He recounted the events of the night of July 15, saying 'I was the first to report the coup': 'I was the first to call the Prime Minister, he said, what coup?'

On the 9th anniversary of the July 15 coup attempt, a striking statement came from former AKP deputy and Yeniyol Group Deputy Chairman Selçuk Özdağ.

Speaking to Emin Özgönül from Sözcü newspaper, Özdağ said that he was one of the first to learn about the coup attempt and that he went directly to the Çankaya Mansion and called many people, including Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım.

Özdağ described what he experienced that night as follows:

“I learned about the coup attempt from my sources on the night of July 15. I immediately went to the Çankaya Mansion. I called many officials, including the Prime Minister. Some AKP deputies chose to hide, saying, 'They will kill us too.' I could not reach Prime Minister Yıldırım in my first three calls. Later, he called me. When I explained the situation, he asked, 'What coup, who is doing it?' He was in Istanbul at the time. Later, we learned that he went to the Ilgaz Tunnel.”

400-PAGE REPORT PREPARED, DID NOT ENTER PARLIAMENT

Özdağ, who served as deputy chairman of the Coup Investigation Commission established in the TBMM after July 15, stated that the commission worked for 7 months and created over 1 million pages of documents and minutes. However, stating that the final 400-page report prepared was not discussed in Parliament, he said the following:

“We prepared a comprehensive 400-page report and submitted it to the Speaker of the TBMM. However, the ruling party made a special effort to ensure that the report was not discussed in Parliament. The report was practically shelved. Yet, it contained very serious information and assessments.”

YAZICIOĞLU CLAIM REMOVED FROM THE REPORT

One of Özdağ's most striking statements was about the findings that the soldiers who raided the hotel where President Erdoğan was staying during the coup attempt were the same people as the soldiers who were alleged to have removed parts from Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu's helicopter in the 2009 crash.

However, stating that this critical information was not included in the main text of the report, he noted the following:

“We determined that those who attempted to assassinate the President were the same people as the soldiers who removed parts from Yazıcıoğlu's helicopter. I had a separate report prepared on this matter. However, this section was deliberately not included in the main report.”