Putschist officer leading raid in to army HQ claims innocence

In statements that bewildered those watching the trial on last year's coup attempt, a colonel who led the raid in army headquarters said he was there "to protect the generals."

Fırat Alakuş was the latest to testify in the week-long trial on the incidents that took place at the Chief of General Staff Office during the notorious July 15 coup attempt last year. Some 221 defendants are being tried in a court in the capital of Ankara for executing a plan by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) to seize power through its infiltrators in the army.

The military officer, a senior figure in the Army's elite Special Forces, was accused of commanding a unit that stormed the army headquarters in Ankara and captured Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar and other high-ranking generals opposing the putsch.

Looking apparently relaxed and often smiling, Alakuş, who was captured after the putsch bid was foiled, denied that he had taken part in the bid and said he was dispatched to protect the military brass against an anticipated terror attack.

However, he failed to explain security camera footage showing him and other soldiers wrestling a general to the ground and handcuffing him as he was entering the headquarters unaware of its takeover.

The colonel denied he was linked to FETÖ and blamed Zekai Aksakallı, the Special Forces' commander, for links to the terrorist group. He claimed it was Aksakallı who ordered him to go to the army headquarters for security measures on July 15.

Aksakallı, credited with laboring to foil the coup bid by mobilizing its subordinates to resist the putschists, managed to escape.

The defendant first made headlines in the aftermath of the coup attempt when Hulusi Akar described him as "a scary-looking officer" who was standing at his office's door while other putschists took him hostage to a military base where Akar was kept with other anti-coup commanders.

When questioned by the judges, Alakuş confirmed that it was him seen in the security camera footage among the soldiers who had harassed Salih Zeki Çolak, a land forces commander, and wrestled him to the ground as he entered army headquarters.

Alakuş claimed he "heard gunshots from outside" and had knocked Çolak to the ground to protect him. He could not answer why Çolak and other officers accompanying him were handcuffed later by Alakuş and his troops.

When the judges asked him why he kept staying in the army headquarters when he allegedly found out that a coup was underway, Alakuş said he was "tasked to finish his mission."

He also claimed he did not call Şükrü Seğmen, a pro-coup major who was heading a team of assassins sent to kill President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on July 15, despite evidence showing otherwise.

Legal experts and critics of FETÖ say the defendants in the case will likely try to deliberately prolong the trial by sticking to denial.

FETÖ, whose senior members remain at large abroad, have transmitted some hope to its followers by issuing messages that they would be "freed" soon, according to media outlets, hinting at attempts to free the putschists, either through infiltrators in the judiciary or by starting riots in the prisons where they are being held.

The trial, which is expected to continue until July 16, is being held in a courtroom inside a sprawling prison complex in Ankara's Sincan suburb. The complex is also where most of the coup plotters have been held since the coup bid was quelled.

The list of defendants is a who's who of alleged masterminds of the coup bid and those who helped its partial success. Among them are members of the so-called 38-member "Peace At Home Council," which declared the coup on public broadcaster TRT after it was taken over by putschists.

The formal charges against the defendants include: Violating the Constitution, attempting to remove Parliament and the government, running a terrorist organization and being a member of a terrorist organization (in reference to FETÖ), attempting to assassinate the president, killing 250 people during the coup attempt, attempting to kill another 2,735 people and restricting the freedom of commanders and state officials.

The main suspect in the case is Fetullah Gülen, a former preacher who turned his religious movement into a secret terrorist group, and who currently resides in Pennsylvania in the United States. Ankara is seeking his extradition from the U.S. and if he is deported, he will likely be sentenced to multiple life sentences.

Nine defendants were released pending trial while 12, including Gülen, are still at large. Apart from soldiers that range from generals to captains, 12 civilian defendants, including civil servants, teachers and businesspeople are being tried in the case.

An indictment by three prosecutors from the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's office says FETÖ members planned to overthrow the constitutional order "to replace it with an order of their own design."

"Heinous members of FETÖ infiltrated the Turkish Armed Forces and mobilized more than 8,000 [pro-coup] troops, employed 35 warplanes, 37 helicopters, 74 tanks and 246 armored vehicles to bomb and take over democratic institutions, from the Presidential Complex to Parliament," the indictment reads.

President Erdoğan, Hulusi Akar and other anti-coup commanders are the plaintiffs in the trial.

An unprecedented public resistance resulting in a large number of deaths frustrated pro-coup troops who were forced to surrender when anti-coup soldiers and police officers surrounded them. Out of the 221 people involved in the putsch attempt, 38 defendants face multiple life sentences in the trials.