Footage, radio chatter of failed coup pilots released

By Kemal Karadag and Enes Kaplan

ANKARA

Video footage and radio chatter of the F-16 fighter jet pilots who bombed Ankara’s police headquarters the night of the July 15 defeated coup were released by prosecutors Saturday.

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office released video and security footage and pilots’ radio chatter related to the bombing in the Turkish capital.

Records show that one of the soldiers involved in the foiled coup, Capt. Mustafa Mete Kaygusuz, ordered the bombing.

They also show that the two bombs that struck police headquarters were launched by two fighter jets: one with the tail number 94-1562, piloted by Capt. Ilhami Aygul, codenamed Aslan 4 Number One, and the other with the tail number 94-0095, piloted by Lt. Mustafa Ozkan, codenamed Aslan 4 Number Two.

Video footage of the jets explicitly shows the bombing of police headquarters.

On the night of July 15, in addition to police headquarters, several F-16 fighter jets dropped 14 bombs onto six points, including an intersection and parking lot near the Presidential Palace, the parliament building, the police special operations headquarters in Golbasi, Turkish aviation headquarters, and facilities of Turkish satellite communications and TV provider TURKSAT.

Turkey's government has said the defeated coup, which left more than 240 people martyred, was organized by followers of Fetullah Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania since 1999.

Gulen is accused of leading a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.

Order: ‘Hit the police headquarters, destroy it’

According to the pilots’ radio chatter, Ilhami Aygul said that there was combat in front of police headquarters and Kaygusuz gave the order: "Hit the police headquarters, destroy it."

Excerpts from the radio chatter between the fighter jet pilots and Akinci Airbase in Ankara, a base for the coup-plotters, follow:

- Aygul: Kurt fleet Aslan 4, we’re following the battle in front of police headquarters.

- Kaygusuz: Hit the police headquarters, destroy it.

- Aygul: Roger that. We’re shooting into the combat zone. Are we good?

- Kaygusuz: Exactly.

- Aygul: Copy that. Police headquarters is the first or second building near Ankamall? We can fire into the combat zone.

- Kaygusuz: Fire into the area where there’s the most gunfire. Fire into the combat zone.

- Aygul: Copy that. There’s gunfire from the headquarters to the road. We’re shooting at the headquarters area.

- Kaygusuz: Destroy the police headquarters at will.

.....

- Kaygusuz: Have you shot at police headquarters?

- Aygul: There will be an attack in two minutes.

- Kaygusuz: Let's hurry up a bit, one more bomb, two bombs.

- Aygul: I didn’t get that.

- Kaygusuz: We’re dropping one more bomb there.

- Aygul: I’ll drop two bombs onto the combat zone.

Reporting By Kemal Karadag and Enes Kaplan; Writing By Can Erozden