ISTANBUL — Their happiness shines out of the {photograph}: 14 graduates of Turkey’s Air Power Academy celebrating their completion of a flight coaching program with an image collectively in entrance of a fighter jet.
Inside months, all however one of many group could be in jail, accused of becoming a member of a 2016 coup try that introduced blood to the streets and threw the nation into turmoil from which it has but to emerge. Final November, 13 of them — the opposite was not on base, as a result of he was getting married — had been discovered responsible of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and sentenced to life in jail, their army careers and their desires of flying F-16s dashed.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confronted down the coup try and cracked down exhausting within the aftermath, imposing a state of emergency for 2 years, detaining 100,000 folks and purging 150,000 public workers from their jobs. Greater than 8,000 army personnel had been prosecuted for his or her half within the revolt, together with greater than 600 trainees, cadets and conscripts — most of their early 20s — whose misfortune was to have been given orders that evening.
Their destiny has been largely ignored in Turkey, the place authorities rhetoric in opposition to the coup perpetrators is strident and households and attorneys of the defendants have been scared to talk out. However after the 13 had been sentenced to life in jail — 12 of them receiving “aggravated life,” the harshest type of life sentence, with out parole — a few of their households determined to interrupt their silence.
“We weren’t anticipating them to be acquitted, to be trustworthy, however we had been anticipating them to be launched at the least,” mentioned Kezban Kalin, whose son Alper, 30, was amongst these sentenced. “However aggravated life?”
At first, the trainee pilots and their households had trusted within the system, partly as a result of Turkey’s historical past has been affected by coups and lower-ranking troops had by no means been held accountable in such a manner.
“On the subject of a coup, it’s on the stage of generals,” mentioned Ali Kalin, Alper’s father, who’s himself a retired military sergeant. “I wish to emphasize the injustice. What did they do?” he mentioned of the trainees.
In the summertime of 2016, the group had simply arrived at Turkey’s Akinci Air Base exterior Ankara, the capital, to begin coaching on F-16 fighter jets — the head of a 10-year army schooling. On July 15, they had been known as in to the bottom take an English examination and had been then informed to face by to look at a counterterrorism operation.
However Akinci air base turned out to be the headquarters of the coup plotters, a group of army personnel and civilians who that night ordered troops to grab management of key installations, planes to bomb Parliament and a unit of commandos to seize Mr. Erdogan.
The president evaded seize, and in a cellphone interview with a tv station, he known as on members of the general public to face down the putsch. By morning, troops loyal to the federal government had regained management and attacked Akinci air base, detaining a lot of these concerned.
The trainee pilots had been largely unaware of what was occurring, in accordance with their statements to investigators and in court docket, which the federal government challenged and which couldn’t be independently verified.
Their cellphones had been taken away — which was regular throughout a army operation — and the tv had been faraway from the mess corridor the place they spent a lot of the evening sitting round, they mentioned. They moved chairs, made tea. Some stood guard on the again entrance to the squadron constructing, and three had been despatched to the entrance gate and handed rifles, though the court docket discovered that that they had not used them.
As the bottom got here underneath fireplace from particular forces troops, the trainees had been informed to depart, which most of them did round 8 a.m., driving their very own automobiles. Alper Kalin arrived dwelling scared and exhausted, however his mother and father reassured him.
“I didn’t assume something would occur to these trainees,” Ali Kalin mentioned. “They didn’t use firearms. They weren’t concerned in something — simply Akinci base was their place of responsibility.”
Eleven days later, the group was known as again to the bottom to present testimony in regards to the occasions, and so they had been instantly detained. Inside hours, their names had appeared on an inventory of personnel purged from the army.
That was a bombshell for the trainees and their households from which they’re nonetheless reeling. The pilots have been in detention ever since. When their mother and father and siblings tried to seek out them at police stations and armed forces bases, they encountered insults and abuse. From being proud mother and father of celebrated army achievers, all of the sudden they had been branded traitors and terrorists.
“I didn’t go to the hearings,” mentioned Sumeyra Soylu, 25, whose brother Ali was one of many 13 detained. “There was a sure group of individuals, often known as the plaintiffs, who had been cursing and swearing loudly on the family members of the defendants, and he didn’t need us ever to listen to them.”
Then adopted 4 and a half years of authorized proceedings as prosecutors indicted greater than 500 defendants within the Akinci base trial. In a courtroom the dimensions of a sports activities area at Sincan, exterior Ankara, 80 trainee pilots went on trial alongside senior commanders and civilians accused of main the coup. The USA-based Islamic preacher, Fethullah Gulen, was charged in absentia of being the mastermind.
Mr. Erdogan was listed among the many victims of the occasions and was represented all through the trial by his lawyer, Huseyin Aydin, who usually clashed with the defendants and their attorneys.
“The goal of the crime of breach of Structure that many defendants, together with the trainee lieutenants, had been charged with was President Erdogan,” Mr. Aydin mentioned in written solutions to questions from The New York Instances.
The trainees had been charged with being members of a terrorist group, attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, homicide and tried homicide, since eight civilians died in clashes on the entrance of the bottom. However the prosecution didn’t produce proof that implicated them within the coup plot or the clashes that occurred, their lawyer mentioned. The lawyer requested to not be named to keep away from authorized repercussions for himself.
As trainee officers, they’re nonetheless present process their schooling and may solely take orders, not problem them, he mentioned. Akinci base was their administrative center, in order that they shouldn’t be thought-about responsible merely for being current there, and their very own commanders testified in court docket that the trainees had performed no half within the occasions, he mentioned. But ultimately, they had been convicted, together with all the others current on the base that evening, of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order.
“The highest commander acquired the identical sentence. The bottom-level soldier acquired the identical sentence,” Ms. Kalin mentioned. “How is that potential?”
Mr. Aydin mentioned that trainee pilots had supplied help companies that evening to the coup plotters rather than the standard employees, together with transporting pilots and guarding buildings and captives. “There isn’t any doubt that the trainee pilots contributed to the coup try,” he mentioned, including that the conviction was not last and nonetheless needed to undergo the enchantment course of.
Many Turks opposed the coup. However because the crackdown has continued for greater than 4 years and swept up many with no connection to the occasions surrounding it, they’ve turn out to be deeply sad with the state of justice.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the chief of Turkey’s largest opposition social gathering, supported Mr. Erdogan in opposition to the coup plotters however has since accused him of orchestrating a civilian coup when he rounded up tens of hundreds of political opponents, lecturers, attorneys and journalists who had nothing to do with the coup try.
The purges within the armed forces had been systematic, rooting out entire models and conducting yearly roundups. Solely two pilots stay within the air pressure from the category of 2010, to which the group of 13 belonged, mentioned a former classmate who was amongst these purged.
Mr. Kalin, who served a lot of his profession within the gendarme, mentioned: “Our belief within the legislation, within the courts, in justice, within the state, within the authorities fell to zero. Even beneath zero.”
By now, the purges and prosecutions have included hundreds within the army — officers and cadets alike.
“Is it OK to darken the lives of that many individuals with out discriminating between the harmless and the responsible?” mentioned Hatice Ceylan, whose son Burak, 29, is among the many 13 trainees sentenced. “They’re simply kids. There are loads like my son, rotting in jail.”
