Video footage shows chief commanders being brought to Akıncı air base on coup night

ANKARA – Doğan News Agency

Video footage from the hallway of the coup plotters’ main base on the night of Turkey’s failed coup attempt in July 2016 has surfaced for the first time, showing how Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar and Turkish Land Forces Commander Yaşar Güler were brought to the airbase.

Putschist soldiers forcefully took Akar and Güler to the Akıncı air base on the night of the coup attempt and they were kept hostage in separate rooms.

The security footage shows Akar at exactly 10.35 p.m. for two seconds on the night of the coup attempt in the airbase corridor, escorted by pro-coup soldiers. However, the analysis made by the court determined that the video camera timing was actually 45 minutes early, meaning that Akar was actually brought to the base at around 11.20 p.m.

Major General Mehmet Dişli, who is accused of holding Akar at gunpoint and trying to force him to make a declaration, is also seen in the footage, talking on his cell phone while walking in the corridor 30 minutes after Akar was brought to the base,.

Güler is also shown in the video footage, seen being brought to the base with his eyes and arms bound and escorted by three soldiers.

About three minutes after Güler is seen being led to a room, a pro-coup soldier is seen entering the room with a rope in his hand.

The Gülen network, led by the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, an ally-turned-enemy of the Ankara government, is believed to have orchestrated Turkey’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt.