to the police for a declaration of assets, she, so to speak, raised hell.

She went to the AKP Headquarters and the Ministry of Family and asked, “Since when is it a crime to call a FETÖ member a FETÖ member?” When she said she would go to other parties to explain the situation, she was told, “Please, don’t go.”

Meanwhile, regarding her situation, she received results from artificial intelligence stating, “In insult crimes committed via the internet and social media, the place where the crime is committed is the place where the perpetrator made the post. The victim’s place of residence cannot be taken as the basis for jurisdiction... Filing the case there is a procedural error and it will go to Ankara upon the first objection... A person who has benefited from effective remorse for FETÖ/PDY membership cannot claim insult against remarks regarding FETÖ membership. Because within the scope of effective remorse, he has officially accepted that he is a member of the FETÖ/PDY organization, and this acceptance has entered state records. What you said is a reminder of a fact, and there is no victim status... The prosecutor should have taken into account what you and your husband went through... It is a case that should not have been filed legally.” She sent these results to both the officials of the Palace’s Legal Policies Board and the high-level officials of the Ministry of Justice, writing:

“Even artificial intelligence is better than your prosecutors. What does it have to do with filing the case there? You cannot file a lawsuit because I called a traitor a traitor. Since no action is being taken against the names in that effective remorse statement, are these statements being taken just for show? Is this how loyalty to July 15 is repaid?”

The result?

Those at the Palace indicated they would look into it.

Last Thursday, Rukiye Dağ was called twice by a very high-level figure. However, she did not hear the phone, so the conversation did not take place. Immediately after, the following message arrived on Dağ’s phone: “You have been acquitted.”

Dağ, in great astonishment, returned the call to the official who had tried to reach her and sent that message, saying, “I cannot be acquitted without a hearing.” The official merely replied, “Such a case should not have been filed anyway.”

While Rukiye Dağ had not yet overcome her astonishment, she received another message from one of the officials she met at the Palace: “News just came in. Congratulations, you have been acquitted.”

It is unbelievable; but wait, it is not over.

On Friday, Rukiye Dağ received another phone call. The caller was staff from the court where the case was to be heard. The following conversation took place between them:

Staff: “We set April 22 as a very late date for the hearing. The judge wants to give a date suitable for your situation. Because it will be decided.”

Dağ: “But ...... ...... called and said I was acquitted. How does this work?”

Staff: “No, it will be a simple trial anyway.”

Rukiye Dağ, who reached the point of madness upon this call, called the high-level official at the Palace again and explained the latest situation. The official said:

“The person who told you ‘you have been acquitted’ ...... ...... misunderstood; they meant to say ‘an acquittal will be given.’ Do not panic, do not worry. Justice will be served.”

Rukiye Dağ, who began to think she was being completely played, sent a message yesterday to that court staff member who had called her to be sure, asking, “What happened, did you set a date for the hearing? Or has this situation become a tangled mess just like my world?”

And this answer came:

“You can submit a petition to the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office Correspondence Bureau, to be sent to us, stating, ‘Since I need to be abroad on the hearing date, I request that the hearing be moved to an earlier date.’ We will set a hearing date for a near date and conclude your file. The file cannot be concluded without taking your statement.”

While speeches about “Turkey is a state of law” are given every single day, another event destined to go down in world legal history, isn’t it?

You must have seen Constitutional Court President Kadir Özkaya, who spoke at the academic opening ceremony of Malatya İnönü University, unable to hold back his tears and crying while saying, “Let us live in such a way that when the time comes, God Almighty...”

In a place where even the President of the Constitutional Court cries, what should the people of my country do, and who or what should they cry for?!

Müyesser YILDIZ

November 23, 2025