Bora Kaplan Case: Police chief accuses Yüksel Kocaman and Veysel Kaçmaz

In the retrial of the Bora Kaplan criminal organization case, former Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime (KOM) Branch Manager Kerem Gökay Öner, who is both a defendant and a complainant, hinted that his superiors had given unlawful orders and announced that he had received information last night that this investigation file had been given to certain journalists. Cengiz Varol, the lawyer for the then-Ankara Deputy Police Chief Murat Çelik, who presented his defense yesterday, also stated that the receipt for the car allegedly purchased by Bora Kaplan for former Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor and Court of Cassation member Yüksel Kocaman might have been created for blackmail purposes.

The trial began with the defense statement of Cengiz Varol, the lawyer for Ankara Deputy Police Chief Murat Çelik.

Explaining that the situation is clear and that a structure alleged to be an organized crime group had infiltrated the highest levels of the judiciary, politics, and even the media according to the notes of the state's intelligence organization, Attorney Varol continued as follows:

“This has been the working method of criminal organizations since Al Capone. Otherwise, they could not act so freely. As far as we understand, the state has changed the entire law enforcement and given instructions to go after this structure. I was with my police colleagues when they were detained for carrying out this operation. I begged the prosecutors, ‘If you believe they will stage a coup against the government or a party, you will not find anyone to fight criminal organizations. If it is to be believed that 5 people will stage a coup; then let this state collapse, let’s all go to Greece together.’ However, the organization has been successful, and the dignity of the police has been toyed with.”

Attorney Varol recalled that Serdar Sertçelik said, “I did not understand what they wanted from Yüksel Kocaman,” and stated that the receipt for the vehicle purchased for Kocaman had emerged and that Bora Kaplan had admitted that the person who made this payment was his employee.

Upon this, Bora Kaplan shouted, “When did I say he was my employee?” The Presiding Judge warned, “I will not warn you again.”

Meanwhile, Attorney Varol also noted that Yüksel Kocaman might not have been aware of the receipt in question and that the receipt might have been created to be used for blackmail in the future.

Accused His Superiors

After Attorney Cengiz Varol, the defense of the then-KOM Branch Manager Kerem Gökay Öner began. Connecting via SEGBİS from Tunceli and repeating his previous statements, Öner emphasized that he had never met or communicated with the M7-coded secret witness Serdar Sertçelik and that he had seen him for the first time here via SEGBİS, then asked, “How was I going to help a secret witness I don’t know escape with people I don’t know?” Stating that he wanted to leave the branch due to growing professional ethical problems with his superiors and hinting that his superiors had given unlawful orders, Öner explained the following:

“One day, my manager Murat (Çelik) called me to his office. Cengiz Haliç was in the room. My manager said to me, ‘Do you know lawyer Cengiz Haliç?’ I said, ‘I don’t know him.’ He also said he didn’t know him. My manager said, ‘How can you not know each other?’ One day he said, ‘Do you know Şahin Turgut?’ I said, ‘I don’t know him.’ Do I have to know them? My manager said something correct here, about our methods not matching. Your way of knowing organized crime members is different from mine. I know them with the equipment the state has given me. I am an Organized Crime manager like this. I do not establish personal ties with criminals, I don’t have such a method. Manager Murat said, ‘Some names appear in the file of defendant Bora Kaplan; you seem to be dragging your feet a bit when you see these names.’ I said, ‘How can that be? I have no connection other than my duty.’”

When the Presiding Judge asked him to name these people, Öner replied, “Alp Aslan, a police officer named Serdar, and a manager named Kürşad,” and continued as follows:

“There is another incident; there were two incidents regarding manager Kürşad. One was about his private life, the other was about gun license permits. I gave instructions for action to be taken on this matter. Bam, this person came to the branch in a rage. Manager Murat said, ‘This is our brother, they have slandered him.’ He was the first to send a message on the day I was suspended, saying ‘What happened, Kerem?’ I asked them to at least keep the commissioner I knew technically. But they were determined to put someone in. That’s when the rope snapped. I went to KOM Department Head Şükrü Yaman and asked for help. It wasn’t enough, I went to Deputy Governor Abdullah Bey. The manager called, I went to him, he said, ‘Kerem, we carried out a major operation, and the problems grew. I will remove you from the branch, wait a few months.’ Then I was suspended anyway.”

When cross-examination began, Kerem Gökay Öner stated that he did not want to answer questions from anyone other than the Presiding Judge and his lawyer.

When Öner gave the same answer when the prosecutor started asking questions, the Judge stated that the person asking the question was the prosecutor. Upon this, Öner apologized and said he could not see via SEGBİS. Öner answered the prosecutor’s question, “What was the reason for you thinking that an unlawful order could come from Murat Çelik?” by saying, “I could not choose my personnel. No superior can take the place of a subordinate, and no subordinate can take the place of a superior to perform an action. As a branch manager, since I had judicial responsibility, I thought these could increase.”

Again, upon the prosecutor’s question, Öner noted that he did not know who took the footage of the operation at Esenboğa and who might have given it to the media because he was not at the scene, and that he did not make the operation assignment himself anyway.

Kerem Gökay Öner, upon the questions of his lawyer Suna Öztaşdönderen, explained that the operation was appropriate and necessary, but that he had not seen the detention process being carried out by the deputy provincial police chief before, that he had no special acquaintance with Alp Aslan, and that he only became aware of the meetings between Şevket Demircan and Serdar Sertçelik when the voice recordings leaked to the internet and people around him asked “What is happening?”, saying, “I don’t know the answer to this question either.”

Question of Whether He Gave His Statement Under Pressure

In the afternoon session of the hearing, Kerem Gökay Öner, whose cross-examination continued, was asked by his manager Murat Çelik’s lawyer, Recep Öksüz, whether he had given his statement while in custody under moral pressure. Öner said, “I did not give it under moral pressure. I gave it with free will.”

Öner replied to the question by Attorney Öksüz, “Was everyone under stress due to the new restructuring in the branch and the issue of new versus old staff?” by saying, “Yes, everyone was under stress. The reason was mistrust, accusations like information is leaking, who is giving it; there was incredible information pollution.”

When Kerem Gökay Öner did not answer any of the questions from the alleged organization member defendants and their lawyers, Attorney Rıdvan Şahin reacted by saying, “A fury of not answering has begun.”

The Presiding Judge stated that they would evaluate this situation and then asked the lawyers to submit the unanswered questions to the file as a declaration.

Oğuzhan Bilgin, one of Bora Kaplan’s lawyers who could not get answers to his questions, reminded that there were contradictions between Kerem Gökay Öner’s statements and that it was the Presiding Judge’s duty to resolve this contradiction. Upon this, the Judge asked if there was an interview room in the branch and if he had seen Bora Kaplan there.

Thereupon, Kerem Gökay Öner confirmed the existence of the room and said he had seen Bora Kaplan there.

After the cross-examination, Öner’s lawyer Suna Öztaşdönderen presented her defense. Emphasizing that merging the police and organization cases was a chaotic decision and that there was no example of it in the world, Öztaşdönderen spoke as follows:

“There is no difference between his statements. My client has not participated in any crime during the process, and he has not overlooked things he thought were crimes. Şevket Demircan has correspondence with his wife. Demircan’s wife is also the private secretary of Ankara Police Chief Engin Dinç. In the correspondence, they refer to my client as a ‘sold-out dog.’ The message about my client on the found phone is a slander. Let this email be investigated. My client explained; Murat Çelik asked, ‘Do you know Cengiz Haliç?’ A branch manager does not ask like that. This shows that the structure is very different.”

After Kerem Gökay Öner, the defense of the then-KOM Branch Deputy Manager Şevket Demircan began.

Mr. Kerem – Brother Murat

It was noted that Demircan, who repeated his previous statements, used the terms “Mr. Kerem” for Kerem Gökay Öner and “Brother Murat” for Murat Çelik.

Stating that he went to the airport for the Bora Kaplan operation upon the instructions of Mr. Kerem and that he himself did not know who took the footage, Demircan said, “We also suffered because of these images.”

Noting that he was also in the convoy that took Bora Kaplan to prison with the thought that there might be an attack or action when he was arrested, Demircan said that the allegations that Serdar Sertçelik was subjected to force and violence and that his statement was dictated were not true.

Şevket Demircan continued as follows:

“During the time we were trying to bring Serdar Sertçelik from abroad, he gave me a party name and said, ‘He doesn’t want me to come from there anyway. I gave up on coming.’ After we spoke, he already released a video himself. Then an operation was carried out on us.”

While Demircan stated that he did not accept Kerem Gökay Öner’s statement, he said, “The messages are clear. It was Mr. Kerem who gave me the instructions and sent me to the airport.”

Accused the Deputy Chief Prosecutor

Noting that he was accused of personalizing the Ayhan Bora Kaplan issue, whereas he saw Kaplan for the first time at the airport, Demircan also made the following interesting claims while reminding that he was being tried at the Ankara 17th High Criminal Court on charges of leaking information to Cevheri Güven:

“The reason we are being tried in this case is Veysel Kaçmaz, the Deputy Chief Prosecutor responsible for Terror Crimes. After Serdar Sertçelik came to Turkey, he gave a statement to prosecutor Mustafa Kaya on February 7. On the 11th or 12th, Cevheri Güven published this statement. Prosecutor Mustafa Kaya sent the original of this statement to the terror prosecutor with a cover letter. The locations of the signatures on the statement held by Sertçelik and the lawyers and the statement published by Cevheri Güven are different. Upon this, prosecutor Mustafa Kaya filed a criminal complaint with the terror crimes office, and Veysel Kaçmaz, who had us tried for FETÖ, referred this criminal complaint to the press bureau.”

Claiming that the “FETÖ member” accusation against them started with the statements and messages of Court of Cassation member Yüksel Kocaman and Abdurrahman Şimşek, Demircan finished his defense as follows:

“We did not create a fabricated file. Everything done is correct. We can have no other purpose than to fulfill the duty given by the state. Looking for or trying to extract another purpose is absurd. I will not answer any questions other than those from the court panel.”

In the cross-examination, the prosecutor asked Demircan whether the allegation that they threatened Serdar Sertçelik through his brother was true. Denying the allegation, Demircan said, “On the contrary, he said, ‘My brother is entrusted to you.’ He said that his brother had received threats from the group alleged to be a criminal organization.”

When the lawyers asked for the floor for cross-examination, the Presiding Judge stated that it would take a long time and ended the hearing to continue on Monday.

Müyesser YILDIZ

April 10, 2026