Eight years after a failed attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016, significant questions remain unanswered. A woman who lost her son and husband that night expressed frustration over the lack of transparency and accountability, saying the ruling and opposition parties alike benefit from maintaining the mystery about what truly transpired that night.

According to many, the coup attempt was a false flag aimed at entrenching the authoritarian rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan by rooting out dissidents and eliminating powerful actors such as the military in his desire for absolute power.

The failed coup killed 251 people and wounded more than a thousand others. The next morning, after announcing the coup had been put down, the Turkish government immediately started a wide-ranging purge of military officers, judges, police officers, teachers and other civil servants that ultimately led to the dismissal of more than 130,000 from their jobs.

On the night of the abortive putsch, President Erdoğan immediately blamed the Gülen movement for the attempt. He has been targeting followers of the movement, a faith-based group inspired by Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family members and his inner circle.

Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. He locked up thousands including many prosecutors, judges and police officers involved in the investigation as well as journalists who reported on them.

Erdoğan intensified the crackdown on the movement following the coup attempt. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the abortive putsch or any terrorist activity.

Nihal Olçok, who lost her ex-husband Erol Olçok, a prominent publicist for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), and her 16-year-old son Abdullah on the night of the coup, remains a vocal critic of both the government and the opposition’s handling of the incident.

“That night is still dark for me. Nothing has been clarified in eight years.” she said in an interview with the Kürsü TV news website.

Olçok criticized political leaders for their inaction, stating, “No politician pursued this issue, and it seems none will. There was nothing from the opposition, either. It appears to have been a state project, a systematic thing where everyone got what they wanted. The powerful clashed, and the people were trampled.”

In July 2023 former Brig. Gen. Gökhan Şahin Sönmezateş, who was testifying in a coup trial in Ankara, offered a perspective that aligned with Olçok’s claims. Sönmezateş, who commanded a team that attacked President Erdoğan’s hotel on the night of the coup and is serving multiple aggravated life sentences, claimed that the coup was not orchestrated by the Gülen movement but was a “state conspiracy.” He described the event as a “revolution” organized by his commanders and implicated high-ranking military and intelligence officials, including then-chief of general staff Hulusi Akar. Sönmezateş argued that the truth behind the coup would remain hidden as long as key figures such as Akar, then-deputy chief of general staff Yaşar Güler and the then-head of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) Hakan Fidan do not testify.

Olçok also pointed out the absence of significant testimony, including that of Fidan.

“At the end of eight years, the conclusion is emptiness … nothingness. I don’t think anything can be done to clarify this from now on because the trials are over,” she said.

A parliamentary inquiry committee abruptly suspended its work on a report about the coup attempt in 2017, when Erdoğan expressed his disapproval of the deepening investigations.

In July 2021 Selçuk Özdağ, the then-vice chair of the committee, said Turkish authorities had refrained from publishing the findings of the inquiry, following legal advice warning that the report could help members of the Gülen movement in future legal claims for compensation.

“If this treacherous coup attempt is fully illuminated, it would lead to the most devastating earthquake in our political history. That’s why it remains in the dark,” main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) MP Aykut Erdoğdu, a member of the parliamentary inquiry committee, said on Monday.

The complicity of the opposition

Olçok extended her criticism to the opposition, accusing them of inaction. “The opposition did nothing to illuminate July 15. Everyone has a vested interest in keeping it in the dark,” she said.

Recalling the aftermath, Olçok found the swift appearance of billboards glorifying the resistance to the coup attempt alarming.

“The billboards were something that shocked me. On the morning of July 16, they were everywhere. How were they prepared and put up so quickly? No one could have done that without his [Erol Olçok’s] knowledge.”

Erdoğan has consistently denied claims that the coup was staged or orchestrated by his administration. On the coup’s eighth anniversary, he visited the July 15 Martyrs’ Memorial and reiterated his stance.

“Those who call July 15 a screenplay or shamelessly claim it was a staged fight, will never be forgiven,” Erdoğan said, denying claims of a false flag operation.

İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, speaking at an event marking the crushing of the July 15  putsch, criticized the lack of accountability from those who facilitated conditions for the coup.

“People who implemented policies that opened the way for the coup have not adequately accounted to our nation,” he said.

CHP leader Özgür Özel reflected on the collective effort to resist the coup.

“That night, the entire Turkish nation, and parliament, stood behind democracy,” he said in a live broadcast on the Habertürk network.

Özel detailed the events of that night, including the decision to keep parliament open despite the danger. He praised the unity displayed by various political factions and called for continued vigilance against anti-democratic threats.

The ongoing crackdown

Since the failed coup attempt in July 2016, Turkish authorities have continued an extensive crackdown on followers of the faith-based Gülen movement.

Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç last week reported that 705,172 people have been investigated on terrorism or coup-related charges due to alleged links to the movement.

Tunç provided figures on Gülen-linked investigations and prosecutions that still continue unabated despite multiple rulings from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in favor of the Gülen followers who were put in pre-trial detention or convicted on terrorism charges following the coup attempt.

Tunç said there are currently 13,251 people in prison who are in pre-trial detention or convicted of terrorism in Gülen-linked trials.

Tens of thousands of people who were arrested in the post-coup crackdown and convicted of terrorism have been released from prison over the years after serving their sentences.

Those people were convicted of terrorism simply because of actions such as using a mobile phone application known as ByLock; membership in a labor union and an association affiliated with the Gülen movement; having an account at the now-closed Bank Asya; sending their children to Gülen-linked schools; or having subscriptions to Gülen-linked publications, which are all considered signs of membership in the Gülen movement and criminal evidence.

According to ECtHR rulings, the use of ByLock, once widely available online and considered a secret tool of communication among supporters of the Gülen movement, does not constitute a reliable piece of evidence or a criminal offense.

The Turkish government has also been active internationally, seeking the extradition of Fethullah Gülen and other followers from various countries. Minister Tunç highlighted that Turkey has submitted seven extradition requests to the US for Gülen on 27 charges primarily related to the coup attempt. However, these requests remain unfulfilled, with US officials citing insufficient evidence of Gülen’s involvement.

Turkey has also made 1,774 extradition requests to 115 countries, resulting in the deportation or extradition of 132 Gülen followers. Despite these efforts, 427 extradition requests have been rejected, and Tunç criticized the US and European countries for their “indifference,” accusing them of harboring individuals Turkey labels as terrorists. Thousands of Gülen followers have sought asylum in Western countries, where the Gülen movement is not recognized as a terrorist organization, allowing them to continue their activities.